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[Free-sklyarov-uk] Task Force on Copy Controlled CD's (fwd)

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---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 14:43:20 +0100 (BST) From: Julian T. J. Midgley <jtjm@uk.eurorights.org> To: free-sklyarov-uk@xenoclast.org Subject: [Free-sklyarov-uk] Task Force on Copy Controlled CD's

I was hoping to have time to work what follows up as a formal announcement for the list. Since I haven't, I present a very slightly edited version of the email sent out on Wednesday to those now working on the CD Task Force, so that those on the list can see what's going on behind the scenes. Please note that the task force is not a closed list (ie. others may well be invited to join), but it will deliberately kept relatively small and manageable.

Julian

Edited Text of Announcement Follows ===================================

Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 13:43:45 +0100 (BST) From: Julian T. J. Midgley <jtjm@xenoclast.org> To: CD Task Force

In light of yesterday's news coverage of the copy control on Michael Jackson's promo CD, Jim's leafletting campaign, the results of Dan Ackroyd's and our BBC contact's research into copy controlled CDs, and conversations via phone or email with most of you, I've decided that in the short term the CDR should concentrate its efforts on the Copy Controlled CD issue.

To this end, I hereby announce the creation of the Campaign for Digital Right's Task Force on Copy Controlled CD's (hereinafter known as the CD Task Force, or CDTF). You're receiving this email because I firmly believe you should be part of it (and in almost all cases, you've already taken on the role I've given you below).

I have created an email alias which currently forwards mail to the following (in approx. alphabetical order):

Dan Ackroyd "Mystery BBC Guy" - aka anon. BBC Producer/Sound Engineer Andy Clark Martin Keegan Jim Peters and myself

The goals of the CDTF are as follows:

1. If possible, bring about a successful prosecution under the Trade Descriptions Act against at least one company distributing copy controlled CDs commercially in the UK without adequate description of their inability to be played (or copied) on certain types of CD players. (Martin - 'prosecution' may not be the correct legal term for TDA cases - it doesn't matter, you know what I mean.)

Initial Public Enemys Numbers one and two: Amazon.co.uk and the distributor of the Charley Pride CD.

2. Raise public awareness of the existence of copy controlled CDs through: a. The planned nationwide leafletting campaign on 6 October b. Ensuring maximal coverage of the issues in the media

3. Provide the general public (and the media) with solid facts about copy controlled CDs, specifically: a. The titles of CDs known to be affected and the copy controlled mechanism used in each case. b. Details of the effects of each mechanism on a customer's ability to make expected uses of those CDs. c. Where possible, details of the steps that can be taken to defeat the copy control mechanism to allow "normal" use of the CD. [This last may be legally dodgy, due to UK Copyright Act 1998; if so, we won't do it, or will obtain support of someone in a country that doesn't have laws forbidding circumvention of copy protection mechanisms to publish details for us outside UK (the EUCD is not here yet, so we've most of Europe to choose from). Obviously, the USA is right out!]

4. Simultaneously raise awareness of EUCD by pointing out whenever appropriate that the EUCD will prevent members of the public using measures described in 3(c) to use the controlled CDs as they would "normal" ones, etc.

Throughout we will be careful to ensure that we do not make statements that could be construed as promoting copyright infringement (at least as it is commonly understood). We will be standing up for people's rights under the Trades Descriptions Act, and their rights to "fair dealing" (fair use) in the copyrighted CDs they have purchased, NOT for their ability to rip MP3s and give them to all the friends. As far as TDA rights are concerned, we will probably be stretching the strict definition of "fair dealing" under the 1998 Copyright Act to include those acts such as ripping MP3s of CDs you have purchased for your own private use, that are clearly condoned by those elements of the music industry (eg. Sony) that sell MP3 players & jukeboxes in the clear expectation that they will be used for "private media shifting".

I have taken the liberty of assigning roles to each of those named above, along with some initial tasks. Clearly, you are neither obliged to accept the role, nor all of the tasks I've assigned you. If you don't wish to be a member of the CDTF, for whatever reason (insufficient spare time through to just not interested), let me know, and I will remove you from the alias and seek a replacement. Similarly, if you believe you could contribute more effectively in a different role, let me know. I've added a non-exhaustive list of those who will likely contribute to a role other than their primary one in square brackets.

If the majority should disagree with my decision to appoint myself co-ordinator of the CDTF, we'll find someone else to do it, and I will not object.

Roles =====

Official Members (aka doers of the hard work) --------------------------------------------- On the CD Task Force alias@

Copy Control Research: Dan Ackroyd and Mystery BBC Guy (basically, (3.) above)

Leafletting Campaign Co-ordination: Jim Peters

Website maintenance: Andy Clark [Julian Midgley, Jim Peters]

Legal Research: Martin Keegan

Press Liaison: Julian Midgley [Jim Peters, others if willing and when appropriate]

Overall co-ordination of CDTF: Julian Midgley

In addition, Caspar Bowden and Dave Green have been appointed honorary members. They may or may not be on the alias from time to time, as they wish ;-)

Tasklist ========

(Most of these are "as soon as possible", which you should read as "as soon as you are able to" - am not expecting you to interfere with your real jobs any more than you would have ordinarily done to get them achieved) For many of you, they're "business as usual" tasks.

