Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Copy protection sucks ass.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:40 / 02.07.04

Well, I can quite understand why record companies would want to make their stuff harder to copy. But oh! the irony when I buy, say, the new Cure album, only to discover IT WON'T PLAY ON PCs (oh yeah, it's got all manner of new goodies for PC users, but that's not really what I was paying for), which is where I listen to music a lot of the time.

MEANING I have to circumvent the copy protection in order to pirate MYSELF a copy of an album I've already bought just so I can listen to it on my computer. How fucking stupid is that?

Anyone else got any thoughts on this? There must be a different way of doing it that doesn't alienate your customers... surely?

at the scarwash

19:01 / 02.07.04

I personally like to rip all of my cds to mp3 so that I don't leave them out and scratch them nearly so often. When I buy a copy protected cd, it seems to violate my right as a consumer to make any copies I want of the purchased record for my own personal use, which, as far as I know, is still legal.

TeN

19:34 / 02.07.04

yeah, that whole copy-protection thing actually violates fair use laws, and so is technically illegal. but with RIAA and congress all "look music pirates! kill them! kill them!" I don't think anyone gives a shit about the laws.

rizla mission

22:31 / 02.07.04

The couple of times I've encountered this have annoyed the shit out of me.

One worse though, I hear a rumour that the new Beastie Boys album has a thingy on it so that if you play it on your computer it secretly installs software to fuck with every subsequent CD you try to copy on your computer..

how bad is that?

Hmm.. isn't making something unplayable on PCs actually an infringement of the definition in legal terms of "CD". So, if they do this, one can demand a refund on the grounds that it was advertised as a CD and used the CD logo when in fact it was another form of data storage entirely, as evinced by the fact that it will not play on your PC? Will try to refresh my memory on this one...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:20 / 03.07.04

Yeah, I heard something like that... apparently they no longer conform to the Blue/Red/Beige/whateverthefuckcolour it is Book standard defining them as CDs.

nedrichards is confused

16:03 / 03.07.04

CDs with copy protection on don't have the official Phillips CD logo on the back that I'm sure we've all come to know and love. Look for it, love it.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:37 / 15.03.06

Last year the big news was Sony sneaking spyware onto customers computers without their knowledge or consent. Highlighted by BoingBoing amongst other places Sony have been castigated. However, 'Sony BMG won't be held accountable for its dangerous DRM if music fans don't have an easy way to learn about the flawed software, the settlement, and how to submit claims'. More info here.

robertk

09:09 / 15.03.06

The other day I discovered that the most recent Gorillaz album's copy protection doesn't even allow it to be copied to MD! That was one unpleasant surprise, I don't know, it's as if someone prohibited putting songs on tape or something.

And also - the newest System Of A Down - how ironic (and moronic) is that?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:13 / 15.03.06

I'd be surprised if that turns out to be true. There were similar suggestions doing the rounds wrt copy protection on PC games a couple of years back, but the legality of fucking somebody's system up (along with the very real possibility that entirely legal versions of the software would incorrectly identify as copies) soon scuppered them.

I kind of wished you were right... with Sony and the whole StarForce debacle in gaming, it would appear that either you weren't or the goalposts have moved (I'm inclined to the latter).

Sniv

12:52 / 15.03.06

The thing is though, anything that can be listened to or watched can somehow be copied digitally. If it's camming a film, or having a mic next to a speaker, people on the internet will alwaysalwaysalways beat the copy protection, without fail.

I copy all of my CDs to MD (I'm part of the tiny pre-iPod, post CD generation, lol) and like most users here, I've been super-pissed when I can't copy something. It's never an actual problem though, as most albums are available through bittorrent anyway, so I'll download if I can't copy.

I think it shows a lack of respect for consumers that these measures are spreading and becoming more common. It seems espcially odd becuase lots of people use their PCs as an entertainment centre in itself, using it as a hi-fi or DVD/TV. To make CDs unplayable on computers seems to be counter-intuitive, to say the least.

matthew.

15:35 / 15.03.06

I've never had a problem with copy protection. Most copy-protected CDs I have encountered have played and copied just fine in my computer. I had a problem with one CD, so I did a little googling. These are the highlights of my search from a couple months ago.

This is a guide to circumventing the copy-protection.

Here is another guide to circumvention. [and the most helpful guide I've found]

This is an academic paper evaluating the efficiency of copy protection (warning: .pdf)

A very interesting and angry anti-copy control website that collates all the necessary information.

Add Your Reply