Stations Can't Play Crippled Music Disks 326
arb writes "The Age is reporting that some radio stations are unable to play copy-protected CDs. It seems at least one radio station is facing problems transferring CD tracks to their digital playout system. Is the lack of radio air-play a price the record labels are willing to pay in their efforts to stamp out piracy?"
hrm (Score:5, Interesting)
Yay! The return of Pirate Radio!
And with great software like TuneTracker (at http://www.beosradio.com/ [beosradio.com] ), it's easier than ever to run a professional-level radio station with a low low budget.
Re:hrm (Score:3, Informative)
Irony? (Score:2)
I'm not sure what the album's title really refers to, but in the context of that (Radiohead) article, the title seems just a touch ironic.
Re:hrm (Score:3, Insightful)
As long as their ASCAP fees are paid up I imagine the music industry doesn't care where a radio station gets their music from. The problem is other people stealing the music via P2P sharing without paying any royalties.
Re:hrm (Score:3, Insightful)
The situation in the article seems a little like buying a car with no keys, but since you have a coathanger and can hotwire the car, and thus are able to get the full use out of it, the dealership won't do anything about it.
The RIAA only has friends it can buy or force to be friends with right now anyway, so they need to resolve this problem. It's not up to the
Re:hrm (Score:2, Informative)
Re:hrm (Score:3, Interesting)
Ouch! Sound Quality Nightmare! (Score:5, Insightful)
In practice, as long as you use decent quality equipment, this does sound like a practical way to run a radio station. If the DJs are in control or the music, it lets them find and queue up material quickly, and arrange it so they can easily go from one tune to the next or cut in to talk or patch in commercials, and makes it easier for things to run on autopilot if they need it to. And with the changes in disk drive cost over the last few years, they can store a few thousand songs at decent compression levels. On the other hand, if the radio station is one of those centrally controlled things that don't have real DJs at each station, they can upload each song once and cue things remotely.
Re:Ouch! Sound Quality Nightmare! (Score:4, Informative)
That depends on your source. If you're using one of the P2P services, that's probably what you'll get. If you get your music fix from alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.*, though, it's more likely you'll see high-bitrate (often excessively high, like 256 or even 320 kbps) MP3s encoded with LAME or other decent encoders.
Call me crazy... (Score:4, Insightful)
Give them time. (Score:5, Insightful)
They will still come out ahead.
Wait, their all owned by Clear Channel. Who ownes them again?
Re:Give them time. (Score:5, Funny)
OK, except.... (Score:2)
Yea, great idea. Except I would skip that last donate step.
Re:Give them time. (Score:2)
Billions or Trillions, it ain't millions. And the Trillions reference is certainly valid, even if Slashdot later checked their math and corrected it, it's still what they first posted.
Re:Give them time. (Score:4, Insightful)
The RIAA appears to have learned the lessons of religion and government which is really a lesson in marketing (that perception is reality): it doesn't matter whether what you say is true and can be proven - if you say it often enough, forcefully enough and with apparent total conviction, the majority will eventually accept it as fact.
Re:Give them time. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Give them time. (Score:5, Interesting)
With this in mind, an "upgrade" to a DRM-based system would probably be possible, particularly if the RIAA pushed it with special incentives (upgrade your system, we'll give you some exclusive tracks 2 weeks ahead of time!). The problem for the RIAA is that the analog sound going to the transmitter is still very good quality; a dedicated tech with a laptop could probably patch his system into the link from the audio system to the transmitter and get fairly good MP3s or OGGs. Until the RIAA gets everything in the world digital and DRMed, there just won't be any way to stop a dedicated pirate. Even then, I bet someone will find a way real quick ;).
Re:Give them time. (Score:3, Interesting)
Wouldnt that give the RIAA a taste of their own medicine.
Cutting off your face to spite your nose (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again most of the crap that has the copy protection on it I won't be listening to in the first place. I try to make a point of supporting labels like Projekt Records who are vocal advocates of music sharing. Of course Projekt is only useful if you are into goth type music.
I think the answer is simple for dealing with crap like this as a consumer, stop supporting major record labels period. There is a plethora of music out there on small labels, or even DIY labels. Even better, use that $18 you were going to spend on the latest bit of top 40 crap and go see some live music. Stop being a consumer and think
-AS
Re:Cutting off your face to spite your nose (Score:5, Informative)
Well it seems that at least in some situations the record labels are in a very funny cycle of self-flagellation.
