Thursday, August 21, 2003

Copy Control "technology"

What a load of...

I could tell you the full story from A to Z, but instead I'll give you the letters:

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Why does my Special Edition Hail to the Thief skip nine seconds into every single song?

Dear EMI Music Canada,

On June 11, 2003 I purchased the highly anticipated Hail to the Thief album from A&B Sound Metrotown in beautiful British Columbia. I had waited months and followed the release info for the past four albums (and purchased SE versions of the previous two albums without incident). For two months I was able to listen to Hail to the Thief on a Panasonic Discman (SLX-390). The Discman suffered an early death and I was forced into buying a new Discman (which I could barely afford, but given that it is the only way I listen to cds, it was necessary): a Sony (D-EJ855).

Both of the discmans and your product claim compatibility (a CD player with CD playing compatibility and a CD that reads "compatible with CD Audio Players, DVD Players and PC-...") with each other, but I am finding that your product is the only one to skip at the 9 second mark of EVERY track.

I cannot return the product for a couple reasons:
1. It's been over two months since I purchased it and do not believe that the store will take it back easily.
2. I want this CD. I love the songs on it. I would love to have it play normally. I want the tracks to stop skipping.

This is not an issue of scratched CDs. I have never owned a scratched CD and am anal about how I treat them. This is not an issue with my discman. It is capable of playing all of my other CDs without issue.

Hail to the Thief's copy control "technology" appears to be faulty. The program to protect the software is not complete enough if the end consumer--the person purchasing your product cannot use it properly.

The tracks are still available for downloading, so the copy protect only punishes the buyer.

May you please send me a working copy of Hail to Thief? I don't need the packaging, I already have it.

Thanks,

Corinne
My Address
Canada

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Corinne,

Thanks for your note.

Please return your CD with a brief explanatory note to your Quality Control department. We'll gladly replace it.

We do apologize for the inconvenience.

EMI Music Canada
c/o Quality Control
3109 American Drive
Mississauga, Ontario
L4V 1B2

Thanks for your interest and keep visiting!
Merci de votre interet et revenez nous voir!

www.EMImusic.ca
www.Virginmusic.ca
www.Emission-Onlinecom

EMI MUSIC CANADA

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Dear Manufacturing/Quality Control,

While I appreciate the speedy reply, I am concerned that the actions you suggest will only grant me 6 to 8 weeks without a CD that I can listen to provided it is not played in my discman (primary audio tool) and leave me with about $4 out of pocket expenses.

If there is some guarantee that I will receive a CD that is not written with errors on it (a.k.a. faulty Copy Control Technology with problems), I will gladly send you my original disc. However, I am certain that you, as a large distribution company, will probably grab another CD off the assembly line and slap it into an envelope with the exact same errors.

As I have mentioned, this Copy Control software was not an issue when I originally bought it, this problem developed with the purchase of a new portable CD player. I purchase the CDs and other software that I want, this is certainly dissuading me from future purchases of Copy Protect CDs. This disappoints me that one of my favourite bands for the past ten years had to release bug ladened Copy Protect software; and I hope that the errors are being fixed.

I appreciate that you will not just send me a copy of the disc without receiving my original first; I accept that. However, I am not going to go 6 to 8 weeks without a CD I like without some correction to the problem. I don't see how sending me another disc will help. It is the program you have written onto the disc that is the problem, and not the disc itself.

Do you have an alternative disc without the problem software security? I will even take another Copy Control disc if you have fixed the bugs in the program.

I do not want to resort to downloading and burning another CD of this album, but it'll be the same cost as shipping my disc to you without the loss of 6 to 8 weeks.

If this is not something you are able to correct, please direct me to another department which may be able to help me.

Attached is my original message.

Sincerely,
Corinne

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Grrrrrrrr.... Has anyone else had problems with this CD or its evil spawn siblings?

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