From: Simon Gardner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Then they can expect them to be returned in bulk as people take
> > them to work
> > etc and find they cannot play them on there PC.
> >
> > If they do not comply to the red book standards then I believe they cannot
> > use the compact disc logo on them, meaning that they will have to come up
> > with some new term for them...
>
> I'm assuming as well that such discs will need newer (and more expensive)
> equipment to produce - and that this cost won't be absorbed by the record
> companies, however much they whinge about losing from piracy.
>
> The public is already p**sed off about the high cost of music as it is -
> adding an extra 10% or so to that already, for a disc that you can't MD/make
> CDR copies/play at work just won't wash.
>
> That said, virtually all of the protection schemes for PC CDROM discs have
> patches to remove the protection. This may well stop the average Joe Public
> copying stuff, but anyone who knows where to look can get around it easily.
>
> As always, they're targeting the wrong people. Those who *really* cost the
> industry are the CD factories churning out discs, not people like us making
> personal copies of music for portable/car use.
Just when I thought SCMS final discs from V2 were the only threat to general
acceptance of MD as a consumer format, up pops this. Is it just me or do we
think that the now rocketing popularity of MD is scaring record companies
who previously slated us as an irrelevant minority market.
Whilst either of these protection schemes may prevent joe-public making a
digital-copy, I reckon it will actually increase sales of black-market CDs which
are unrestricted-- personally if I was offered a CD which was SCMS final and
wouldn't play in my CD-RW drive for UKP10, or a pirate digitally-copied SCMS
unlimited CD for UKP6 at a local market, I'd get the pirate. I know it's wrong,
but I would do it anyway, once I was satisfied of the bootlegs' quality.
As to CDs bearing the label "Compact Disc Digital Audio", although both my
audio CD player, and my music CDs do bear that logo, my CD-R blanks bear
the logo "Compact Disc Recordable", and my CD-RW drive has the symbol
"Compact Disc Recordable ReWritable" so strictly speaking, the only things
with the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" I have are my CD player and the CDs
I play on it. What's the bet these copy-proof CDs will have yet another almost
identical logo-- all three of those above look the same apart from the small
writing below Disc (though Recordable ReWritable is on two lines, not one).
So the protected audio CDs might bear a logo like "Compact Disc Authorised
Music" or whatever nonsense they feel fit to call it, and while it may play in
CD players and nothing else- they wouldn't be breaking rules I guess (but I'm
not a lawyer and don't really know). I bet they've already checked out all the
legal implications or they wouldn't have begun the R&D work.
These to be introduced "copy-proof CDs" remind me greatly of the early 90s
when certain computer software was distributed on floppy-discs which had
sectors marked as bad but the installation software would read anyway, but
DOS utilities failed. Needless to say utilities quickly appeared which could
copy almost any floppy. Trouble is the average consumer couldn't make a
backup for themselves of a CDAuthorisedMusic disc. Indeed it would have
to be a CD Analogue Music copy which is also CDAM strangely enough :-)
Personally I think we should concern ourselves more with the possibility of
SCMS Final CDs being released and look at these copy-proof CDs when
or if they appear.
Cheers,
PrinceGaz -- "...until next time, keep it MiniDisc!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word
"unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
