Beastie Boys' New Album Silently Installs DRM Code

nfsilkey writes "After more than five years, the Beastie Boys have released a new album. It seems that the retail disc is bundled with a copy protection autoinstaller which silently silently puts itself onto the listener's computer. Many listeners are up in arms and some are venting their frustrations on the band's website."

DRM for what?

[Hello Spaceman]

I bought "To The 5 Boroughs" (cause I'm representin' Manhattan), and ripped all the tracks to my iPod with no problems. Just what does the DRM code do?

I'm on a Mac, is this another case where I'm missing out on the DRM fun because of platform neglect? (There IS a Mac partition on the disc, but all it seems to have on it is a Macromedia presentation with a QuickTime movie.)

Re:Illegal?

[teknokracy]

When one goes in-depth into the "end user license agreement" that we all say "I agree" to, it becomes apparent that you actually do warrant them to install such an application. I'd imagine it would be part of the liner notes, interactive software related agreement, or perhaps even just a simple "look on this site to see the license agreement" blurb.

Re:Fuck them.

[Anonymous Coward]

They did have their own damn label with their own damn distribution channels. It was called Grand Royale.

It failed miserable and went bankrupt owing a lot of money to a lot of people.

As for contracts -- these generally follow individual members of bands as well as the band entity as itself.

Does the band know or care..?

[lovecult]

To quote from
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/11/new_beasties_ disc_ha.html

Update: Ian sez, "Hi, I'm not sure who posted re: Beastie Boys copy protection, but I just spoke with Mike D and their management and they wanted me to pass along that a) This is all territories except the US and UK -- US and UK discs do not have this protection on them; b) All EMI CDs are treated this way, theirs isn't receiving special treatment; c) They would have preferred not to have the copy protection, but weren't allowed to differ from EMI policy."

So for all Windows users

[Sycraft-fu]

This is one of the reasons to disable autorunning of CDs. It's nice yes, but really, it's not a big deal to take the extra step to go to the CD and run setp. Since this sort of game of actually installing software without asking seems to be getting popular, it's a good rpeventitive step.

To shut it off, open your registry editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Cdrom and set the Autorun value to 0. You cal also download TweakUI from Microsoft (go to Microsoft.com and search for TweakUI) which will change the key for you, as well as altering other behaviour.

When you do this, Windows will no longer popup and do anything when you put a disk in. Instead, it will wait for you to do something. For normal data disks, this means you'll have to go run setup yourself. For evil audio disks such as this, they'll simply never install their BS and you can play as normal.

Re:Illegal?

[xigxag]

Illegal in the US, you mean?

One of the comments in the cited links says that the copy protection is only for discs sold outside the US and UK.

Re:Illegal?

[DarkMantle]

Two words...

Spy-Ware

That said, if it's a stardard EXE I don't see how it would run on linux. [linux.com] :D And since Linux doesn't have an autorun annoyance... I mean feature, we'd have to consciously install it.

Once again, the solution is... Don't use M$ Windows [microsoft.com]. (Sorry Mac people, I have had no recent experience with a Mac to make a comment on it.

No it Doesn't

[Anonymous Coward]

It asks can it install.

I answered "No".

Then I ripped with EAC.

Then I encoded it with oggdrop.

Then filed the physical CD away.

They aren't the only ones.

[AltGrendel]

The new Velvet Revolver does the same thing. It has a CD driver that is silently installed whether you accept the "EULA" or not. The only way around this (for Windows users) is to turn off auto start. I'm trying to get my SCSI CDRW running on my Linux system to see if it's prodected there.

And even if you do get round the protection, the burner software may check for "Proper Licensing" anyway. I know MusicMatch does.

Re:So for all Windows users

[brickbat]

You can also disable AutoRun via the properties for your drive in Device Manager. Or, you can turn it off temporarily by holding down the Shift key while loading the disc.

Re:Shift key to skip install?

[Embedded2004]

I believe it works by the cd auto run feature in windows. Which I have long since disabled. Why anyone would let cds automatically run and install stuff in this day an age is beyond me.