Agreed. To see just how far this can go, take a look at this article [ukcdr.org] (yes, I edited it) illustrating the situation in Germany. The Germans are currently dealing with near 100% corrupt disc releases, and people really are not at all happy. Perhaps this is worth bearing in mind considering Arista's recent announcement re US corrupt disc releases. Does the record industry really want to create the same destructive downward spiral in the US as there is now in Germany? At least Sony appear to have seen the light and have given up with corrupt releases, but EMI still appear to be believing Midbar/Macrovision propaganda [macrovision.com].
Re:Cutting off your face to spite your nose (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.heise.de/ct/cd-register/
Re:Cutting off your face to spite your nose (Score:4, Funny)
there is a clear message here (Score:5, Insightful)
the stupidity doesn't stop here.... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, that much is quite apparent. But the really stupid thing is that they blindly pretend that this small loss by going through an analog phase is enough to discourage copying, while at the same time they are agressively fighting mp3 users. Mp3's do vastly more harm to the audio quality, even at high bit rates, than a pass through the analog world with good equipment will ever do. They are willing to fight mp3s, when an mp3 user just might go out and buy an album to get a good quality copy of the songs, but at the same time tick off buyers with legitimate uses of the product they bought, and some of those will turn to making analog rips that will be far higher quality than if someone was given an mp3 file to preview a music group!
Of course, their ultimate goal is to have DRM in every A to D converter in the world, so that no one can use them to re-encode audio. Not very likely, considering the legitimate uses of A to D converters that would not work well with this, and the huge number of existing A to D converters out there. So instead they just tick off the consumer and complain that sales are not growing fast enough to suit them.
France vs. RIAA (Score:4, Funny)
France already surrendered.
Re:Cutting off your face to spite your nose (Score:2, Insightful)
Not to mention legitimately downloadable music... (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I have no sympathy for the music biz, and, equally, no sympathy for the Kazaa crowd.
Download them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously. Actually, I wonder how many radio stations use MP3 as a native format for songs they play now.
Re:Download them! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Download them! (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA already has the radio industry whipped into paying license fees for the music anyway. Despite the number of entertainment outlets there are today, without radio, the RIAA is going to greatly suffer.
It feels simliar to the MPAA and movie clips
Re:Download them! (Score:2)
Re:Download them! (Score:5, Informative)
Although technically, "making a digital copy" of something you already own or license by downloading someone else's digital copy has not (afaik) been tested legally and may be outside the terms of "fair use" that everyone is always flaunting about, I believe that radio stations using this service was one of the very few legitimate use of Napster that there ever really was.
I firmly believe that someone could start a membership P2P service where people pay a fee necessary to license about anything they want to listen to for a year and then can download freely from anyone. The fees for small broadcast stations that don't make any money are very reasonable (like $200/yr).. This is the same kind of license that department stores and whatnot have to buy to play CD's in their store. It's very cheap and available to the public. It's kind of funny that my slashdot submissions on it all get rejected (with links directly to the damn fee schedules on the respective licensor sites!) and we have all this bottom of the barrel shit on here constantly.
~GoRK
P2P will not work this way (Score:2)
No, a P2P service like this would never work, no one is going to waste their storage, bandwidth, time creating the original digital files, and the rest, just so that someone "in charge" of the P2P sy
Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:5, Informative)
- It's not that they can't, they just dont want to
- The article isnt much longer than this post, so you can read it yourself.
Re:Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:2)
Any data stream is a valid mp3. Therefore, the radio station should take the DRM app which has been burned onto the CD, change the file extension, and play it over the radio.
Insist that it includes subliminal messages which you could somehow hear while listening to songs with it. Fake an Austrian accent, announce that you're a psychiatrist, and say that for
Re:Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:3, Insightful)
Except he did NOT come to a sensible conclusion. See this post [slashdot.org].
Did you actually read the article or do you just want to bash on slashdot because you don't like slashdot bashing on DRM?
-
spurious reasoning (Score:5, Insightful)
The kind of DRM software companies like Macrovision have created changes boot blocks, media player software, audio and video I/O, and CD/DVD drivers, and it is designed to limit the ability of PC users to distribute music. That is, it is designed to interfere with exactly what the business model of the station is and with what the station pays royalties for. After installing it, they may end up not being able to play, say, unsigned advertising clips they get as MP3's from customers, or rip other CDs to disk, or do any of a dozen things that they depend on.
