Corrupted Audio CDs Music Freedom Intellectual Property

Several "anti-rip" schemes for CDs insert chunks of garbage data to produce errors in CD players. These schemes are often inaccurately referred to as "copy protection", though no steps are taken to prevent verbatim duplication of the corrupted audio data to another CD.

• The Register - Congressman Assails CD Copy Protection - Copy protection tracks implanted in CDs are a violation of the right to fair use of purchased music, writes a US Representative to recording industry lobbyists.
  
• Big Five Labels Sued Over Copy-Protected CDs - "Heightening the tension surrounding the music industry's efforts to guard its content in the digital realm, the five major record labels were hit with a class action lawsuit last week for producing and distributing CDs with copyright protection cont
  
• Philips Burning on Protection - "Officials for Netherlands-based Philips, which licenses the compact disc logo for both discs and players, went on a tirade against the recording industry for shipping discs with deliberate errors burned into them." By Paul Boutin. [Wired]
  
• New Scientist: NSync CD is Copy Protection "Experiment" - "The music industry is now testing different copy protection systems on mass market chart CDs, with copies of NSync's Celebrity on the Zomba label being sold in at least three different versions."
  
• New Scientist: Anti-piracy CD System Raises Distortion Fear - "The first CD title has already sold 100,000 copies, but it is causing concern among audio experts because they fear that the music may be audibly distorted."
  
• Lawsuit Challenges Copy-protected CDs - Reader discussion of Reuters article. [Slashdot]
  
• The Age - Copy Protected CDs: Artists Can Be the Losers - Article pointing out that music companies which use copy protection may be denying the artists under contract to them legitimate play time on radio stations.
  
• Lawsuit Challenges Copy-Protected CDs - "The five major record companies have been hit with a class-action lawsuit charging that new CDs designed to thwart Napster-style piracy are defective and should either be barred from sale or carry warning labels." [Reuters]
  
• kuro5hin: New Scientist: SafeDisc Can Cause Damage to Speakers - "New Scientist reports that the new anti-piracy feature on audio CDs, has the potential to damage loudspeakers by introducing square waves into the amplified signal." News and reader comments.
  
• BMG Stops Producing CDs - "The Register has a new story about claims by Bertelsmann that they'll stop manufacturing uncrippled audio CDs." News and reader comments. [Slashdot]
  
• Special Report: Copy-Protected CDs - "How the labels are trying to stop you." [Rolling Stone]
  
• BMG to Replace Anti-rip Natalie Imbruglia CDs - "Bertelsmann Music Group has had to back down on plans to force anti-rip technologies on British CD buyers." By Tony Smith. [Register]
  
• Register: Old Code Defeats New CD Anti-ripping Technologies - "Macrovision's SafeAudio and Midbar's Cactus - both new technologies designed to prevent CDs from being copied successfully - may have been defeated by software released over two years ago." By Tony Smith.
  
• 'No More Music CDs Without Copy Protection,' Claims BMG Unit - "BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products." By John Lettice. [Register]
  
• Copy Protection on CDs is 'Worthless' - "The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, according to a computer scientist who has put today's antipiracy systems under the microscope." By Barry Fox. [New Scientist]
  
• Copy Protection On CDs Is 'Worthless' - Reader comments on New Scientist article. [Slashdot]
  
• Register: CD Anti-piracy System Can Nuke Hi-fi Kit - "Sony's Music Entertainment division has been testing an anti-piracy technology that at best renders illegally copied CDs unlistenable and at worse blows listeners' speakers." By Tony Smith.
  
• Consumers in Crossfire of Labels' War on Piracy - "The downside of copy-protected music CDs? Some won't play when consumers get them home." By Aaron Pressman. [Christian Science Monitor]
  
• Felt Tip Marker Defeats Copy-Protected CDs - News and reader discussion. [Slashdot]
  
• Register: Anti-rip CD System Bypassed - "Macrovision's SafeAudio technology, designed to prevent PC-owning music fans from ripping CD tracks onto their hard drives, has been bypassed." By Tony Smith.
  
• AOL Seeks Manager for Anti-Copying Push - "AOL Time Warner is beginning efforts to add copy protection to CDs, underscoring the company's desire to limit unsanctioned digital distribution of its musical works." By Jim Hu. [CNet]
  
• Copy-Protected CDs a Nightmare for BMG Germany - "Blaming a falloff in CD sales on the popularity of CD burners, BMG Germany recently issued approximately 100,000 copy-protected discs in an attempt to thwart the problem--and had to take a substantial portion of them back because consumers said the
  
• New Scientist Correction to 'Big Audio Dynamite' - Retraction of article saying Cactus DataShield could damage speakers. "Midbar... has asked us to make clear that there is nothing in its technology on the market, past, current or future, that could, or would, be potentially damaging to equipment.&qu
  
• BMG Backs Down Over Copy-Protected CD - Virgin Megastores has responded to a complaint from one of their customers and said that BMG has set up a helpline to allow people who bought the corrupt version, to exchange it for a real one. Virgin and HMV will also be bringing in new stock of uncorrup
  
• Customers Put Kibosh on Anti-Copy CD - "Complaints about anti-copying technology on Natalie Imbruglia's latest CD force her record label to issue replacements for angry consumers." By John Borland. [CNet]
  