Re:So for all Windows users

[santos_douglas]

Excellent advice, another crucial piece of software I never run windows without is Mike Lin's Startup Monitor. [mlin.net] Which will pop up a dialogue box and notify you if a program attempts to install itself to run on startup. You can then allow or disallow. This is good for stopping all kind of annoying things from happening to your PC.

TweakUI

[Ryan Stortz]

Download TweakUI from the MS Power Toys section [microsoft.com], it will let you change a slew of settings. Including disabling autorun.

I'm also pretty sure that holding shift when you put the cd in will do the same thing.

Do as I say, not as I do...

[Hello Spaceman]

Does anyone else find it ironic that the inside flap of the album is halfway filled up with copyright notices for all the samples the Beastie Boys used to create this album...

Would it have even been possible to make this album if the sources of those clips had been DRM restricted?

also, did anyone else notice the outer sleeve of the album states: "Although this product is intended to play on most CD players and operates on most personal computers ... Capitol Records is not liable if it does not or if it damages any CD players, computers, peripherals, or data."

And instead of calling itself a CD it has a logo that says "Enhanced CD", and it's noted that "'Enahanced CD' is a certification mark of the RIAA."

Autoplay and AutoRUN are different.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's different. There's Autoplay and Autorun.

Autoplay (which you are talking about) just tells Windows what to do when you insert a disc containing certain types of content (images, audio, etc.). It won't start an installer or do anything bad. It can be configured or turned off when inserting one of these discs or through the properties for the drive. It can also be setup separately for removable media (such as USB drives and cameras).

Autorun can be used to launch any program/command, and can be used to start installers on the CD or programs on your computer, which is why most commercial software and games will pop up a window with options when you insert the disc. Leaving this on will leave you at the mercy of the people who made the CD. It can be turned off like the GP poster explained, or temporarily disabled by holding SHIFT when inserting the disc.

Autoplay is actually kind of cool, but unfortunately it requires Autorun being enabled. I can live without it though.

Re:They aren't the only ones.

[AnyoneEB]

It's pretty well hidden in Windows XP. You have to use the group policies manager to disable it. Goto start --> run --> "gpedit.msc" (thanks to the other replier, I forget what it was called) --> Local Computer Policy --> Administrative Templates --> System (click it) --> on the right pane find "Turn off Autoplay" in the list --> right-click --> properties --> select the "enable" radio button.

Note that you can hold down shift while putting in a CD to disable autoplay for just that time.

Buying CDs

[$beirdo]

Wow - I'm *really* not going to be buying any more CDs anytime soon, then. Way to go EMI, gutting your own business and all!

Re:So for all Windows users

[EdMcMan]

The new version of Spybot S&D does this too. The component is called teatimer.

Definitely very useful!

Re:They aren't the only ones.

[CitizenJohnJohn]

You can do this with Tweak-UI [annoyances.org]. More info here [annoyances.org]

Re:Do as I say, not as I do...

[Waffle Iron]

Would it have even been possible to make this album if the sources of those clips had been DRM restricted?

These days, the recording companies seem to have a special system in place to trade sample rights. The liner notes often say something like "sample licensed through so-and-so recording company special products division". I'm sure that if DRM was somehow preventing their sampling (although they would probably work around this by holding down the shift key like anyone else), they could arrange to get an official sample straight from the source.

The ironic thing is that the Beastie Boys' early days, before court rulings that forced people to pay up, they did massive sampling without attributing the sources. I have their "Paul's Boutique" album from 1989 (A pretty good CD, IMO). I've seen a blurb somewhere that said that an album like this couldn't be made today, given that each track contains at least 2 or 3 recognizable samples. In fact, I'd say that the samples are so prominent, they are the main "musical instrument" on the record. Many of these weren't obscure samples either; I recognized some of the main "hooks" out of several top-40 hits. There are zero credits in the liner notes mentioning any of these samples.

Compare this to The Verve, who tried to get away with only a slightly worse sample ripoff a decade later, and got their asses handed to them on a platter by the Rolling Stones' lawyers.

Still can't believe that everyone thinks...

[jammindice]

That just by switching to another os or hacking some registry key is the answer to everything. It's not that you can do this or that and minimize all of the problems it's the fact that you believe it's the only way. For example i just read:

When you can't even listen to your music without worrying about what programs may be installed on your computer, you need a different operating system.

