Hard To Believe: Computer Makers Giving In To RIAA Pressure, Disabling Sound Recording?

from the can't-really-be-true,-could-it? dept

A whole bunch of people are submitting this, though, the explanation is not passing the sniff test. The story is that a bunch of laptop owners (mainly from Dell) are frustrated after discovering that their laptop soundcard configuration blocks the recording of audio, even though it's possible to enable it with a few tweaks. In other words, recording has effectively been turned off by the computer manufacturers. It didn't take long for rumors and speculation to assume that somehow the RIAA has been pressuring these computer makers to turn off sound. Of course, with the entertainment industry, sometimes it seems that no concept is too evil to believe that the industry wouldn't endorse. However, there seems to be no evidence whatsoever that the RIAA had any part in this. On the whole, it sounds like someone just made a bad decision in terms of how to configure certain sound cards. If someone can provide any evidence that the RIAA actually had a role in this, we'll post an update, but there's no reason to jump to conclusions without any evidence. That's what the RIAA does.

Filed Under: disabling recording, laptops, sound cards

Creative Labs Stops Guy From Making Its Technology Work Better

from the how-dare-you-help-people! dept

It appears that Creative Labs is the latest company to shoot itself in the foot over "intellectual property" issues. Apparently, many users have been upset that Creative has failed to support certain systems, and a user in the Creative Labs' forums started releasing drivers to make things actually work or work better. Creative struck back and has removed the various threads in their forums discussing these drivers (thanks to Joe for sending in the link). Basically, this user, Daniel_K was making Creative products work better, and Creative has forced him to stop, claiming that it's violating their intellectual property rights. From a legal standpoint, Creative is probably absolutely right. But from a business perspective, the move seems suicidal. Just read a few of the comments in the long thread following the announcement from Creative. Many people were buying Creative products because of Daniel's mods, and will now look elsewhere. This seems like yet another case of IP laws being used to hold back innovation, rather than encourage it.

Filed Under: copyright, drivers, intellectual property, licenses, sound cards, tinkering
Companies: creative labs