Any radio station would be foolish to let that kind of software be installed on their PCs. These people depend on their PC hardware for their livelihood. If they refuse to install this software, it's because they really don't have much of a choice, not because they "just don't want to".
Re:Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:5, Interesting)
You are almost certianly wrong. They state that they cannot play the CD's as is:
unable to play any of the CDs it received - the copy protection on the discs gets in the way.
And even if they installed the DRM software there is no reason to think the DRM software will allow them to transfer the music to thier broadcast system. The DRM system is specificly designed to prevent you from transfering the music.
-
Re:Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:2, Informative)
Here it is:
Copy protected CDs: artists can be the losers
By Online Staff
April 3 2003
Music companies which use copy protection may be denying the artists under contract to them legitimate play time on radio stations, if the happenings at one outfit are any indication.
This radio station, which recently received its regular bag of freebies from EMI, finds that it is unable to play any of the CDs it received - the copy protection on the discs gets in the way.
EMI s
I'd bet that many can't (Score:4, Interesting)
These days, radio stations really are just using the same technology as a normal user. They ahve specialised apps and some speical hardware, but at the heart is just a standard PC.
Correction to correction (Score:2)
Unless that station wrote all their own software, and unless that station has a monopoly on hiring programmers, it's a reasonable bet that other stations have the same setup.
It's not that they can't, they just dont want to
Yes. I can't drive 200 mph
Re:Correction: Station refuses to play disc. (Score:2)
If the analog channel inbetween is virtually noiseless, it's virtually nothing. So it can be done in 4x shorter (maybe even faster) time.
Like that's going to stop the record companies (Score:3, Interesting)
Double-Edged Sword (Score:5, Informative)
What's more disgusting, however, is the amount of hassle that's involved installing broadcast and/or production software these days. Hardware keys, bajillon digit serial numbers, activation. You think turbo tax is bad. I guess, however, my users never really have to struggle with that sort of thing like I do.
Steve Jobs, if you're listening, there's money to be made in the radio automation business using the Mac platform w/out DRM.
Re:Double-Edged Sword (Score:5, Informative)
They made Final Cut Pro 3 into a world beater for video production.
We're running it on a dual 450 G4 with 896Mb of ram and it easily keeps pace with our Media 100 system, which cost 6x as much.
It doesn't crash, is loaded with useful features, is devoid of bloat and works exactly the way you want it.
They'll be doing similar things to the professional audio industry soon, I'll bet my hat on it.
Re:Double-Edged Sword (Score:2)
Right tool for the job and all that.
We use Photoshop for editing frames and for creatings stills to be inserted into FCP - FCP supports photoshop's layers, putting one layer on each video track, allowing you to do different things with each one.
Can you edit full frame broadcast quaility videos on ImageFX?
Re:Double-Edged Sword (Score:3, Funny)
Are they like AOL's free coasters?
Re:Double-Edged Sword (Score:2)
Rather than another of Steve Jobs proprietary projects, how about something that's open source?
While I don't know if the code has been made publicly available, there is a guy who has built up his own studio automation system. Linux Journal featured Bill Goldsmith in this article [linuxjournal.com] on KPIG.com [kpig.com] and Radio Paradise [radioparadise.com]. In the print article, there was talk of making his studio software available, it might be worth contacting him for details.
I know that if I were in the radio biz, I'd much rather have a system a
Hopefully the radio stations won't work arround it (Score:3, Interesting)
But the point is, if the radio stations do *not* resort to these, if they just put the CD on the tray and try to download the tracks to HD and that just doesn't work, then there's a chance labels rethink the whole thing. They could choose to send custom made CDs to the radio stations (e.g., just data CDs with the audio tracks as wav files) or they could just drop the whole idea because the cost would be too high (from several POVs).
Or perhaps the labels choose to ignore these weird radio stations and all these crap gets less airtime.
Both ways, it's a win-win situation.
Re:Hopefully the radio stations won't work arround (Score:2)
I picked this album up on release date at Coconuts in New Jersey, and my copy wasn't copy protected.
This is a real problem! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This is a real problem!...here's the solution: (Score:3, Funny)
Step 2: Distribute them to your stations
Step 3: Stations can't play the disks
Step 4: ????
Step 5: Prophet!...errr...Profit
Hey, radio is piracy, too! (Score:5, Funny)
They said they were found in the mail. Freebies from EMI, yeah right. As if EMI would give them CDs so they could pirate them to anonymous people they don't even know!