Switching os's isn't the answer! hell i hate windows but i have to use it everyday for my job and ends up being a functional part of my life, i'm not going to just up and switch to linux or unix or even mac, i couldn't use them our software at work is all windows programming so not to put the others down i have a freebsd box at home, but the simple fact of not being able to run my windows box and be left alone is utterly rediculous.

I shouldn't have to go hack my registry or turn off autoplay to listen to an audio cd so it won't install malicious programs, i shouldn't be made to use mozilla or opera just to stop spyware from my computer. I like everything just the way it is and i don't want to go and alter my whole life because all of these RIAA assholes, stupid 14 year old kids in Germany writing viruses, and EVERY company that has EVER created a program that ever ran on my computer without my concent are all trying to basically hack my box which is illegal period.

Switching os's is good for a couple years then shit will come out for that one, and of course the intelligence of the user is always to blame.

I work for an ISP and we had a guy running a linux server, that thing got hacked every week i bet, thing was always crashing and causing major problems.

So it's not about educating the user, or switching software all the time or even turning everything off, where's the fun in that? and what happened to my freedom of choice then?

if i can't choose to use windows without being bombarded by viruses, pop-ups, malware, and spyware and everything else why even bother having a computer in the first place?

Having a choice is the most basic right and everyone is taking that away.

5 bucks says the shift key circumvents this....

[anakin357]

Two links:

New Audio CD DRM Defeated by Use of ''SHIFT'' Key [yale.edu]

Google search that found above link, good read. [google.com]

Re:Illegal?

[madmancarman]

anyway, who is Ian $ez? Tell Ian that part of the whole point i$ that it doe$n't matter how the arti$t feel$ about copy protection. The label$ have been in the court$ and in front of the pre$$, repeatedly talking about the right$ of the arti$t; how well doe$ that rhetoric $tand up when we learn that the arti$t has no right to avoid $uch protection?

It's probably Ian Rogers [student.com], the webmaster for the Beastie Boys' web site [beastiemania.com] for a very long time - starting in 1994. I worked with Ian a bit when I was running the original Foo Fighters site, he's actually a really nice guy (Foo Fighters and Beastie Boys used to share the same management, Gold Mountain Entertainment, now GAS or something like that).

With how the industry works, I'm sure he had absolutely nothing to do with this, but instead it was label decision as has already been pointed out. It's another perfect example of how disconnected the music industry is from its fans (at least those in non-english speaking countries - the software doesn't exist on the US or UK releases).

Re:There is autorun on Mac OS

[mj_1903]

There is no autorun similar to the Windows variant that automatically starts an exe up. There is only 'autorun' for Audio CD's, DVD's and camera's, etc, media that cannot do any damage to the machine.

Re:Illegal?

[Mycroft_VIII]

A 'Blue Moon' is the second full moon in the same callendar month, IIRC every 12 to 13 months.
Just some odd trivia I thought I'd throw out. Was going to try for funny, but can't think of a way to make it funny. Oh well.

Mycroft

TCPA is not DRM

[Mephie]

I also told them why .... I will not buy DRM ..TCPA....Copy controlled disks...ect

TCPA is actually now TCG, Trusted Computing Group, and doesn't have anything to do with DRM. It's essentially a standards body that specifies compliance for hardware security modules, or TPMs (Trusted Platform Modules), which also don't have to have anything to do with DRM. For example, IBM makes desktop and laptop computers with TCG compliant TPMs on the systemboard which exist for the sole purpose of providing security for your data, not ensuring that you install only "trusted" software or don't violate this copyright or whatever, and cannot, in fact, be used for that function.

A refusal to buy anything TCPA (which is actually TCG) is pointless. You're boycotting the wrong thing.

Re:Very true

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are advocating that Windows sucks because it has the most viruses, or spyware, etc and people should therefore switch to your platform (Mac, Linux, whatever) since it does not, you are misunderstanding cause and effect.

(sigh...) Even if OS X was as popular as Windows, this wouldn't happen because OS X doesn't allow autorun. Thanks for the regurgitated argument, but sorry, it doesn't apply.

