Slashdot Mirror
Newest Audio CD DRM Proves Ineffective
The Importance of writes "As noted previously, a couple of weeks ago BMG released a new CD by Anthony Hamilton that included DRM. Slashdot readers speculated that the system wouldn't work. Now there is a report proving it doesn't work by Alex Halderman, a graduate student at Princeton's computer science department and the author of an earlier, definitive report (PDF, HTML version) on first generation CD copy protection. Famed computer scientist Ed Felten asks: "Is this the end of the road for CD copy protection?" His answer? "It ought to be.""
Start with a Windows 2000/XP system with empty CD drives. Be sure to reboot the computer first to ensure MediaMax is not running.
1. Click the Start button and select Control Panel from the Start Menu.
2. Double-click on the System control panel icon.
3. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
4. Configure Device Manager by clicking "Show hidden devices" and "Devices by connection," both from the View menu.
5. Insert the Anthony Hamilton CD into the computer and allow the SunnComm software to start. Observe that the SbcpHid device driver is added to the Device Manager list when MediaMax runs for the first time.
At this point you can attempt to copy tracks from the CD with applications like MusicMatch Jukebox or Windows Media Player. Copies made while the driver is active will sound badly garbled, as in this 9-second clip [10].
Next, follow these additional steps to disable MediaMax:
1. Select the SbcpHid driver from the Device Manager list and click "Properties" from the Action Menu.
2. Click the Driver tab and click the Stop button to disable the driver.
With the driver stopped, you can verify that the same applications copy every track successfully.
And oh, yeah, this work is a blatant DMCA violation.
If you can read it, you can copy it.
As long as I have an audio-in port on my sound card and an external player, drm is a waste of their time and money.
"Is this the end of the road for CD copy protection?" His answer? "It ought to be.""
Yeah and 64k should be enough for anyone.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Great. There's even more "open statements" about the security being bunk. This will only make them work harder at it.
Geeze, as if my tin-foil hat wasn't think enough as it is.
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Who wants to make a little bet?
I have $10 on him being contacted by RIAA lawyers with DMCA references by the end of the day. Any takers?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
they never saw *that* coming did they?
sheesh..
It is amazing that anyone was even worried about this..
however, if microsoft gets in the bios and disables the shift key... "they don't need a shift key" you can bluescreen on boot and probably get around it by pressing the windows key.
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Now there is a report proving it doesn't work
No doubt written with a Sharpie pen.
I hope we see more DRM like this. Who would have thought turning off autorun would be a DMCA violation?
It made Hamilton famous didnt it?, so the scam works. Even though I still dont know who he is or would never buy his CD's ever.
We better all watch out - our shift keys are quickly becoming a means to thwarting an access control device. Using them is flirting with arrest!
Apparently this text is on the back of the CD:
THIS CD IS ENHANCED WITH MEDIAMAX SOFTWARE
Enhanced! Since when does taking functionality away from something mean you're enhancing it?
-- Dr. Eldarion --
No audio CD should be installing *ANYTHING* on my PC, unless I'm aware of it at first.
"Is this the end of the road for CD copy protection?" The industry is stupid, greedy and desperate. I'm going with 'no'.
Computers running Linux or Mac OS 9 can't run the MediaMax software at all, so they can always copy the recording
The DRM feature works in tandemw ith the DMCA. Alex Halderman can expect to find himself relocated to a federal prison soon. I bet that he won't be writing about the weakness of DRM systems anymore.
See, DRM does work when you make it illegal to point out where it is weak.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
You don't have to do all the stuff the article lists, just hold down the left shift key when the disk load. Then, do not double click the drive at all, or it will also autorun (if you want to take a peek, use "Explore"). It also sounds like there's no protection at all in Linux.
Anyone who listens to Anthony Hamilton should be shot.
I really like the cover; Mr Thug with 20lbs of gold.
If you try to do DRM on a Compact Disc, it is never going to work.
If you ever think you succeeded, you've failed anyway because you violated the standards that define a Compact Disc... you've got a CD-like piece of plastic that just might play in some CD players, but you will not have a CD.
Shift key
Disable device driver
Show hidden devices
blah blah blah
So they rely on the autorun setting on cd's to load the device driver for them? that's pretty stupid -- on windows it's enabled by default (typical) but most companies disable it because it's a security risk.
The Mac got hit pretty hard with an autorun virus that ended up shipping on many cd's. As a result many Mac users disabled this in OS 9, and I believe OS X has it disabled by default.
This might be effective on most windows home computers whose owners don't change the default setting, but I'm wondering how long before that driver gets infected with a virus....
BMG are geniuses (genii? :P)
Follow this pseudo-proof
Step 1: Release a CD by Anthony Hamilton
Step 2: Put new copy protection on it
Step 3: Nobody copies the cd "illegally"
Step 4: QED. The copy protection works
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
It loads a custom device driver via 'autorun' when you stick the CD in.
So if you hold shift, disable autorun, or run an OS that doesn't do autorun, the CD might as well have no copy protection whatsoever.
This is about as effective as putting a sticker on the front that says 'Pretty please do not attempt to extract data from this CD on your computer'.
I wonder how much money this company got for their incredibly secure DRM system...
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
i used to work for a company where they would limit internet access by hiding the address bar in IE. it proved about as effective as this seems.
!(^((ri)|(mp))aa$)
I guess the DRM crowd must be cheering.. but really its just a matter of time before their little tricks get that much harder to circumvent.. especially if the computer hardware is built for DRM.
What should be alarming is that these repetitive, albeit pointless efforts, are slowly making DRM a reality.
Seize Him!
Felten asks: "Is this the end of the road for CD copy protection?"
Silence The Subversive!
--
Power to the Peaceful
I hereby grant everyone the right to copy this posting freely.
beep bop bo be bee bop beep (Me calling her at work)
Me:"Hi sweetie, do you know who Anthony Hamilton is?"
her:"Am I supposed to know?"
me:"Nah just checking"
So why would this no name loser worry about DRM? Heck, I wouldn't even know his name if it wasn't for my primary news source (slash) Maybe if he offered a few songs for free via MP3 i'd be inclined to waste some bandwidth downloading his music.
Oh plug here.. I'm working with the grandson of Duke Ellington on his website, he offers free MP3 samples of his music (reg req)
click here
If the grandson of one of America's greatest musicians can get with the program, why can't all these big wigs at BMI do the same?All you have to do is own a tape/cd/etc audio recorder that has a "line in", and voila, take the line out/speaker out from your computer, run a cable, and presto! you can defeat any drm package for a currently existing computer, unless the computer is hard-wired to not have "line out" or "speaker out" (not likely)
stuff |
drm in this context stands for "disgustingly ridiculous music"
1.2. Your rights to use the Digital Content are conditioned on your ownership of a license to use and possession of the original Compact Disc (CD) media and are terminated in the event you no longer own or possess the original CD media. (This apparently prohibits using copied tracks as backups in case the original disc is lost, stolen, or destroyed.)
So if the CD fails to remain usable through normal wear and tear, does that put the publisher in breach of contract? They've effectively granted me a license that they are going to renege on should the physical media degrade.
They've got to make up their minds! Is it a physical good, or a digital good? Did I buy a license and the CD was just a nice way for them to fulfill their promise that I'm licensed to use the content? Did I buy a plastic disc (for $15) which I'm free to do with as I please?
$8.95/mo web hosting
1. INTRODUCTION
Several recent news reports (AFP [1], Washington Post [2], USA Today [3], AP [4], Arizona Republic [5], LA Times [6], CNet News [7]) describe a new copy-prevention method that has been applied to an album by Anthony Hamilton released by BMG on September 23. This system, called MediaMax CD3, was created by SunnComm Technologies, the producers of the first-generation copy-prevention system MediaCloQ. Discs manufactured with SunnComm's new technique include two versions of the music, each protected in a different way. One set of songs are CD audio tracks that play in standard CD players but are supposed to be difficult for computers to copy. The second set are compressed, encrypted Windows Media files that employ digital rights management (DRM) to restrict how they are used. Music producers hope that the combination of these technologies will help reduce illegal copying while still allowing legitimate customers to play songs on their PCs, but this can only be achieved if both components are secure.
