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NSync Copy Protected CD
admiral2001 writes "This article from NewScientist.com details the most mass market venture into copy protected CDs. Namely, NSync's new CD will be released in a least 3 different versions (with different copy protection techniques). Also, one of the types has (small) labelling saying that the CD cannot be played on computers."
The thing is, this is probably just a sample. The thing to look out for is all the 14 year old girls who never play their CDs in their computers but the CD player their parents bought them for their birthday.
It'll look like a tremendous success. "Oh look! No one cares that this CD came out unsupported on computers, lets mass market!".
Next, you'll have your favorite RIAA-signed musician being forced into the same distribution plan..
Now, go talk to your little sister about how she's going to have to go with out her poppy boy band shit for a while.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
It just dawned on me, even tho its more than blatent: I cant make copies of these CDs! Not for pirating, not for making MP3s (for myself only), but for the sheer fact of having backups. After losing my CD collection to theft and losing some CDs to wear/tear/scratching, I started making backups of all my cds, and only playing the backups. My plan has proved itself, cause I just had all my CDs stolen once again, but this time, aside from the $5 loss of the carrying case, and the $10 pack of 50 CD-Rs, I'll be back to playin my tunes as soon as I find time to burn.
/me hops on the bandwagon to stop this movement.
Quick.. Everybody steal a page from Scientology!
Everybody buy a copy of the CD. And then return it a few days later, complaining that it doesn't work on your computer or CD player. Go to another store, rinse, repeat.
If enough people did this a few times, all of the sudden, the return rate would be abnormally high on the CD. All of the sudden, the record industry would see this as troublesome and reconsider copy protected CDs.
Gentoo Sucks
any idea why mac users have been succesful in ripping the disc while windows users have not? other OS's could do it, maybe?
/adam
More troubling is that Vivendi Universal is converting ALL of their music released on CD to protected formats.
It is just a matter of time before everything you buy will not play on computers. You will have to rip a disc using the line-in on your soundcard from a regular CD player, break up the tracks and then MP3 them. It won't stop trading, it will slow it down.
I think what might turn this around is... If at least one large music publisher converts all their offerings to CD protection - suddenly that may affect a lot of people (who listen to music on computers) and the number of returns (lost sales) may sky rocket. Consumers may get upset and this will probably cause CD sales in total to tumble maybe an additional 5% or so. Remember that Vivendi et al. are upset because the market dropped 5% over the last year.
I can also see at least one lawsuit (perhaps class action) if they piss off enough people. And if they convert all their offerings - they will piss off a lot of people. Sign me up for the class action when it happens.
It is also worth noting that many people who don't read slashdot have cd burners now - even those not computer literate. This will surely piss them off too. Not to mention that the question "Why can't I make a mix cd from cds I bought?" will come up VERY often, and be difficult to answer.
There will be backlash if a critical mass of CDs are copy-protected. I'm really interested to see the fallout. Remember, the consumer is king... And this sort of copy protection is definately "pissing on the king's cornflakes".
At the risk of being redundant, someone needs to mod up one of the mentions about the UK version not having copy protection at all. How in the blue blazes is that supposed to prove anything at all? Here's the scenario:
I live in US, and I buy the CD. *shudder...just remember it's hypothetical* I try to rip it, I fail. I go to the p2p and download the entire CD. I then promptly burn that and distribute to all my friends who want the CD to play on their computers. I also distribute the mp3's to those who want them for their MP3 players.
This experiment will only prove how far people will go to circumvent copy protection, not how well the protection works. In a worst case scenario, the artists *shudder again* lose money because people quit buying the copy protected CDs and instead get unprotected copies from their friends.
Once again, RIAA, wrong answer. To quote Anne Robinson, you are the weakest link, goodbye.
Electronic Frontier Foundation for online civil rights information
From what it seems, there's a bit more to it than this. I would immagine that each version of the cd has a different watermark on it. They know that it is still gonna be ripped & coppied, they just want to find out which protection scheme is gonna be broken by the most people. The version with the least number of copies out there will be the format the industry settles on.
Has anyone thought about the trademark agreement? Doesn't Panasonic own the "COMPACT-DISC" trademark? I think I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that the way you are able to use this trademark is by insuring that everything with the label is playable in all players with the "COMPACT-DISC" trademark on it.
Any thoughts?
Note that Sony called this a "test."
Sony is not without its scientists. They know what a "control group" is.
Guarantee you, they will be able to distinguish among UK, US and German versions; they will be monitoring, tracking and pushing internal reports back and forth on this.
What we should hope to see is lots of rips from US and Germany, and none from the UK. Send them a message that copy-protection will only make their goods a target for the rip artistes.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
What you just explained is what most people who do not like this music, do not like about this music.
It is manufactured, easily digestible, put in a pretty little package and sold by the millions.
It is what the record companies want you to buy, it is easy for them to sell, especially when it is all over TRL.
The music is too perfect, there is no soul to it. N*sync has no emotional attachment to the songs because all they did was sing them.
Sure they look good and arguably can dance and arguably have good voices, but its manufactured, and pushed upon its audience, who buy it because all their friends are going to have it and its all over MTV and popular radio.
Its the perfect formula.
The same can be said for mainstream rap and rock, with the exception that some of them, infact, more likely most of them, actually write their own songs. It is still over produced to the point where seeing how much talent these bands don't have in concert is painful.
Now I know that all this may fail HOWEVER as a failsafe, just make sure you buy the CD using a credit card (not check card). If they refuse to give you your money back, threaten to have the bank stop the charges. That'll usually convince them to fold. If it doesn't, make good on the threat. Leave the CD in the store and walk out. Then, when you get home, call the bank that issued the credit card and ask what you need to do to block a charge. You'll probably need to write a letter explaining the charge you want blocked, and maybe attach a copy of the reciept (so make sure you have it). When you do what they bank wants, they'll stop the charge and bill the merchant. You won't be charged anything.
Believe me, it won't take a whole lot of this to put a stop to this copy protection. The mamangers of the specific stores will get all pissed off about this and raise a stink to the higher ups. It won't take too long before the root of the problem is traced back to this batch of CDs, and the recording company in question gets yelled at.
I've finished testing out the CD, and found absolutely no problems with it.
I was able to play it (cdplay) and rip it (cdparanoia) using both drives on my Linux box (an IDE CD-ROM drive and a SCSI CD-RW drive).
I also was able to play it (Windows Media Player) using both drives on my Window box (a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive, both IDE). I didn't try ripping, since I don't have any appropriate Windows software.
There were no delays in playing or ripping; cdparanoia didn't report having to do any jitter correction at all.
This CD was bought in Canada. If it is the same as the American edition, then this is some piddling protection! The New Scientist article claims that "copying using home CD recorders is variable." It would be interesting to have some reports from people with such devices.
It would also be interesting to hear from some people in Germany about the degree to which the CD is broken there.
Anyway, I'm quite disappointed -- it looks like I won't be able to buy and return this CD.