Now that is a weak defense if you ask em.
It would be interesting to have those napster students sued by RIAA use this defense, though.
"Hey, we are a radio station, and we got these MP3s from EMI for free".
NOT Freebies at all... (Score:3)
No problem I'm afraid (Score:2, Informative)
Easy solution. (Score:2, Interesting)
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
So the record industry's managed to neuter itself and make removable media obsolete. Boo hoo. My heart bleeds for them. Bunch of idiots.
Re:So what? (Score:2)
So you're going guerilla against the gorilla, eh?
Re:So what? (Score:2)
If you want it to matter, write or email the RIAA [riaa.org] (snailmail is better) and tell them of your decision and the reason.
Re:So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
CD Baby [cdbaby.com] has a great selection, and actually has pretty reasonable prices too. You can even browse by location, which is really is raelly nice to check out groups that around you.
What difference does it make? (Score:5, Insightful)
I do hope that the RIAA understands that the games they are playing aren't going to get them anything. Anyone who WANTS to pirate music is going to do so. This business with mucking with the format of the CD only irritates their customers. I sincerely believe that the whole idea was thought up by some suits who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Anyone with a clue wouldn't even bother with such an approach.
Lee
Re:What difference does it make? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course they know the difference. Their heads aren't stuck in a hole in the ground.
Re:What difference does it make? (Score:2)
Sure they are, they just don't realise it yet.
First UK exposure (Score:4, Informative)
This sort of thing is going to hit the public consciousness very soon in the UK, cos over the last two weeks there's been a new TV advert, touting the release of Pink Floyd's 30th anniversary edition of Dark Side Of The Moon using the new high quality SACD [dvd-audio.co.uk] (Super Audio CD) format.
Though they mention SACD, no where does the advert mention anything about copy protection. Some people are going to get a rude shock.
Re:First UK exposure (Score:2)
I don't think just because it is an SACD it has copy protection. I have a Tool CD (Lateralis) that is an SACD (or so it says on the jewel case, I don't have an SACD player to verify) and I had to problem ripping it to my computer.
Non-Issue... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sooner rather than later, the simbiosis between radio station and record industry will repair itself and things will return to a state where there will be no need for this news item.
Payola (Score:3, Interesting)
Payola [history-of-rock.com] is reason is this a non-issue. Oh, it still goes on. In the lofty world of Clearchannel, it's all about sponsoring contests and event promotion. Nothing quite so obvious as envelops of cash. What you hear on the radio is that which has been paid for by publishers. Nothing as trivial as obsolete CD players is going to interfere with this very long. A couple phone calls and there will be a shiny new player arriving promptly at a studio near you!
how long (Score:3, Insightful)
music will always be pirated, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. we (as consumers) have been copying music for decades and sharing it with our friends. we're good at it. are they going to kill radio just to *try* to stop piracy?
i agree with a previous post ^^^^^^ up there somewhere....support the DIY's and save your 15+ bucks to go see a live show. this will support the artist more directly than passing your cash through the industry.
Placebo (Score:5, Interesting)
On the back is a blurb saying the disc is designed to play on CD players, DVD players, PCs and Macs. What it doesn't say is that in order to play it on a computer you're supposed to use the software on the disc (hmm... totally future-proof). Furthermore, it autoruns an installer to install the software.
We verified that we couldn't play the disc on a Windows 98 PC using standard audio players. We didn't install the software on the CD, for obvious reasons.
On OS X we were able to play it and rip it using iTunes. On Linux (on a same model thinkpad as the Win98 PC) we were also able to play and rip it.
The shop I bought it from was a small indie, and I notice that in the bigger shops the album doesn't have any copy-control information on it. It's possible that the indie sold me a promo, in which case perhaps they're trying to stop MP3s leaking before the album comes out, or it may be that the retail album is a regular CD (or copy-protected but not so labelled).
Re:Placebo (Score:3, Informative)
DRM deprives stations of their rights. (Score:5, Interesting)
IP law is deliberately confusing and can only be sorted out by human beings. (In the case of complex situations, human beings that charge high fees).
There is no way that any simple, inexpensive bit of software can correctly determine whether or not the user does, in fact, have the rights to the use he or she is making.
In every case, of course, the DRM schemes err in the direction of denying use to people that POSSESS rights, never the other way around.
