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Sony's New Nagging Copy Protection
bort27 writes "You can put away your Sharpies, because Sony has launched a new CD copy protection scheme that is actually designed to be easily cracked: 'The copy-protection technology is...far from ironclad. Apple Macintosh users currently face no restrictions at all. What's more, if users go to a Web site to complain about the lack of iPod compatibility, Sony BMG will send them an email with a back door measure on how to work around the copy protection.'"
So...they've figured out they're not going to stop dedicated music pirates.
So instead of making the copy protection stronger, they're making it weaker?
Ostensibly, this is to stop 'schoolyard piracy' (as if your average 'schoolboy/girl' can't rip tracks to MP3), but I'm seeing a slightly darker angle here...hold on...
<tinfoil-hat>
OK. Here we go:
</tinfoil-hat>
Whew...wearing that thing sure makes you paranoid...but does it make you paranoid enough?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
FtA: "The whole industry is in discussions with Apple, and we hope to have a solution soon," he said.
The "solution" he wants will lock Apple's customers into the music cartel's own brand of DRM. How is that solving anything for the consumer? Fucking prick.
Trolling is a art,
So if you complain about it, they'll tell you how to get around it? Why bother hindering at all?
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Is it a:, so they have a nice list of people who know about the backdoor, or b:, so they can use the DMCA if someone reverses it without being told (i.e. given permission) by Sony?
Get your own free personal location tracker
...is that while the copy protection sucks, we're paying for it in the form of passed on costs from Sony.
what are the legal implications? Your still getting around a copy protection scheme, presumably Sony couldn't sue you, but what about potential criminal penelties?
I mean, are they harvesting the names of these people who request the 'hot backdoor action' and storing them for later use?
This seems a little disturbing- for the first time they're admitting they're not trying to stop big pirate-mills but slow down the consumer? Why does Sony still sell blank CDs, blank minidiscs and blank audio cassettes then? That's a hypothetical question: I mean, I know they make money off it, that's why they sell it. But they continue to distribute the tools of schoolyard piracy, why spend any more time concocting the latest protection scheme? What a waste of employees.
yes. that's all I'm going to say in all comments from now on.
Let's hope they don't start making condoms....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Scientist: We have a new CD protection scheme
Pirate: (Wink* Wink*) I'll buy you lunch if you show me how to hack it.
Scientist: The backdoor info is already online.
Pirate: Screw you then. (Punch scientist, run with CD)
It's actually not such a bad idea, because it's more hassle than most casual music pirates are willing to tolerate. Anyone serious will just Google the workaround and be done with it.
The scary part to me is the e-mail address... now they can start getting a shortlist of people to look at closer for copyright violation issues. I know I'll let someone else ask for the hack and Google it myself...
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. -Thomas Cardinal Wolsey
Anyone know what the backdoor is? And no pictures of goatse please!
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
I don't get it, whether or not it is easily crackable shouldn't matter. The fact of the matter is that the Music Industry has now decided that all of their customers are criminals.
Logically, it makes sense. The path of least resistance is going to be the one that followed. So when games like Half Life 2 or Counterstrike: Source have 'hacks' like aimbots etc made for them, if they are easy games to hack, the hack comes out, you simply ban that individual hack. Since you are still allowing the same method, people will create the hack using the same parameters and you ban each hack because you know exactly how and where to detect it -- and ban all the players with it.
:)
I know it's totally irrelevant, but given the Sony 'initiative' and the fact they publish games... I'm waiting for this to happen too
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
I usually buy about 50 - 70 albums per year. I listen to 75% of my music on an iPod at work, an additional 15% listening to these CDs in my car, and 10% listening to my legally ripped collection of mp3 files on my home PC.
Sony / BMG are making CDs using SunnComm's MediaMaxx that require a software end user licence agreement (EULA) to listen to on a computer, and they can not be ripped into an MP3 or an AAC file. Hence I have no way to listen to these albums on my iPod. I don't believe in agreeing to a EULA to listen to these songs on my home PC, so I can't use these CDs on my PC. And to pay $12-$15 for a CD that I can only listen for twenty minutes on the way to work or doing errands is crazy.
Why is the industry shooting itself in the foot by driving away loyal customers? I want to give bands like Velvet Revolver, Kings of Leon, and the Foo Fighters my hard earned money, but their record labels are not giving me a product that I find acceptable... A good old fashioned compact disk.
I got nothing...