In this report, I explain how MediaMax functions, analyze the weaknesses of its design, and discuss its implications for the debate about CD copy protection and the problem of copyright infringement. I find that although SunnComm has gone to great lengths to respond to criticisms of earlier systems, MediaMax still prohibits many uses of the recording that are allowed under law. At the same time, the system's protections are so weak that they are unlikely to cause any significant reduction in copying.
2. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
I bought the recording Comin' From Where I'm From by Anthony Hamilton (Arista Records/BMG) from Amazon.com and received it on September 25. The disc contains twelve tracks for approximately 52 minutes of listening time.
The album cover has a sticker with this message:
This CD is protected against unauthorized duplication. It is designed to play on standard playback devices and an appropriately configured computer (see system requirements on back). If you have questions or concerns visit www.sunncomm.com/support/bmg.
The hyperlink points to a FAQ that explains that the audio tracks are protected against copying and provides solutions for common problems accessing the disc's DRM-controlled content.
The following text is printed at the bottom of the back cover:
THIS CD IS ENHANCED WITH MEDIAMAX SOFTWARE. Windows Compatible Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Software will automatically install. If it doesn't, click on "LaunchCd.exe." MacOS Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Click on "Start." Usage of the CD on your computer requires your acceptance of the End User License Agreement and installation of specific software contained on the CD. Windows System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, Windows Media Player 7.1 or compatible player. Mac System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.1, Power Mac G3/G4, iMac, eMac, Powerbook G3/G4, iBook with 128 Mb of RAM, Windows Media Player for Mac OSX, Internet Explorer 5.2, Monitor capable of displaying 800x600 screen resolution & 256 colors (64K colors recommended), 12x or faster multi-session-enabled CD-ROM drive, Flash Player 6. Digital files on this CD will also play on portable devices supporting secure WMA files. Certain computers may not be able to access the enhanced portion of this disc. None of the manufacturers, developers, or distributor make any representation or warranty, or assumes any responsibility, with respect to the enhanced portion of this disc.
The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo is absent from the printed jacket and the face of the disc, but it is embossed in the plastic on the inside of the jewel case. The CD itself bears the warning: "This disc is protected against unauthorized duplication."
3. THE ANTI-COPY SYSTEM
One component of the MediaMax system is designed to make it difficult to extract CD audio tracks as unprotected audio files using a PC. Thwarting extraction would prevent users from copying the CD or upload
A couple of dozen security and cryptography expersts vs thousands of talented hackers and ameture tinkerers. I am not nocking the guys who made this protection but they and there bosses have to understand that they are going to push this rock up a hill for all eternity. Maybe thats there goal: 1. create a DRM scheme 2. Sell it to RIAA dolts 3. DRM broken day it comes out???? 4. Profit
Did Glenn Beck rape and kill a girl in 1990? gb1990.com
DRM on CD's only encourages piracy. Why buy a CD that the company doesn't want you to play even if you buy it? Might as well go look for a free copy on Kazaa.
is to keep producing crap that no one will want to copy.
Right, dont think we dont see through your shenanigans, mr. hamilton. Changing around a few letters in your name wont disguise your real identity..we're on to you!
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
Most trolls are too dumb to do anything but be led around by the scrotum, screaming "Please, Bill, don't stick your cock up my ass! I don't wanna lose my virginity!"
and raise you 3 Britany Spears Singles, plus an N'Sync CD. It's a bit risk, but I'm willing to take it!
The bastards will never learn.
There will never be any copy protection scheme that will work.
If you can listen to it, you can copy it by just connecting the output to the input for another device.
Unless they make it so that nobody can listen to it, copy protection is an exersise in futility.
Death has been proven to be 99% fatal in lab rats.
That's a good one, like you know any Billy Bitches who actually paid for their copy of Win2K/XP.
1.Godwin's
2.Law
It's not supposed to be uncrackable. I know it's crackable, you know it's crackable, they sure as hell know it's crackable. Just like any other protection mechanism on anything from a PC CDROM to the XBOX.
What it's supposed to do is limit casual piracy. Make it tougher for the average slob to make a copy with the EZ-CD Copier that shipped with his Dell and give it to his buddies. That's it. Most folks would just give up if it didnt work the first time they tried, they aren't going to jump through any hoops, scribble on it with a sharpie, open up a hex editor, solder a mod-chip into their player, run a distributed cracking engine to decode it, whatever. It sure as hell has nothing to do with preventing some geek from leaking it on the 'net.
That's a *large* chunk of the sales they actually lose. Bob Magoo who gets a copy from his buddy Turd Ferguson because he's too lazy or cheap to run down to Wal-Mart and get his own.
So just friggin relax already, and dont be so proud of yourself that you figured out how to "hack" the technical equivalent of the safety pin that keeps a babies diaper in place.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
RIAA: now enhanced with a richly deserved ass-kicking!
MPAA: same story!
SCO: ditto!
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I believe anti-copy CD technologies will prove unfruitful, and will therefore eventually be abandoned by record companies. There firms may take a cue from the movie industry and increase the value of CDs by bundling interesting bonus features rather than restrictive copy-control software.
An interesting New York Times article today about exactly this can be found here. The article even mentions a band that includes a PlayStation 2 game on a DVD with their CD. Which just goes to show that CD prices have absolutely no relationship with marginal costs.
"If I could live to be several hundred
I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
Save the karma whoring for the small homebrew servers.
I find it hilarious that they did this on a CD by someone who no one has ever heard of. 2 reasons. 1. If they were to do it to a big name person that someone actually listened to, odds are sooner or later the thing would muck up some little 13 year old's computer. You'd have the whole suing a 12 year old fiasco all over again. 2. If they were to do this with someone that people actually listened to, they would HAVE to realize that it would have been about 5 minutes until every 13 year old (whose computers weren't mucked up in situation one) knew how to circumvent copy protection and no longer grows up in a world just accepting that the RIAA owns them. Hmmmm...Not that the RIAA doesn't own them, but that's another story altogether...
Or, forget all this crap, and dont even bother holding down the shift key. Do what I've been doing for years, and disable autorun period right after you install windows. Heres how to do it in XP Pro(shamelessly stolen from the first site google gave me):
To Disable CD autoplay, completely, in Windows XP Pro
1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.
3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire.
Turns out Microsoft has been shipping a circumvention device all these years. Anyone who lets a cd run whatever it pleases is a fool anyway.
I can still rip a cd digitally with SPDIF.
I hope this is not off topic, but could you help me with an audio cassette that I have? I bought it at the store, and it won't play on any player. It is the self-titled release by the band "Head Cleaner". Instead of music, I get a couple of minutes of loss hiss. Is this some sort of cassette tape DRM problem?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
"Newest tautology proven correct."
"DRM still useless."
"Music companies still don't get it."
"Consumers still buy stuff."
It's a good article and definitely worth a read just to understand how incredibly unsophisticated the people implementing this DRM stuff actually. Anyone with a passing interest in how computers actually work could have defeated this piece of shit.
What scares me is that the media companies probably did field testing and found that 98% of Joe Public was unable to defeat the DRM measures.
c.
Log in or piss off.
Yeah, but does it run on LINUX?!!!!
The driver only runs on Windows and Mac. Does that mean I'm violating the DMCA by even playing the disc on a machine with some other OS?
MagnaTune
I believe they were mentioned a little while ago, but they're the
"We're a record company, but we're not evil" people.
