CD Copy Protection Head Speaks

Vonatar sent us an interview with the guy who is running the company that designed the copy protection being used in CDs that nobody really buys, and preventing people from playing CDs in their computers and DVD players. The article also mentions the first lawsuit about the record label not providing notice on the package. Anyway check it out if you're interested. There are some interesting bits.

Comments

Re:Interesting....how does it work?

[Reality Master 101]

Based on their first CD that they tested, I think they allow you to download protected digital copies off their server, provided you have the CD. The article also mentions that you can make six copies of the music.

While I don't necessarily like this technique, I have to admit that it at least tries to recognize fair use rights.

Also, one of things the lawsuit was over was requiring registration to download the music.

Re:They admit it's not perfect

[mmacdona86]

It's not uncopyable because the song title and artist don't show up. It's uncopyable because the track directory information is unavailable (or odd-looking) to the computer so the computer does not think it is an audio CD. The question is if this can be got around in the player software or only by changing the CD-ROM firmware.

Copy protection is as much law as it is tech

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

The copy protection does make things harder, but one of its crucial features is the fact it makes fair use activities ILLEGAL.

From the article: "Peter Jacobs faces a daunting challenge: convincing millions of music fans that he's not a policeman."

And when asked about if someone bypasses the "protection" scheme:

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits users from circumventing copy protection. It's now a crime in America to do that."

And he says he's not a cop, but his technology now means the cops and courts can come after you for doing what used to be legal. They take away our rights using technology, we try to take them back, again using technology, and we are punished by the gov't! If they are allowed to use technology to stop us, we should be allowed to use technology to protect our rights.

Remember, connecting an digital out to a digital in will circumvent the protection, but it won't circumvent the statuatory damages ($250 - $2000, no proof of you profiting or them being harmed is required - they ask for it and the court grants it), it won't circumvent "actual damages" (whatever Judge Kaplan and similar thinking judges want to steal from you and give to the RIAA) and it won't circumvent you being locked in a cage for 5 years of your life.

Another problem

[ethereal]

See this article: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-7320279-0.htm l

At least in some cases, the tracks are WMA. So even this level of so-called fair use is not available for non-Windows users. I don't know if the guy being interviewed above is part of the WMA-using company or not.