CD Audio Copy Protection??? bleh, NoT this time!!

[awsheat]

The new Sheryl Crow CD has some kind of copy protection according to this article.

cd copy protection article[

The only thing that caused me to research it was I downloaded a few songs from the cd and found many of them to be missing the beginning/ends of the songs. This was from multiple sharers, multiple bitrates, multiple songs etc. So I did some searching and found several articles about upcoming copy protection. It says you CAN listen to it in a cdrom, but it supposedly has some technology to prevent it from ripping it to your hard drive.

I never buy cd's anymore since I have broadband and I am boycotting the record industry until prices get reasonable and this copy protection crap goes by the wayside. But, I bought this cd since this Sheryl is from my hometown and I like her music. Plus, i was VERY eager to see how this "copy protection" worked. Well, strangely enough, my older 52x crdrom had trouble reading the songs. But my 32x Liteon burner did not. At first, I tried ripping the songs to my hard drive via analogue with Music Match. So it was just playing to sound card via audio molex and then being ripped at 192k in real time by Music Match. This worked for some songs but others had to start over several times.

So i figured, if its having trouble with this, then SURELY it wont let me do direct cd audio to mp3 conversion, but it did. My older 52x burner had a REALLY hard time ripping the mp3's, it ripped them at like 1.5x when music match normally rips them at 8-9x the actual song speed. However, my liteon ripped them at a blistering 15x!! NO errors were audible on the ripped songs. They sound great at 192k.. So whatever this copy protection is, its pretty weak and only effects some cdroms.

 

[Diable]

<< So whatever this copy protection is, its pretty weak and only effects some cdroms. >>



That's how all of the CD copy protection schemes have worked so far. Since copy protection isn't a CD standard there no way for the record companies to stop all drives from playing protected CD's.

 

[AnyMal]

I get a hunch that all the talk about copy protection of CD's is nothing more then a publicity stunt aimed to boost the sales of CD-RW drives and blank media. Here's why. Let's take one company for example - Sony. Everyone knows that Sony not only manufactures consumer electronics and PC products, but also owns one of the largest recording companies in the world. Would it be a good business decision for Sony to apply a certain copy protection scheme to its CD's so that they would not play in their own CD-ROM's and CD-RW's? No. Would you buy a VIAO laptop knowing that you will not be able rip YOUR OWN CD''s (paid for by you) to the laptop's harddrive to take it on the road? Probably not. By the way, have you noticed that every copy protection scheme that came along lately has been defeated BEFORE actual CD's reached store shelves?

 

[Hulk]

I never buy cd's anymore since I have broadband and I am boycotting the record industry until prices get reasonable and this copy protection crap goes by the wayside.


Right on, I'm with you there.

I'll take just the music please.

I don't want to pay for the multimillion dollar music video.

Ummm, let's forget about the constructed band that doesn't write their own songs or play their own instruments. That'll cut down the cost of having to hire song writers and musicians. Plus "real" musicians will be able to record their vocal tracks without 50 takes and lots of outboard pitch correction (which is expensive), again making recording less expensive. Plus these bands pass on their cost to the "real" bands on the label.

Also, don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on cover art.

Skip all the "filler" material too. Just lay down 10 or 11 tracks that are actually good.

Oh yeah, while you're at it I don't want to pay millions to the top executives. Let's focus on the musicians since they are the ones actually creating the end product.

Now let's see how much a CD should cost...

 

[grant2]

You guys are pathetic, trying to rationalize your stealing. This is anandtech.com, not sherwood forest, you're only fooling each other.

If you don't like the price, then don't buy it. No one's holding a gun to your head. It's not your god-given RIGHT to receive the fruits of someone else's labour at whatever price your arbitrarily decide is "fair"

Next we'll have a bunch of punks stealing Porsches and saying "Why should I pay $100,000 when i only get the same amount of metal as a toyota corolla"?

 

[ErraticMAX]

<< This is anandtech.com, not sherwood forest... >>



That's great!

 

[Sunner]

I ain't complaining about CD prices, they're absurd no doubt, but I simply stay away from the albums with $15 pricetags, and wait for them to dip to $10 or so, then I pick them up.

However, when they start with this anti-consumer BS, Im done buying CD's, morally wrong or not, I paid for the damn thing, so I'll use it how I please.

 

[grant2]

However, when they start with this anti-consumer BS, Im done buying CD's, morally wrong or not, I paid for the damn thing, so I'll use it how I please.

I agree with you on that!!

 

[BD231]

However, when they start with this anti-consumer BS, Im done buying CD's, morally wrong or not, I paid for the damn thing, so I'll use it how I please.

I agree with you on that!!

Agree with that also, once copy protections actually hinder the ability to rip to MP3, the music industry will probably hurt themselves more than file sharing ever did and dose. Plus, there really is no way to stop it, people can just record from an outside source to an analog in and convert the wav to mp3. MP3 was made to save room on HD?s, taking away the right to use the format would get all computer users, hardcore and consumer alike, seriously ticked off.

 

[kgraeme]

<< However, when they start with this anti-consumer BS, Im done buying CD's, morally wrong or not, I paid for the damn thing, so I'll use it how I please. >>



Why do you think the recording industry is resorting to copy-prevention on CDs? It's not because of people ripping to MP3 for their own personal use from CDs they purchased. It's because of people sharing those copies with others that haven't paid.

I agree with your sentiment, and will do the same, but there is a cause-effect relationship that people stealing music prefer to overlook. Not buying the CDs isn't going to make them cheaper either. And at the local level, we already have a local alternative music store here that is going to close because they can't compete with "free" mp3 downloads. This isn't a chain store with overblown prices, this is a locally owned store that stocks the music you can't find anywhere.

There are real consequences to file trading that are detrimental to the consumer.

 

[Sunner]

I understand what you're saying, but my honesty only goes so far.

I download music without owning the CD's quite frequently, but if I like it, I tend to pick up the CD's whenever possible(my taste is sorta odd, so sometimes I cant find the CD's, even on Amazon), or if I dont like the music, I save some space by removing it.

But like I said, no matter what, I flat out refuse to buy a CD if they're gonna tell me how to play it, all they get when they do that is the finger.
I'd rather not listen to it at all if it came to that.

I rarely get emotional when companies are involved, but I'll make an exception for the recording industry, most of those companies are pieces of $hit, and my ass is a one way door that they had better keep their sticks out of.

 

[Paulson]

I say the most viable option to this all is very simple. LET US LEGALLY DOWNLOAD THE MUSIC WE WANT.

Hell I buy cd's, rip the cd to the hard drive and never touch the cd again. I'd like to be able to download the music I want. I'd pay for it. As long as I could burn it, I'd buy it.

You know though that the RIAA is the stupidest industry operating right now so that wont ever happen. Damn, talk about getting panties in a wad when there's a simple solution to it all.