"Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat and tears over the past two years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology." He also expressed his feelings about criticism being misdirected to artists over copy protection. "It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc. are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy." he said.
Instead of just speaking out about the copy protection, he also went one step further and detailed how a fan could work around the DRM to import the music to their favourite players. This is obviously something that won't be greeted by major record labels; the last thing any of the big four labels want is for their artists to firstly bash their copy protection policies and then actually give details to their fans, whom they have influence over, of how to get around them.
"We refuse to allow corporate policy to taint the family we've developed together." Foreman said in his defense. "We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to import these songs." It is important that artists do come forward and make their feelings about copy protection known, whether they are for it or against it.
Since a significant number of artists probably don't agree with copy protection on their work that actually causes problems for their fans, it would be interesting to know how the industry would deal with such artists, considering that the music industry's major record labels wouldn't be too shy about legally threatening a website that gives details on how to bypass DRM protection -- what about their signed artists?
Source:
VnuNet.com