When Copy Protection Fails 509
StArSkY writes "The Age in Australia has an article today explaining the experiences of a Melbourne guy who purchased the Norah Jones CD tht is 'copy protected.' Unfortunately the only way he could listen to the CD on Apple computers or Intel computers running XP was to copy the CD. This sort of defeats the purpose of the copy protection in the first place. Serious yet amusing at the same time."
Simple solution. (Score:5, Insightful)
IŽve said it before, and IŽll say it again (Score:5, Insightful)
The best (or worst, depending of if you are an exec of a user) the record companies can do is to make their products a little bit more inconvenient to make copies of. They do this by making it more difficult (but never ever impossible) or time consuming to make copies. That is all.
To call it 'protection' is like wrapping your wiener in toilet paper and calling it a condom. It's stupid, it doesn't get yhe job done and it's only uncomfy. (I think, haven't tried it.)
Damn, they just lost another sale... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yay, copy-protection technology; costing you more business than it will "save" you.
Jay
Wouldn't a more interesting title be... (Score:2, Insightful)
I mean, come on... it only worked if he copied it! Hello?
-- james
Copy protection is currently impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Copy protection only works in systems that have been designed from the ground up to be copy protected.
Any video or audio that is decodeable on a PC can be hijacked from that same PC.
The only way to protect your data is to control the hardware. The only reason DVDs are hard to copy is because you can't get a DVD-r that has the same capacity.
the MPIAA is in a much better situation compared to the RIAA considering cd audio is already good enough, that consumers don't really feel the need to switch to a higher quality version of the CD. Where on the other hand, DVDs are much better than VHS tapes, and have the added benefit of being harder to copy.
lucky for consumers... (Score:4, Insightful)
if the primary purpose for the copy "speedbump" is to keep the MP3's off file sharing networks i.e. Kazaa, then it's not going to work. there is someone out there patient enough to encode in real time while listening to the cd.
the problem thw RIAA and Co. face is: the file sharing networks - not the consumer that wants to listen to his/her new cd on the computer or make a backup copy because the originals always get all scratched up on the floorboard of the car.
Re: More and more of this ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I listen to most of my music at work using my PC and my headphones. So my wife recently got me the new Phil Collins CD ... for me to find out that I can't listen to it on a PC.
All that this achieves is that I'm being pushed towards downloading the tracks so that I can listen to them. At that point, what stops me from not being the CD since it won't work for me? The record companies will end up shooting their own foot off ...
I have nothing against buying reasonably priced CD's. However, I do not think that 20 euros is reasonable (although Switzerland is fortunately quite a bit cheaper than that).
Maybe I should write to Phil himself .. what do artists think about it?
Cheers.
Why oh why (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess my point is, they should really stop alienating their customers. I have never seen a business model that treats their customers so badly. People are still going to buy your albums! We made copies of cassette tapes, we're going to make copies of CD's and were giong to make copies of MP3's. Get over it, it's how it works. You're still going to make so much money! Get over it, ok?
They're probably spending more money fighting this stupid war on whatever than they are going to save. All they are doing is making people resent them and want to steal from to the point where smart people are going to keep cracking their stuff and become passionate about distributing it all. Another day, another enemy for the RIAA. Because of their actions, I would wadger that they have made many people angry to the point where they don't want to buy their albums, where they want to steal their albums and frankly, it's a war they will not win. You cannot go to war with your consumers. They are your friends!
Think about it, what other business would do this? If you walked into a store and they started accusing you of stealing and would only sell you things in such a way where you were oblivious to most of what it contained and treated you like shit all around, who would come back? I'm getting to the point where I'm going to want to steal all their music, just to spite them.
In short, they need to settle down and just accept the market as it is. They choose a digital format because it is VERY cheap to make, thus increasing profits one billion fold and yet cannot cope with the fact that this cheap medium will also allow people to send a "free" album out to someone from time to time.
