Copy-Protected CDs Going Mainstream

bmarklein writes "According to this CNET article, Arista is going to start shipping copy-protected CDs in volume. Looks like the discs will include DRM'd Windows Media files in the second session. No mention of which titles will be affected, but Arista is the home of Santana, Whitney Houston, Pink, TLC and Kenny G."

Comments

Fat Chuck's Corrupt CD List

[willpost]

Here's one:
http://fatchucks.com/index.html

I'll post more lists if I find any.

Too late, its already happened.

[Coventry]

I hold in my hand a 'CD' by Fischerspooner (an odd but entertaining band). Like most wide rlease cds, the back of the jewel case has many logos. Things to note:

The 'Compact Disc' logo we've come to expect is missing.
A 'enhanced CD' logo is present.
Reading the fine print, this Capitol Records release (released on march the 6th) says:

"Enhanced CD" is a certification mark of the RIAA

Need I mention that this CD cannot be burned in any of my machines? Ripping to mp3s is only possible via the line-in jack, and has horrible quality (compared with ripping from my cd-rom, that is).
This is not a santanna album, its from a much smaller, newer act. The RIAA has made more headway with promoting thier agenda then this article seems to imply: These CDs are already on the market, and have been since the begining of the month, at the least.

Please note: The RIAA site has the definition of the 'enchanced CD" 'standard' available here. The standard does not require any form of watermarking of copyright protection. However, as a copy-protected cd is technically NOT compliant with the original philips specifications, I find it very suspect that the RIAA made thier own standard. Especially since this standard serves no purpose other than to replace the ageing 'Compact Disc' logo.

How to record from the other input

[yerricde]

How do you record the AUX IN port?

I assume that like 90+% of the population, you're using Microsoft Windows, so I'll give instructions that apply to Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

Step 1: Open the mixer. If there is a little speaker icon in your tray (the tray is the part of the taskbar next to the clock), double-click it. Otherwise, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Volume Control.

Step 2: Show the mixer's recording panel. Options > Properties and then Adjust playback for > Recording. Click OK.

Step 3: Choose the line input. Normally, the check box under "Mic Volume" is selected. Select the check box under "Line In". (Microsoft made a user interface design faux pas here by drawing the input selections as square checkboxes, which normally represent individual on/off settings, rather than as round radio buttons, which represent choose one of many.)

Step 4: Set levels. Open your recording program, record a relatively loud segment of the analog source, and tweak the levels so that the peaks don't make a harsh digital clipping noise on playback.

Step 5: Record. For this, you should use a program that records to disk such as Cool Edit or Sound Forge. Read the fine manual.

Step 6: Cleanup. Here, you are remastering the audio back into a digital format. Apply noise reduction and equalization filters until the audio in your computer sounds just as good as or better than the CD does.

Step 7: Compress. For MP3, use lame --alt-preset standard. For Ogg Vorbis, put the quality setting at 5 or 6.

Re:Out of feet but plenty of bullets left!

[EinarH]

First, I do agree on 95% on your opinion about copy-protection on CD's. But..

1. lots of people bitching and returning disks because they won't play in there car player or on their DVD.

Sorry but that won't happen.
Most people, the average Joe user simply dont care. They dont give a shit as long as they can play their cds on the cdplayer. For their sake the RIAA companies could start putting programs that invade their privacy and monitor their behavior. RIAA-companies could start filling their CD's with annoying pop-up ads or force them to use a dubious DRM-scheme.
And 95% of the cd-buying population would ignore it and still continue buying cd's.
The thing most people care about is price and availability.

A friend of mine who work part-time in a large record store (city with 300k population) told me that after they started sellinng cd's with copy-protection last summer the total number of returned CD's was totaling.......*silence waiting for the numbers*...... "somewhere between 25 and 50".
And they are selling something like 1000-1500 cs's a day (open 7 days a week). Go figure.

"Compact Disc"

[Captain Beefheart]

As I understand it, the term "compact disc" belongs exclusively to Philips. They think this copy protection, in its current iteration at least, is a crock, and they refuse to let anyone making "enhanced" discs used the CD term or logo. So look for the logo when you make your next purchase. If it ain't there, you'll know the disc is locked down. This gives you the opportunity to vote with your wallet (or with your internet connection, depending on where you stand on piracy).

Where the apps are...

[mekkab]

plenty of shareware and freeware on the net for simple recording. In fact, Hit squad shareware music machine is a wealth of shareware/freeware/crippled demoware to get you started.

wait! I almost forgot! PRO TOOLS FREE! Yep, what the professionals use, just with slightly less bells and whistles. Get your head around this, and you've got jobs waiting for you in recording studios.

Re:Step 5: Record.

[Technician]

Save your bucks. Use the free CD ripper CDeX. You probably already have it. After recording, it'll even compress it to your desired format for you. It does a great job recording. Look under Tools, Record. I discovered this when I thought I had a junk soundcard after using MS sound recorder. (much worse than a very cheap tape recorder) Suprise, the sound card was actualy able to record some decent sound. I've been using it to transfer my old stuff (LP's and pre recorded tapes). I wished I had this earlier to backup this stuff before it degraded as much as it has.