DVDyke used our newssubmit to tell us that the BBC did a TV article today on copy protection and how some CD's were protected with the new Cactus Data Shield. Viewers were complaining that certain CD's would not play. Most notably Natalie Unbruglia's latest album and Five's Greatest Hits.
On November 5th, Natalie Imbruglia, the songstress from Down Under released her White Lilies Island album... |
An event long awaited by her many fans. But within days we heard from viewers experiencing problems playing their CDs; so we opened The Watchdog Files.
Julian Francis told Watchdog:
"I bought the Natalie Imbruglia CD on the 5th of November. It wouldn't work on my DVD player. I then tried it on my PC and it forced some software on me which I didn't want to use and it would only let me play it through that."
That's because Natalie's album is no ordinary CD: it was launched with copy protection. This means that the CD has a data shield embedded into it to stop copies being made. When this CD was released, there were so many complaints about difficulties playing it that the record company announced they would make normal copies available in the shops and that they would set up a helpline.
To shed some light on the subject Watchdog spoke to technology journalist Barry Fox, he told the programme:
"Sometimes these discs do not play properly on ordinary equipment. And that leaves people at risk of hunting for non-existence faults in their home equipment."
The record company has been aware of the problems since November. But last week (4th Jan) Watchdog went to London's West End to see how many copy protected CDs were still on sale. For Five's album on average we found one in five had the data shield. As for Natalie, it was more than 8 out of every 10. So how do you know how to spot them? The clue is on the back of the CD - tiny print which refers to a cactus datashield indicates the disc has copy protection. But there is no warning of the potential problems.
BMG
BMG apologise to anyone that has had problems with their CD's. They say that as soon as they realised there was a problem they stopped delivery of protected CD's. They couldn't withdraw stocks from stores, but any future deliveries did not carry the protection technology. Anyone who has problems playing their CDs can either get a replacement or their money back by contacting the helpline which is:
0151 225 1159.
One more reason to stop this nonsense and start selling CD's cheaper instead of adding more flawed protection schemes. Read more here.
Source: BBC - Watchdog
