“Recent CDs by Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews Band containing new anti-piracy technology are selling well despite a backlash among some fans angry that the discs are incompatible with iPods, experts said on Thursday,” Sue Zeidler reports for Reuters. “Aiming to curb piracy, labels like Sony BMG, which released both records, are rolling out copy-protected albums in the United States, which let users make three exact duplicates of a CD, and store files on a PC in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media format. But the copy-protection bars users from importing music onto iPods since Apple’s Fairplay software is incompatible with Windows.”
Zeidler reports, “Record executives said they were continuing talks with Apple Computer Inc. to make these CDs compatible with iPods. ‘It’s up to Apple to flip the switch,’ said one record label executive. Apple declined to comment on such talks. ‘We have not announced any plans to license Fairplay technology,’ said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris… Sony BMG, a joint venture between Japan’s Sony Corp. and Germany’s Bertelsmann, said users can get the music onto iPods by transferring files to a PC, burning them to a CD, ripping those and transferring them into iTunes.”
Full article here.
The copy-protection bars users from importing music onto iPods since Apple’s Fairplay software is incompatible with Windows? Doesn’t iTunes come in a Windows version?
This is an attempt to force Apple to license FairPlay or incorporate WMA, more than anything else. For those who say that Apple’s “closed” iTunes Music Store (iTMS) + iPod system is to blame: Apple doesn’t force people to buy their music from the iTunes Music Store to get access to their music. What does Sony BMG offer? Discs that are useless for iPod users. The best option that Sony BMG offers iPod users are lower quality versions of the albums via iTMS. What if you want the CD-quality version of these albums? Will this tactic work to force Apple to license FairPlay to others or license WMA from Microsoft?
[UPDATE: 8:04pm, EDT: Added first sentence to “take” to highlight incorrect statement in quoted article. Also added “or incorporate WMA” as per reader comment(s) below along with various other fixes.]
Related article:
Sony BMG and EMI try to force Apple to ‘open’ iPod with iPod-incompatible CDs – June 20, 2005
I have twice (both accidentally) come across these bastard-children copy-protected non-CD’s that wouldn’t mount in my Macs. (They were Dido’s “Life for Rent” and Tina Turner’s Greatest Hits 2-disc set.) In fact, out of five optical drives in my home, they would correctly play in only two.
I found that ridiculous and anti-capitalist, considering that I ACTUALLY BOUGHT THEM and therefore owned legitimate licenses.
So I found a CD drive that would play them, recorded the audio using my PowerBook, ripped them down so I could use them… and summarily distributed copies to everyone I knew, as my own form of private protest.
I don’t make a habit of stealing music, but if an idiot record label is going to sell me non-CD’s (on inspection, they DID NOT carry the “Compact Disc Digital Audio” logo, because they couldn’t, legally, since they don’t conform) that I can only play in 20% of my hardware, then screw THEM.
As a consumer, I should be at least allowed to know about (and avoid) these stupid DRM schemes– because let’s face it, we don’t know these things when we’re browsing the music shops, until we’ve already laid down the cash.
Screw the bastards.
Incidentally, MDN Magic Word is “attack,” as in “How dare they attack my right to own and play my legitimately purchased music?!?”
… oops… in the interest of accuracy, 2/5 = 40%, not 20%…
… but my point still stands.
Magic Word is “use,” as in “I should have used a calculator, if I couldn’t do simple math properly!”
: )
FUK’EM
I bought the Dave Matthews Band CD entitled “Stand UP” about a month ago, ripped it on my Mac into “Apple Lossless” format. Then placed it on my iPod. I encountered NO problems. No copyright warnings. This must be a “PC” thing. Buy a Mac. Play your music anywhere.
Who gives a crap. Neither Dave Matthews or Foo Fighters can play worth a shit anyway, so who would bother with their new copy-protected stuff.
On the other hand, as with any copy protected track or CD, you can always rip the CD to aiff or mp3 and then load it or copy it as many times as you wish. This new Fairplay technology is moronic, ineffective, and only makes me want to spread the word on the workaround.
Message to the greedy record companies… as long as I can hear the music, I can do anything I want with it; buy it, steal it, play it, rip it, copy it, and load it to my ipod. You are not in control of my ears or my ipod.
caio,
jimmy