Seriously. Asside from a few artists I absolutely love, I have started getting my music fix from mp3.com and magnatune. If you're gonna listen to them though, please do help them out financially. It takes a lot of bandwidth to stream mp3s.
no comment
If the CD doesn't autorun on my computer I *MUST* first run the LaunchCd.exe (or whatever) so that when I then try and copy the disk it won't work (Or will sound crap).
OK. Honest BMG I will always run that program when trying to copy any disks. NOT!
Wouldn't it of just been cheaper for BMG to just place a notice saying "PLEASE DON'T COPY THIS CD"?
---- There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't
that I can make a copy for myself and so, in order not to loose that right, I excersize it on a daily basis. Any media that I aquire, I make a copy.
If you do not exercise your rights you will loose them (or at least not know when they were lost).
comment directly in my journal
...which provides incredible security.
It's just a standard lock, but, you see, the thing is, you leave it unlocked, and it comes with a hook for you to hang the key next to the door, and a placard that says "To enter, insert key in lock and turn key counterclockwise."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Finally, they can actually say that there is something else out there that is LESS secure than Windows.
Just make CDs $5.00 instead of trying to rip us off then we won't bother d/l'ing them, we'll just buy them and you'll still make your 5000% profit !
Ever heard of high volume low margin !?
Greedy bastards !
Same reason you are stealing my Hypocriticalphactic Property.
WTF is intellectual property??. If tomorrow they define more terms for losers like you, you will buy it, right, yes??. I knew you were a loser!
Reading over the article, I have a few unanswered questions that almost make me want to pick up the CD just to see for myself:
1) Does the software ask your permission to install the device driver that mungs your ripped tracks? Note that there are two pieces of software on the CD: one that uses a device driver to prevent a CD ripper from getting a copy of the track onto the computer, and another that controls the DRM on the WMA files. The author didn't use the latter because it required accepting a EULA, but the former he obviously was able to test. Thus I suspect that it doesn't ask you, however it's possible that it does but doesn't require acceptance of a EULA. I doubt that, however.
2) Are the tracks rippable in Linux? Obviously the WMA wouldn't be, as they require software to handle the DRM. But without the drivers, the tracks on the CD appear to be rippable in Windows, and thus I assume, also in Linux or any other OS that doesn't run Windows code.
3) If (2) is true, then how long until Linux is considered to be circumvention software?
4) Does the EULA include a provision preventing you from bypassing the device driver?
We already know you can't have your cake (playable on standard CD players) and eat it (uncopyable).
The questions are:
Will consumers realize the difference between CDs and non standard discs?
Will the media, and ultimately the RIAA, realize any such attempt is guaranteed to fail uness the hardware can be fully controlled?
What does it take for these people to realize it's a losing battle?
Once again the wagon of DRM has been rammed off the road by the candletruck of innovation.
worried about the fact that they can install _without_ your _knowledge_ and _consent_ a program on your computer that hooks deep into the system, causing trouble, raising alarms etc _and_ get away with it?
What happens if you insert that CD into your workstation at the office, it crashes the 'puter, the BSOD takes down the entire network segment (Heh! it's MS! Worse things happen with it!) which in turns cooks the domain controller, which makes the web server go *cough*, and then chaos ensues?
I see some lawsuits moving in the dark...
It's called an audio dubbing cable. Plug it from the line out on your cd player to the line in on your computer, get some recording software, and play the songs. Failing that, speakers and a microphone. If it's listenable, it's recordable.
Not a sentence!
More gasping and thrashing as the death throes of the recording industry continue... These inept attempts of the desperately greedy and self-important to maintain their obsolete roles are somewhere between amusing and pathetic.
Too bad they aren't as endearing as the penniless former aristocrats who were more or less kept as pets by the wealthy after World War One swept away most of the European monarchies. Watch for them in any old B&W movie that features millionaires and mansions. There's always a Count or a Baron or a Duchess at the dinner table. In a few years, after the recording industry is gone, maybe every fashionable Silcon Valley party will include a Geffen or a Rosen.
I have a friend that converts Albums (you know those plastic discs with the groove in them?) to digital.
... as long as I do not share the results...
He filters out pop and hiss to come up with his own masters that sound even better than the digital remasters you buy in the stores.
That, my friends, is why these attempts with copyright infringing DRM software will never work.
Yes, DRM *IS* copyright infringing. It blocks me from my right to make legal copies. It is they who are breaking the laws not I.
comment directly in my journal
No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. ( Title 17, Chaper 12, Sec. 1201, Paragraph a.1.A)
Good Lord, how long will it be before the interpretation of the word "effective" is directly assaulted? We'll soon be banned from legally owning & using keyboards with shift keys.
Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. ~A. Perlis
Repeat after me: Copy protection schemes will never save as much through thwarting piracy as they cost in lost business through pissing off legitimate customers.
I rip every disc I attain (none in the past two years for boycott reasons) to secure my fair use right to a backup.
Even under the bullshit of the DMCA, one has the right to reverse engineer or bypass copy protection schemes to excersize his fair use rights.
The exception of course, occurs when one is a minor in a foreign nation that has extradition agreements to the USA.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I would have thought that anybody who bought a Brittany Spears CD would be too brain dead to circumvent DRM to begin with.
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
From putting the CD in windows, opening up a recording application, and, assuming that the CD plays in Windows (and isn't broken in that way), recording the CD to a wave file or MP3 directly?
Also, what stops people from holding down the shift button down when you load the cd so autorun doesn't work and extracting the files then?
I'm posting anonymously because I'm sure that this bit of extremely technical questions to the validity of any security on these disks is probably violating the DMCA in some way. Of course, because the information is sued out of existence doesn't mean that fundamental security flaws stop existing (the useless point of the DMCA promotes security through obscurity, unfortunately, bad security can not remain untested for very long).
Besides installing asst. crap on your computer (with who knows what privacy implications coming from "reputable" organizations such as the RIAA), I don't see how this does anything to protect a cd from anyone but basic computer users! Granted, the majority of desktop computer users are these basic users, but it still it seems to be easily circumventable.
It seems to me that rather than spending all this time treating consumers like common criminals, the music industry should figure out a way to profit from this phenomenon. Of course, the problem they face now is that they ignored this until it was too late. If they had met Napster with competition, a legal download service, right away, something like iTunes, that is relatively fair, they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with!
The recording companies should've each set up a company store to sell the songs / and / or albums as MP3 or whatever, then allowed resale for normal record stores (the stores already reselling their stuff). Of course, this is in hindsight (20/20) view of the situation.
It's apparent that the recording industry (and related industries) are trying to sue into submission today what they were too shortsighted to forecast yesterday (and / or too slow to act on). They couldn't figure out how to profit from it (in time, because it's probably too late now) and now they see their only recourse as suing their own customers.
It's just a matter of time before they have to stop this bad P.R. campaign of suing everyone (sue enough 12 year old girls and believe me the uproar will reach congress). Eventually there will be a music sharing surcharge on your ISP fees that will go to the recording industries (much like the surcharges that go into CD-R's, etc.). Which makes me wonder why they aren't spending more time negotiating such deals (that are probably more profitable) and less time destroying their public image. It seems that their executive management is too paranoid, conservative, and short-sighted to lead them into this burgeoning digital era.
I did not even tell you about the CD I found at the store. The band is called "Maxell", and the name of the album is "CD-R". It is on some sort of incredible remainder program: you can get 50 identical copies of it for $19.99. When I try and play it, I get no sound (sometimes I see an "Err" message on the little CD player readout.) I tried all 50 and got no music out of any of them! I wonder if "Head Cleaner" changed its name.
