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Beastie Boys Respond to DRM Claims

An anonymous reader notes that the Beastie Boys have responded to claims that their new album is DRM-crippled; their response is that the US and UK versions aren't crippled, and the DRM software is only installed in RAM, not on disk. See our previous story for background.

15 of 581 comments (clear)

  1. Server is to Busy: Here is the Text by thenextpresident · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. There is NO copy controlled software on US or UK releases of Beastie Boys' "To the 5 Boroughs."

    2. The disk *IS* copy controlled in Europe - which is standard policy for all
    Capitol/EMI titles (and a policy used by ALL major labels in Europe).

    3. The copy protection system used for all EMI/Capitol releases including "To the 5 Boroughs" is Macrovision's CDS-200, which sets up an audio player into the users RAM (not hard drive) to playback the RED book audio on the disk. It does absolutely NOT install any kind of spyware, shareware, silverware, or ladies wear onto the users system.

    You can find more information on the technology used here:
    http://www.macrovision.com/products/cds/cds 200/ind ex.shtml

    This is what EMI has to say about it:
    Reports that "spyware" is being included on the Beastie Boy's CD, 'To The Five Boroughs' are absolutely untrue.

    While the Beastie Boys CD does use copy control in some territories, there is no copy control on the Beasties Boys discs in the US or the UK. Where copy protection is used, it is Macrovision's CDS-200 technology; the same technology being used for the past several months around the world for all of EMI's releases in those territories. This Macrovision technology does NOT install spyware or vaporware of any kind on a users PC. In fact, CDS-200 does not install software applications of ANY KIND on a user's PC. All the copy protection in CDS-200 is hardware based, meaning that it is dependent on the physical properties and the format of the CD. None of the copy protection in CDS-200 requires software applications to be loaded onto a computer.

    The technology does activate a proprietary Macrovision player in order to play the CD on a PC, and that player converts WMA compressed files to audio on the fly. It also temporarily installs a graphic "skin" for the player. Nothing is permanently installed on a hard drive. These details can be verified in the 'install.log' file in the computer's root directory.

    --
    Jason Lotito
  2. Re:It should... by TWX · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yep. Other companies have released audio CDs with data portions, with stuff like music videos, games, info on the band, and the like on the data segment. The "soundtrack" just happens to be the bulk of the important content while the data portion is a "value added feature".

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. Bought it, ripped it, stored it by snillfisk · · Score: 3, Informative

    .. and all that were done in Europe (where the CD actually contains a "Copy Controlled"-marking, which I didn't see anything about when ordering it on the web), under Windows 2000 (with Auth-play disabled). The OGGs came out perfectly fine without any problems. Yes, the CD should be perfectly playable under linux (unless someone has implemented insertion notification and auto-run and automagical installation and implementation of windows drivers into the kernel. ;)

    And this also goes for all other current protection systems that I've had my hands on during the last months.. No idea why they even try.

    --
    mats
    One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  4. Re:So What? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Informative

    Virus/Worm/Trojan? Nope.

    Trojan, yes. All that is required for a trojan is that it masquerades as something else (music) and causes an undesired effect (enforcement of DRM).

    This is definitely a trojan.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  5. Re:Does it work on Linux? by TwistedSquare · · Score: 3, Informative

    I recently bought a CD labelled as copy protected. When I inserted it into a Windows PC it installed its own little player. Fine I thought, and just ripped it to mp3 (no point making the CD-ROM spin all day). Then as an experiment I copied the CD. I also played it fine in my hi-fi. I fail to see quite how it was "copy-protected".

  6. Re:So What? by Corydon76 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Virus/Worm/Trojan? Nope.

    Actually, Trojan is exactly right. A Trojan Horse is a program which has an unintended payload and may or may not contain self-propagation code.

    Any program which installs itself on your computer without your consent would, in fact, be a Trojan, by definition.

    You are, of course, correct in that it is neither a virus nor a worm. People seem to forget that the reason there are three names is that these are three distinct classes of malware.