And lets face it, I would bet most albums people download etc are albums they probably would not buy in the first place. How many play lists of people have you seen that have tons of songs you know they would never buy anyways?
Anyways, the main point is that the customer just BOUGHT the album, WTF are you doing? They B-O-U-G-H-T it!
AHHHH!!
Re:lucky for consumers... (Score:2, Insightful)
There is analog video protection (MacroVision), but there are boxes that allow you to circumvent it (*ahem*... "to clean up the video"
In my book, it's the classic NSA security problem: how you do make a code that is strong enough that most people can't decrypt it, but weak enough that they can? (I hope that's somewhat relevent...)
Just my 2 cents....
I've just been forced to download the Blur CD too. (Score:5, Insightful)
I purchase the CD and try to play it at work on Windows 2000 and it just isn't recognised... WinAmp insisting that no audio CD was in the drive.
So to listen to the album on my PC I just downloaded the bloody thing from alt.binaries.sound.mp3.complete_cd
Not illegal in any way since I now own the original... but bloody stupid and makes me realise that the only way I may now enjoy EMI releases at work will be to download a copy... which really defeats everything their system is trying to stop.
'Tis a mad, mad world.
Re:Wouldn't a more interesting title be... (Score:3, Insightful)
The solution for RIAA and others is simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, it costs a lot to make a CD. You need to spend a time in the studio. (expensive) You need to make sure it souds right. (not so expensive, I guess) And you need to promote it (expensive).
Then why in the name of all holy cows does the anniversary Dark Side of the Moon cost the same as the newest girl/boy band CD?
You don't need to record it, you don't need to promote it. (Have you seen much Pink Floyd on MTV lately?) You just remix it and press it. Voila! You have a great CD that people will buy, even though they have at least 2 versions already of that album!
I don't give a rat ass anymore about RIAA...
Listen to something else... (Score:5, Insightful)
Spend your CD money on world, jazz, classical, flamenco, folk, blues, celtic, indie or anything else outside the mainstream - but just stay away from the popular artists. There's a vast world of great music out there to be discovered - help out the artists, broaden your horizons, and give the big music companies a kick in the pants. Furthermore if they see their cd sales drop, but cd sales in general rise they're not stupid enough that they won't draw conclusions.
I want discs that work forever not just current hw (Score:4, Insightful)
With a CD you know it will work in anything with a CD logo on it. With these things you could find in five years time that you don't have any hardware that will play it.
When my bog standard CD player dies I'm unlikely to replace it. I already have two PCs, an xBox and a DVD player that should be perfectly capable of playing my music but won't these discs don't work (or at least the one disc I tried).
If particular versions of copy protection are only employed for a short period time then future hardware manufacters aren't going to worry too much about compatibility with every single different type.
That's why I took 100th Window back and why I haven't bought one of these discs since. And I used to buy 3-4 CDs a month.
Its all pointless. (Score:2, Insightful)
The copy protection is obviously supposed to stop group 1 from copying the disks but this is the group that probably knows how to get round the protection anyway.
All that is happening is the record company is inconveniencing group 1 and annoying group 2. Its a lose/lose situation.
If its possible to listen to a cd then its possible to copy it, so why are the record companies determined to p1ss off 100% of their customers with these half-baked schemes.
Protected CD vs MP3 (Score:4, Insightful)
EMI says 1 + 1 = 3 (Score:5, Insightful)
"Once there, he tried to listen to his new acquisition, using his Titanium laptop which runs version 10.2 of Apple's operating system. There was no response, with the disc not being recognised.
One can't blame Marovitch for not trying - he tried to listen to the disc on a workstation which runs Windows 2000 and then on one which runs Windows XP.
In both cases, he got no joy. The disc was not picked up by the system. "
from EMI
"As the technology was created to be played through its own embedded player on the CD itself and not any other player that is currently available to the PC/Apple, it will cause anomalies if played in any other manner."