There's a lot of this stuff around. Years ago, I used to use a phonograph. Once someone gave me a rather thick LP entitled "Frisbee" by the band "Wham-O" (I think it was a supergroup merging the Ohio Players and Wham!). When I put it on the record player, the needle slid right off of it. After a few attempts at this, I flung it out the window. It wasn't good for music, but that record sure flew real nice.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The next round (or sometime in the future) will come in the form of a new media (obviously) and will take a similar route to DVD with a total hardware upgrade. Already their are some mini-CD type things with DRM on them planned (i forget the name) but it will be interesting to see what the winning platform/format will be. The only problem is that all the last media format wars were in a time before [fast] internet and high capacity storage for the masses.
A new format could be something along the lines of a closed portable player with built in HD. Encrypted music could be downloaded in shops or on the net and decryption to analog out would be [proprietry | closed | tamper proof | on a single chip] (pick one or more of those words). Obviously i dont have to point out the blaitent flaws in that but it would seem a likely choice for a next gen format.
What we want the RIAA to do: give up
What will probably happen: more DRM, more laws.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
you used capital letters, dmca violator1111, you are going to jail1111
If it requires a Win2k/XP device driver to protect the cd from being copied, then us "GNU hippies" don't have to take any extra steps to copy this cd.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
P2P. He asks his friends, they set him up with a client. He has some respect for copyright, but his practical interest takes over, and he grabs the album off P2P. But now he has a client installed, so he's only three clicks and a sacrifice of morals (against a company that just screwed him) away from further downloading.
The moral of the story? DRM limitations fuel P2P. This story depends on a portable player that doesn't do WMA, but there are many other inconveniences. What if he doesn't use Windows or Mac (that's me)? What if he's an audiophile who can hear the difference between WMA and FLAC?
Besides, the article says you can burn the tracks a limited number of times. That's right, without any circumvention at all, the DRM is totally ineffective! I haven't checked, but I'm willing to bet the music is all over the P2P networks. DRM is completely worthless: if there were any competition (there isn't), the idea would have died years ago.
Litigious bastards
Wish I had mod points, best post I've read on slashdot lately
Actually, it probably does just what it's supposed to. This isn't meant to stop ALL copying, just keeping joe-average-user from burning a copy for his friend.
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
I just bought the new Meatloaf CD. On the front of the case, it says "Copy Protected". I brought it home, put it in my computer, and ripped it into MP3s using MusicMatch Jukebox, no problems at all.
So... what's up with that? (And no, I'm not sharing it)
Form the article:
Computers running Linux or Mac OS 9 can't run the MediaMax software at all, so they can always copy the recording.
Like Adams points out in the Dilbert principle
Don't say.... Say instead....
Outdated Backward compatible
Incompatible Proprietary
Expensive Preimum
Peice of Shit In a class of its own
Same with this. Marketing BS at its finest.
You'd be surprised how many intelligent people listen to that kind of music. Millions of CDs don't sell by themselves...
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
This is what gets me: they already seem to have recognized the autorun vulnerability. How do I know? Because they're asking me to take steps to install their CD-breaking system in the event that the software doesn't automatically start! They might as well say,
I was going to put a sig here, but I had already submitted the message.
Unfortunately, I saw the trailer for the new Ben Affleck movie. He is touted as the "World's Best Reverse Engineer". I can't even bear to read the phrase anymore after hearing a statement so moronic.
If this article confuses you, don't worry. It was posted yesterday in a much clearer fashion.
Does this mean that anything that is NOT Windows is a DMCA violation?
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
Doesn't installing a driver on my system without my permission constitute "hacking", thus making BMC terrorists under the Patriot Act?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
There's a sucker born every minute.
er.. I hate this shit. I try to set my parents up with a computer, windows, all the software they like to play with, email IE.. after a few weeks without me "cleaning" it up for them they will have gator, yahoo bar, i-lookup, iwon toolbar, weather plugin, dialers, you name it..
And now this. I sware to god windows is nothing but a disgusting cesspool of filthy slimy shady assholes trying to control as many people as they can. Its a constant nuisance for me as well.. the popups with command prompt backgrounds and unsigned activex controls. And its not like if I slip and accidently accept one of them maybe it wont be spyware.. IT ABSOLUTELY MOST DEFINATELY IS 100% SPYWARE SPYWARE SPYWARE Designed to obscure itself and run as stealth as possible and be as difficult as possible to uninstall please somebody start a class action suit or something before my head explodes!
Its a rediculous pony show of bullshit now to just use windows. I can't believe people are still arguing windows is the "friendliest" desktop. It's the most unfriendly desktop in the history of desktops.
...FOR ME TO POOP ON!
And to think the company touts its product as strongly as those cultists hyped their cloned baby.
What's cool is that this paper is worded as closely to "HA HA HA WHAT A BUNCH OF DOUCHEBAGS" as academic writing ever comes.
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
From the article: "Computers running Linux or Mac OS 9 can't run the MediaMax software at all, so they can always copy the recording."
The EULA is for the DRM software to access the WMA data sessions, not the copy protection driver.
The WMA data sessions are only used by the DRM software. Nothing (at least if you pressed shift) keeps you from ripping the PCM audio.
More reading...less posting...
Like many iPod users, I actually buy much more music than I did previously. New listening device creates new spaces for listening music and thus increases demand. However, I am not rich enough to buy EVERYTHING I want to listen - usually when I enter a store, 4-5 albums catch my interest, but I can afford to walk out only with 2-3 of them. Obviously, I avoid CD's with stickers like "this CD is copy protected". I know the protection is probably easy to bypass, but why should I bother? I just choose the 2-3 albums without the protection. And here's a weird thing - whenever I put back a "copy protected" CD on the store shelf (carrying in my basket the non-protected ones) echo brings me the sounds of a gunshot and a voice shouting "ouch! my foot!" somewhere in the distance.
What I find interesting is part of the article's description of the CD:
The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo is absent from the printed jacket and the face of the disc.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Exactly - it's my opinion that if a media product is broken by DRM restrictions, the products protected by the DRM become less valuable, and therefore, people will be less, not more, likely to seek out a legal method of acquisition. The music file trading underground won't be ended until proper unencumbered mp3's are made available legally for a small cost.
Obviously, the protection is completely ineffective; anyone who thinks this will stop the music from hitting P2P is delusional. More importantly, this installs (unless you carefully read the package, without your consent) a driver to cripple your CD-ROM. Do you trust their software to uninstall the driver when it's done, and leave the system exactly the same way it was before? CD-ROMS are finicky enough in Windows with all cd-recording software shipping with their own drivers. I've seen systems with extremely broken CD drives, and I wouldn't let this software within twenty furlongs of any PC I own. Also, what about work computers where you don't have admin access?
Litigious bastards
They will fight this till their last breath.. regardless of that there is no hope of winning.
Its time for a fundamental change in the industries thinking, if they want to survive.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Show of hands: How many of you were so pissed off by this that your first thought was "I'm going to immediately RIP this CD and share it with the world!" Could it be possible that BMG's strategy may backfire, and make the tracks even more widely available?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
...their geeky friend tells them the big secret of the shift key.
How many people do you know who are still stymied by DVD/VCR Macrovision copy"protection"?
None. But unless your DVD standalone has a secret menu, you actually need hardware to get around this. Though on a PC, you might fix the drivers instead. Software is much less of a problem.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Excuse me, am I missing something here ?
But if you can play a CD in a CD-Player, then surely you could connect the Line-Out to Line-In of the PC sound card and use a sound app (such as Cool Edit) to record.
You could ALWAYS do that.
-573417h F16h73r
MacOS Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Click on "Start."
Maybe it just comes through oddly, but very few things on the Mac have ever required clicking 'Start'.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
UNFORTUNATELY THE CAPS LOCK WAS ON WHEN I DECIDED TO QUIT.
:((*
*grumble grumble inserting junk to avoid lameness filter. it's destroying a good joke
KJELLA
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
...from the rock's point of view. 8^)
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
I never saw this one coming...
