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.'"

Comments

Interesting...

[TripMaster Monkey]

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:

1. Sony makes copy-protection weaker, while making 'speed bump' obstacle to 'schoolyard piracy'.
   
2. Correspondingly, more people turn from 'schoolyard piracy' to 'actual piracy'.
   
3. RIAA suddenly has many more viable targets
   
4. ???
   
5. Profit!

</tinfoil-hat>

Whew...wearing that thing sure makes you paranoid...but does it make you paranoid enough?

Re:Interesting...

[pioneerX]

If it is simple enough that even thundering idiots can get round it, they will have easier targets to prosecute.

Re:Interesting...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

From a borderline paranoid schizo allow me to address this.

Look at the bright side: you outnumber your ennemies 2 to 1.

Re:Interesting...

[wo1verin3]

Sony's new number one enemy: Little Timmy

Re:Interesting...

[vettemph]

I've used tinfoil to gain reception on a TV (a very long time ago). Something tells me we've been tricked into wearing the tinfoil to block signals when in-fact the tinfoil aids reception. ...the ultimate reverse psychology from the propaganda machine. We've been tricked. Do you provide a special resistor/inductor filter to ground in order to attenuate incoming programming?
Perhaps the grounded tinfoil shielding reduces your emmissions in order to avoid a tempest attack?
I'm confused, what shall we do?

Re:Interesting...

[merlin_jim]

From a borderline paranoid schizo allow me to address this.

Look at the bright side: you outnumber your ennemies 2 to 1.

Yeah but I don't fully trust my ally. I sometimes wonder if he's a traitor.

Re:Interesting...

[TripMaster Monkey]

Yeah but I don't fully trust my ally. I sometimes wonder if he's a traitor.

You know, he said the same thing about you...

^_^

Re:Interesting...

[Retric]

I still smell spin.

RIAA: "We want copyright protection!"
Development: "Hmm, this works on stupid people..."
Marketing: "We can spin that!"

And that's how we get a new useless product.

Re:Interesting...

[Leomania]

I've seen a 10 years old kid who knew how to rip/burn protected CDs because "he wanted it" and "his friends shown him how to do it."

I sure remember how much more interesting/fun something seemed as a kid if it was something I was told I shouldn't do. Back then it was something like swinging on the rope swing that swung out over the sheer 150 foot cliff behind my house; take intrinsic danger and add a large helping of "I'd not better catch you on that rope swing EVER AGAIN!" and boy, it was irresistable.

Later is was figuring out the copy protection used by the "Space Quest" video game (inserting debug break commands [cc, which was "int 3" IIRC] to make using debug harder); I still bought the game, but I couldn't help but go figure out how to break the copy protection. No harm, no foul; never shared what I figured out.

With music piracy, kids now perceive little if any danger. Adding weak copy protection may just make them feel like they have to break it just to get away with something. For the little geeks out there, at any rate. I don't see how it could possibly curb casual copying, nor why three copies is considered "okay". It's just weird.

ok...

[Chewbacon]

So if you complain about it, they'll tell you how to get around it? Why bother hindering at all?

Interesting...

[caluml]

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?

The sad part...

[CyberSnyder]

...is that while the copy protection sucks, we're paying for it in the form of passed on costs from Sony.

Re:The sad part...

[CSMastermind]

All ready got you covered there. In fact if a company were to come out and say, look we don't believe in DRM and we're going to not enforce it at all, then they would have my business hands down.

Re:The sad part...

[waynelorentz]

Do you have cable? Or Dish Network/DirecTV/whatever? All of those distribution channels are encrypted and copy protected, just like the distribution channel of a copy-protected CD. Even over-the-air television networks (in the United States) are copy protected as they travel from the network to the satellite, and back to the station for transmission to you.

Have you ever been to the movies? Some theaters have infrared lights behind the screen to thward movie copying. Thus, you've bought a copy-protected product.

Do you own a car? Go ahead and try to reverse-engineer the electronics and you'll find out what many mom-and-pop repair shops already know -- it's copy protected.

