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Universal Releasing Copy Protected CDs In The U.S.
from the here-come-the-big-guys dept
Universal, who says that all of their new music releases by mid-2002 will have copy protection included, is starting this week with a followup soundtrack to "Fast & Furius". They claim that owners of the CD won't be able to make MP3s out of the music, and also warn that it won't play on Macintosh machines, DVD players or game consoles. Isn't it nice that they're now releasing music that won't work for a percentage of their customers? I won't go into the same tired arguments as to why this is a dangerously short-sighted move by the recording industry because we've been screaming it for a while and it's not doing any good. All I know is that it's moves like these that will actually make me buy less music. The fact that I can't record any CD I buy to my computer makes the music worth significantly less to me. It seems like an odd strategy to encourage your customers to buy less...
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I guess I won't buy them, then
I have a 3-disc DVD player hooked to my home theater system that I use for playing audio CD's when I have an urge to listen to music.
I guess now that I won't be able to play Universal audio CDs on my stereo, there is no point in my ever buying Universal audio CD's ever again.
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Re: I guess I won't buy them, then
Theres ONE universal album i want, the new Alien Ant Farm album,which is out next year. If its copy protected i'm gonna be pissed,(the band will be too) i can imagine Dryden Mitchell(lead singer of AAF) kicking the ass of the idiot that decided it would be coruppt.
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This could only get better
if the copy protection ruined your speakers! :)
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Re: This could only get better
Which, of course, it might.
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A lot of it is crap anyhow
A lot of what the mainstream music industry puts out is crap. It is sold more because of good marketing than good music. Go look for independants and you will find some good stuff at cheaper prices and none of this digital protection stuff.
I am buying more and more music on-line and am downloading it to disk. Then I make my own CD's. No shopping at music stores and being forced to listen to kiddy pop.
The traditional recording industy is going to find themselves "irrelevent" sooner or later.
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Re: A lot of it is crap anyhow
I have a (maybe stupid) question: How can a CD ever be copyright protected? Can't I just take the line-out connection (in the best case digital) and record the CD on my hard drive?
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Re: A lot of it is crap anyhow
>I have a (maybe stupid) question: How can a CD ever be copyright protected? Can't I just take the line-out connection (in the best case digital) and record the CD on my hard drive?< br>
I was thinking of that.
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Re: A lot of it is crap anyhow
Yes, if a CD can be played (and obviously, that's the point) it can be copied. The question though is the ability to make digital copies of it, as opposed to analog. So, this system just makes life more annoying...
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Re: A lot of it is crap anyhow
You lose a lot converting the audio to mp3 or ogg anyhow, I doubt that there would be any measurable difference between a 'perfect' digital rip and a 'near perfect' analog rip in this respect.
The next problem is that you need to tell where each track ends. You can detect the gaps with a program like "gramofile" (I'd link to it, but I'm too lazy.. search sourceforge if you really want it). Not 100% perfect, but I've ripped tapes with it and it does a pretty good job. Unless they start to record CD's with no gap between songs.
The real kicker for me is that you can't do an automatic CDDB lookup and have it name all the tracks for you. Typing them all in manually is a total pain in the ass.. Looking up the disk by title is marginally better, but if no CD drive can read it it's not going to get into CDDB in the first place.
Copy-protected CD's are for all practical purposes "factory pre-scratched". Buy a CD that's damaged to the point of being only-just-playable in most equipment? sure..
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Do they really want to stop pirates?
Sure pirates will carry on copying the music regardless, I've already seen software that will bypass the copy protection even more simply than the manner you suggest. The real target appears to be legitimate consumers, to hold them to ransom now they've invested in CD equipment for home and car (and perhaps work), and to force them to buy multiple copies of the same album to listen in each. This is the kind of behaviour you can expect when a monopoly is so powerful that they have the government in their pocket. You voted in an elected representative that doesn't listen to your concerns and so the sad alternatives are not to listen to music, to listen to music without rewarding the artist, or to open your musical tastes only to independant artists not slave to the monopoly.
Phillip.
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Re: Do they really want to stop pirates?
So this is the President's fault? Our government works by passing laws. What law could they pass to change the music business? The "music consumers must acquire good taste" law? A law against copy protection? A law stating that a record company can only have x number of artists? A law requiring record companies to guarantee CDs are copyable?
The problem lies with the *average* music consumers. They are lazy and this is what they get - same with TV - someone else tells them what to like. I doubt if the majority of CD buyers know (or care) what a copy-protected CD means.
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