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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.
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.
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
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.
Google Cache
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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/cd
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.
The ______ Agenda
S.2145 In comitte, hearings held. S.2131 Status: Referred to Senate committe. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committe on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. H.R.4255 The Computer Software Privacy and Control Act. Status: Referred to the Subcommitte on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. S.563 The Computer Owner's Bill of Rights These bills, if passed, would make such programs illegal. YAY!
Not a sentence!
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
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.