New Anti-Swap CDs Hit Shelves 853
floppy ears writes "Watch out for the new Anthony Hamilton CD, Coming From Where I'm From. The CD has two sets of tracks: one set of "encrypted" songs that can be handled by CD players but cannot be ripped, and a duplicate set of tracks in WMA format. In CD players, the disc plays normally (in theory). When put into a computer, the disc installs software to keep the music secure, but allows you to copy some or all of the Windows Media tracks to your hard drive. What a shame that I'm running Linux and my portable MP3 player doesn't support WMA."
Hmph... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
Autorun is and always was a security hole. Microsoft should have known already when they implemented it, that it was a security hole. A similar but more subtle hole was fixed in AmigaOS five years earlier. That hole was used by multiple viruses, and caused the computer to get affected as soon as an infected floppy was inserted in the drive.
It is possible to disable autorun in Windows 9x, the setting is very well hidden, and you need to use regedit to change it. Find the setting named: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Policies / Explorer / NoDriveAutoRun" and change the value to 0x03ffffff
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Informative)
At least, I recall being able to do that in Win98. WinXP is a different story.
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Informative)
As an alternative, if you want to leave autorun on, but temporarily disable it, just hold down SHIFT while you're inserting the CD.
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. That disables detection of disc changes. What you want is disabling just the autorun feature without breaking something else. I really don't know why they make such a broken option so easilly available, while hiding the setting people should be changing instead.
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's about as much of a security hole as allowing binaries to be installed on the machine at all.
The difference between autorun on a floppy and on a CD is that floppies are RW, while CDs are either read-only or read/erase/write. For a virus to spread via CDs, it would have to detect a CD burning operation and infect the CD image before it was written. This is an extremely complex task, and it would still only allow infection during a regular burn operation.
Combine that with the fact that people don't tend to use CDs to trade data as much as people used to use floppies and the infection rate is MUCH lower. A lower infection rate means more time for a virus to be detected and stopped, so the virus writer would have to go to a lot more effort to get a much less effective virus.
So yes, it is a security hole. It's not really a security hole worth worrying about though, since an attacker would almost have to have physical access to the machine in the first place.
It is, however, extremely annoying.
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Informative)
These CDs have a data track, which has an autorun file on it. The autorun starts a silent installer that quietly installs some shitty DRM music player on your computer to play the WMA files. At least the CD that I put in on my work machine did that. At home, of course, I disable autorun on all the drives.
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, they might call it encryption or some shit like it, but it's just really well-placed (or poorly-placed, depending on whose side you're on) corruption. If they were encrypted, normal CD players wouldn't read the disc (and I'll bet some won't anyway because of the corruption). They're trying to rely in the fact that some audio CD players will be more tolerant than CD-ROM devices. However, that's not certain. Either don't buy this kind of garbage, or make sure you return it after buying it to prove a point (it is defective).
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Interesting)
So...is this a CD?
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Funny)
The judge determined that Philips' trying to read a non-CD with a CD unit was a violation of the DMCA.
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Informative)
Well...there's "encrypted" and encrypted. I can wager a guess as to which one this one is. If your audio CD player had no hardware/software to decrypt the music (and all of my audio CD players are old) how can it possibly be encrypted?
Also, it looks like the music on the media can be easily shared anyway:
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
This is why the word 'effective' was added in the first place. The DMCA isn't talking about security devices per se, but about anything which has the effect of a security device, whether it was intended to do security or not.
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that I'm condoning this behavior, but that's exactly what the record industry is encouraging. I don't listen to CD's, I listen to MP3's, and if I can't rip them from the CD, then I have to ask myself why I bothered to buy it. It would probably be better for the musician if I didn't buy the CD, downloaded the MP3's and then bought a bunch of swag from them.
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
You are correct, but in the same vein, I am under no obligation to give money to the music industry unless they give me a good quality recording both technically (sound quality) and artisticly (more than 1 or 2 good tracks per CD) in the format I want/need at a price I deem resonable and worthwhile. Otherwise, I keep my money and spend it on other forms of entertainment.
-Ab
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course they are not. Since when should business do what customer's want?
What will happen, as I've said many times, is that the more abusive the RIAA members become, the less and less people will respect copyright. I even extend this to all IP. The more IP is abused (can you say US Patent and Trademark Office?) the less people will respect IP in general. Maybe someday it will be like so many outdated unenforced laws on the books -- in Boston it is illegal to bathe without the authorization of a physician. (Wonder if Taco knows that?) In lots of places it is illegal to play with yourself. (Wonder if Taco knows that?)
