New Columbia Legacy Reissues Copy Protected?

[Soul Stream]

I bought Manhatten Symphony and loved it! Tried to load it into itunes and no go. That's a HUGE drag for me since that's where I listen to stuff the most. Needless to say, if this is the future I'm hanging onto my old "bad sounding" CDs since I can load them into my ipod. Seems like I'm in the same boat with 99.9999999999% of the public who just want to buy this stuff legally and then manipulate to their needs.

I think this will hurt their sales. If I can't ipod it, I ain't buying it.

[Claude]

They play normally in anything but a computer.

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They are also meant to play on a computer, but cannot be copied on a computer. I haven't read much on this new Sony copyprotection scheme, but previous systems like EMI's Cactus Datashield also created many playability problems on devices where the CDs are meant to be used normaly, like on DVD players and car CD players. So it is not only a nuisance for those who want to copy the music (on CD-R or just onto their portable player).

[Roger Hiles]

It's sad that Columbia/Sony didn't release these as normal CDs-- I agree "copy-protecting" these is a curious choice. Maybe jazz is more popular than I thought!

To save the trouble of dealing with cp, I passed on all but "Jeru". Except for the cp nonsense, it's a quality reissue. A nice session (especially the bossa nova "Capricious"), good liner notes, everyone's name spelled correctly on the cover.

On the bright side, I bet this encourages at least a few people to discover Linux and possibly Ogg Vorbis (open-source sound standard). Computers should enable us, not confine us.

[tatifan]

I have a stand alone cd burner (that accepts "data" blanks, rather than needing "music" blanks) and it's copying Brookmeyer just fine right now. I would assume I can rip this to my iPod, seeing that it will just be regular audio files now. Will report if this is not the case.

Even with "consumer" stand alone models, this should work for single copies, I would image, at full quality. I guess everyone uses computer burners these days, but I got mine to burn cds of lps easily.

[cayetano]

Hi,

Good news from the old Europe.

I buy all the serie this morning here in Spain (the cd's are made in Austria) and they don't have any indications of copyprotection and they play and copy fine on the computer.

Edited September 11, 2005 by cayetano

[ornette]

I've just taken delivery (in the UK) of Drum Suite and Silver's Blue from a supplier in the USA. Both play on my iMac and cd player and both can be ripped to itunes.

[Claude]

For those who want to know which CDs are copyprotected and which are not: Amazon.com is clearly designating copy-protected CD as such, at least for the SonyBMG titles:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009Y26O0

Edited October 6, 2005 by Claude

[Claude]

Here's a very technical analysis by Mark Russinovich (sysinternals.com) of the potential security risks and stability issues introduced by the software installed by copyprotected SonyBMG CDs:

http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/s...tal-rights.html

There is also an article on Slashdot:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/10/31/2016223...tid=172&tid=158

SysInternals.com guru Mark Russinovich has a detailed investigation of a rootkit from Sony Music. It's installed with a DRM-encumbered music CD, Van Zant's "Get Right with the Man". (Mmmm, delicious irony!) The rootkit introduces several security holes into the system that could be exploited by others, such as hiding any executable file that starts with '$sys$'. Russinovich also identifies several programming bugs in the method it uses to hook system calls, and chronicles the painful steps he had to take to 'exorcise the daemon' from his system.

And a german article on Heise:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/65602

[Roger Hiles]

Here's a discussion of the wacky end-user-license-agreement that comes with the spyware-laden copy protection scheme Sony used on Jeru and some others in this batch.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php

[BERIGAN]

Here's a discussion of the wacky end-user-license-agreement that comes with the spyware-laden copy protection scheme Sony used on Jeru and some others in this batch.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php

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Several Wows there, but this one is amazing, IMO...

If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.

[Claude]

Be sure to remove the CD-R copy from your car player when you drive to Canada:

You may not export the LICENSED MATERIALS outside of the country where you reside.  (This clause 1(e) of Article 3 shall not be applicable within the European Economic Area (EEA).)