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When Copy Protection Fails

Posted by timothy on from the nothing-can-go-wrong dept.

StArSkY writes "The Age in Australia has an article today explaining the experiences of a Melbourne guy who purchased the Norah Jones CD tht is 'copy protected.' Unfortunately the only way he could listen to the CD on Apple computers or Intel computers running XP was to copy the CD. This sort of defeats the purpose of the copy protection in the first place. Serious yet amusing at the same time."

5 of 416 comments (clear)

  1. How did he copy it? by coday · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If all the machines he tried the CD on did not recognize, load or play it how did he manage to make a copy?

  2. Same with software by Ryu2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My Warcraft III EULA (and I'm sure others -- that was just a random selection from my game collection) explicitly states that I have the right to make one backup copy.

    Well, guess what -- that disc is copy protected. So, in order to excercise my authorized right under the EULA, I have to defeat the copy protection...

    --
    There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
  3. Re:He copied a cd? by Fulkkari · · Score: 5, Interesting

    AFAIK in Finland you are even allowed to share your own legal music with your friends/family. As you can imagine, because of the p2p networks there have been serious discussion in who really is your friend (eg. the guy living in the States that you have never seen, but you know him by IRC, is he your friend?). It will be interesting to see how things will end up.

    --
    I demand the Cone of Silence!
  4. Boycott, with a twist by Looke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of course, we should boycott artists and record companies that use copy protection (playback protection?). But we should do it in a way that causes the most inconvenience for the stores and record companies:

    • Buy the record as usual. Keep the receipt.
    • Return the record the next day, claiming that it doesn't work. Get a second disc, "just to see if that works".
    • Return the second one as well, and claim a refund. Say that you've found out that the copy protection interferes with your CD players. You don't have to mention computers or copying, just say that it doesn't work.
    • Make sure the record store notifies the record company instead of just putting the record back on the shelf.

    The store is obliged to pay the refund when the product doesn't work. A "copy protected" disc is not a CD, even if it's (misleadingly) sold as one.

    I heard that the latest, copy protected, Robin Williams album was sold in more than 100.000 copies in my country. No more than 10 discs were returned. Let's make that number higher!

  5. Re:Australian Copyright Law by Large+Green+Mallard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Surprisingly few australians can trace their heritage back to original convicts. I know the closest I got was some Irish relatives who came here in 1830.

    Living in a country founded by criminals is a lot more fun that one founded by puritans ;)