Re:Very true

[sakusha]

Oh, ferchrissake, stop spouting that old FUD about how Windoze market dominance means it's the preferred target for viruses, and if Mac had a 90% share, it would be targeted too. It's just not true. [daringfireball.net]

Re:Heh

[Beek]

I've bought two albums with EMI's copy protection... I couldn't tell the difference from a normal CD. I played normally, and was able to rip all the tracks into iTunes.

If it did install something, it was done in some extremely sneaky fashion. I didn't notice it installing anything, and it would have somehow got around the fact that I was an unprivileged user.

Re:Control

[DavidBrown]

Having your computer be that much of a hassle is not my definition of easy. Not to mention that XP and win2k systems still seem to lockup or blue screen quite regularly despite the much touted "stability improvements"...

Sorry, but I haven't seen the BSOD in two years - and this is counting my computers at home and 16 at work, all running Windows XP. Please feel free to comment about Windows security issues, and the amount of resources XP gobbles up, and Microsoft's secret plan to take over the world, but the OS itself is very stable and does what it's supposed to do.

it's a Mac OS 9 vulnerability

[dmoen]

The vulnerability doesn't exist in MacOS X, unless you are running the Classic subsystem. To protect yourself, start up Classic, run the Classic QuickTime control panel, and disable "AutoStart". Now your Mac will not automatically run malware on inserted CDs.

So that's why most MacOS X users will not have their machines infected--they aren't running Classic at the time they insert the CD.

Doug Moen.

Re:5 bucks says the shift key circumvents this....

[Anonymous Coward]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Re:There is autorun on Mac OS

[Graff]

This is the first I've heard of copy protection being installed through autorun on Mac OS, but yes, there is autorun. In fact there was a worm that spread this way a couple years back.

There is no autorun feature under Mac OS X 10.3 and I'm pretty sure it wasn't in 10.2 either. There is an autorun in Mac OS 9 and I believe there was one in versions of Mac OS X previous to 10.2

The only thing in Mac OS X which is similar to autorun is that you can set certain actions to happen when you put a CD or DVD in the drive. The default is for a blank CD or DVD to ask you what to do, for a music CD to open iTunes, a photo CD to open iPhoto and a video DVD to open DVD Player. All other CDs or DVDs will be just be mounted in the Finder if they contain a filesystem readable by Mac OS X.

None of these default actions will cause anything else to be run or anything to be installed on your computer. If you want you can change the default actions to run another application, to run a script, or to be ignored.

Re:Illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't believe in this crap, download the beastie torrent. [66.90.75.92]

That site also has some newbie instructions on how to disable autorun. [tech-recipes.com]

They have better linux [tech-recipes.com] and solaris [tech-recipes.com] stuff if you are interested.

Re:Illegal?

[the arbiter]

Regarding Ian's comment: bullshit. The software is alive and present on the US release. I can't speak for the UK, because I didn't buy a copy there. But it's on mine.

The disc sucks too. I'm doubly unhappy.

shift key

[Spetiam]

Nor with the SHIFT key held down on Windows?

Re:Score Another One for OSX

[aristotle-dude]

Just be sure to either disable Classic or disable the Autorun feature in Quicktime for Mac OS9.

If you don't have Mac OS 9, you don't have anything to worry about.

Re:it's a Mac OS 9 vulnerability

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. And to clarify, you CAN NOT turn on autorun in Mac OSX at all. It's not even available.

Re:Hold Down Shift - Ripping Success

[Johnathon_Dough]

I was talking to a friend of mine who got past some DRM he had on a CD by going to the preferences in iTunes, and turning on "use error correction" under the "importing" section.

also works pretty well for those cd's that have been floating around your car for a while.

Re:beastieboys.com Offline

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Most of the time Slashdot spelling comments are just offtopic nitpicking (especially the virii/viruses debate), but seriously, "buyed"!?

Repeat after me.
B. O. U. G. H. T.

Slashdot's language is English, and English has its share of irregular verbs. If you don't like it, use a constructed language like Interlingua or Esperanto or Lojban...but leave normal English the bleep alone.

Re:Illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong! The DRM does not run on Mac OS X... I know no one still using OS 9 except schools and libraries who have little money to upgrade.

