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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Jul 18th 2001 2:20pm





Copy Protected CDs Showing Up In Stores

from the are-the-music-labels-winning? dept

Apparently a number of "secret" tests are going on where special copy-protected music CDs are being sold in stores. No one will say which CDs these tests are being run with, but if you try to make an MP3 they claim that it will add "annoying" clicks and popping noises to the recording. The article points out that while it's not illegal to make a personal copy of music - there's no reason why record companies have to make it easy to do. So, this is all perfectly legal. It's also quite annoying. I always think it's a questionable business decision when you find the need to annoy your customers.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Two Thoughts...

    identicon
    Ed, Jul 18th, 2001 @ 2:59pm

    1) This sounds like an idea I had a long time ago -- add to a CD some small signal that's otherwise inaudible but that screws up the assumptions made by MP3 encoders, resulting in poor encoding. If there's actually a signal that will meet that criteria, it will only work until newer encoders come out that compensate for it. (Perhaps that capability would be illegal under the DMCA, but it could be the side-effect of some other audio processing, just like Macrovision VHS tape protection can be removed by devices that purport to do something else.)

    2) If instead, this copy-protection scheme produces a CD that's not really compliant with the red book specs, yet still displays the "Compact Disc: Digital Audio" logo, wouldn't consumers have some kind of recourse?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Does it matter?

    identicon
    Gray Powell, Jul 18th, 2001 @ 4:08pm

    I don't even think it really matters. Think about the dvd encryption scheme. Took what, like 4 years to write it, not just anyone writing, I'm sure they had some of the best working on it. And it was broken days after it was released, and if I recall, it was by like a 14 year old. Also take for example WMA audio files. They were supposed to be secure, and god knows microsoft worked on that standard. Again that was broken in no time. Now a days, it seems that anything written can be cracked, especially these standards that big companies put up. The underground will always be steps ahead of anything almost any company can put out, so this new form of "adding hisses and pops" doesn't bother me. Soon, There will be a page on the net listing all the cd's that contain it, and at the top will be a program to rip the tracks to your hard drive at high fidelity. Anyone else feel the way I do about this

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Good

    identicon
    Vinyl man, Jul 18th, 2001 @ 11:53pm

    Now, if they can just get CDs to sound as though were recorded in somewhere other than a cold, cave then we might get back to what most of my vinyl sounds like.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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