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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=887
Record Companies May Back-Track on CD Copy Protection
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
September 4th 2002
Support for existing copy protection schemes slowing, at least in the US, due to
consumer concerns.
Record companies, worried about consumer backlash, may be ready to rethink their
controversial CD copy protection plans, says a story on c|net news.
Recent CDs, including titles by Natalie Imbruglia and Celine Dion, have had copy
protection applied to the CDs, making them impossible to play or rip on certain PCs
and Macs. In slot-load DVD/CD drives, such as some G3 iMacs and PowerBook G4s, the CDs
can even become jammed in the drive, damaging the mechanism.
"From our perspective, CD copy protection is unfortunately not as good as we''d all
like it to be," said Christa Haussler, vice president of new technology at music label
BMG Entertainment, to c|net news.
The RIAA has cited studies claiming that the 7% drop in CD sales during the first six
months of 2002 was due largely to music piracy, although those sampled - fewer than
1,000 people - has been criticised for its size and scope. The survey asked a people
in a range of age brackets whether they had made or obtained a burned copy of a
commercial CD release in the past 12 months.
One company, Midbar Tech, says that over 30 million CDs have been shippied using its
copy protection scheme. Nevertheless, while the take-up rate of copy protection has
been faster outside North America, the vast majority of CDs do not have protection
schemes.
Apple has adppted a policy of ''fair use'', limiting the capabilities of iTunes song
lists stored on iPods to the song list and MP3s on the user''s computer. Plugging an
iPod into another Mac or PC will not allow the user to transfer iPod MP3s to that
machine.
CEO Steve Jobs has stated that fair use includes ripping and burning one''s own CDs
onto mixed CDs or onto hard drives for personal use, which Apple sees as ''fair use''.
However, Apple has also release tech notes warning users that use of copy-protected
CDs which damage the Mac will not be covered under warranty.
One company, Macrovision, is looking at ways to put ''locked'' music onto regular CDs
- but these will play normally on PCs and be accessible to portable MP3 and MiniDisc
players. However, most record companies have yet to choose the type of technologies
they will adopt in order to implement such protection schemes.
Analysis: Unlike the DVD-R/DVD+RW mess, let''s hope that when the record companies do
adopt a copy protection scheme, it will be a ''standard'' (like CD Audio itself) and
will let users utilise the music on multiple devices - and without wrecking Mac CD ROM
drives.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=887
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Copyright (c) 2002 Insanely Great Mac. All rights reserved. This article
may not be republished in part or whole without explicit written
permission from Insanely Great Mac.
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