Re:You could also

[midknight32]

I've tried to operate like that before, but there is still so much software (especially games, an amazing percentage of the ones from MS even) that just don't WORK unless you have admin priviledges.

I found this out when setting up a non-admin account for my self to use. Ended up using my admin account more often than not to play the games I wanted to.

As of a year ago the Palm desktop installer and hotsync stuff needed to be installed using admin permissions, IN THE ACCOUNT OF THE USER USING THE PALM.

Pennsylvania Anti-hacking Statute

[Windcatcher]

Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes

CRIMES AND OFFENSES (TITLE 18)

CHAPTER 39. THEFT AND RELATED OFFENSES

3933. Unlawful use of computer.

(a) Offense defined.--A person commits the offense of unlawful use of a computer if he, whether in person, electronically or through the intentional distribution of a computer virus:

1. accesses, exceeds authorization to access, alters, damages or destroys any computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, computer program or data base or any part thereof, with the intent: to interrupt the normal functioning of an organization or to devise or execute any scheme or artifice to defraud or deceive or control property or services by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises;

2. intentionally and without authorization accesses, alters, interferes with the operation of, damages or destroys any computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, computer program or computer data base or any part thereof;

3. intentionally or knowingly and without authorization gives or publishes a password, identifying code, personal identification number or other confidential information about a computer, computer system, computer network or data base.

4. intentionally or knowingly engages in a scheme or artifice, including, but not limited to, a denial of service attack, upon any computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, computer program, computer server or data base or any part thereof that is designed to block, impede or deny the access of information or initiation or completion of any sale or transaction by users of that computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, computer program, computer server or data base or any part thereof.

(b) Grading.--An offense under subsection (a)(1) is a felony of the third degree. An offense under subsection (a)(2), (3) or (4) is a misdemeanor of the first degree.

(c) Definitions.--As used in this section the following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this subsection:

"Access." To intercept, instruct, communicate with, store data in, retrieve data from or otherwise make use of any resources of a computer, computer system, computer network or data base.

"Computer." An electronic, magnetic, optical, hydraulic, organic or other high speed data processing device or system which performs logic, arithmetic or memory functions and includes all input, output, processing, storage, software or communication facilities which are connected or related to the device in a system or network.

"Computer network." The interconnection of two or more computers through the usage of satellite, microwave, line or other communication medium.

"Computer program." An ordered set of instructions or statements and related data that, when automatically executed in actual or modified form in a computer system, causes it to perform specified functions.

"Computer software." A set of computer programs, procedures and associated documentation concerned with the operation of a computer system.

"Computer system." A set of related, connected or unconnected computer equipment, devices and software.

"Computer virus." A computer program copied to or installed on a computer, computer network, computer program, computer software or computer system without the informed consent of the owner of the computer, computer network, computer program, computer software or computer system that may replicate itself and that causes unauthorized activities within or by the computer, computer network, computer program, computer software or computer system.

"Data base." A representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions which are being prepared or processed or have been prepared or processed in a formalized manner and are intended for use in a computer

unanticipated outcome from DRM attempts

[borgalicious]

I have a friend who put a DRM hybrid disk into her iMac (Alexander Calder model) to listen to it. Somehow, the code portion of the disk totally trashed her System 9 boot drive, as in restore from factory media type trashed.

Not having made the correlation between the two events, she tried to play the disc some days later. The boot drive was trashed again. There is something severely wrong with this model. When code designed to thwart legitimate use causes loss of user data and much time restoring the computer and the code wasn't even written for the box in question, the labels really are shooting themselves in the foot.

I haven't bought a commercial CD since. Yes, I know a one-person boycott won't kill the industry but I used to buy ~100 discs per year.

I don't get BSOD's either

[Prof. Pi]

Sorry, but I haven't seen the BSOD in two years

My employer assigned me a new Thinkpad with XP on it (their choice, not mine), and I don't think I've ever seen a genuine BSOD. MS must've heard too many complaints about those and decided to fix them.

