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Michael Jackson Releases Uncopyable CD
Derek Jeter writes "NTK.net is reporting in their weekly newsletter that another copy restricted CD has surfaced, this time Michael Jackson's newest single, "Rock Your World". "When loaded into the CD drive, the disc spun continuously as though the drive was trying to access the TOC of a blank or corrupted CDR." Ughh, Doesn't this violoate the Red Book Standard?" I wonder how long before MP3s of this song exist despite the copy protection. So far its just free promotional copies of the single. I tell ya I'm gonna be pissed the first time I buy a CD and discover I can't listen to it in my computer.
The song is already on AudioGalaxy and available for download. They just can't win. Copy protection doesn't work!
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
These guys just don't get it. All it takes is one audiophile with a decent sound system, a couple RCA cables, and an MP3 encoder. Sure it'll be an D-A-D job and you'll lose a bit of fidelity on the initial copy, but once that's done, it'll be perfectly preserved, copy after copy after copy after copy.
Copy-protected music just doesn't work, because until we all start carrying around implants in our heads, the data *must* be converted to analog sound, and when that happens, the copy protection convieniently goes away.
... he's been releasing unlistenable CDs for years.
I think we need to ask ourselves if the record companies truly don't realize this. My guess is that they understand that copy protecting the CD in this manner won't stop the MP3 from being made Anyone can make an ok mp3 with their normal stereo and a microphone wired to their computer. So what we really need to ask is why the record companies are releasing CD's in this manner.
I believe it is to stop legitimate music owners from making MixCD's and from copying the CD directly. It's obvious that finding and downloading MP3 adds extra steps to the piracy (or backup) process - making redistributing a CD on a real medium (such as CDR) that much more difficult. In fact, if I bought a whole "protected" CD, I would never burn copies for my friends - because it would take fair amount or time and dedication to download *each* track from the CD in *good
So the record companies have likely succeeded in their task of making music piracy (or backups) slightly more complicated for the legitimate CD owner.
Of course, those people who don't buy the CD in the first place, i.e. the habitual music pirate, will not have a more difficult task than they already have with unprotected music, because the music will make it to MP3 format, and fault tolerant CDROM's already exist...
Remember when businesses found out that ripping customers off was more profitable?
The blames lies at least partially with us, for acting like cattle and continuing to support these things. We still buy Nikes, we still use Microsoft, and (some of us, I would imagine) still listen to Michael Jackson.
Got Rhinos?
Michael Jackson is such a prime example of someone who just needs to pack it in and stay at home.
This seems like a marketing tactic to me. You think that Jackson is smart enough to trick all us geeks into buying his CD just to try to crack it?
...but where on the CD case does it say that it conforms? As a matter of curiosity, does this CD actually have the "Compact Disc--Digital Audio" logo on it? Even if it does, does this mean that it complies with the standard--or does it mean only that it will play on players that comply with the standard?
I used to wonder about the companies that broadcast scrambled pay-content over regular television broadcast channels. Weren't THEY violating FCC standards by transmitting a non-NTSC-compliant signal? Didn't seem to matter...
As for PC vendors, they've been playing fast and loose with standards for ages. I remember first getting into this with people that kept insisting (incorrectly) that the Apple ][ generated NTSC video. Apple in fact had a carefully worded but misleading statement that said something like "the video is designed to be viewed on monitors that comply with the NTSC standard." That is, the signal was (way) outside the NTSC standard, but the NTSC standard for MONITORS requires them to be very tolerant...
I keep hearing horror stories from DVD enthusiasts. Apparently, in this year of our Lord 2001, it's not at all rare to find DVD X that plays in player A but not player B... and DVD Y that plays in player B but not player A. Not because of copy-protection or anything like that. Just because of bad standards, lame engineering, and NO watchdogs.
You know the sort of thing... the standard may say you can do thus-and-such, but very few DVD's actually do it, so lots of DVD players can get away with not implementing it quite right...
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Nasty copy protection on C64 games often made it impossible to back up the flakey 5 1/4 disks they came on. That is, unless you went to your local pirate BBS and got yourself a copy of the latest patch. Those who did this enjoyed their games as long as they liked. Those who did not were stuck whining when their favorite game ate it after being shoved into and pulled out of the 1541 drive too many times.
The same applies today with music. I was listening to one of my VNV Nation CD backups the other day, and it started skipping. This happened to be a limited edition- it would have been very hard to replace had that been the real CD I'd bought all scratched up and skipping like that. But I was able to go home and make another, then toss out the busted one. Good stuff!
I protect my investment. My CD investment is quite substantial- over 250 CDs last time I checked... and all the ones that get real use from me get burned to copies. I wouldn't shed a tear if my CD case fell off a boat or got lost or whatever while I travel these days, since it's all burned backups. I wonder how people will get by in the future?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
So far its just free promotional copies of the single.
Record Company: This new copy protection method will ensure that nobody is getting a "free ride" with the new Michael Jackson single.
Person with common sense: Aren't you giving away the single for free anyways?
Record Compnay: Ummmmmmm....
Stupid Cheap Guitars
>gold can conduct electricity better than copper.
:)
That is wrong. Gold conducts worse than copper. No matter what any idiot at Circuit City tells you, you cannot defeat physics. The only metal I know of that actually does conduct better than copper is silver.
If you want the _most_ ultimate cable, it will be made of silver. Too bad most audiophiles think $100 OFC cables are better, because they're wrong. Of course, because they are uninformed of the conductivity of metals, and because the people selling the cables are also mis-informed, you don't see Silver cables too often.
Anyways, the connectors are gold plated because gold doesn't corrode. They actually cause more sound degradation than you would get if you soldered some coax straight to the audio connectors on the device.
If the connectors are pure gold, you have a very crappy cable indeed.
>Quality ground braids are essential near a computer.
Yup. So make your own cable. You want the best?
Buy some bulk RG-6 satellilte TV cable. Get some RCA plugs (I suggest gold plated because you don't want corrosion!). Solder. The 75 Ohm impedance of RG-6 cable is perfectly compatible with audio cable.
Now you have the very best audio cable ever made.
Total cost: $0.20/ft for the cable, $6 total for the four connectors.
BTW: I use $2 el-cheapo cables because I don't have them near the computer, and because a 20 khz signal doesn't warrant anything better. YMMV.
Oh, and I use unsheilded cable for my computer's audio out (it's digital SPDIF out so it either works, works intermittently, or doesn't work at all. It sounds fine, but cuts out for a moment whenever the furnace turns on. Damn thing virtually outputs a mini EMP,).
I do, however, use RG-6 cable for the TV. When you start getting into Mhz, you must have better cable.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC