the smedley log - suburban scrawl

More from the ‘Yes, you bought it, but it’s not yours’ department

Boing Boing has a caution for people buying the new Coldplay CD, including a screenshot of the insert that tells you what mustn’t be done with the CD. Yes, the things you can’t do with the disc include returning it (which you won’t find out until you’ve purchased and opened it).

I have a couple mental wanderings about this: (1) Have they (record companies) learned nothing about alienating consumer good will? (2) Which CD is the Boing Boing post referring to? I have a copy of X&Y purchased last year, and it’s not possessed by the copy-protection demons. Maybe it’s just an additional production run of the existing album.

Finally, EMI another record company enters into the DRM wars with more condescending, invasive tactics, like those that gave Sony a black eye.

UPDATE: As Heliologue noted in the comments, the disc inserts in question are apparently from Indian copies of the CD. That explains why some other people were mentioning their loathing for Virgin Records, while I was more likely to associate Coldplay with EMI. Either way, it’s still a bad way to treat your customers.

The original post (where the picture of) comes from India, and I have yet to hear of anyone finding such a card here in the states. Probably, there are consumer protection laws that exist to ward off just such an unscrupulous gouging of customers; in India, it may fly.

Yeah, I was starting to suspect a disconnect, but I trust Boing Boing above all else, so I assumed it was an issue here too.

Also explains why so many people were bashing Virgin, when the record company I’ve been identifying with Coldplay was EMI…

You might be interested to know, however, that I was refused the right to return a DRM disc from Sony last year, so I’m not entirely clear whether we have any hard and fast rules protecting us from this or not.

At least I have the Exact Audio Copy, which, for now, will take care of most of my problem with DRM.

Could these corporate turds be stupider if they TRIED?!! Keep on telling us about this stuff, Howard!!

Happy New Year!!

xoxoxoxoxo

Omni

(Click here if you dare)

Oh, believe me, this is a pet issue for me, Omni. Happy New Year, btw, and congrats on the two-year anniversary (in case I can’t dig up your email address…)