Instead of those annoying blue screens, my system has a less intrusive way of alerting me to problems. It freezes the cursor and won't do anything until I hit the power button. Sometimes I'll come back from lunch and tind that the machine took the initiative to reboot on its own. When I log back in, there's an error report asking me if I want to "help" Microsoft fix the bug by sending them a report or something. (Yeah, right.) I typically get about one incident a week. (Not counting the reboots I'm required to do after every virus patch -- why on Earth does MS insist on rebooting even when you're just patching an app?

It's not really so bad, though. Besides Outlook, I mainly use the Windows box to connect vis VPC to a Linux server, where I do my real work. With VPC, you run an X server on the remote machine, and VPC runs its own display program on the local machine, linked by its own protocol. The advantage of this over Exceed (which run an X server on the Windows machine) is that you don't lose anything if the Windows box goes down. After the Windows box comes back up, just reconnect to the remove server, and all your windows are in the same state.

About every year or so, they reboot the machine to upgrade the kernel, and I complain about the time it takes to restart my KDE desktop. The Windows users look at me like I'm from outer space or something.

Re:Illegal?

[Jace of Fuse!]

Once again, the solution is... Don't use M$ Windows. (Sorry Mac people, I have had no recent experience with a Mac to make a comment on it.

No, actually, the solution is to disable AutoStart. It's easy to do. And it's easier than switching operating systems (at least for most people.)

Maybe instead of blaming Microsoft at every chance that pops up, users could try to be more constructive and try to resolve the issues at hand through less invasive, arrogant, annoying, or sometimes just plain stupid means.

Re:But this in an audio CD!

[Graff]

There is only 'autorun' for Audio CD's

But this one is supposed to be an Audio CD!!

The 'autorun' he was talking about is not a true autorun like the one on Windows. What the 'autorun' under Mac OS X does is tell the proper application (iTunes by default for an audio CD) to run. The default applications are pretty safe and they normally don't allow anything new to be installed automatically.

For example, when an audio CD is put in a Mac OS X machine it defaults to running iTunes. iTunes by default simply shows the music that is on the disk. Nothing else is run, nothing is installed. It is safe.

Now, if the user then goes on to run any old applications that happen to be on the data portion of the CD well then that's the user's dumbass fault if something evil gets installed! :-)

Re:5 bucks says the shift key circumvents this....

[Shaklee39]

Uh, obviously the shift key circumvents it...How do you think a cd is supposed to run a program after being inserted without using autorun?

Re:They aren't the only ones.

[WhoDaresWins]

It's pretty well hidden in Windows XP. You have to use the group policies manager to disable it.

What are you talking about?! There's a much easier way to do it Windows XP than your convoluted method. Right click on your CD/DVD drive in Windows Explorer (or My Computer), select the "Auto Play" tab, choose "Music CD" and then select "Take no action". Thats all.

Re:it's a Mac OS 9 vulnerability

[gt623]

Apparantley the copy protection is only for non US and UK CDs. Still underhanded, but most of us should be safe.

Completely illegal in the UK?

[mattbee]

I remember some software which pulled a stunt like this in the name of "copy protection", and in the same way I think the CD's operation may be illegal under the "Computer Misuse Act 1984 [hmso.gov.uk]. Section 3 says

3.-(1) A person is guilty of an offence if-
(a) he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and

(b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing-
(a) to impair the operation of any computer;

(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or

(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data.

Doesn't that sound like exactly what this is? Unauthorised modification of data on a computer to impair its normal operation? Absolutely no consent or knowledge from the purchaser of the CD?

Any Beastie-Boy-fan lawyers reading who agree? The sentence could be up to five years in jail :-)

iTunes

[alecbrown]

This is simply brilliant for the likes of iTunes, the best reason i have heard for not putting music CDs in my computer again.

Re:They aren't the only ones.

[BollocksToThis]

No, that disables Windows' automatic launching of a media player to handle the audio portion of the CD, not Windows' automatic launching of any random EXE pointed to by the autorun.inf. Messing around with the policy editor or TweakUI for XP (god bless that paranoia tab) is the only way to prevent autoplay.

Your 'informative' score is decidedly undeserved.

Re:Illegal?

[rifter]

"Not that its exactly hard to disable the 'autorun annoyance'"

It used to be easy to do this in Windows, but the control to do this seems to be missing. It is true you can hold the shift key down, but if there is a way to disable autorun altogether anymore it is pretty well hidden. Fuck Windows, anyhow.