• Register: 1M Anti-piracy Hi-fi Nuking CDs Hit Europe - "One million CDs have been released in Europe which are protected by the controversial anti-piracy system Cactus Data Shield... The Cactus Data Shield system is controversial because the technology could blow your hi-fi speakers." By Robert Blin
  
• New CD Protection Won't Play on PCs - "Israeli security company Midbar Tech is releasing 1 million copy-protected CDs in Japan as part of an aggressive push by record labels to curtail digital piracy." By Gwendolyn Mariano. [ZDNet]
  
• More Copy Protected CDs? - Fat Chuck's maintains a list of corrupt CDs. Reader comments and discussion. [Slashdot]
  
• Wired: Copy-Protected CDs Taken Back - "[BMG Germany] was faced with a backlash from consumers complaining that some of the copy-protected CDs were unplayable."
  
• CD Freaks: SafeAudio Explained and Should We Fear It? - How Macrovision's SafeAudio works and how to bypass it.
  
• Register: 'Hi-fi Nuking' CD Technology Safe Claims Developer - Skeptical report on New Scientist's retraction of its warning that Cactus could damage speakers playing copied CDs. By Tony Smith.
  
• Slashdot: BMG's New Copy-Protected Audio CDs - "BMG-Entertainment started selling audio-CDs using the Cactus Data Shield, a copy-protection system developed by Midbar and Sonopress which makes it impossible to grab the music from the CD and to listen to it using 'an old CD-Player' or a CD-ROM-dri
  
• Selling the Benefits - "If DVD-A and/or SACD are to supplant CD, not only do their features have to be transformed into benefits, but the benefits consumers currently enjoy with CD need to be preserved." By John Atkinson. [Stereophile]
  
• Register: Music Biz Patents Anti-rip Encryption Technology - "Details of the method appear in a patent filed by IFPI. The patent, GB2357165, centres on encrypting the track time codes stamped onto every music disc." By Tony Smith.
  
• Register: UK Campaigners Call for Anti 'Anti-rip' CD Day of Action - "Campaigners will take to the streets of Britain this Saturday (6 October) in a bid to raise public awareness of the music industry's attempts to prevent listeners from copying CDs or playing discs on PCs." By Tony Smith.
  
• Register: US Record Label Sued over Anti-rip CD Technology - "An unnamed Californian woman has sued US country music record label Fahrenheit Entertainment for allegedly misleading its customers by shipping CDs protected with an anti-rip mechanism." By Tony Smith.
  
• Slashdot -Stations Can't Play Crippled Music Disks - Reader comments on The Age article reporting that some radio stations are unable to play copy-protected CDs.
  
• Post-it Notes vs. Copy-Inhibited CDs - News about Celine Dion CDs killing iMacs and black markers or sticky notes defeating some "copy-protection" schemes. Reader discussion. [Slashdot]
  
• NewOlde.com - How to Detect and Avoid Copy-Controlled CDs - Information for classical music listeners to help them identify Copy-Controlled CDs, including the graphics that appear on the packaging.
  
• Another Class Action Over Crippled Music Disks - News brief and reader discussion. [Slashdot]
  
• CNet: Protected CDs Quietly Slip into Stores - "Consumers in ordinary record stores are unwittingly buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage the making of digital copies."
  
• Record Labels Beware - Study suggests that, if the music industry wants to experiment with selling copy-protected CDs, "there [must] be mandatory warning labels on the CDs or the industry risks seriously alienating consumers." By Jon Iverson. [Stereophile]
  
• Sony Intentionally Crashes Customers' Computers - "Celine Dion's latest CD will not play in computer drives. In fact: 'Should the consumer try to play Dion's CD on a PC or Macintosh, the computer likely will crash.'" News and reader discussion. [Slashdot]
  
• Metafilter - Community weblog discussing protected and corrupted audio CDs.
  
• New Scientist: New CD Anti-Piracy System Could Damage Loudspeakers - "It is called the Cactus Data Shield, and it is designed to add noisy garbage to all copied CDs. The trouble is, it could also damage the hi-fi and loudspeakers of people who play pirated CDs."
  
• Cactus CD Copy Protection is Launched This Month - "To thwart file swappers, Universal Music Group executives have said they want to protect a large proportion of their new releases as early as midyear." News and reader discussion. [kuro5hin]
  
• Slashdot: NSync Copy Protected CD - "NSync's new CD will be released in a least 3 different versions (with different copy protection techniques)." News and reader comments.
  
• Hey, Big Five - Copyright This! - "A class action lawsuit has been filed against the five major record labels for manufacturing and distributing defective or dysfunctional compact discs." News and reader discussion. [Plastic]
  
• Philips: Don't Mess with the CD! - "According to Philips, recent attempts to add playback restriction technology to new releases is not just a bad idea: Because the Red Book recipe has been altered, the discs no longer qualify as CDs and should be labeled clearly." By Jon Iverson
  
• Consumer Claims Victory in CD Lawsuit - "Makers of a recording by country-pop singer Charley Pride have agreed to stop tracking most listener habits and to warn consumers that the CD is not compatible with MP3 and other players, according to attorneys for a woman who sued the companies.&qu
  
  

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