  7. Cache by cgenman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google Cache

    1. There is NO copy controlled software on US or UK releases of Beastie Boys' "To the 5 Boroughs."

    2. The disk *IS* copy controlled in Europe - which is standard policy for all
    Capitol/EMI titles (and a policy used by ALL major labels in Europe).

    3. The copy protection system used for all EMI/Capitol releases including "To the 5 Boroughs" is Macrovision's CDS-200, which sets up an audio player into the users RAM (not hard drive) to playback the RED book audio on the disk. It does absolutely NOT install any kind of spyware, shareware, silverware, or ladies wear onto the users system.

    You can find more information on the technology used here:
    http://www.macrovision.com/products/cds/cds 200/ind ex.shtml

    This is what EMI has to say about it:
    Reports that "spyware" is being included on the Beastie Boy's CD, 'To The Five Boroughs' are absolutely untrue.

    While the Beastie Boys CD does use copy control in some territories, there is no copy control on the Beasties Boys discs in the US or the UK. Where copy protection is used, it is Macrovision's CDS-200 technology; the same technology being used for the past several months around the world for all of EMI's releases in those territories. This Macrovision technology does NOT install spyware or vaporware of any kind on a users PC. In fact, CDS-200 does not install software applications of ANY KIND on a user's PC. All the copy protection in CDS-200 is hardware based, meaning that it is dependent on the physical properties and the format of the CD. None of the copy protection in CDS-200 requires software applications to be loaded onto a computer.

    The technology does activate a proprietary Macrovision player in order to play the CD on a PC, and that player converts WMA compressed files to audio on the fly. It also temporarily installs a graphic "skin" for the player. Nothing is permanently installed on a hard drive. These details can be verified in the 'install.log' file in the computer's root directory.

    1. Re:Cache by MC_Cancer_Pants · · Score: 4, Informative

      One thing i've always liked about the Beastie Boys were their technological edge. I find your claims to be highly unfounded and based upon a few songs you heard back in the 80s.

  8. Available at www.allofmp3.com by davebarnes · · Score: 5, Informative

    A wonderful music download site (www.allofmp3.com) has this new album available for download in the format and bit rate of your choice.

    Prices range from $0.03 to $0.30 USD per song.

    So much for DRM attempts.

    --
    Dave Barnes 9 breweries within walking distance of my house
  9. Re:Cognitive Dissonance? by karmatic · · Score: 5, Informative

    The disk uses 2 different TOCs (similar to multi-session). Computers (in general) load the second one, and the audio players load the first. The second one contains encrypted tracks, and a player to play them. It makes some ripping tools have a harder time.

  10. And you didn't bother to show her the RIAA radar? by MacDork · · Score: 3, Informative

    You forgot to show her how to avoid giving the RIAA money at all... You're heart seems to be in the right place, but next time this happens, show them iTunes + RIAA radar. For those that want free, send 'em over to iRate. Encourage those who care to do these simple things, and bands will quickly find out how unpopular it is to be affiliated with those thugs.

  11. Re:Does it work on Linux? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can get past the mobo requirement of most PSUs by shorting the green wire with a black wire.

  12. Re:where warez costs you money... by Fancia · · Score: 3, Informative

    AllOfMP3 pays license fees to ROMS, which in turn pays license fees (minus a very small percentage for operation costs) to the artists.

    --

    Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
  13. Re:Cognitive Dissonance? by Graff · · Score: 3, Informative
    i trust my cd shelf a little bit more than i trust my computer? ...
    then comes all the hassle in case you some day feel like you want some "alternative-ipod"

    iTunes has a way to archive your music fairly easily. Create a playlist with the music you want to archive and burn a data CD or DVD with it. It will burn all of your files to a CD or DVD as AAC files which you can then put in a safebox somewhere.

    As for the alternative music players you can easily convert the iTunes AAC files to some other format by burning a music CD and re-ripping to the format you want or by using one of the open source converters that have popped up. It's fairly simple and then your music is in whatever format you need.

    Sure, its a bit of a hassle as you mentioned but then again it's cheaper than buying both a CD and the iTunes songs as the parent poster was talking about.