Every time I try to listen to music, I find the industry is laden with idiots. They're preventing an obstacle to my listening enjoyment.
Could you please send me an e-mail telling me how to get around them? Thank you.
ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
They want people to accept DRM, this time its easy to crack-- first hit is free. Next time though...
call me paranoid
Jonathan
If this is DRM based for music CDs then I'm guessing ... guessing mind you. That it's auto-run based. So disabling auto-run, or holding shift when the disc is inserted will fix it right up.
Same reason Macs are unfettered, auo-run Windows code isn't exactly going to affect them now is it?
Sony is gearing up for the next big wave in DRM:
The revolutionary "imaginary" copy protection. Prominently featured on every product, a sharp and stylish sticker heralding the state-of-the-art "Sony Super-Fantastic Copy Protection 5000," a technology so advanced, it can't even be detected! Customers thinking of trying to subvert this new DRM can call an 800 number, where a helpful, sweet-sounding old lady will gently encourage them to do the right thing, so as not to disappoint their mothers and grandmothers.
Taking a DMCA case to court after pointing out the back door makes about as much sense as prosecuting Wal-Mart shoppers for trespassing. If they were going to take you to court they wouldn't be handing out the back-doors in the first place. This is an example of a company trying something new out in the copy-right arena, a scheme that might even have some room in it for "Fair Use"
only one everything
Sony makes copy-protection weaker, while making 'speed bump' obstacle to 'schoolyard piracy'.
Stop right there. This is the entire strategy.
They're making copying their CD a matter of circumventing an encryption device which is a felony under the DMCA. There's guaranteed to be some encryption in this scheme somewhere, even if it's not the actual data tracks that are encrypted. Perhaps some meta information.
No matter, they're taking illegal copying of a CD from copyright infringement to a felony for easier / more terrorizing prosecution. Pragmatically, that's the only way they're going to be able to enforce artificial scarcity in this market.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
This is Sony's way of lewering people into using DRM technologies, once you're hooked in, the noose will slowly tighten.
Sony BMG will send them an email with a "back door" measure on how to work around the copy protection
Note: This was in the context of copying a Sony DRM protected song to your iPod...
This is a tacit admission by Sony that copying the song from the CD to another device falls within the realm of fair use (meaning you don't need Sony's permission to copy it yourself). Obviously most informed consumers believe that but some testamony in recent lawsuits have been arguing against it. It also means that Sony may have a difficult time suing anyone for breaking the new DRM if they plan to tell you how to do so themselves. It, however, could be a problem with the DMCA, as Sony might be telling you how to circumvent Apple's DRM. Should be interesting to see if Apple responds.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
I've got over 1,500 vinyl albums of music of all types, over 1,000 of which I've never played. I've bought them at garage sales and auctions for maybe $100 total. I'm going through and listening, digitizing the ones I like.
So to the Inferno with you, Sony, and may your cash registers melt in the flames of your corporate soul.
sigs, as if you care.
Ok, I'm going to try to reply without getting flamed, but here's my take on this.
I RTFA, but I don't know if this is the same copying protection scheme where a person would be limitted to burning all of the CDs they want from the original, but would prevent the copies from themselves being copied. It's probably not, but stick with me a moment.
While one can argue against copyright as it is now, and information wanting to be free, but considering Fair Use as it is now, such a scheme like that makes sense. The big problem with previous schemes is that it locks out Fair Use.
I purchased NIN - With Teeth. I'm an honest consumer, and I pay for products I find of a good enough quality to deserve my consumer dollars. (I actually own pay for a RHEL license, for instance, even though I can legally get linux for free.)
Now, I immediately made 3 copies of this CD. I ripped the highest quality MP3s to my harddrive (I hate when CD's get scratched, and songs are destroyed), and I burned 2 CD-R copies of the CD, one in MP3 format for my DVD/MP3 entertainment system, and 1 for my car in CDA format.
My copying isn't to give the CD to my friends, but to store my nice new CD away, and use "disposable copies" in the 3 places where I often listen to music: my computer, my entertainment system, and my car. I've only made copies that extend my fair use.
Now, if there were a DRM out there that let me make all these copies, as many times as I want, but just prevented me from 'schoolyard piracy', that's perfectly acceptable for me. Of course, that's considering that I'm free to use the content on any OS I want (linux), in any format I want (my brand of CD-R's, not some locked up high price brand), and that none of my listening preferences or other personal information is sent over the Internet to unlock the files on every play. My privacy is absolutely paramount.