P.S. Yes, I did read the article. This sounds like Midbar's scheme, in which (when it works properly!) the computer still cannot access the real audio tracks, but the special software allows access to lower-quality compressed versions--which can only be played, not copied to the hard drive. So even if the boss had allowed the software to be installed, the station would have probably found that this didn't do any good.
A Solution to CD Piracy (Score:5, Funny)
The RIAA can eliminate the financial losses due to CD piracy in a really simple way...
STOP RELEASING NEW MUSIC!
- Profits will be restored to earlier levels if the labels don't have to spend money on new artists. They're still stuck back in the Elton John days, and have no idea on how to recognise and nurture modern talent. They're full of coke-sniffing old farts hopelessly stuck within their comfort zones
- Radio stations play 90% back catalogue anyway, and this provides a steady royalties stream, especially since the US Judiciary has effectively ruled that copyrights are eternal
- Independent labels will step in to fill the gap, and will likely evolve new business models to
make full use of internet technology
- A renaissance of new musical expression will ensue
Everyone wins!The RIAA gets to keep control of the back catalogue, while the fresher new artists and labels find ways to turn a profit, and perhaps live far better, without having to suck on that toxic nipple of the RIAA ripoff recording contract.
Re:A Solution to CD Piracy (Score:2)
Back in my day, there used to be "pipe-smoking old farts."
Now they're "coke-sniffing old farts."
How times have changed.
Does this mean I won't hear... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe when a big-name star with serious legal representation (like Celine Dion) finds that she's not getting airplay because the record company crippled her product, we'll see some progress made against copy-crippled cds.
Oh. My. God. Could it be that Celine Dion could save us?
Funny thing is, I stopped listening to the radio for anything other than traffic reports around 1993 or so. It's not like I'd have even noticed...
The RIAA's Plan is Going Perfectly (Score:2)
Don't say crippled! (Score:5, Funny)
What about the DMCA? (Score:5, Interesting)
Even though there was never any official encryption to begin with (and those who analyzed the CSS code probably consider it as minimal), that doesn't give them the right to perform an illegal act. The CD technology IS patented, and covered under international law as such.
Making a "Not-CD" (subliminal joke there if you say it to yourself out loud) in essense violates those patents, even if they removed the Compact Disc logo.
Re:What about the DMCA? (Score:3, Informative)
1) The CD standard is published. There is no reverse engineering rquired to understand it.
2) CD's aren't encrypted in any way, shape or form.
3) CSS is something used on DVD's containing copyrighted video. Now, while a DVD and a CD are the same physical size I hope you realize that they're actually very different in their implementation.
Database of copy-protected CDs (Score:5, Informative)
Query page:
http://www.heise.de/ct/cd-register/default.shtml?
Master page:
http://www.heise.de/ct/cd-register/
Feedback to
cd-register@ctmagazin.de
Matilda, the terrible liar, who burned to death (Score:2)
Re:Matilda, the terrible liar, who burned to death (Score:2)
Trollish comments such as this are constantly creating divide in the fair use community because detractors can point at large percentages of people opposed to stifling DRM and say, "Look these people don't count because they don't know what they are talking a
Dont Stations get 'special' disks? (Score:2)
Why wouldnt those be un-protected? RIAA cant be THAT stupid.. can they?
In the UK... (Score:3, Informative)
First off I haven't heard of any problems at our station so far...
However, we're quite flexible in how we can populate our playout system, Dalet [dalet.com] in our case. We can use good old analog from a regular CD player, rip directly from CD or get them off a digital distribution system that runs in the UK called Fastrax.
Fastrax involves each station getting a machine and an ADSL line with the client software. The machine connects to Fastrax and allows you to download tracks that the record companies have chosen to distribute
Minor Issue (Score:2)
1. The record companies will simply send radio stations CDs without copy protection. It's not like it would be difficult for them to run two versions of the CD.
2. The radio stations will simply download the songs they want to play (probably after obtaining a copy of the physical CD to counter any potential piracy lawsuits
The words you're looking for are... (Score:5, Funny)
-S
What about watermarking? (Score:5, Interesting)
Then if a copy is found online, diff it with the original, and find out who leaked it.
Or maybe I'm oversimplifying things. I guess if you could make the key seeding random enough that it wouldn't be easy to wipe...
good idea. (Score:2)
However, this would totally change the way things work today (and yesterday) because most of those free advance CDs are given away to friends (partly because most of them are crap, others because "you've got to hear this!" or as a way to make the friend shut up and stop his/her begging). After giving away a CD or giving it to a used CD store (it isn't hard to find "for promo
Re:What about watermarking? (Score:2)
Then if it goes wild it doesn't matter what a stronger later user would do, as long as you could find one copy, you could determine the source.