I've never had to worry about this as I run everything through my Behringer SRC2000 (http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex.cf m?id=SRC2000&lang=eng>Behringer SRC2000)
Step 1) Wait for someone else to use any of the aforementioned hacks and cracks and whatever to rip the shitty music in question.
Step 2) Download mp3 from Kazaa.
Step 3) Delete mp3s in disgust after realizing that this is yet another crappy RIAA artist.
Step 4) Pay good money for tickets to see local band play quality music.
Step 5) Enjoy!
Since Windows provides a way to disable the driver, is Windows in violation of the DMCA? Is Bill Gates the leader of a secret anti-DMCA cult? Will the DMCA and RIAA Stormtroopers, with BATF support, reduce the Redmon Compound to a smoking rubble heap? Tune in next week, same Bat-time, same Bat-/.page!
But seriously, the DMCA is so vague and absurd, that one probably *could* hold MS accountable for this. Or the Linux providers accountable for not including the ability to auto-install and require DRM-compliant drivers.
I'm going back to my vinyl collection.
Anyone want to buy a non-DRM-compliant, analog CD player? Cash only, unmarked bills, no receipt, we meet in a dark spot we both agree on, with faces covered, wearing gloves...
-Paranoid
The thing about it is that it just makes it sound so simple that almost anyone can see that this isn't an effective method of copy-protection. This is exactly the type of writing that needs to be done to show that these so-called "flawless" schemes are often poorly designed.
Wrong, I think.
An Autorun will be effective against the vast majority of Windows and Mac users.
For those who don't have Autorun enabled, the disk provides the necessary Social Engineering in both Mac and Windows formats to induce you to install their Trojan Horse. (Trojan Horse: software that does what it says, but also has a concealed unwanted surprise that you don't find out about until after you've already let it inside the city gate.)
Finally for those evil terrorist hacker criminals and their shift keys who are too smart to fall for the Autorun and Social Engineering tactics, this proves the indisputable need for stronger legislation to protect the artists. I can hear it now: "After all, we've invested substantial resources into the devilopment of MediaMax crapware. You can clearly see from the easy installation procedure and the flashy graphics that it is of good quality. Those evil hackers have circumvented our secret proprietary technology. There is no way they could have done that without doing something wrong."
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
Copies made while the driver is active will sound badly garbled, as in this 9-second clip [10].
That's not garbled, that's the Aphex Twin mix!
Or under iMac:
1). Insert CD into drive
2). Take iMac into tech support, so they can "extract" the cd that is now jammed in your computer.
The rights you have is the intersection between the rights granted by a purchase and those granted by a licence. Check out Statistics 101 for the result.
They want to eat their cake, have it and get a refund on it. Just wait until they get DRM and you'll see how few rights they really want to provide, that they can't stop you from doing today.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
That's a great suggestion, but I gotta ask - is there seriously no other way to disable 'autorun' on Windows? (I'm in front of a Mac right now so I can't try it). That's kind of amazing if you really do need a 3rd party thingummy to turn it off.
A side note - I've been working on a CDROM project that called for a cross-platform 'autorunning' disc. As it turns out, on the Mac side, this was only do-able under OS 9, and only then if you hadn't turned the feature off... under OS X there is no autostart function whatsoever. Which is probably a good thing really.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
should be "Copies made while the driver is active will reveal remixes by Marumari, Prefuse 73, and Hrvatski."
Sounds fine to me! Honestly, I had zero interest in this cd, now I just want the full-length tracks of that "garbled audio".
See you in hell, dinner plate.
The engineers designing these DRM systems know full well that these schemes cannot work. They must invest effort into developing these systems knowing as they type every character of code that it's all pointless. And of course the salespeople must eventually learn this too. But the studios are desperate to believe that DRM can work. And like religious nuts they'll seize on any crap that a salesperson tries to sell them as evidence that it can be done. So the DRM companies are actually the heroes here. They're scamming the studios, probably for nice sums of money, by selling them the Emperor's New Clothes. Good on 'em!
I remember going to a meeting with the chief engineer at a well known DRM company a couple of years ago. One of the types of media being protected were pictures. They went through a long demo of all the DRM stuff you could do. And I kid you not here: one guy in our party (I wish it was me) asked if you could just copy the pictures using Alt-PrintScreen. The DRM guy then launched into a long tirade about how you can't protect against every single type of attack and that their system was good enough to put off all but the most determined picture thief. He knew their system wasn't worth the hard drive space it was stored on. We obviously knew it. But they had to keep up the pretense. And why complain? After all they're ripping off the studios, not me.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Why do I get the feeling that I wouldn't _want_ to copy his CD? Maybe the RIAA is trying to prevent pirating by publishing CDs we wouldn't want to copy...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Not just disabled by default, under OS X is just plain disabled. (non-enabled? un-abled?) It's not there.
There's an option to start playing web movies before they're done downloading, but that's it.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
...lurks the corporate logo "Lightyears beyond encryption"
Bwahahahaha! You just can't make this shit up...
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
I wonder if the music companies that paid good money for this drm scheme can sue because it doesn't work.
Because of our non-reporting status, SunnComm's management feels you need to understand these very important facts prior to making a decision to invest in the company's shares, and you should also be totally aware that you run the risk of losing your entire investment should you make the decision to purchase shares in SunnComm.
Run the risk of losing your entire investment? More like a dead cert now, methinks!
(BTW, this text plus other stuff shows up in a window when you first visit their website; to see it on a later visit, you'll have to delete their cookie)
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Well apparently some "new sources" have revealed some information.. probobly some slashdotters..
The page now shows this "Several sources brought a flaw in this paper to my attention. I'm presently revising it to reflect this new information. -- J A Halderman"
Does this now mean that RIAA and MPAA will sue to get TweakUI pulled from the net, and go after those who have installed it on their boxen? Clearly, TweakUI can be used to assist in the circumvention of their copy protection scheme. Will the /. ISP host also get a takedown notice?
Where does it end?
most people don't rip CDs at work, and most home machines have autorun enabled.
When I say most home machines, I don't mean NEW Macs, I mean MOST HOME MACHINES which means windows 95-ME, and some 2k and XP machines, along with OS8-9.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
I was worried I'd have to give up on BMG, which would suck given they have the best cd deals around for popular music. Hard to beat the 12 for 1 deal, which averages to $4 or $5 per cd even after all the shipping and handling fees are paid.
Vote for Pedro
Isn't it illegal to even mention that a copy protection program might be faulty due to the DMCA?
As a bonus, you get free research on the feasibility of the copy inhibition.
for offering advice on how to circumvent this copyright protection scheme.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Best Buy had an ad for a new MP3 player/recorder that specifically takes "Audio In" in place of your normal speakers in a cd music system and create MP3 cd's. I thought it was pretty risky of them to advertise it, but it's long overdue. Next the RIAA wuill try to ban "Audio Out" jacks at the back of stereo systems.
Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
Unable to increase sales any other way, and losing some (very few) customers to piracy, they have now relied upon releasing new DRM with groups that aren't selling to increase the sales by way of all l33t d00ds out there buying said CD just to disable the DRM. That's a genius tactic, as people buy what they didn't want, and don't distribute it all that much, because they don't really like the music.
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
And in other news... Microsoft has announced that in order to be MS-compliant, all keyboards manufactured starting in 2004 must lack a shift key. When asked how this move would affect grammar, Microsoft reps replied that they are deeply concerned about their users and wish to assure the public that 3 months will be more than enough time for all major grammar guides and dictionaries to be modified to suit America's new uncapitalized language. Steve Balmer had this to say, "It's good for RIAA. It's good for us. It's good for Webster's. Heck, it's not like any of the kids online use them these days anyhow."
Does the driver still interfere with ripping when that CD is no longer in the drive?