Trademarks similarly could lose respect as people attempt to trademark every word used to write this post.
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Funny)
When a CD isn't a CD (Score:4, Insightful)
The owner of the trademark is Philips, not Pioneer. They get to decide who can use the CD logo, and who can call something a "Compact Disc."
Philips has already threatened to sue companies that release such discs and label them as CDs. Philips is rightly worried that such incompatible discs (which often refuse to play correctly on some high-end and some consumer level players) will dilute the Compact Disc trademark, or worse, harm it substantially. Philips' position, which I support, is that a CD must conform to the Red Book standard for audio Compact Discs. Anything else isn't a CD.
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Interesting)
Copyright law gives them control over distribution and price BY DEFINITION. No one is forcing you to buy their over priced product. At the same time, a high price does not give you the right to pirate.
Read the news: the labels are scrambling to offer legitimate alternatives. Another two services are about to launch with more c
Re:Hmph... (Score:4, Insightful)
But anyhow, a couple comments:
Read the news: the labels are scrambling to offer legitimate alternatives.
And all of the alternatives I've seen so far, put substantial limitations on what I can do with the music compared to now. Itunes is probably the most lenient, but when I downloaded an album, I was less than pleased to realize that I couldn't play it on my linux desktop. I paid the same price as I'd pay for a physical CD and got an inferior product.
As for their legal tactics, I don't see why age or sex should matter when pursuing someone who has violated copyright law - breaking the law is breaking the law.
The age is important because in our legal system, minors are not considered to be wholly responsible for their actions. Leighway is granted because children don't entirely understand consequences, etc.
They have never tried to pass a law allowing them to attack computers. Do not confuse them with misguided legistlators.
This is a technicality. The RIAA isn't in the legislature, therefore, they cannot pass laws. I guarantee you that the RIAA was happy with that law, and that the people who sponsored it were getting money from various media companies.
Re:Hmph... (Score:3, Interesting)
Read the news: the labels are scrambling to offer leg
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Insightful)
Suppose the CD does malfunction in a lot of standard CD players - how much effort do you really think that the RIAA would go to in order to correct the situation? Probably not much. After all, it's not like it's [Britney | j-lo | insert other crappy mega-star of your choice] or anything, so who cares?
Meanwhile, this guy's career is in the tank before it even got started. Thanks a bunch, RIAA!
Re:Hmph... (Score:5, Informative)
CD player'Line Out' to PC 'Line In'. Where's the flaw in that?
Simple solution.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Simple solution.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple solution.. (Score:4, Funny)
Someday... (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, on second thought, they probably won't.
Re:Simple solution.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, that way they can claim P2P is eating into their sales. Simple, yet unhelpful solution.
Crack (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Crack (Score:5, Funny)
I can crack any CD in two seconds. Just grab either side with both hands and bend it until it cracks. Works best with Brittney Spears and Backstreet Boys CDs. ;)
Re:Crack (Score:5, Funny)
"No lieutenant, your CD is already cracked."
Re:Crack (Score:3, Funny)
You want proof? You can't handle the proof!
Nothing like a good challenge (Score:5, Funny)
Where there's a will, there's a way!
Re:Nothing like a good challenge (Score:5, Informative)
Remember, only one person needs to do this - from there it can propagate across Kazaa, iMesh, etc.
William
Re:Nothing like a good challenge (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course I suspect all the RIAA moves are designed to in fact increase piracy. The RIAA has much more insidious plans: they want to eventually outlaw all high-quality recording devices, because they will prove that all such devices allow, and are used primarily for, piracy (and that will be true). O
Re:Nothing like a good challenge (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember kids... (Score:5, Funny)
That'll stop them! (Score:5, Funny)
Anthony_Hamilton-Comin_From_Where_Im_From_(Reta
hit the net about 11 days ago.. damn.
Re:That'll stop them! (Score:5, Funny)
Anthony_Hamilton-Comin_From_Where_Im_From
hit the net about 11 days ago.. damn.
The only thing that can stop sharing is only releasing music nobody wants to listen to.
Oh wait...
WHen will they learn (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead - the music industry makes expensive stuff thats increasingly inconvienient and wonders why people are going elsewhere for their music. Oh and they don't pay the artists properly either - just in case we weren't pissed at them enough.
the mind boggles....
Re:WHen will they learn (Score:3, Interesting)
Great idea... (Score:5, Interesting)
Secure music? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate this term. This music is not secure. It is restricted.
