GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that copy protected cd's have finally landed in the US with a major splash. This is Bertelsmann's fourteenth cd to feature the unfriendly measure that reduces what the customer can do with their music cd. The CD Velvet Revolver Contraband has reached No.1 in the charts, with the MediaMax(by SunComm) copy protection used. This will mean no ripping of the music tracks to a windows PC, though to sweeten the poison pill the CD does contain Windows Media DRM files that allow playback on a windows based PC. Of course if this system works it means people running Linux / Apple Mac will not be able to playback these files.
| Although common in Japan and parts of Europe, lock down To sweeten the pill, the CD includes with DRM-enabled Windows Media Player versions of the files. However, if it works, this excludes Macintosh owners from doing anything with the CD (although we"re yet to find a copy protected CD that the Mac can"t unbork). Prior to the release of Contraband last month, said that less than half of one per cent of borked-CD buyers, or 100 out of two million, have rung up its hotline. |
You can read the full story over at The Register. Copy protection doesn't work, there are always players out there that aren't fully compatible and why pay full price for a music CD when you can't do what you like with the tracks. If record companies want to sell copy protected CD's then they should be half their normal cost as they aren't worth much if you can't put them on your MP3 player or other media devices. Also think about what will happen 10 '“ 15 years down the line you may not be able to playback these cd's as technology changes so classic cd will be no use.
Source: The Register