I'd wager that the new DRM is NOT an effective (in the functional, robust sense of the word) access control since it is so easily bypassed.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
I absolutely loved him in Silence Of The Lambs... but can he really sing?
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Would you believe... Barry Manilow? I can't listen to him, so he must have some really secure DRM.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
So wait, let me understand:
I insert a *music* CD, which promptly installs a new "device driver" without my permission, and gives me no chance to decline the operation. This "device driver" then prevents my computer from performing the functions for which it was designed.
How is this not a virus, and where can I sign up for the class action suit?
...yet, how do I change the default action on "autoplay" drives from "autoplay" to "open". I insert a CD, autostart doesn't launch thanks to TweakUI, then I forget not to doubleclick on the drive icon and instead of picking "open" from context menu I get autostart launched. Happens WAY too often.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
HEY! TweakUI just makes it slightly easier. It's some built-in components of Windows that let you do it! Means, Windows is illegal and RIAA and MPAA should sue Microsoft for releasing such copyright circumvention software!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Didn't pass with teletypes, won't pass with keyboards. Must be left with capslock firmly ON. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to write correctly "GOD".
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
It's gone for some other weird reason.
Several sources brought a flaw in this paper to my attention. I'm presently revising it to reflect this new information. -- J A Halderman
According to SunnComm's website, it took them 3 years to come up with this technology and get it to market.
Seems like a lot of time for something that can be sidesteped so easily.
Never heard of him, don't give a shit about his record.
Tempted to start pirating copies of their DRM software though, just out of spite...
The report has been taken down with a note that it is being updated to reflect flaws reported by several sources.
I've since sold my games, and thusly haven't tried it with a decent ripper [xtractor.sf.net]
I haven't heard of xtractor until now. What does it do that CDex doesn't?
Will I retire or break 10K?
If the sound out port was turned off you couldn't listen to your encrypted song. How do you think the audio signal gets to your speakers? through the sound out port.
The audio signal gets to your speakers through the signed driver and the sound out port. A signed driver will disable all cleartext digital audio outputs when the Secure Audio Path is open, and if an app can't find a signed driver, it will display an alert box and not play the restricted recording.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This seems like a trojan horse virus to me. The text on the disclaimer reads as follows: THIS CD IS ENHANCED WITH MEDIAMAX SOFTWARE
A trojan horse is a program that has an extra, unexpected, and hidden function on top of what is advertised.
While the rules for fair advertising are quite loose, especially when descriptive and non-quantitative words are used, the PATRIOT act and anti-hacking laws aren't. I don't see how garbling the CD by inserting a hidden little program can possibly be construed as 'enhancing' the CD, so it fits the unexpected part, and as it automatically installs, it fits the hidden part.
Consider the flip side. What would happen if I wrote a self-installing program that instead of modifying an audio stream, sent back to me all the credit card and sensitive database files it could find on the host computer and put a disclaimer on my disc that "the disk is enhanced with DataSafe". Or what about a copy of Amerika's Army that I bundled with a copy of FatherlandProtector (which forwards credit card and military info to Al-Queda and the Taliban).
Ashcroft should give these guys the statutory 10 years or so in prison for the music executives who signed off on this, or is his "you do the crime, you do the time" policy only for stuff like avoiding censorship and exercising fair use?
Next the RIAA wuill try to ban "Audio Out" jacks at the back of stereo systems.
Not bloody likely. It's possible to get a roughly line-level signal out of a headphone jack. Even if the labels do manage to get RadioShack to stop selling 1/8" to RCA adapters, it's trivial to cut up a pair of headphones and splice it to half of a stereo RCA cable.
Next joke please?
Will I retire or break 10K?
The AHRA concerns only the offense of copyright infringement. The DMCA, on the other hand, creates a new offense, namely that of circumvention. The AHRA does not grant the owner of a copy any right to circumvent digital restrictions management measures.
Will I retire or break 10K?
(I don't support them. I just make my own music.)
How do you afford to pay the songwriters? Or if you write your own songs, how do you afford to pay the musicologist to declare that your song isn't a subconscious copy of some song that was popular 30 years ago (as in Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs)?
Read it and weep. I've been told there is no solution.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Now, we can all expect Autorun to not automatic in furture versions of Windows. If you disable it, you'll be branded a pirate. BTW, how do you disable autorun in LINUX?
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
I saw the way to override this months ago, the music companies forget that there is more than 1 operating system in existance.. so, really, this is their fault. any unix os can read these cd's.. dunno about macs.. but they made drm technology only for one os..technology that is easily overridden..
mainstream music is overrated anyways.. why bother with it?
But can't one use Applescript to tie the execution of a program to opening a directory? It seems to me this would be useful to someone trying to get MacOS users to run a program without the user's consent, essentially working around the lack of (or disabled) autorun. And, of course, just as much a security hole as autorun.
Digital Citizen
If I can't burn the CD, I won't be -buying- the CD.
It doesn't matter what kind of crazy DRM system they come up with...all you have to do is put the cd in any player and connect the audio out to your computer's audio in, hit "record" in your favorite audio recording program and press play on the player...convert to mp3/burn as many copies as you want. I record companies can never ever stop your from doing this short of just not selling you CD's at all, but that's obviously not going to happen.
Who the hell is Anthony Hamilton?
Or cant you just take a cord from the out on a sound card from one computer and plug it into the in on a second computers soundcard and then record the music?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Having just read all the posts in this thread, and gone back to the beginning, I see that italicised line from the abstract as the most important. The next generation of copy-protected discs will need a different workaround, but ultimately the recording companies are going to have to think hard about their approach.
From the article:
The PMTC [Professional Media Test Center] determined that none of the ripper programs used in the testing process was able to produce a usable unauthorized copy of the protected CD yielding a verifiable and commendable level of security for the SunnComm product.
This makes it sound like the copy protection works. But in reality, this statement doesn't say anything at all. Of course the rippers failed to produce an unauthorized copy - the PMTC was hired to test the copy protection, so they were implicitly authorized to make copies. For all we know, several of the rippers they tested may have worked perfectly.
Look, dont get me wrong, Im not a fan of copy protection. In fact, whenever I buy a PC game and notice that there is no copyprotection on there I get 'warm fuzzies' for the company that made it. Seriously, its a big plus for me. I applaud 'maturity' in this.
But given that the recording industry thinks it needs to copyprotect, then this way is a LOT better than those !@# systems that actually damage the audio and produce a disc that you cant (legally, and logically) call a Compact Disk.
Case in point:
- a CD with one of the previous copyprotection schemes on it is the equivalent of a CD scratched to the utmost limit. One tiny extra scratch (never drop it, you hear!) and those CDs would become either unplayable or audibly damaged. Every damage protection system the CD standard was originally designed with is defeated, even with an undamaged CD.
- Said CD will only be playable by the graces of good built-in error protection. And even then the result is an approximation of the 'original' audio.
- The CD wont play in 'finnicky' players. PC-player based devices (like mp3cd players), car stereos etc...
At least with this system you dont get something intrinsically damaged.
One of coolest programs I have seen in a while is Total Recorder from High Criteria. This software basically installs it's own virtual sound card that allows you to capture anything that comes through it. You can literally capture anything that can be listened to on your computer. With technology like this, I really don't care what they do to CDs as long as I can listen to it on my PC.
In related news: As noted previously, a couple of weeks ago Snake Oil Ltd. released a new perpetual motion vehicle by professor Dick Crackpot. Slashdot readers speculated that the system wouldn't work. Now there is a report proving it doesn't work by Joe Sixpack, a high school student. Film at eleven!
My god... What's next? Lossless compression of random data?! Please... Are people really that unintelligent to believe in such an obvious BS? What is it, 21ts century or Middle Ages for god's sake!