Well in answer to my own question, to disable the autorun in Win2k ya gotta edit the registry [microsoft.com], which is pretty much what I thought you'd have to do. So Joe Sixpack probably won't be doing it so easily. I would say that yes, it is hard. It woudl especially be hard if you did not know how to look for information on disabling the feature, which would require that you knew it was called "autorun," know to search the microsoft knowlege base, and know how to use the registry editor without killing your machine.

Re:Illegal?

[RichardX]

I'm really starting to get irritated with this nonsense. disabling autorun on XP its embarrassingly simple to do, and claiming that it requires a registry hack just shows that your knowledge of windows doesn't even extend to the most absolute basics - so what the hell are you doing making claims about it's functionality when you don't even know how to use it?

TO DISABLE CD AUTORUN IN WINDOWS XP

1. Double click on "My Computer", or go start>my computer

2. Locate your CD or DVD drive in the "My Computer" window, and right-click on it

3. From the popup menu click "properties"

4. In the drive properties window that appears, go to the autoplay options, and select "take no action"

OR

The policy method (XP Pro only)

This involves changing your computer's policy to disallow autorunning of inserted media (Again, a very basic aspect of windows)

[1] Start/Run/GPEDIT.MSC
[2] Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System.
[3] Locate the entry for Turn Off Autoplay and modify.

And just for the sake of completeness, bere's the registry tweak, too (which again, is certainly not any kind of "deep magic", though is probably more advanced than your granny would be comfortable with, at least you don't have to compile anything)

Start, run... "regedit"
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\CDRom]
Value Name: Autorun
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0=disable, 1=enable)

Or you can download any of the ten zillion tweaking utilities for windows? how come, btw, when a tweaking utility for Linux is released, it's a cool added bit of functionality that makes Linux even more kickass than it already was... but when a tweaking utility is released for windows it's a kludgy fix to add functionality that obviously SHOULD've been there in the first place?

Oh well.

How to burn such cds

[stefankoegl]

Try unCDcopy [heise.de] from the German news site Heise [heise.de].

Re:Illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

in xp you can just rightclick and select options on the cd-drive, press the autoplay tab and select from list what you want it to do with different types of cds. all pointy-clicky-selecty

It btw often seems Slashdot users have more difficulty with this approach than the 'average joes' they look so far down on..

Re:Illegal?

[SoSueMe]

You can also disable autorun in other versions of Windows. See annoyances.org [annoyances.org] for the method for particular version.

Re:Virus

[Tim C]

A virus can spread around a largue net with a hole that able him to copy to other computer

No, that's a worm. A virus piggy-backs on an executable file, and is launched when the executable is run. At that point the virus will generally seek out other executables to infect; if it can access mapped drives/Samba shares (etc), then it can spread from machine to machine. Recently, viruses have also started emailing themselves around. In both cases, however, the victim has to run the file that they receive in order for it to propagate.

In contrast, a worm is self-replicating; once it's been written and the first copy is run (either by the author/an accomplice, or some poor sap being tricked into it), it seeks out further hosts, infects them, and continues, all without user intervention. They rely on weaknesses in computers systems to propogate.

Re:Illegal?

[PhxBlue]

Alternately, you could download and install TweakUI [annoyances.org] for whatever version of Windows you're running and disable autorun from there. It's safer than going directly into the registry, and easy enough that even a common joe can do it.

beastie boys website bbs thread

[tobyvoss]

here [beastieboys.com] is a link to the forum thread explaining that the copy protection is on all emi cds, except us and uk versions, and that the beastie boys would have liked it not to be protected but couldn't help.

Re:Control

[Nanite]

And I'm sure that by rock-star standards they aren't that rich. You don't see them endorsing Pepsi.

"I might mellow out and I might be a fad, but I'll never show myself on no TV ad."
Adrock - "Putting Shame in Your Game"

Re:Illegal?

[Sj0]

Actually, there are two definitions of "blue moon", and only one of them is particularly rare. The second full moon of the month happens every 32 months, but the second defenition refers to an atmospheric phenomena where the moon actually appears to be blue, usually due to particles in the air or smoke.