Now
RETURN defective crap. It will work. (Score:5, Insightful)
I took it home, and...you guessed it. It wouldn't play with WMP 8, Real, or WinDVD in any of 4 drives I tried on two machines. I did find some old shareware player that would play it, but it was a crap player, and I couldn't stand the jumpiness, digital blocking, and other fine artifacts whilst I watched.
So, I trotted it's little shiny ass right back to Walmart, stood in line for 20 minutes, and, after reading the "no refunds on opened CDs, DVDs or Software" about 412 times, I got to the front of the line. I handed the 17 year old girl my DVD, which she inspected closely.
"Yeah, it's been opened," I said. "It's ok. I just need a refund." "Uhhhh, sir? We don't really...ummm...do refunds...on...ummm...opened...uhhh...stuff like this."
I grinned, and said, "That's ok. Just need my money back, thanks. It doesn't work." I was thinking to myself, how do I explain DVD copy protection to this girl without making her head explode or having her gnaw her arm off to escape?
"Well, I can't really...ummm...give a refund on this. Would you like to exchange it for another one?" "Nope," I said with a smile. "Just my money back. Thanks."
She pointed to the tiny sign about no refunds on DVDs and said "Well, we have a policy..." I interrupted her with my best Fargo-esque Minnesota accent, "Hey, you betcha. Y'know...Yeah, I see your big sign right there...yeah, that one. Hey, that's great. 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' Wow. That sign's gotta be 12 feet tall, huh? Dontcha figure that sorta makes this little one here not really all that important?" She stared at me blankly (We're in Portland, not Minnesota, and I don't think she got it.)
"Yeah, ummm...I'm gonna have to call my manager." "Not a problem," says I, with a chorus of groans from the people in line behind me...So, the manager shows up, and she's gotta be at LEAST 19, with a cool ring of keys around her wrist. GOTTA be important stuff, huh? The clerk hands her the DVD with a conspiratorial look at me..."it's been opened..." she whispers quietly to the manager.
So, after a 5 minute diatribe about the horrors of this copy protection crap, she just shook her head, "We can't return this." At which point I pulled out my cell phone (which was off), punched 911 so she could see me, and said, "Are you suure? I've got nothing else to do tonight."
So, I got my money back.
Return your DEFECTIVE DVDs and CDs. If we don't, all we're doing is encouraging them!
One thing that bothers me here... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that my computer has any programs ending with .exe, but still...
Re:Australian Copyright Law (Score:1, Insightful)
Almost all CD players copy data off the CD into a solid-state buffer before piping it into the DAC, to minimize the audible effects of skipping.
Under an extremely literal interpretation of copyright law, the simple act of playing a CD in a CD player could be in violation.
A blip on the radar (Score:3, Insightful)
In this case, however, laziness plays the exact opposite role. While pirates are going to step up to the plate and see this as a challenge (perhaps even a welcome one), your average consumer simply won't buy a product that doesn't work in the way they believe it should (in this case, CDs that, well, actually play). It might take a while since public knowledge of this scheme is still very low, but all it's going to take for your average person is one such incident as cited in the article, and you can bet they'll stop buying cd's with those new-fangled operating instructions on the artwork.
In a couple years these ridiculous, half-assed protection schemes are going to be chalked up as a lesson in business failure in some MBA textbook, and beyond that will only be history. In Soviet Russia, the KGB makes unauthorized copies of you.
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:3, Insightful)
1) unplug one CD or DVD drive. Of course this is stupid. I have to power down, unplug the drive, and power up. Now I can't use my CD or DVD drive.
2) download a crack from the internet, copy the game, and play using the copy.
Neither solution is reasonable, especially as a long-term solution. So I took approach approach #3:
3) Never buy any more games from Electronic Arts. They are probably already defective. Why would I want to spend $50 on a defective product?
So if you are running a software company, take this point home: If you can't trust me to use your product in my home without massive restrictions, I can't trust you to pay for your product. It is called a business RELATIONSHIP because somewhere there is trust. Eliminate the trust, and the relationship is broken.