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
CDDA protection has been around for years in Europe, and yes it does work. There are maybe 1 or 2 devices among all CD/DVD-writers and CD/DVD-ROMs that can read any copy protected CD on the market. Most crash on certain protections that come up with increasingly creative illegal TOCs or will put out tracks with clicks and static, which is really in the audio stream but gets corrected by specially coined ECC data that any normal audio player uses to correct the stream.
There are large compatibility lists of devices and the many protection mechanisms on the market, and you people are treating the subject as if it was something completely new.. DOH!!
if we have an established right to do something (namely copy the cd for backup/personal use)
We never had a right. Instead, we had (and have) a partial defense. Fair use (17 USC 107) is a defense, home copying of computer programs (17 USC 117) is a defense, and home copying of sound recordings (17 USC 1008) is a defense. Where do you see some affirmative "right" in any of the three sections I linked to? All I see is "not an infringement." An act can be "not an infringement" but still a prohibited "circumvention."
Will I retire or break 10K?
2). Take iMac into tech support, so they can "extract" the cd that is now jammed in your computer.
OK, I admit that it's been a LOOOOONG time since I've used any kind of Mac, but surely they still have the little 'manual eject' hole that I've seen on every apple drive since the Lisa..
{checks Google}
OMFG!! They've actually removed the manual eject hole on the iMac drives! How fscking retarded was that?!! So yes.. if you ever insert any kind of damaged or corrupted disk of ANY kind and it causes the machine to crash, it's going to cause the machine to crash again every time you restart it, there's no other way to eject the disk, and you'll need to get your machine serviced. Pure genius!
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
from what i've seen, when you boot up w/ a non-bootable cd in the drive it will spit it out
For those who don't want to violate the DMCA, the solution is simple. Don't buy any CD without the Compact Disk Logo. If nobody bought them, the problem will go away on it's own. The article mentioned the CD does not have the Compact Disk Logo. True you don't get a copy of this music, but who cares? IF you buy it, more stuff will get DRM. If you don't buy it, less stuff will get DRM and DMCA legal problems.
The truth shall set you free!
I am going to guess the software wont install if you are not an admin on the computer, even after you agree and thus letting you copy cds anyway.
Anybody given that a shot?
The article even mentions a band that includes a PlayStation 2 game on a DVD with their CD.
Sony has a music division and a game division. Is the add in simply a way to promote demand for the Playstation? This may be a SONY promotion and have nothing to do with the cost associated with producing a music CD.
Does the article mention if the music CD is by the Sony music division?
The truth shall set you free!
If you can hear it, why don't you just record it. The guys over at High Criteria came up with a product called Total Recorder. It works great for grabbing the audio clips that you want. ;-)
Mind you, Affleck was da bomb in Phantoms.
Is still one of the richest people in Britain.
Well since you get the "Aphex Twin Mix" through the software you could call it an enhancement :)
Life is what happened when Good Intentions met Harsh Reality (the brother of the more infamous Chaos).
I've got this tune going around and around in my head. Who should I send payment to?
That's very perceptive of you Mr Stapleton and rather unexpected in a G Major
Usually I don't answer ACs, what you forgot to mention is the fact that DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) sometimes destroys the CD/DVD player. Happened to me, a Music Critic at a Magazine and countless other people.
;-)
Based on the original patent application, this was called collateral damage.
Just in case you forgot.
What happens to the CD when the next version of Windows won't run the software? Another set of CDs to buy?
2). Take iMac into tech support, so they can "extract" the cd that is now jammed in your computer.
Actually, step 1 should be: Buy a proper computer, not some shit where you can't eject a disc manually.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Thanks to TotalRecorder, there is no possible way in the world to stop someone from copying a CD. The only way to ever stop people from getting their music for free (at least en masse) is to lower prices on CDs. When Circuit City has their "almost every CD is $9.99" sale, you can literally watch the CDs fly off the shelf.
(I worked for Circuit City from 1998 to 2003)
--- Nothing is secure.
Just boot with the mouse button held down; any ejectable media will be ejected before booting.
It means that the "you may not circumvent copyright protections" rule does not apply if it affects defenses or fair use.
This isn't how the court in Universal v. Reimerdes interpreted things. Please read the opinion, especially the text around the words "horse and buggy". The judge who wrote this seems to think that pointing a camcorder at the screen is a "fair" way of making fair use.
Will I retire or break 10K?
My wife bought an import EP by Interpol. It wouldn't play in any of our CD players or DVD players. So I put it into the Linux MP3 server, and it ripped straight away with no messing around.
So, what exactly was the point of that?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Actually..
(1) You can hold down the mouse button as the computer (any Mac) is booting to eject whatever's in the cd drive.
(2) The computer (any Mac), after looking on the CD for a "blessed", or valid System Folder to start up from, will spit the CD out before it begins to load the OS.
No service needed. (although if you were to bring in your Mac to our service dept we're happy to do it for no charge most of the time, whether it's a Power Management Unit that just needs to be reset or a stuck cd)
Actually..
(1) You can hold down the mouse button as the computer (any Mac) is booting to eject whatever's in the cd drive.
(2) The computer (any Mac), after looking on the CD for a "blessed", or valid System Folder to start up from, will spit the CD out before it begins to load the OS.
No service needed. (although if you were to bring in your Mac to our service dept we're happy to do it for no charge most of the time, whether it's a Power Management Unit that just needs to be reset or a stuck cd)
You better check your pref panes again.. autostart/autoplay doesn't exist in Mac OS X.
..and in OS 9, clicking on the cd icon in the Control Strip brought up a small pop-up menu that let you choose whether to Autoplay or not.
Geez, no wonder we can't convince anyone that power users use the Mac as well.. with people like you and the other Mac-user posts I've seen on this board, we really don't stand much of a chance if we come off as lusers that don't even know the ins and outs of our own system. Ugh.
(figured clearing up this crap was more important that modding it down)
Hell I install VMWare specifically for that purpose!
I can't play it because my PC is my cd player for audio cd's!
But who is this Hamilton guy?
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Yup, but you're free to put ANY multi-button mouse on there the instant you get it.
...and built-in support for multi-button mice is actually BETTER than for *nix or Windows. Windows only recognizes 2 buttons and the scroll if you're lucky without 3rd party utilities.
Maybe this isn't clear. ANY multi-button mouse, NO DRIVERS, NO CONFIGURATION. Right-click works as it should (control-click), and scroll wheel works by default as well. If you click a middle mouse button on a mac on a web link, it will open in a new tab.
Getting quite sick of explaining this, but evidently feeble-minded trolls like you don't grasp it: One button is better for beginner users, they get less confused, as EVERYTHING you need to access is available through the menu bar, which is CONSISTENTLY at the top of the screen, no matter what program you're in.
Those of us who choose to use the alternative, more "power user" methods of getting around, can. Plug in a multi-button mouse? Works out of the box, no drivers necessary. Apple is happy to provide keyboard shortcuts for the whole OS and let you modify them and make your own. Mouse gestures, voice activation, any number of ways to control the Mac straight out of the box.
BTW, when I said to hold down the mouse button, that wouldn't be confusing to any mac user, as either they have a one-button mouse, or will assume you're talking about the left-click. This is another thing that makes doing tech support for the Mac over the phone easier than for Windows. (cannot be disputed. I've done both Win and Mac help desk duties, and I almost lost it trying to troubleshoot friggin' Dell pieces of crap every day)
So sick of these idiots.. do your own research already.
"Just boot with the mouse button held down; any ejectable media will be ejected before booting."
Which mouse button? Oh, never mind...
Your little speach is why.
