Beastie Boys: "new CD does not install any files on computers"

June 29, 2004

Last week we reported that the new CD "To the 5 Boroughs" by the Beastie Boys was copy protected and that, more importantly, users were reporting that the CD installed software on their Windows and Mac computers without informing them. On the Beastie Boys website we can now read a news item which explains what kind of copy protection has been used on the new CD and that it does not install any spyware. Our thanks goes to our regular news-submitter GristyMcFisty:

There is NO copy controlled software on US or UK releases of Beastie Boys' "To the 5 Boroughs."
The disk *IS* copy controlled in Europe - which is standard policy for all Capitol/EMI titles (and a policy used by ALL major labels in Europe).
The copy protection system used for all EMI/Capitol releases including "To the 5 Boroughs" is Macrovision's CDS-200, which sets up an audio player into the users RAM (not hard drive) to playback the RED book audio on the disk. It does absolutely NOT install any kind of spyware, shareware, silverware, or ladies wear onto the users system.

You can find more information on the technology used here:
http://www.macrovision.com/products/cds/cds200/index.shtml

This is what EMI has to say about it:

Reports that "spyware" is being included on the Beastie Boy's CD, 'To The Five Boroughs' are absolutely untrue.

While the Beastie Boys CD does use copy control in some territories, there is no copy control on the Beasties Boys discs in the US or the UK. Where copy protection is used, it is Macrovision's CDS-200 technology; the same technology being used for the past several months around the world for all of EMI's releases in those territories. This Macrovision technology does NOT install spyware or vaporware of any kind on a users PC. In fact, CDS-200 does not install software applications of ANY KIND on a user's PC. All the copy protection in CDS-200 is hardware based, meaning that it is dependent on the physical properties and the format of the CD. None of the copy protection in CDS-200 requires software applications to be loaded onto a computer.

The technology does activate a proprietary Macrovision player in order to play the CD on a PC, and that player converts WMA compressed files to audio on the fly. It also temporarily installs a graphic "skin" for the player. Nothing is permanently installed on a hard drive. These details can be verified in the 'install.log' file in the computer's root directory.

Even though, according to the Beastie Boys, the CD does not install any spyware I still think it's not smart to sell a crippled disc. You're hurting the people that actually buy your CD's, not the pirates. You can read the Beastie Boys' message on their website. The source for this article can be found here.

Source: The Register