Sony BMG - Beware

[SteveB]

anti-piracy revisited

Man, I've seen this before..

In the 80's software companies went to great lengths to copy protect their software (which in those days was distributed on 5 1/4" floppy discs).

All kinds of schemes were created.. one of the most common ones used was to write CRC (cyclic redundancy check) errors at known tracks on the disc. Off-the-shelf disc drives could not write such a track on the disc, and the software "looked" for those errors at the known locations and would malfunction if they were absent.

I had an Atari 800 computer at the time, with Atari 1050 disc drives. You could purchase a "Happy" modification for these drives which enabled them to write CRC errors. This defeated nearly every copy protection scheme in place at the time. Soon, software makers got clever and included code to detect the presence of the "Happy" modification in the drive. You know what happened next? Some folks installed a big, red toggle switch in their drive, which turned the Happy modification on or off. When software was trying to detect the Happy, you turned it off.

Eventually, the major players figured out that it was just escalating costs, and copy protection went the way of the Dodo for a long time.

Only when Microsoft started using Product Codes and such did we really return to attempted copy protection. I guess the music industry will have to learn this lesson the hard way.

That said, I personally own over 400 CD's. All purchased legitimately at retail or online stores. I'm not much into ripping, MP3 players or any of that. I like to read album liner notes and see the cover art etc. I guess I'm a throwback..

 

[Sacha]

So what do y'all think of my t-shirt idea? Too nerdy? "Hey Sony! What part of 'C:/MY Computer' don't you understand?!?!" :B :B :B

...I think it's great. May wear it under another top or maybe to bed but...er...I'd wear it!....er....

 

[Beth]

Thank you, Sacha!!!

 

[Sacha]

...all on the assumption that they are free I do hope you realise...

 

[Beth]

as long as you guys don't mind that they're on that new knock-off brand of t-shirt "Fruit of the Boom" LOL

 

[smallequestrian]

Might be different in the States but over here you're not allowed. Any Fair Use (which I believe is an aspect of American stuff so you can kinda ignore my coming rant) equivalent over here will allow you, in some cases, to make a copy....however not for USE, for use as an unused backup. This backup must also be made in the same format that you get it. You get a CD, you can copy it to a CDR. You get a DRM equipped file, you copy it as a DRM file.

For example, "fair dealing" with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, for the purposes of non-commercial research or private study does not infringe any copyright in these works or the typographical arrangement of published editions of these works. Fair dealing has been interpreted by the courts on a number of occasions by looking at the economic impact on the copyright owner of the use; where the economic impact is not significant, the use may count as fair dealing.

Emphasis mine. Now IANAL, but in the UK you are allowed to make copies for backup purposes and format shifting is allowed (i.e. from vinyl to CD, or CD to Mp3). Basically any private non-commercial use is generally allowed. Fair dealing has been interpreted by the courts on a number of occasions by looking at the economic impact on the copyright owner of the use; where the economic impact is not significant, the use may count as fair dealing. This is really the key. While UK law is not as specific as US law, both share the same basic rights of Fair Use/Fair Dealing.

A lot of this stems from the betamax decisions of the early 80's. A precedent was established that allowed for time shifting.

Plus, there's no money (well, not much) in it for software programmers as big as Apple and Microsoft to bother having ripping software. Microsoft are just trying to make sure they stay top and Apple will actually end up making more money because the customers will have to buy the tracks online....which is the whole intention of 'MP3' players. Why should you be allowed to copy a CD and run it on a different system? Could you play vinyls on CD players? Nope. The record companies release something in a particular format and that's how they want it to stay. I'm not saying that it's morally correct but you can't do it with any other format. Can you buy a green jumper...and copy it for free in blue? No, you'd have to go and buy it again if you want it any different. So why should music be any different?

Your analogy is failed. First of all physical property rights are vastly different than intellectual property rights. Format shifting music is more akin to taking the jumper that you own and dying it blue. Even this analogy has its issues, but it is a far more accurate one.

What do you mean there is no money in it for Apple or Microsoft. The ability to copy/rip CD's is part of the reason people buy computers. There is no legal bases for record companies to lean on them to stop it either. The technology is already there for several "legal" purposes already (backing up your own exel, word documents or photos) it really doesn't cost Apple anything to add the ability to copy/burn CD's as the tech is already there.

If a company wanted to make it illegal to copy CD's then they would have to make CD writable technology illegal. Thats the equivalent of banning forks because someone once used a fork to stab somebody. Just because their are potential illegalities associated with something doesn't mean you can stop it.

 

[maddog]

I'm still waiting for some record exec to offer up the best copy-protection scheme ever invented: don't release the damn crap!

 

[Sacha]

Knocked off CDs, knocked off t-shirts, anything goes in this thread.

 

[Colin]

here's my solution, send all your sony/bmg CD's back. But get the Dude to lick them first. Then buy from i-tunes.

Colin

 

[SteveB]

here's my solution, send all your sony/bmg CD's back. But get the Dude to lick them first. Then buy from i-tunes.

Colin

Ahh, finally! The voice of reason!

 

[bovinehost]

So there's no standard for copy protection, is there?

Answering myself, I say "No, Jack, there sure isn't."

So in this case, it's Sony BMG. Now what if Warner Bros decides to do the same thing, only with a different scheme? And then another company? And another?

At what point does MY COMPUTER cease to operate?

Does every record company have the right to put code on my computer?

Where are the artists on this issue? (Switchfoot spoke up but is that enough?)

the record companies are still within their rights to be able to try and protect their copyright.

