HDTracks: Has the pay with PayPal loophole finally been closed?

Well everyone is still a human and most crooks are outside the prison system anyway and in many circumstances today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter. But moving swiftly on before I get embroiled in a political debate, is there anything that we can do about this to campaign for HD tracks to be available in the UK and/or EU? Starting a Facebook page seems a bit lame and taking to the streets (or the afore-mentioned terrorist action) a little too over the top. But maybe something something inbetween? Would be good if the UK Hi-fi industry got on board as Naim, Linn, Cyrus (are they still UK?) and others must have a vested interest.  

Naim and Linn have their own HD content so I can't see them joining the fight.  Why don't we set up some tents outside HDTracks' HQ?

#OccupyHDTracks  

I'd rather call it #OccupyUniversalMusicGroup and I'd only move into a tent if I could take the SuperNait with me .

I'd take a few big Class-A monoblocks at this time of year...

tut ive been downloading for a while .quite a collection .are they looking for me too

HD Tracks has only allowed to offically sell you media if you are in North Amercia. You could not register a non North Amercian address. The fact that many of us exploited a loop hole in the HDTracks system to purchase content via Paypal, is hardly justification to complain now. I exploited it but knew I was on borrowed time. We were going outside thier terms of sale and getting away with it. They have tightened up thier website governance and only now we complain - we should of lobbied sooner if we wanted to legitametely purchase the content.

To me this is just the same as  Bluray or DVD zoning. I don't like it  but is fact of life by media companies. I am sure it would have been on CD if the technology existed at the launch of CD.

I assume the reason we have no mainstream  hidef content in Europe is becasue the media companies don't want it, they might be fearful of piracy etc, otherwise it would be there now.  The market in Europe is on a par with North America.

Fortuantely I use my streamer mostly as a CD transport, but the odd piece of  hidef media has been a treat, although my choices have now reduced.

MegaUpload got taken down and it was based outside the US, so I don't quite understand the piracy legal issue.

In terms of a strategy - how about getting some HiFi journos fired up to get to the bottom of what the real barriers are and what HDTracks' European launch plans might be?

On a few other fora I read, real-life proxies are pretty popular -- folks who will buy something not available in North America or the EU, collect funds from the buyer, and ship the item . . . all based on the honor system.

Such does, however, violate HD Tracks' "User Agreement."

I wrote HD Tracks an e-mail and got this reply:

"The restriction is limited to UMG titles. It is beyond our control. Hopefully it will resolve as the music industry moves towards a globalized framework. It is as much a consequence of globalisation."

Which is useful in some ways and cryptic in others. You can identify Universal Music Group labels here:

http://www.universalmusic.com/labels

I bought a batch of Hires albums recently so won't be checking this right away. If anybody wants to see if this is true as a by product of attempting to buy some albums let us know how you get on.

regards

Geoff

The difference between this and DVD zoning is you can buy that, for now at least, there isn't an HD Region 2, so who do these rules protect?

Keith

Does it reflect a desire by UMG to have higher prices in Europe than the US for the same content?

... and the rest of Europe, right?

Best wishes,

Peter

It's the same with qobuz.com (France) and UMG titles. You can't even buy them from other european countries. And in this case it might very likely contradict european laws.

Indeed within the EU it  is unlawful to restrict products and services from one country to another, much to the annoyance of satellite TV broadcasters....

What I believe is the relevant EU legislation for on demand audio visual content which a hidef download is

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/r...freedom/index_en.htm

Simon

I have to say I like Noogle's idea about 'getting HiFi Journos fired up'.  They seem to be leading with HD & streaming these days - what a great band wagon for one of them to launch!!

BTW, having read that Simon uses his streamer mostly as a CD transport these days, I've been looking around my NDX for the CD drawer...   they've concealed it well...  probably hidden inside like the radio was (no dis intended Simon).

When the HDX was launched the argument put to me was in terms of a bitstream versus arms, servos, interpolation and error correction. I don't know if streamed music could correctly be described as a "cleaner" source but having had my much loved (now retired) CDX2 playing alongside an HDX - or more accurately a NAS, there was no doubt in my ears which sounded more natural and less, for want of a better description, mechanical. Unlike a streamer, the HDX can be used to play CDs should a need occasionally arise. But CD replay on a transport is a dead end in my world. 

The combined wisdom of men in the pub last night said you should use Tor tunneling.  Haven't tried it yet though.

AFAIK Tor does not guarantee an exit node in the country you want to surf to. On the contrary: a path through the Tor network is intended to be random so you probably get an exit node from anywhere in the world which is also blocked. At least that was the case for me.

Privte Proxy... just like it used to be... except $9.95 going out of your Paypal each month.  Worth it???

Surely there must be a HiFi mag willing to pick up this cause...