A reply from Western Digital re: an Open Letter

Here is a reply I got from WD about my Open Letter.

The formatting is correct (blue and black text) as it came via HTML email, so I guess that means this was some sort of form reply and they are getting a lot of email about this topic.

Update: Yes, my brother received the exact same email from Ms. Scott, formatted exactly the same. heh.

Now clearly Ms. Scott didn’t get my point. I fully understand that the drive itself does not restrict file access. However, for Western Digital to support this kind of “copyright protection” by including the software with its drives is offensive enough. Precedence is precedence. I don’t think the Western Digitals of the world should become police.

My stance remains the same, while this “MioNet” software is included with Western Digital drives, I won’t buy Western Digital drives.


Dear Steven:

 

Thank you for contacting WD and sharing your concerns.  We understand your position, and customer feedback like yours is very valuable to WD.

 

We think it is important to make clear that:

 

  1. WD hard drives and WD external drives store user content with no restriction on file types, as they always have.
  2. Two of our external hard drives, My Book World Edition and My Book Office Edition, offer MioNet software as an added value to customers.
  3. The MioNet software offers users remote access to all of their data and content from anywhere with Internet access.
  4. Based on WD’s respect for copyright owners, the MioNet software sold separately and bundled with WD’s My Book World Edition and My Book Office Edition storage appliances currently does not support sharing over the Internet of digital file types normally associated with copyright-protected music and video content.


You can learn more about Mionet software, which was acquired by WD earlier in 2007, by visiting: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/software/index.asp?familyID=200

 

We want to reiterate our appreciation of your feedback; it will be seriously considered for future product development. We’re studying how legitimate rights of copyright owners may be protected while still allowing our MioNet customers to share their own video and audio files.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Catherine Scott

Western Digital

Vice President of Corporate Communications

C.Scott@wdc.com

3 comments

  1. Back in the day WD made utter garbage drives. They were cheap, but they failed often. In recent years, they’ve improved significantly, to the point where their quality is probably on par with Maxtor and Seagate. But I’ve still avoided them because of the past history. Same with ATI (their drivers used to be horrible).

  2. ATI drivers “used” to be horrible? Oh man they still are! Nvidia is just the smart way to go…

    It’s obvious that Western Digital doesn’t care what the consumer market says. They are sending us all generic formatted letters. That’s fine, they will note the different when we all stop buying their product.

  3. Ummm… do they think that all “copyright owners” live on an island somewhere sipping champagne and not fussing with us common folk?

    I’m a “copyright owner”. WD would not be protecting me, they’d be limiting me from moving my own content.

    I concur: frigtards.

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