More On CD Copy Protection And Good Business Policies

from the not-quite-as-bad... dept

Yesterday I posted a story about the music industry adding copy protection to CDs soon to ship in the US. I complained that all they're doing is making life worse for consumers without adding any additional benefit. This LA Times article, however, suggests things aren't as bad as I suggested. It even quotes someone at Macrovision, the big copy protection tech company saying that any CD with copy protection should contain "loads of extras" and that consumers should expect to see more, not less, when they put these non-CDs in their computers. I'll be surprised if the music industry actually does that on a regular basis, but I at least give them credit for recognizing this is an issue. The discs appear to also allow some level of copying and the ability to move music around to other devices (though, it's clearly limited). When the music industry tried to push similar "copy protection but plenty of other cool features" via "enhanced" CDs recently, it was pretty much a flop - but that required new hardware. It remains to be seen how the average consumer responds to copy protected CDs. In general, placing additional limits on the CD seems like a bad policy. Taking features away (especially features customers like) never seems like good business. If your fear is that the features customers like undermine your business - then it suggests you're in the wrong business. A good business learns how to offer its customers what they want.

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