Re:Secure music? (Score:5, Funny)
Damn (Score:5, Funny)
swap sessions (Score:5, Insightful)
An even easier solution (Score:5, Interesting)
I've posted this before, and no doubt I'll post it again...
Rip your CDs to an ISO with CDRWin or BlindRead, with C2 error correction disabled (but leave jitter correction turned on). Then mount the disk image via Daemon Tools or the like, and use any normal CD audio ripper (in its fastest mode, since no errors or jitter can occur this way) such as CDex to extract the audio tracks from the virtual drive.
Works on every "defective" CD on the market, gives a perfect rip every time (for which reason I even use this method to rip non-defective CDs), and in many cases, it even takes less total time than using the CD audio ripper (assuming a non-defective CD) directly on the physical CD.
You'll only have a problem if your drive doesn't support turning off C2 correction, in which case, spring the fifty bucks to get a cheap older Plextor drive from Blindwrite's "supported drives" list.
Disclaimer - I have never even heard of the artist mentioned in the FP, and haven't tried this method on that particular CD. As I said, though, I have yet to fail to rip a CD this way, and have little doubt it would work in this case as well (sounds like just another cheesy multi-session standards violation hack, with the added "bonus" of running a trojan on your machine if you have unwisely left autorun turned on).
Isn't a Anthony Hamilton CD... (Score:3, Funny)
Tim
A Patch exists (Score:5, Insightful)
It really makes me wonder why recording studios spend millions of dollars researching these things when all it takes is one person to post this to kazaa and defeat the whole purpose of the encryption.
I guess this is why I am a CS major and not a business one.
Re:A Patch exists (Score:3, Funny)
That's no patch.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously. According to the DMCA, couldn't use of that cable to rip one of these copy protected CDs be construed as such?
Just goes to show how convoluted and idiotic the logic behind these new laws has become.
Re:A Patch exists (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually a business graduate would be shot (well, downgraded) if this were a case study and he were to suggest the current RIAA behaviour regarding file sharing as a solution to the problem in a decent business school with good teachers. For a number of reasons:
Not an innovative solution to a disrupting problem set. Student was probably asleep during lecture on Christensen and Disruptive Technologies.
Micro- and macroeconomic theory and issues (lik
What a shame that I'm running Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, you're among friends here. Most people who read
and my portable MP3 player doesn't support WMA
Bummer...somehow, I also thought MP3s and WMA files were the exact same thing. You mean they are different formats and your MP3 player won't play WMAs?!
Bastards!
Not a CD (Score:5, Interesting)
My brother just bought David Usher's latest album. It played in the car but not in his laptop and that's where he spends most of his time listening to music. Note that his laptop met all the requirements listed on the back cover, it just wouldn't play... no CD audio, no WMA, nothing. And of course, it would prevent him from transferring the music to an iPod if it would play only WMA. He took the thing back to Music World. We wrote complaints to EMI Music, Music World, and David Usher's management company saying he didn't appreciate being assumed to be a music pirate, he didn't appreciate misleading notifications on the album cover (stating that it would work in his computer), and that he did not appreciate having his Fair Use rights curtailed.
There was no response, of course, despite claims by at least one company that they would respond within x business days.
Re:Not a CD (Score:5, Interesting)
More people need to know about this (Score:3, Funny)
You've actually done us a public service by pointing out these reformed souls.
Re:Not a CD (Score:5, Interesting)
David Ushers Managment was a lot quicker [thedarkerside.to] to reply (to me at least).
Not for high-end and car CD players (Score:5, Informative)
The best thing you can do is to return the CD unopened. This way, the recall figures in the sales will go up, and even 60-year-old executives with business plans from the fifties will learn.
Re:Not for high-end and car CD players (Score:4, Funny)
Nope. Not going to do it. I'm sticking right here with my martini lunches, golf with the boys at the country club, boardroom culture, oh, and yes, the cute young secretary taking DICKtation on my knee. If my company's business plan was good enough for my grandfather, it's good enough for me.
(Hey, Bob! Have we sued anyone lately? Well, get to it! Why do you think we have that stable of attorneys on the payroll?!?!)
Anyone have a technical reference on this? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't see how this is possible given current CD player technology. If the CD player can read the stream of bits off the CD, and turn it seamlessly into music, then my computer (which is much more sophisticated than my CD player) should also be able to do so.
Bits is bits. "dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/home/rip-cd" will transfer those bits. My choice of friendly utility that translates CD-format music bits into mp3, or ogg, or whatever should then work on those bits.