Of course then someone could just build in de-watermarking code into any mp3 ripping app... but then that breaks the DMCA... and then we are in the same loopy me
Seems to me... (Score:2)
And this is what happens.... (Score:2)
This is what happens when you ask an engineer to design a CD that you can't copy. Their first recommendation was just to send out blank CDs, but instead they ended up using this compromise solution.
That's OK (Score:2)
Not an issue. (Score:2)
According to the article (Score:3, Insightful)
Music companies which use copy protection may be denying the artists under contract to them legitimate play time on radio stations, if the happenings at one outfit are any indication.
Furthermore, the problem is easily remedied with the purchase of a $59 standalone CD player. I bet they could get a listener to donate one.
The station in question has no standalone CD players, just desktop PCs (all running Windows 2000) and a couple of old Denon CD Cart players.
Is this a cutting-edge use of technology, or a cutting-costs use of technology?
Should not be a problem (Score:3, Interesting)
So it seems they couldn't rip the CD because it's not Redbook standard and their digital systems cannot read the proprietary tracks and formats. Same thing as trying to play it in a PC or Mac.
Good, I am happy the radio stations are having trouble as well. I hope it hurts the music business! The dirty bastards!
But had they simply not laid off all those DJ's they wouldn't have this problem. There is a single rock station left in my state that is still independent and run by real live DJ's. These guys kick butt and take names. All the other stations are lame as hell.
106.9 WCCC in Hartford Connecticut is the only local Rock station left! Out of 99.1, 105.9, 102.1, 104.1; they have all been bought out and dumbed down! 106.9 is the only one to play requests and they are the only ones to give away prizes to the local audience only! The other corporate stations lump you in with 25 other stations across the nation to compete for prizes, etc.
Also due to the RIAA, they've effectively killed online radio stations which were bringing back a revival of independent broadcasters. But due to the insane licensing they get forced out!
Geeks need to get together and bypass the corporate music giants. Make our own independent labels that actually pay the artists and provide the fans what they want. We do need to be careful to do it legally though!
Hell let fans download the music for a reasonable fee! WTF, this should have happened 3-4 years ago! The new media is being held back by the evil corporate greed and fear!
I am positive there are a ton of great musicians out there that are never going to be mainstream but will win fans worldwide if the world could only get to their music! We need a non-profit group that can help the Indie artists above and beyond sites like MP3.COM which actually sucks.
Party Mixing (Score:3, Interesting)
The computer can do things that only very, very expensive DJ CD players can, but I guess the RIAA would rather have the DJs just play the song, without using loops, effects, etc...
Tediousness (Score:3, Interesting)
Standard practice for our playlist system is that I rip the CDs to an MP3 format (using Xing), and then wrap the MP3s in a WAV header (for track information). This has become more difficult recently - as most people will know, some of the copy protection systems split the audio up into a bunch of really small data tracks followed by a huge long one. This can be easy to deal with in the software (just merge the tracks, and kill the white noise at the end), or it can be impossible to deal with (in that Audiocatalyst doesn't recognise any data on the disc at all).
As stated elsewhere, all the copy protection schemes include "music software" for PC/Mac playback. The most frustrating thing about this is that for the most part, the software playback of the CD is at some ridiculous quality (like 43kpbs). It has become easier for me to bring along a hi-fi to the station, and do most of my reviews on that (and take a mini-jack/mini-jack cable with me for A/D transfer). It's pointless to do this to us - anyone who would actually go as far as to violate the promotions agreement either by passing promos on or ripping them is not going to be stopped by some cheap 'n cheerful protection scheme.
The fools (damn them).
Sarcas
--
Make a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the night
Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
Re:Ignore American Propagada - read someone elses. (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyways, what's this got to do with CD's?
Re:What's wrong with sticking to pre-2003 music? (Score:3, Funny)
Got Kids (Score:3, Funny)
Re:impeached for what, dumbass? (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course it's much easier to justify a war with Iraq when it HAS an awful government, a history of war with neighboring countries, and vast amounts of weapons. Which is why The CIA made sure it was so. [hevanet.com]
"Hidden elements of the U.S. government overthrew a democratically elected president of Iran (Mossadegh) because he wanted to reduce the profits of U.S. and Britis