In no particular order:

Martin:

Please find out what's needed to bring a TDA case against a UK company (inc. likely time taken, number of complaints that have to be received before whichever body it is will pursue the case, etc). Note that whilst Amazon.co.uk is based in the UK, the Charley Pride CD is an import - don't know if this makes it more difficult to go after the distributor as well, over to you. If not them, am now getting reports of other CDs on sale in Europe from radio chaps in Austria, will publish more details as soon as I have them. (Please also advise on legality, etc of Dan's task re. Amazon below).

(Later - determine legality or otherwise of publishing details of circumvention methods under the 1988 Copyright and Patents Act.)

Dan, Mystery BBC Guy:

Keep up the good work on the Charley Pride CD. Will send you details of any other titles I hear about as soon as poss. (Am quite willing to stump up for the CDs for you to work on myself.) Dan, could you also contact Amazon.co.uk's customer services in guise of innocent customer who wonders why his CD doesn't work properly, and keep records of everything they say on the matter (don't publish to list yet, though by all means send it to the cdtaskforce alias).

A useful tactic (if Amazon prove helpful) may be to get them to put pressure on their suppliers to inform them of the copy protection mechanisms used on the CDs so that Amazon can meet their trade description obligations. Suggest we're nice to them at first, and only bring out big stick if they deserve it.

Peter:

Again, keep it up, concentrate particularly on trying to get organisers in as many towns cities as you can for the leafletting campaign, ensuring the leaflets are accurate and up to date, etc.

Andy:

Standby to receive research from Dan's team (and others) and convert to smart HTML for the website, keeping website up to date with news etc.

Also, create template pages for: 1. Publishing details of affected CDs so public can easily find what which ones they are.

2. Publishing details of each copy control mechanism we come across (what can and can't be done with CDs that use it. etc) (These pages will be linked from the tables in 1.)

Can get you help with this if you're busy.

Me:

Usual press liaison stuff: prepare press releases - liaise with our existing press contacts to get them pre-briefed, find new ones, etc. Co-ordinate CDTF, try to make sure all balls stay in air. Assist with website, writing material, etc, as required.

Communication =============

Anything that you would normally have sent to the main mailing list should continue to go there (eg. details of CD brokenness, interesting articles you come across, etc).

Use the alias for co-ordination.

Use of Resources ================

By all means get in contact with other people (from list or elsewhere) to help you in the various roles, and make use of the mailing list for obtaining advice, assistance, or whatever in the usual way. Am not expecting you to go it alone, just to head up the roles described above (since you're almost all doing that already anyway).

There may be people who are sufficiently committed and useful that they should be added to this alias in future. Just send proposals to the alias. (Eg. people willing to assist in research, web guys, researchers, or whatever)

Announcement to CDR ===================

Once I've heard back from you, and assuming you don't all say "you're off your rocker and on your own, mate", I'll announce the existence of the Task Force to the CDR, along with most of the details of what we intend to do.

Timescales ==========

The press are picking up on the issues at the moment, so am expecting fair amount of activity over next few days. We seem to be ahead of the curve on this (esp. on the empirical research front), so should be very useful to them.

TDA itself- don't know yet- Martin will tell us.

Major goal: would like to have genuinely useful resource site (eg. lists of all affected titles we can find, with as many details of exactly how they're broken as we can) ready by 6 October so leaflets can say "Go here to find out CDs known to be affected already, and send us email here to tell us of any new ones you come across).

That's it for now,

Julian

Ps. I can't yet see any reason why goals above aren't achievable, and if we can achieve number 1, would really put the UK CDR on the map, and probably force all CD manufacturers to put clear warning labels on copy-controlled CDs (at which point we run a series of articles explaining to the public that these labels basically mean "I'm broken - don't buy me", simultaneously ensure that the artists themselves are aware of this, and hope that sales of labelled CDs drop off enough that they are withdrawn from circ. (Yes, I know who we're up against, but a little optimism never hurt anyone...).

Pps. Many of the ideas here are blatantly not mine, but yours (variously) expressed on phone, on mailing list, or wherever recently - I've just put them all together - I neither intend to take credit for them, or pretend that I've come up with some cunning plan that wasn't already forming of its own accord. The intent of this task force is merely to crystallise that idea into something concrete and take some of the load off Jim who until v. recently was doing practically all the work on the CD issue himself. ;-) Neither can I remember exactly who said what when, so I won't try to attribute each idea to the right bloke.

Over to you...

-- Julian T. J. Midgley http://www.xenoclast.org/ Cambridge, England. PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F Beware the European Copyright Directive: http://uk.eurorights.org/

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