Am I missing something?
Re:Anyone have a technical reference on this? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, you are. When this technology first came out years ago [slashdot.org]
Anyway, to save you some trouble, the idea behind the "copy protection" is that they fudge the error correction on the disc's in such a way that a less complex (i.e. your home stereo cd player) will read them just fine and ignore the garbage and your more complex, cd-rom drive in your computer will barf attempting to use the error correction and be unable read the disc.
Ohh, it's encrypted! *shivers* (Score:3, Funny)
*looks around in a frenzy* _
What kind of ... (Score:5, Funny)
Ability To Hear = Ability To Rip (Score:5, Insightful)
If it can be played through speakers on a computer the audio can be ripped somehow, and this will always be the case. This is regardless of whether one is ripping the track directly from the cd or ripping the audio as the sound card plays it.
When Is a CD Not a Music CD? (Score:3, Insightful)
It may use the compact disc format, but it's not a Digital Audio Compact Disc.
If they are going to sell a crippled disc it had better be marked as such. If I am lead to believe I am buying a disc recorded using the Red Book standard, that's damned well what I'd better get.
You can't sell a Honda Civic as a Porsche 911.
If the distinction is clearly marked on the disc, and that this disc does not conform to the Red Book standard and thus may not be 100% compatible with Red Book readers, then fine. I can make my decision to purchase or not to purchase.
NOT labling the CD as crippled/containing copy protection/etc and selling it along side Red Book discs is misrepresentation. Fraud, pure and simple.
(well, it my books anyway. Obviously the RIAA may feel differently).
Blockwars [blockwars.com]: new features including accounts, still multiplayer & free.
It's not a CD (Score:3, Informative)
If it doesn't meet the Philips spec for a CD, then it can't be called a CD. Has anyone actually seen this disc yet? I sincerely hope it doesn't carry the CD logo, since that would be a breach of the license [philips.com]
Collection of thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
CD -> CD player -> sound card ->
No track is unrippable. Provided your audio chain is somewhat decent, the quality loss will be inaudible (much less than from the MP3 encoding anyway).
In CD players, the disc plays normally (in theory)
Yes, "in theory" is the keyword. In practice, it is quite different [theregister.co.uk]. Anyhow, if enough of those silly copy-protected CDs come out, some CDROM manufacturers will start selling units that can read them at a higher price. Who's the loser in all cases? the consumer/listener.
When put into a computer, the disc installs software to keep the music secure
Does it work under Wine?
portable MP3 player doesn't support WMA.
Get a Rio Volt. Or even better, play the MP3s generated with the method above.
I hope more and more of these CDs come out, so more and more lawsuits against the idiots who make them happen, and eventually the entire music industry gets its reputation even more tarnished than it already is, hastening its long-overdue demise.
Radiohead - Hail To The Copy Protection (Score:5, Informative)
Got 'Hail to the Thief' today
It's the first 'Copy Controlled' disc I've ever got, and it's quite interesting how they've worked it.
The disc, ISO Buster tells me, is written in two sessions. Session 1, has the tracks, Session 2 has the software.
When I put it in the CD-RW drive, and open it's contents, all that shows up is the software "Player.exe" and it's associated files.
Windows Media Player refuses to recognise that the disc has any music tracks. As does Quick Time.
Winamp (2) when instructed to play the disc in my CD Drive, plays it, without problem. The Creative 'Play Center' that came with my soundcard is able to play it also.
The 'Player.exe' on the disc, insists on "modifying files" on my computer. It also then plays crippled versions of the songs, at only 96Kbps. Winamp and Play Center, play the tracks at full quality.
My CD Ripping software (and Creative's Play Center software) have no problem ripping the tracks to WAV, MP3, or whatever.
When I tried the disc in my DVD-Rom drive, it made grinding sounds, crashed my PC, and I had to reboot.
So, it's called a 'Copy Controlled' disc, but what it really is, is a 'Windows Media Player Blinding, DVD-Rom Drive Fscking, Otherwise Rip It And Share-Away As Normal' Disc.
What a complete waste of time for them.
Still, on the bright side, the record company is paying good money (or it's ill-gotten gains, depending on how you look at it) to license the "copy protection," er... system, and it's associated software. Which means less money for them, and the RIAA! Hurrah!
Silly tossers.
"New Anti-Swap CD's Hit Shelves" (Score:3, Funny)
and thats where they will probably stay....