Yes, but they do not get to destroy or otherwise inhibit the performance of my computer - no matter what.

we still have to try and understand that they are still a company trying to protect their rights

It is the record companies that have failed to understand the realities of the modern (digital) music environment. Is that my fault? I don't pirate music and I don't even use iTunes, which makes me a Luddite, but I still buy CDs and occasionally make copies for my car/studio and put the original away. Does this sound like a copyright infringement issue? Of course not.

stealing music is as bad as what Sony is doing

While I largely agree with that, what about when someone pirates a track or two from wherever to see if they want to spend the 15-20 dollars on the CD? What if CDs were actually affordable? Remember that twenty years ago, CDs started as WAY more expensive than vinyl with the promise that prices would surely plummet. It's nowhere near as expensive to manufacture a CD as it was to manufacture that vinyl disk. And yet prices stayed high and went higher.

This, if you ask me, is at least part of the reason why teenagers, whose pockets are not exactly overflowing with extra cash, do NOT buy the CD. I'm not excusing theft, but if the product was more reasonably priced, our cultural attitude towards record companies in 2005 might be a bit more charitable.

The only ones making out are the record companies and the thieves.

I think that's mostly true, Sterling. The artists, even when the music is sold at 100% "honest" price, is lucky to get a handful of magic beans. Todd Rundgren has the best business model, although even he hasn't got it perfect just yet - let your fans order what they want and screw the middleman. If things keep going as they are now, record companies will become irrelevant. And they'll go down screaming about how the teenagers pirating practices killed the industry as we know it, but it won't be murder. It will be suicide.

And we'll still get our music, of course - I just can't guess at the delivery service yet.

Beth, I'm about ready for the "give me back my hard drive" campaign!

Jack

 

[muggsy]

And now it begins...

Hackers exploit Sony BMG copy protection

 

[Oldtoe]

My iBook is my friend.

My PC, however, refuses to go into sleep mode. It's been doing this for quite a while now. Screen saver won't fire up either, no matter how many restarts or cursings. I can't recall the last CD I copied onto that machine, but let's just say there's a pissload of music on it. Guess I'll go start looking for this bug.

 

[TheDirtyMoocher]

Luddite

i love that word

 

[phatduckk]

speaking as a computer guy here's my 2 cents ... it's not gonna matter.

you dont wanna screw with geeks. im not saying computer dudes like to steal stuff, im just saying computer guys like a challenge. there's no way in hell that you can stop some kid w/ a computer from figuring out how to undo what you just did. its impossible. my boss knows that the best way to get me to write some really hard code is to say something like "ya, but i dont think its possible at all". to me, and most computer folks, that's a challenge and its time to figure stuff out.

with that said, now i want to go out and BUY one of these CDs just so i can figure out how to undo their copy protection. it would probably take me about 20 minutes, maybe less.

a sad fact is that only 1 person has to figure it out then boom, they tell everyone ... plus they'll stick the mp3s on bit torrent or some p2p network and its all over. R&D money wasted.

so the Velvet Revolver CD came with this crap on it. pretty annoying huh? how do you get around that copy protection? Hold down the shift key ... that simple.

So CDs can be mixed media ... they can be an audio and data CD at the same time. when you shove them into a Windows box the OS will mount the drive etc and if there's an autorun.inf file it will run the instructions in that file. Now, you ever put an Adobe or Microsoft Office CD in your computer and it automatically launches the installer? Ever put your fav band's new CD in the computer and some interactive thing comes up? thats what the autorun.inf file told the OS to do. Now, if you disable the autorun feature in windows or hold shift (this disables autorun "this time") then those instruction arent excecuted ....

if a CD gets treated as audio NOT DATA, then it cant install anything on your machine.

point is ... stuff wont get executed unless you let it. turn autorun off. that will stop over 1/2 this stuff from ever working. and instead of double clicking on the CD's icon in My COmputer just launch the media player and navigate to the CD ... most of the time this will work and you're home free; extract MP3's and put them on your iPod, done.

to me this stuff is obnoxious. i make money, i buy my music but i want it on my iPod too so i HAVE TO have the MP3's. the VR CD really pissed me off. the BS that got installed on it allowed you to get MWV versions of the songs but those dont work on an iPod ... so i had to do what i had to do.

 

[Beth]

geeks rock :B

 

[phatduckk]

geeks rock :B

word up

 

[phatduckk]

... this is an interesting business angle to look at: will this help Mac with market share?

With this stuff only working on Windows (its partially their fault & their DRM pisses people off) and couple that with the success of iTunes and the iPod etc ... will this kind of thing help Apple? Let the current music and software "leaders" shoot themselves in the foot while Apple works on stuff that users actually like and enjoy and its proving profittable ...

 

[Rayan]

Copies of Copies of Copies of Copies of Copies ...

... The only ones making out are the record companies and the thieves. What is it in our society that we cannot grasp the concept of supporting artists?

~
I was involved in one of these "music industry thinktank_sessions" from the Windows 3.1 era ... I did my own puking back then ...

I've never been a fine enough bass player to "quit my dayjob" but I get infinitely more satisfaction from playing real music with real people for fun whenever I can than from making or listening to Copies of Copies of Copies of Copies of Copies ...

... now back to my Genuine EBMM SR5 - gotta practice for the next live, unrecorded basement jam ...

Tnx for the fine hardware BP !!! I'm doing the best I can with my own software on a limited budget.
~

/R

 

[Aussie Mark]

Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is

In Australia, a rootkit is a six pack and a condom.