EMI recalls badly DRM'ed Switchfoot music album

Quakester2000

September 30, 2005

EMI has had to recall
Switchfoots new album after the Digital Rights Management(DRM) they choose for
the album had been applied incorrectly. Sony has also recalled the web posting
by one of the band members on how to make backups of the disc to reappear on the
web.

Switchfoots new album has
appeared at number 3 on the charts but due to the DRM fault, backups of the disc
could not be made at all. This horrified band member Tim Foreman who put a guide
on the internet on how to make backups of the disc by bypassing the copy
protection system.

EMI is blaming
configuration settings for the DRM system that caused the problems. EMI will
offer an exchange for anyone that bought a dodgy DRM'ed discs that can't be
backed up for one that allows three backups to be made as supposedly
intended by the company???

EMI has recalled a best-selling CD after it
was inadvertently encumbered with over-zealous DRM. And Sony has recalled
a web posting by one of the bands advising fans how to unbork the borked
disc.

Switchfoot's CD debuted at No.3 on the Billboard chart
last week, but DRM prevented fans burning backups - or making copies of
any kind as they soon discovered. A member of
the band, Tim Foreman, professed himself "horrified" and advised fans how
to work around the DRM. The board is hosted by Sony Music, which has since
deleted the post.

Now EMI says it's removing the settings, which it says
were put in place accidentally, and is offering an exchange. Fans can swap
a version of the CD that doesn't allow any copies to be made for one that
permits three burns - as the record company intended.

The publicity backlash hasn't done the the Christian
rockers any harm."Thats some major
advertising these websites are doing for SF! God is rewarding Timmy's
concern for his fans," hoped one fan.There's
no one better placed to advise fans on the perils of DRM than the artists
themselves.

I wonder if they really were going to allow three backups to be made before
or did the pressure from both the band and the fans force them to reconsider
their no backup option.

Source: The Register