Nothing new in Canada (Score:5, Informative)
I wrote a nasty email to EMI about it, and they replaced my Radiohead disc free of charge with a non-crippled version, including delivery. I suggest that everyone who's against this technology actually buy the CD, write a letter to them and have them send a second disc at their expense.
Here's an open letter I wrote to EMI and the RIAA [cryptek.org]
and here's an entry about a technology I found to circumvent it. It can be done with software:
How to Rip these tracks [cryptek.org]
My biggest objection with this technology is that they call them CDs, when they don't conform to the CD standard. If you look for the official Compact Disc Constortium logo, it's missing. Putting these crippled discs alongside regular CDs in a store is misleading. They should be in a seperate section of the store, in very clear packaging (a small sticker or bullet on the back of the CD isn't obvious enough)
I also don't think the artists know what's happening to their work. People who play these CDs in computers receive a far lower quality version of the song than they'd even get by downloading them online. They can't say that they're "all about the art" and release crap like this which sounds hissy and loses the bass-line.
The WMA files are ripped at very low bitrates, something like 96kpbs, presumably to prevent people from just extracting them off the data layer and using file sharing. I personally never rip anything less than 192kpbs.
-RW
Even worse! (Score:3, Interesting)
Load of marketing BS? (Score:5, Insightful)
So the reality of this is...
It's a CD that can only hold maybe 3/4 the amount of music CD's were designed to hold, and anything you want to snatch from the SPDIF jack on the back of your CD player can happily be recorded to... oh, say another CD (digitally, with all the original bits intact save for jitter), or Minidisc, or MP3 player, or whatever.
And when you play it on your PC, you can hold down the Shift key as you close the CD drawer to prevent Windows' Autoplay feature... Oh, wait, that is *if* you use Windows,
Now, more importantly. Labelling. Am I being *told* that I'm buying a CD that breaks my "God given right to steal music?"
Right.... Another half-assed attempt. If the music industry wanted to put some *real* effort in this, they'd simply work encryption (better than CSS!) into SACD's, and Sony would flood the market with cheap SACD players and re-release their whole catalogue on SACD, then stop pressing CDs.
Or, of course, they could price CDs reasonably so we'd go out and buy shitloads more, regardless of the fact that there's only one track half-worth listening to amongst all the made-for-radio/lowest-common-denominator garbage.
mindslip.
Whitmore quote: (Score:5, Insightful)
Why can't they just stop trying so hard to piss people off. If they'd stop trying to teach people, perhaps fewer prospective customers, like myself, would run, crying bloody murder.
I don't care to steal music-I've got the music I want (or if I want something new, I buy it/download it from iTMS). However, once I own it, I want to be able to listen to it on my terms. Why would I purchase music if I'm not getting anything better/more convenient and have to buy new equipment to listen to the music besides.
Why... why... why? (Score:5, Interesting)
So I have to download it (usually via IRC) and store a copy on my computer at work just so I can conveniently listen to a CD I bought... I wonder how much this brings up the RIAA's numbers of illegally downloaded songs... for instance if I didn't know all that much about computers and I was downloading songs I legitimately should be able to make MP3's out of and now Kazaa downloads them into a shared folder... well now the RIAA has 10-15 tracks more that they can claim are being widespread because I just wanted to listen to music I had given them money for.
OS X mounts both images (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:OS X mounts both images (Score:3, Informative)
Not to sound like a pro-Mac weenie (although I am), but this is yet another reason why my primary choice of operating systems for day-to-day use at home is Mac OS X. Then again, I suspect that the primary goal of the "copy protection" on this CD was to lock out the majority of music pirates, who run MS Windows. I doubt that the major labels care that Linux and OS X users can rip the audio tracks by mounting the Red Book session directly.
It's not a "CD" (Score:3, Redundant)
Roadblock (Score:4, Funny)
Turn of auto run! (Score:3, Interesting)
Screw these crippled "CDs" (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, these bastards now are using this area of the CD to make it un-rippable. And at the same time, they make it much less resiliant. In other words, they are selling CRAP which will have to be thrown away much sooner. The saddest thing is, 99% of the people will just go on and buy more CDs because of this. Yeah, maybe some of them will comment that "I htought CDs lasted longer, in the past", and will be promptly ridiculed by some smartass with "sure, and LPs were even better than that, riiight...".
And once again, the ignorant and meek consumer is lead like sheep to the slaughter.
I believe the basic premise is sound (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Modifying the way the CD works will make it unplayable in certain players
2) Some people don't use WMA, either because they can't, or because they refuse.
