rchandra
Stargate S G-1 And Atlantis Fan
Premium
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
clubs:
| reply to tomkb
Re: It's Coming....
nope, no EULAs on (audio) CDs. But there is definitely an EULA/AUP/ToS for every music download site I know about (Apple, WalMart, eMusic, etc.). And most of them have language along the lines of: you agree to be bound by these terms; if you can't agree to these terms, your remedy is not to use the service.
I was quite disappointed when reading these license clauses too. Unlike forking over money for CDs, where all the fair use clauses of the copyright laws apply, we don't buy jack diddly squat from these online music places. We buy the revocable right to have proprietary programs cram some data into our sound controller drivers, or alternately, be transferred to a device with proprietary programming (WMA-compatible MP3 player or iPod) that's supposed to output some electricity to some headphones. I assert it's too difficult and abstract for the average consumer (who's used to buying vinyl or CDs) to wrap their mind around that concept (at least properly), so there's an awful lot of hand waving going on and they pretend it's like they just purchased a CD or a slice of a CD.
It's like a lot of technology...call it law technology if you like. One has to be a specialist to truly understand it (whether an EE, a CE, a SE...or in the case of law, a lawyer), and the average person chooses an approximation (or model if you like) to simplify it so that they can understand it. And details get lost (like, one doesn't really own anything). Music from these online places is a lot more like a really long season pass for a ski resort (theoretically perpetual, but not really; they add language to the ToS giving them the right to revoke your rights). You buy the right to use the slopes (work of music) as much as you can handle.
If end-users only understood this, they might not spend so much money on something as abstract as rights. It feels more concrete, like a CD, because now there is that much less free space left on their hard drives. But it only seems like it because it operates a LOT like a CD. I have a feeling if it were only understood for what it is, people would demand to own the file. The one saving grace is that these programs allow the works to be written to CD-R[W], so then it functions a lot more like the traditional CDDA model. That's what the RIAA members should do, and stop worrying so much about it. Remove this silly encryption technology, and prosecute people on copyright violation grounds instead of DMCA subversion grounds.
I love to refer back to The Adolescence of P-1, wherein it is written that locks are a dynamic delaying device. A new, more hardened lock is invented, then sometime later, someone figures out how to pick it. So inventors figure out how to make an even harder lock, but that only last for a while...and on and on.
--
English is a difficult enough language to interpret correctly when its rules are followed, let alone when a writer chooses not to follow those rules. Blog is here |
