So RCA can find and re-release masters of John Kerry’s 1961 garage band. And whoever’s selling it is charging “only” $14 a copy.
Boing Boing: The Electras: John Kerry’s high school band rocks out:
“Due to increasing intrest, RCA has re-released the Electras’ album and you can buy it for $14 (previously, it was nearly impossible to find). It’s crazy that RCA kept the masters in their catalog for all this time. But you never know when the bass player from some […] garage band might get nominated for President.”
So think of how many artists whose work languishes in the vaults while the RIAA cartel works on alienating as many of their customers as they can. Nothing against the Electras, but I’m sure there are artists with more commercial and aesthetic appeal tucked away.
New Beasties disc has DRM — Fight! For your right! To cooo-oopy!
The Beastie Boys’ new CD, To the Five Boroughs, has DRM on it that prevents you from ripping it or making a copy for your car. I got the MP3s last week — it’s a great album — and was going to buy the CD while I’m in the US this week, but now I think I’ll just erase the MP3s and not bother. If the Beasties wanna treat me like a crook, I don’t want to be their customer.Note that the only thing that this DRM is doing here is pissing off the honest fans who want open CDs; the DRM on the CD didn’t stop my source from making me a set of MP3s. In other words, if you plan on listening to the new disc on your iPod or laptop, you’re better off downloading a copy made by a cracker and posted on Kazaa — if you buy it in a shop, you’re going to have to go through the lawbreaking rigamarole of breaking the DRM yourself.
I always hear record execs whining that they “can’t compete with free” — but maybe the real competitive disadvantage is that they’re selling a product that’s less useful than the one being served up on P2P nets.
(Thanks, Jon!)
Update: Ian sez, “Hi, I’m not sure who posted re: Beastie Boys copy protection, but I just spoke with Mike D and their management and they wanted me to pass along that a) This is all territories except the US and UK — US and UK discs do not have this protection on them; b) All EMI CDs are treated this way, theirs isn’t receiving special treatment; c) They would have preferred not to have the copy protection, but weren’t allowed to differ from EMI policy.” [Boing Boing Blog]
Questions come to mind here:
* what if Kerry or one of the other Electras didn’t want this re-released? Would they be able to block it?
* What if they wanted to give it away under a Creative Commons license?
* why can’t a successful group like the Beastie Boys take control of their material and tell the record company where they can put their DRM?
The answer to these of course is copyright: neither a group of pioneering neophytes like the Electras or savvy pranksters like the Beasties can escape signing over the copyright in their recordings to The Man.