If there is a DRM out there that can accomplish this, I would welcome it with open arms. Of course, I do agree with opening up those copyrights, making them opt-in, and for much shorter tersm. But, if NIN wants to not give their songs away, and use a charge only system, at least for a short term like 20 years, that's ok with me because I'm willing to pay for such excellent music. AFAIK, I can own this CD and listen to it for the rest of my life. I think my $10 (marked down at an independant retailer, not some mega-chain) was a fair trade for this content.
As always, I'm on the lookout for good Creative Commons licensed music as well. Sensable copyright and digital rights management doesn't necessarily mean that you are in league with the RIAA/MPAA, nor does it mean you can't support both it and copyleft. The **AA sense of Fair Use is warped, and they're just wanting the equivilant of a nuclear warhead for DRM.
Cleaning the net one sed at a time! s/sex/sermons/; s/hot/holy/; s/goats/thebible/; www.holysermonswiththebible.com
Once I bought a CD with really bad copy protection. It wouldn't even play in a regular CD player... Until I burned a copy of it!
Scientist: We have a new CD protection scheme
Pirate: (Wink* Wink*) I'll buy you lunch if you show me how to hack it.
This is an example of why record companies should hate DRM. They have to pay the cost of its development. Then, when it's cracked or sold to organized crime in the dialog above, they lose the sales that are going to the pirates instead of music companies.
The consumers gain little because they are paying the pirates nearly the same amount of money that they used to pay to the record companies.
Record companies create their own piracy problems by persisting in the illusion that all music recordings should cost the same. They should institute an auction type of marketing structure for music sales so that people can chose what they would be willing to pay.
This doesn't work when the product is infinitely copyable and little cost. So the entertainment companies should get out of selling things that are infinitely reproducable at low cost and into some other profitable marketable entertainment product.
No, this is exactly right!
You should have to overcome some sort of speed bump, letting you know: "Hey, if you do this thing, you might be breaking the law. Think about it."
But you should still be able to overcome the hurdle. Because, "who knows?" You might actually have the right, it might actually be okay.
Besides: Some laws, you should be able to make the decision to break or not to break. Not all laws, but some laws. For the simple act of copying a file on your computer, you should be the person deciding what to do. But there should be some small barrier to transgress.
It's like the line of rocks on the side of the road at the park. "Please don't cross over this," it tells you. You can, and some do, but most don't.
It's called Soft Security, and it works great. It's all about respecting people, and respecting boundaries. Most people are pretty respectful, and things seem to work. People talk, people have ideas about what is right and wrong, and people don't violate things just willy nilly, provided that there are some cues and attention.
Or you just go ask your "geek friend".
Geeks have friends?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
The most insidious thing about this is the way that Sony/BMG is using this to reframe the dialog about ripping/burning. When I buy a CD and rip some tracks to put on my MP3 player, or to make a backup copy of the CD, I call this "fair use". They call it "casual piracy". JD Lasica has an insightful item on Edward Felten's site about exactly this issue.
My conjecure, but maybe every person they give a key to gets a different key. And this leaves the unencrypted file with a watermark (i.e. variations in the output sound that are undetectable to the human ear) but which can be used to determine what decryption key was used to decrypt it - hence who has made their copy available publicly. They've got your email address and presumably other details, so if that file turns up on P2P sites they know exactly where to place the blame.
43 - For those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
You're wrong because your analogy assumes you have no right to cross the line. In the US, at least, the Home Recording Act and fair use allows us to make copies of our music and share them with friends and family. Any hindrance to that should not be allowed. Simply put, ripping a CD you legally bought is perfectly legal.
Under your analogy, it'd be perfectly reasonable for someone to put a barrier keeping you from entering your own property. Under property law that'd be a nuisance and would clearly be illegal.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
...sex-starved geeks should not make sex analogies.
Anita, I disagree - I think parent post is exactly correct - and notes exactly what you say, that is, that in some cases you do have the right to cross the line. I believe that was exactly the parent posts' point: it's a speed bump to tell you to think about it - but if you've thought about it, and still decide that you have the right to proceed, you actually can Makes total sense to me
Hold down the shift key.
If these CDs work in your CD player, then your computer will recognize it as an audio CD. The only thing they can do to prevent that is to install software on your computer to do otherwise. This is why it only works on windows machines.
"That's so plausible, I can't believe it!" - Leela