Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

What is it with these copy protected 'CDs'? Wifey bought Dido's 'Life
for Rent' a week ago from Smith's, and tried to play it in the car on
the way back from the shops. No go, her Golf's CD player wouldn't even
look at it.

When she got home, I tried it in my car CD player (erm, a Volvo, since
you ask) and again, it's a no go. So far, that's 0 out of 2. I took a
look at the label, and guess what? It's not a Red Book disc. It has some
weird heiroglyphs on the back that (sort of) tell you that it will only
play a low bitrate version of the music on PCs, it might not play on
Macs at all, and 'others' are '100%' supported. Oh good, I think.

I tried it in the cheapo Tosh 330 DVD player (the one the kids can get
to) and that spat it back at me. 0 out of 3. The million year old
Marantz CD52 didn't have a problem with it.

Since it was 'copy protected' I thought I'd have a look at it on a PC. I
put it in the DVD burner, said "get stuffed" to BMGs kind offer of
installing some player software on the PC, and fired up EAC. Eleven
minutes later there are a dozen or so perfectly formed .wav files sat on
my hard disc. Some copy protection that is.

Then I tried it on wifey's PC. Seventeen minutes later, Musicmatch
jukebox had made me a nice set of mp3 files, without a glitch in sight.
The same story with my laptop.

So the story is, three out of four legitimate players failed completely
to get a tune out of this disc, but all the PCs I tried had no problems
at all making very nice (i.e. perfect) copies of the data. This is meant
to be copy protection? Don't make me laugh.

I fired off a stroppy email to BMG, explaining this situation. They
replied within three hours saying that they were aware of "a few"
instances where these discs would fail to play in cars, and if I sent
them my address they would forward me a reply paid envelope in which I
could return the disc, and get a "different" copy that would play in my
car... once they had verified it was a legit UK version. This begs the
question, why do they need to have a "different" version available?
Surely not just for the "few" people that can't play it in their cars?

It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my ****
list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.

Rant over.


--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

"Glenn Booth" wrote in message
...
What is it with these copy protected 'CDs'? Wifey bought Dido's 'Life
for Rent' a week ago from Smith's, and tried to play it in the car on
the way back from the shops. No go, her Golf's CD player wouldn't even
look at it.

When she got home, I tried it in my car CD player (erm, a Volvo, since
you ask) and again, it's a no go. So far, that's 0 out of 2. I took a
look at the label, and guess what? It's not a Red Book disc. It has some
weird heiroglyphs on the back that (sort of) tell you that it will only
play a low bitrate version of the music on PCs, it might not play on
Macs at all, and 'others' are '100%' supported. Oh good, I think.

I tried it in the cheapo Tosh 330 DVD player (the one the kids can get
to) and that spat it back at me. 0 out of 3. The million year old
Marantz CD52 didn't have a problem with it.

Since it was 'copy protected' I thought I'd have a look at it on a PC. I
put it in the DVD burner, said "get stuffed" to BMGs kind offer of
installing some player software on the PC, and fired up EAC. Eleven
minutes later there are a dozen or so perfectly formed .wav files sat on
my hard disc. Some copy protection that is.

Then I tried it on wifey's PC. Seventeen minutes later, Musicmatch
jukebox had made me a nice set of mp3 files, without a glitch in sight.
The same story with my laptop.

So the story is, three out of four legitimate players failed completely
to get a tune out of this disc, but all the PCs I tried had no problems
at all making very nice (i.e. perfect) copies of the data. This is meant
to be copy protection? Don't make me laugh.

I fired off a stroppy email to BMG, explaining this situation. They
replied within three hours saying that they were aware of "a few"
instances where these discs would fail to play in cars, and if I sent
them my address they would forward me a reply paid envelope in which I
could return the disc, and get a "different" copy that would play in my
car... once they had verified it was a legit UK version. This begs the
question, why do they need to have a "different" version available?
Surely not just for the "few" people that can't play it in their cars?

It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my ****
list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.

Rant over.


--
Regards,
Glenn Booth


I believe if it is advertised as a CD then that is breaking the consumer
laws as it isn't a Red Book standard . I'm sure I've read somewhere that
Philips have tried , or succeeded , in getting this BMG stuff re-classified
..

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Glenn Booth wrote:

What is it with these copy protected 'CDs'?

They can't be legally sold as Compact Discs.


It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers.

Yup, that's the record business for you.


Graham

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Glenn Booth wrote:

Snipped Text
It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my ****
list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.

Rant over.

Well, if you want it cheaper and easier, get a copy of iTunes and
subscribe to the iTunes Music Store [1]. You can get the album off there
for £7.99, and make up to 5 legal copies onto CD, as well as store it on
up to 10 networked computers.

OK, you need to be able to read a CDR, but the copies I've made have all
worked perfectly in anything I've tried. I'd defy you to tell the
difference in a car stereo too.

[1] Ok, a blatant plug here, but I find it works very well, and is so
easy to buy an album.

--
Andy Hewitt ** FAF#1, (Ex-OSOS#5) - FJ1200 ABS
Honda Civic 16v: Windows free zone (Mac G5 Dual Processor)
http://www.thehewitts.plus.com

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

"Glenn Booth" wrote


snip rant

It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my **** list.
I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.