Ever read a newspaper? Copyright protection there, which some people see as copy protection. And if you go along with that line of thinking, then look at the bottom of your screen where it says "© 1997-2005 OSTG." That's right -- Slashdot is protected by copyright, and thus, laws against copying its content. In other words --copy protection.

There's no point in fighting the war. You've already lost.

Re:The sad part...

[diamondsw]

There is definitely a difference between copyright, which provides for your fair use, and copy protection, which prevents it. Copyrighted works are not part of anyone's "war" but your own - they're perfectly valid (the Congressional extensions, that's another matter).

Furthermore, the auto electronics do prevent reverse engineering and diagnostics, but they aren't "copy protection". Your mechanic is not trying to make a copy of the engine, he's trying to figure out what's wrong to fix it.

Infrared lights in theaters? Cable signals? Yup, that is copy protection. The others are not.

If you use the back door you are given...

[vrimj]

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?

what do they do with those emails?

[burnunit0]

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.

Let's just hope....

[Himring]

Let's hope they don't start making condoms....

Re:Let's just hope....

[madaxe42]

No no, you've got it all wrong. They're assholes. The RIAA are dicks. We are all pussys.

Assholes make DRM'd CDs so the dicks can fuck pussys, but what the assholes don't realise is that one day, that dick is going to turn right around and fuck an asshole. Also, the dicks haven't realised that pussys can't fuck assholes, nor can assholes fuck pussys - so all we need to do is get rid of the dicks, and have a happy world full of assholes and pussys!

Lawsuit shortlist?

[seanmcelroy]

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...

backdoor

[justforaday]

Anyone know what the backdoor is? And no pictures of goatse please!

Re:backdoor

[Steve_Jobs_HNIC]

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.

Sony Assumes too Much

[izznop]

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.

Re:Sony Assumes too Much

[tuffy]

Do you feel the same way about security tags in shops?

I would if I had to keep the tag on even after I've bought the item.

Re:Sony Assumes too Much

[OglinTatas]

"Do you feel the same way about security tags in shops?"

"I would if I had to keep the tag on even after I've bought the item."

You, sir, are a marketing genius!
We are going to need venture capital to lobby congress to pass legislation to make it illegal to remove those tags.
The consumer buys a dress and wears it once. If she attempts to wear it to another social event (which, I understand, is some kind of social faux pas--don't ask me I've worn the same suit for ten years.) the ink charge will explode and force her to buy a new dress.
We can spin it as a _benefit_ to the consumer, saving her from the embarassment of going to two friends' weddings and being caught wearing the same dress.
Let's patent this business method, and I will split the profits with you.

I'm waiting for game developers to do this...

[HerculesMO]

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 :)

What about Sony / BMG's existing DRM?

[linicks]

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.

Re:What about Sony / BMG's existing DRM?

[futuresheep]

I think someone else posted the link, but here's a step by step on getting around MediaMaxx in order to use your fair use rights:

Source

• Start with a Windows 2000/XP system with empty CD drives.

  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. If MediaMax has never been started before on the same computer, the SbcpHid driver should appear on the list for the first time. However, on some systems Windows needs to be rebooted before the driver becomes visible.

  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.
  3. Set the Startup Type to "Disabled" using the dropdown list.

  Also, I'd suggest disabling autorun.

its a trojan horse

[vingilot]

They want people to accept DRM, this time its easy to crack-- first hit is free. Next time though...

call me paranoid

Jonathan

Wouldn't stand up in court.

[Rowan_u]

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"

Sing it with me - D. M. C. A.

[bill_mcgonigle]

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.

WARNING it's a trap!

[argoff]

This is Sony's way of lewering people into using DRM technologies, once you're hooked in, the noose will slowly tighten.

Re:and in comes the internet

[Simonetta]

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.

Soft Security, Guide Posts: right on!

[LionKimbro]

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.

Actually I think it's worse than this

[DFJA]

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.