Record companies are worried. Their cozy cartel has for years got away with overcharging for their product with flimsy rationales. But their political savvy and star power have enabled them to keep Governments from cracking their scam. So the market did something about it and created first Napster and then peer-to-peer networking. The cartel was threatened. Why? Because the marginal cost of their product, information, is almost zero. Even allowing for some fancy packaging and a CD, the total profit captured from music is huge. But sharing of music could undermine this business model.

Thus the cartel were facing the same problem as those in movies and TV did with the advent of the VCR. There were two possible responses. Look at the lessons of the VCR age, embrace the new technology and remake their business model to move with the times. Or they could attack, spread fear and try and undermine their customers. Guess which path they adopted. Copy protection became the catchcry, combined with legal action and threats.

Except the world moved on. The CD, while still a medium of choice, has quickly been replaced by MP3 players and iPods as the delivery mechanism for many music consumers. Less bulk, longer battery life, convenience and yes, compatability with peer-to-peer networks meant a combination of the internet and technology created a new product that was quickly and widely adopted.

All this is going somewhere. Yesterday I bought two CDs. Bought them with cash. They are now mine. As I understand copyright law I possess "fair use" rights. A similar example would be that once I buy a book, I can photocopy small exercepts, or lend it to a friend. However EMI has installed "copy protection" on the CDs I bought. They have sold me a defective product of inferior quality while charging me the same price as the higher quality non-protected product. Defective, I hear you say? The CD cannot be played in my car CD stacker. The CD cannot be played on my computer without installing EMI's software, which contains a virus that corrupts part of my computer as part of their "copy protection". So I cannot actually play my CD on CD players in the car and computer, even though that is what they are designed to do. Additionally I cannot take the songs that I have purchased and put them on my MP3 player so that I can listen to it on my way to work. In other words EMI have breached my copyright rights and sold me a dud.

There's a certain amount of irony at play too. I disabled Kazaa a couple of months ago. After spending a fruitless hour last night trying to get the music that I had paid legitimately onto my MP3, I re-installed it. So EMI can feel proud they've forced me back into Kazaa's arms. Then I spent a few minutes Googling how to get around the copy protection and it appears it is not that difficult (although I have not yet tried it). I found a forum full of help and information. At one stage I even went through EMI's online site on all of this. There was a helpful section of quotes from overpaid crack addicts telling me why this copy protection is so vital for protecting their lifestyle for the greater cultural good. There was also a section pointing to legal download sites for music. The HK site is blank.

So the end result is this. In their zeal to protect their out-dated business model, the record companies have instead forced me into doing the very things they were seeking to prevent. At the same time they are preventing me from exercising my legal rights in "fair use" of copyright product AND they have sold me a defective product.

Fuck you, EMI.

(Put 'em on trial, Commissar).