Rant over.


Nice rant! :-)

It's the pirates who cause this 'copy protection' malarkey - we all know
that. What makes me smile is that no-one stops to think who's causing the
'pirates'.....???

(Know wot I mean? :-)

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Glenn Booth wrote:

What is it with these copy protected 'CDs'? Wifey bought Dido's 'Life
for Rent' a week ago from Smith's, and tried to play it in the car on
the way back from the shops. No go, her Golf's CD player wouldn't even
look at it.


Hmmm, can't be too bad sparing the rest of the world from Dido ... ;)


I tried it in the cheapo Tosh 330 DVD player (the one the kids can get
to) and that spat it back at me. 0 out of 3. The million year old
Marantz CD52 didn't have a problem with it.

my Rotel 965 which is the same vintage as your CD52 is able to play all
the Copy Protected CDs I have thrown at it. Haven't tried them on my DVD
player though.



It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my ****
list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.


You would think the recording companies are getting desperate to hold on
to whatever income they can get nowadays.

Btw, the copy protected 'CDs' are, as you rightly put in quotes, not
really CDs as all.

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Hi,

In message , AV99
writes

I believe if it is advertised as a CD then that is breaking the consumer
laws as it isn't a Red Book standard . I'm sure I've read somewhere that
Philips have tried , or succeeded , in getting this BMG stuff re-classified

Yes, that's true, and I've been aware of it for some time. I don't buy
copy protected discs as a rule (it's just a personal gripe). I check the
labelling pretty carefully. In fairness to BMG, this disc doesn't bear
the "Compact disc Digital Audio" logo on any of the paperwork, but the
crystal case has the logo embossed on it. BMG say this isn't their
crystal case, and that the disc my wife bought must have been
repackaged. Apparently some stores do that if the brittle plastic gets
damaged in transit.

--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Hi,

In message , Andy Hewitt
writes
Glenn Booth wrote:

Snipped Text
It's dumb. The only people that this inconveniences are the legitimate
customers. Pirates wouldn't even raise a sweat getting a perfect copy of
this onto Kazaa, it's just too easy. I have no problems buying my music,
but it needs to work properly. This just doesn't. BMG are in my ****
list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting my money.

Rant over.

Well, if you want it cheaper and easier, get a copy of iTunes and
subscribe to the iTunes Music Store [1]. You can get the album off there
for £7.99, and make up to 5 legal copies onto CD, as well as store it on
up to 10 networked computers.

Interesting isn't it? According to UK law, if you buy the 'full price'
chunk of polycarbonate, you aren't even allowed to copy it to your
walkman/mp3 player/ipod, whatever. We have no 'fair use' consideration
at all in law, and yet the cheaper downloaded version of the same album
can be copied 15 times without breaching any copyright law. That's bad
legislation, even if it is hardly ever enforced.


OK, you need to be able to read a CDR, but the copies I've made have all
worked perfectly in anything I've tried. I'd defy you to tell the
difference in a car stereo too.

I downloaded iTunes on the day it was released, only to find that it
wasn't available in the UK at the time. Of course, you have to do a 20
odd meg download and install the software before Apple tell you that...

I'll probably give it another go at some point.

--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Glenn Booth wrote:
What is it with these copy protected 'CDs'? Wifey bought Dido's 'Life
in
my **** list. I don't care who is on their label, they ain't getting
my money.

Rant over.

Dido is one of many that's hard to play because of anti copy protection
used.

There are many web sites on how to copy it, then the copies play on any cd
player or computer drive

I copied mine then took original back saying it would not play

A close look will show you it does not have the CD trade mark on it, and
because of this you get your money back.

Sony are stopping using the software they used on the Dido CD

see link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3712662.stm



--
Dave xxxx
www.davewhitter.myby.co.uk

Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
Steam is Fun

Rant on copy protection (sorry!)
 

Glenn Booth wrote:

Snipped Text
Interesting isn't it? According to UK law, if you buy the 'full price'
chunk of polycarbonate, you aren't even allowed to copy it to your
walkman/mp3 player/ipod, whatever. We have no 'fair use' consideration
at all in law, and yet the cheaper downloaded version of the same album
can be copied 15 times without breaching any copyright law. That's bad
legislation, even if it is hardly ever enforced.

I don't think is anything to do with that, but the licensing agreement
that Apple has arranged with the record companies.

OK, you need to be able to read a CDR, but the copies I've made have all
worked perfectly in anything I've tried. I'd defy you to tell the
difference in a car stereo too.

I downloaded iTunes on the day it was released, only to find that it
wasn't available in the UK at the time. Of course, you have to do a 20
odd meg download and install the software before Apple tell you that...

20 odd megabytes is less than a decent web browser now!

I'll probably give it another go at some point.

You have nothing to lose. They also do a free weekly download now, and
some haven't been bad either.

--
Andy Hewitt ** FAF#1, (Ex-OSOS#5) - FJ1200 ABS
Honda Civic 16v: Windows free zone (Mac G5 Dual Processor)
http://www.thehewitts.plus.com