Creative Bows to the RIAA

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4566' target='_blank'>http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4566</a><br /><br /></div><i>"It looks like the RIAA's war on music pirates continues to affect not only legitimate consumers but music companies as well. This week, Creative announced that it will be removing FM radio recording from its portable music players from here on out. Creative has released a new firmware update for its Zen MicroPhoto and Zen Vision:M players that removes FM recording. We're finding it baffling that owners of the above products would rush to download such an update."</i><br /><br />I'd read about this earlier and it looks like the disclosure is buried in the release notes for the firmware update. Chances are most users would not even know about it until after the update. This is yet another stupid move by the RIAA and it is too bad Creative caved as FM recording is one of the features that differentiate many players from iPods.

[sojourner753]

Baffling indeed.

How is it even legal to remove features from a device that people have already paid for. I can't see this one holding up in court. Especially given the fact that its a published feature.

That being said, are there enough users out there to make enough noise about it.

[jeffd]

why wouldnt it be legal? The upgrade isnt manditory. I think it sucks and wouldnt upgrade to the next patch unless they offered us something huge like ogg support, acc or wma lossless.