Whining and Bitching? Try this:

[Kwil]

Since writing on slashdot about this means something between Jack and Shit to the music industry execs, what you could try is writing out your letter and hitting print instead.

Once that's done, send it to here:
By Mail
Corporate Communications Department
EMI Group plc
27 Wrights Lane
London
W8 5SW

Or call:
Tel: [phone]

If you happen to be a shareholder, you can use the fast track address/number:

Lloyds TSB Registrars
Shareholder Services
The Causeway
Worthing
West Sussex
BN99 6DA
Tel: [phone]
([phone] from outside the UK).

Tell EMI who you are, why you bought their music before, and why you won't be buying it in future.

If the only thing these boys understand is money, let's let them see what's happening to it.

IT'S NOT A CD, DAMMIT!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is NOT a CD! It's a program that doesn't meet CD Digital Audio redbook standards.

We need to stop calling it a CD. We need to remind people that it is not possible to buy the new Beastie Boys album on CD, outside the US and UK.

If you look at this disc, I'm sure you'll find that there's no hind of the term "compact disc" on it. The record companies are very careful NOT to make that mistake, knowing full well that between the stores and the users, the distinction will be lost, but they'll be legally safe.

If we call it a CD, then we're destroying the knowledge that real CD's can't have copy protection, they can't install software, and they can't be misused in this way.

Don't let the record companies get away with this! If they're in the "Rap CDs" section of your local music store, tell them that they're breaking the law.

(Posting anonymously, since I've moderated people in this discussion)

Re:it's a Mac OS 9 vulnerability

[reidspice]

that's not true. in osx, go to your system prefs and select the "cds and dvds" pref pane. there are a variety of autorun settings in there for different media and different associated apps.

I don't care about DRM

[mattgoldey]

I'm going to buy the music I like. I don't care what label it's released under. I don't care what crazy copy-protection technology they try to use. It doesn't matter to me.

Whatever they do, we'll always be one step ahead. The new Beastie Boys disc was copy-protected, I downloaded a copy from the Internet 2 weeks ago (at least a week before it was even released). Yes, I have since purchased the album - the BBoys are in my all-time top 5 bands.

Sure, the unwashed masses may get screwed in the process. I don't care.

It's all about me.

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Simpsons reference.

Bart: [chuckles] Lisa's in trouble. Ha! The ironing is delicious.
Lisa: The word is "irony".
-- The Grift of the Magi, BABF07

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

"as long as there are editions in the world that are not copy-protected"

Don't be stupid. If a CD player can get around the copy protection to reproduce music, so can a pirate with only a modest amount of talent. And I'm not talking about the "analog hole" either, I'm talkign bit-for-bit unprotected copies. The auth code scheme you're talking about sounds like Windows XP's activation and installation codes - do you think that works? I do have an original XP disc here but I also have a no-activation slipstreamed-SP1 corporate edition that I actually use, because it's more convenient.

Copy protection does not work and is in fact incorrectly named. It is just Copy Inconveniencing. The sad part is the record companies know this, and think that slowing down pirates by a matter of minutes is worth fucking up the experience for everyone.

Re:How to fix

[Anonymous Coward]

You might be able to fix it by disabling the driver it installs. Instructions can be found here http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/ .

P.S. this post is a circumvention device

Re:it's a Mac OS 9 vulnerability

[socode]

Perhaps you're in the habit of inserting a CD, copying a malware application from it yourself, and then telling OSX to automatically run the malware whenever a CD/DVD is inserted.

For everybody else, this merely allows you to run something _locally_ on your computer in response to a CD/DVD insertion, for example DVDPlayer, not something on the CD/DVD itself.

Re:Illegal?

[Maxite]

Actually, there are two definitions of "blue moon", and only one of them is particularly rare. The second full moon of the month happens every 32 months, but the second defenition refers to an atmospheric phenomena where the moon actually appears to be blue, usually due to particles in the air or smoke. Of course, the month of February will never have two moons within it because it is too short. Another interesting thing is that "once in a blue moon" refers to something rare, but "once in a blue sun" refers to something extremely rare (and yes, there are blue suns, and they are caused by the same atmospheric phenomena that cause a moon to appear blue). WARNING: Do not look directly at a blue sun!