Latest Copy-Protection broken by holding the shift key

The technique was confirmed by BMG and SunnComm Technologies, the small company that produces the anticopying technology. Both companies said they had known about it before releasing the CD, and that they still believed the protection would deter most average listeners' copying.

"This is something we were aware of," BMG spokesman Nathaniel Brown said. "Copy management is intended as a speed bump, intended to thwart the casual listener from mass burning and uploading. We made a conscious decision to err on the side of playability and flexibility."

SunnComm's technology is the most flexible version of CD copy-protection to hit the market yet. It includes "pre-ripped" versions of the songs on the CD itself, each of which can be transferred to a computer, burned to CD several times, or transferred to many kinds of portable devices. These differ from unrestricted MP3 files in that only limited copies can be made, and not every portable music device can play them.
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In other words, they are not trying to track down or stop big-time pirates, filesharers and the likes, they are doing this so your average Joe can't copy his CD to his harddrive, play the tracks on his portable device or make backup copies...

I hate BMG and SunnComm
 
I'm not sure what system the record label that distributed Radiohead's latest was using (I bought in Japan), but I had no problem ripping it into AAC. Yes, for my own personal use on my hd and iPod. The ironic part is that I had to rip it just to listen to it because the protection caused iTunes to constantly skip the CD. I'm all for copy protection as long as I can make my "fair use" copies a la ACC from ITMS. Yes, I used to download illegally, but once I started working I realized how much I would hate not getting paid for the crap I had to put up with at my job. I'm currently working as a volunteer so I don't have much money to spend on new music. Thank heavens for e-music.
 
Sjb2016.....I also bought Hail to the Thief (Canada). No probs ripping it in AAC.

Never tried ripping in mp3 though...
 
What they (BMG and others) don't seem to get: It takes 1 (yes, one - as in *ONE*) user to be able to rip a CD and put it online. After a few people have downloaded it and continue to share it, it's out. And all the copy protection in the world doesn't stop it any longer. And even if copy protection _would_ work, you could still use the analog audio out of your stereo to record it onto a computer. Sure, quality would not be 100%. But do the unwashed masses really care? 1 (yes, *ONE*) user has to go through this hassle so millions and millions can download and share the tracks.

Making it more difficult to rip a CD does not stop piracy. It only creates a worse image of the company that implements the copy protection.

Those companies should instead offer Apple even better deals, so iTMS downloads could be even cheaper. And available in Europe. And Switzerland, too. ;-)
 
By the way, there's an official boicott of CD purchasing as of October 31st, announced by a neherland intrest group. They incourage people to no buy any CDs from artists or companies limiting copy rights on and as of this day...
 
Voice....I know that Radiohead doesn't mind people downloading music from the internet.

However, it's the people at EMI that do, and since they produce the albums....
 
What they should do is create a little program on each CD that is required to listen to the music on your computer if they really want copy-protection to work. However, I still think CD's should be unprotected and filesharing easy to do for everyone, even if it costs a dollar or so per song.
 
And of course now they're threatening to sue the student that mentioned that you could just hold down the shift key, apparently under the DMCA and for "irreparably harming the reputation of the company"...
 
One story said the company has lost like $10 mil in stock because of the news, but the best part is when they said they knew of the loophole but didn't think anyone would find it. Idiots.
 
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