I'd been using the drive for playing and burning for several months with no issues, when one day I stuck a CD in it to play, and after it played (and I inadvertently left it sitting in the drive for a day or so), something went wrong somewhere and the drive stopped responding to any hardware and software actions. Hitting the Eject button on the drive did nothing, hitting 'Eject' in the CD player app did nothing (this was under WinNT4), telling the drive to 'Eject' in an Explorer window did nothing. Trying to get other applications (ExactAudioCopy, etc.) to talk to the drive did nothing - it was as if the device didn't exist anymore. Rebooting (into safe mode or any other mode) did nothing! (I'd expected at least some flashing of the LED, but nada.) The drive was totally unresponsive, apparently dead - it wasn't recognized by the OS after that reboot (and yes, I did check verify the cabling - it was getting power and the data cable was fine).
Coincidentally, I'd obtained that particular drive as part of Phillips' class-action laswuit settlement regarding their older CDD2600 series of CD-R (not CD-RW - this was early consumer CD-R) drives that occasionally weren't able to write the advertised amount of data to a blank. Notably, as part of the suit settlement, the usual warranty on the drive was replaced with one that warranted exactly and only, in exclusion of all other guarantees, that the drive would be able to write the advertised amount of data to a piece of media - the sole flaw that brought on the class-action suit.
For many discs, I would have shrugged and given up, ripped the drive out and tossed the whole thing. But, to pile coincidence on top of coincidence, the disc that happened to be hostage in the drive was a limited edition (of, like, a few thousand copies, I think, maybe even only a few hundred) John Zorn disc (actually, disc 2 of a 2CD set), and the limited edition was totally sold out. (I don't know if the disc has any DRM schemes on it - it's possible, but unlikely; it was made during the time the first SunnComm and Macromedia schemes were being implemented, and I know the iMac problems had already manifested themselves. The disc, however, was put out on an indie label, and has no logos or insignias or anything that would indicate DRM protection.)
So, there I was, stuck with a dead drive with no warranty of replacement (not that would have mattered), containing a disc that I had essentially no chance of getting a replacement copy of, and my only option to recover my disc was to carefully destroy the drive, since the drive HAD NO FARKING MANUAL EJECT HOLE!
I did this successfully, retrieving the disc un-scratched, but disassembling the drive down to nearly the molecular level in the process.
Needless to say, I inspect every drive I buy now to make sure that manual eject hole is still there.
Copied straight from MS:
Make sure that the AutoPlay feature is enabled in the registry:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate the following registry key:
In the right pane, go to step g if the value for Autorun is 1.
If the value for Autorun is 0, right-click Autorun, and then click Modify.
In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 1 under Value data, and then click OK.
A value of 0xb5 in the following registry key turns off the AutoRun feature for CDs:
You must set the hexadecimal value to 91 to enable
the AutoRun feature.
On the File menu, click Exit.
Just do the reverse to turn it off. :-)
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
I thought this was quite funny. My high school recently decided to have a lip synch contest, and they handed out flyers to everyone advertising it, and giving instructions on how to enter. One of the requirements is "Provide a copy of the song on a NEW CD, not the original." Now of course people with DRM "enhanced" CD's won't be able to do this. I plan to report them to the RIAA very soon... nothing like pitting your two worst enemies against eachother.
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
...then only outlaws will use shift keys.
these four words also happen to be the most concise and abridged version of "The Last 2000 Years of History".
-pyrrho
Actually, windows recognizes both 3 button mice without additional drivers (scroll down doubles as button 3), and Microsoft's odd 5 button mice. Windows doesn't require 3 button mice like Gnome and KDE do, but it supports them without fuss.
There are many faults with windows worth picking on, but support for multi-button mice isn't one of them.
The ______ Agenda
The record companies just don't get it. They should reduce the cost of the CDs! The current pricing is absolutely insane. Artists see little of the money and the record companies spend too much time worrying about enforcement. Wasn't music supposed to be fun? Jees, all I hear about is some greedy bastard worrying about not getting is take. If the music is good, people will by the media to have for themselves.
More than a handful of windows games require administrator access to run (not to install, to RUN).
:
Well you can always use the "su" like feature of 2000/XP
- Hold shift key
- Right click program to start.
- Select "run as"
- Enter credentials of admin.
-OR-
Right click the program/game, on the property pane, under "shortcut" tab, select "run as different user".
Agreed it's a pain to have to enter a user and password each time you want to play, but the rest is in the game developper's hands.
Murphy(c)
That law only referrs to the circumvention of _effective_ copy protections.
That does seem rather a large and ill-defined loophole, can you give a reference to the text?
Microsoft also publish the method for disabling auto-run on CDROM drives - so can they expect a law-suit too? The word is barratry - harrassing people with groundless law-suits. My advice to John Halderman would be to sue back for all its worth - oh and write a letter to the judge in the case asking him to ensure that this company have sufficient funds to pay his legal costs, by depositing some sort of bond with the court..
If a company like that tried that trick with a UK based individual, just drag them through the EU courts (if it gets that far) - I would love to see a US based company like that try and convince a French judge of thier rights in a case of this ilk..
Wow, I love how Mac users go on about how fricking "intuitive" their OS is, and then you hear them say something on the edge of insane like "hold down the mouse button to eject the CD". Yah, that's right up there with "Drag the floppy to the trash can to eject it" - my intuition says dragging a floppy to the trash can will ERASE it.
Oh well, Mac users are like cute puppies. Not good for much, but kind of entertaining to have around...
The only intuitive interface is the nipple, after that it's all learned... [Some guy I can't remember the name of]
Linux won't make it to the desktop because the mindset of the average linux user would be 'set up a different account'. This is not acceptable to most people.
You can't explain this. It's exactly the same problem that I have whenever I mention a flaw with KDE. "Well, if the users don't like it, they can just hack the source and recompile!" This year, I had to explain to someone who had been using Windows since 1993 - with lots of formal training provided to federal government employees - that the different rectangles full of stuff were different windows.
Now, admittedly, that's profoundly stupid, so I'll consider a case only slightly more capable: the MCS"E". (Note that Microsoft calls them engineers, but unless they know the pain of 4 years of vector calculus, they are most decidedly NOT engineers.) What percentage of MCS"E"s have sufficient brain cells to even wrap their heads around what a compiler is, let alone to hack source? My bet, based on the MCS"E"s I've known (and fired over the years) is somewhere less than 50%.
So where's Joe Sixpack in this picture, as he's told to recompile half of KDE because of x? Popping the old Windows XP CD into the drive and rebooting the computer, is my bet.
I'd get it one piece at a time,
And it wouldn't cost me a dime.
You'll know it's me
When I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'cause i'll have the only one
There is around.
Yeah Red Rider, this is the Cottonmouth in the psycho-billy Cadillac...
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Glad to see a few people understand the point. The first few replies were... Well, anyway, it is slashdot.
BTW, you can keep your B R/B blocks, I'd rather have a Hemi.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
So sick to death of every arrogant / egotistical son of a bitch that has to drag lunix / mak OS into every sodding comments field because it's not 'microsoft' . Grow the fuck up and do something with yourselves.
Glad to see a few people understand the point. The first few replies were... Well, anyway, it is slashdot.
Tell me about it. The KDE Developers have dismissed www.glowingplate.com/dissent as a FUD campaign, rather than a simple venting of user frustration.
Until that changes, we're still gonna be stuck buying Dells pre-loaded with Windows XP. [sigh]
BTW, you can keep your B R/B blocks, I'd rather have a Hemi.So would I! Unless someone is willing to trade me my B and RB motors for a Hemi block... (first one for offer: 1976 thinwall casting lightweight 400 block. Weighs less than a Slant-6 block, easy stroke to 475 cubic inches!) Also got a 1970 440-4bbl, complete, good compression and oil pressure, kicking around the garage.
I'd get it one piece at a time, and it wouldn't cost me a dime.That is such a kick-ass song, any car guy can relate. Another good one is Pinkard and Bowden's Guns Made America Great. I think it's supposed to be comedy, but when I play it really loud in my old pickup truck, it keeps the silly little Honda cars far away.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.