3) The general "RIAA" sucks comments.
4) Other issues I didn't notice, cuz I'm too slow and lazy to list them all.
However, I didn't see anything come up that really pointed to whether this idea was sound in general. i.e. They're trying SOMETHING other than just suing the crap out of their customers, it appears that they're trying to both appease the consumer AND keep their margins up. After all, they ARE allowing personal copying and use, including sending a free copy to your friends for ten days. I'm sure the intention was NOT to make it not work on certain players or regions.
In my humble opinion, this seems like a step in the right direction. Now, that doesn't mean they should not continue to take further baby steps, and try harder to really get at what their consumers want, which is very low cost single track downloadable and convertable music in an easy to find manner.
Anyone else feel the same way? I'm not looking for flames here, and if what I said was inflammatory to you, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to point out my differing opinion from the majority of slashdot readers.
The sad thing is... (Score:4, Funny)
Where are their heads? (Score:3, Interesting)
Support artists/industry that supports you.. (Score:3, Interesting)
But this isn't really that big a deal, because you can just type your way down to:
mp3.com [mp3.com]
or
emusic.com [emusic.com]
or
umbrellamusic.com [umbrellamusic.com]
or
listen.com [listen.com]
or
mp3it.com [mp3it.com]
or
iuma.com [iuma.com]
or
grageband.com [garageband.com]
or
besonic.com [besonic.com]
or
zebox.com [zebox.com]
And it just keeps getting bigger and better out there. Really the only thing that needs to happen is we need to get comfortable with buying online artists. Maybe Rolling Stone will do an online section? *shrug*
Violates spec -- return as defective (Score:3, Informative)
If you buy a CD and discover some sort of idiotic copy protection on it, return it to your vendor as DEFECTIVE. If the product claims to be an Audio CD and has copy protection in the form of encryption, unreadable tracks, etc. it is violating the specification and is defective.
Either that, or false advertising. Either way it's grounds for making a complaint and getting your money back (I have done this at Future Shop, had to see the Manager).
Re:well, somebody is gonna say it.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This won't stop anyone (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, you could plug it into your tape deck and record to cassette tapes. Or to your VCR and tape it on VHS. Don't know why you'd want to, but it's plenty easy.
When given the choice of buying a CD, or screwing over the bastard record companies who pull crap like this...I'm
Re:Where's the crack? (Score:5, Funny)
The record execs have smoked it all.
Or... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Linux version... (Score:3, Informative)
This being Slashdot, I guess your post was modded up because it mentions Linux. Otherwise, it's an engineering shame.
Re:Hmm.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I would agree with this statement if the same content was available via alternative delivery mechanisms. It's one thing to impose a copy protection scheme on a particular method of content delivery, but it's quite another to do so when that's the only method of content delivery that's available.
Some on this thread have advocated just not buying the CD, but if I happen to really like the artist I have no alternative avenue for purchasing the content.
For me, the conflict is that the companies that have the interest in the content are the same as the ones doing the distribution. I'm all for record companies and artists making money, but I don't think they should be involved in the actual distribution of their product. When was the last time you walked up to a corner convenience store that was owned by the Coca Cola Company? Never. The content and the delivery are two distinct things, and it gets very messy and much more expensive for a single company to do both.
I think all the flap over copyright we've seen over the past few years would be solved if the record companies focused on the talent side of things -- acquiring, producing and recording artists and songs.
Once they have a finished product (albums and singles), they license the content to distribution companies who are free to distribute the albums and singles as they see fit. Some may choose to put the content on a CD and impose a copy protection scheme, and some may choose to make it available via digital download (perhaps with a different copy protection scheme in place).
The difference here is that the record companies have gone out of the distrubution business. Can you imagine going into your favorite record store and seeing the same CD but distributed from three or four different companies?
It's all about competition. The record companies don't care because they are earning a cut each time the song is distributed, no matter what form that distribution takes. The distribution companies want the markup on the actual sales of the disk, so they'll compete with each other to drive the price down so they can earn a piece of the sales.
I think this is a win-win situation for everyone involved, and perhaps on-balance will be about the same revenue stream for the record companies. Sure, they're giving up the sales of the CDs, but their content will be available in more venues.
The bottom line question: Is the content good enough to stand on its own, or is the real money where the sales are? Either way, let's turn the RIAA lawyers loose on coming up with a pen-and-paper content distribution model that allows the free market to operate. It'd be the first time this was done on pure content and not on actual physical products, but I think the model would hold quite well.
-anacron