-» Need To Know reported on Friday that copies of Michael Jackson's
new single "Rock Your World" are being sent out by Sony which won't play in PC CD-ROM drives.
"When loaded into the CD drive, the disc spun continuously as though the drive was trying to access the
TOC (table of contents) of a blank or corrupted CDR." This is precisely what Macrovision's
SafeAudio (and similar
copy-protection systems) is designed to do -- to "insert 'bad' error-correction codes, which audio
CD players can interpolate around, but higher-precision CD-ROM drives don't, effectively preventing
you from ripping (or listening to) any tracks on your PC."
If this copy-protection system is being implemented to prevent people from ripping and distributing the
song over the Internet, then it's useless as it's already available through AudioGalaxy
and Gnutella for download. Sorry Jacko, but copy-protections just
don't work. Besides, how many people out there are gonna buy a music CD which restricts its use, such as
preventing legitimate users from playing it on their computer?
A California woman has already filed a lawsuit against the independent record label Fahrenheit Entertainment.
The suit claims that the Denver, Colorado-based company misled consumers when it failed to disclose that
their CDs contained an embedded copyright-protection system which prevented it from being played on a
computer's CD-ROM drive.
The suit was also filed against SunnComm, the company which
created the copy-protection program that prevents people from ripping and distributing digital copies
of songs over the Internet. Their copy-protection system also requires owners to register the audio CD
via a web site first, before it can be played in a computer.
Macrovision even claims that it has been secretly testing out its SafeAudio technology on unsuspecting
consumers, as it has provided the technology to several major record labels since the beginning of the
year. No CDs or labels that are implementing the technology have been disclosed, citing their nondisclosure
agreements with the music labels.
The practice of embedding copyright-protection technology into CDs will only gain in popularity, as
more and more record labels and artists look for ways to protect their revenue. But this practice will
only succeed if we as consumers allow it to. We have the power to stop this by simply refusing to
purchase their products. Only then will they realize that restricting our "Fair (and legitimate) Use"
is unacceptable and we will not stand idly by as our consumer rights are slowly stripped away from us.