Music Copy Protection Has Gone TOO FAR!!!

[Diplo]

So, I'm at work this morning and a friend says have a listen to this new music CD they have bought by a band called Kasabian. OK, I thought, and popped it in the CD drive of my PC at work. Next thing I knew a message pops up on the screen saying something like, "files updated system about to reboot". Without warning my PC reboots, loosing all the work I was doing in progress (I work as web developer programmer). So, after PC comes back up I Explore the CD and find that the autorun.inf file on it points towards an executable (remember, this is a music CD). I look in the directory where the executable is and find the following files:

WOWPOST.EXE
ASPI32.SYS
WINASPI.DLL
WINASPI32.DLL

Yes, that's right, when the CD autoruns it executes a small program that overwrites your winaspi layer with the one on the CD (without any warning or asking for consent from user). Why does it do this? To install a crippled version that stops you from being able to rip CDs. I tried it - fired up CDEx and low and behold it would no longer rip Music CDs properly (only extracting the first 10 seconds). When I looked closely at the CD I saw it had a tiny logo on it saying 'Copy Control' and a link to http://www.bmg-copycontrol.info

Can you f'kin believe it?!?!?!?!

 

[epicstruggle]

there was a story on this on slashdot. lesson: disable autorun. Hope you get your sytem properly running soon.

epic

 

[Diplo]

there was a story on this on slashdot. lesson: disable autorun.

Yeah, I always do at home, but because this is a work machine I don't really have that option I'll search out new winaspi layer and replace the crippled version.

 

[Diplo]

Update: Oh great, now I've found I can't eject the CD from the drive! It's stuck there and no amount of hitting 'Eject' or issuing the Eject command will open it. Unbelievable.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The music publishers shoot themselves in the foot again by convincing another paying customer it's more hassle than it's worth buying their products.

 

[Ninjagnu]

Update: Oh great, now I've found I can't eject the CD from the drive! It's stuck there and no amount of hitting 'Eject' or issuing the Eject command will open it. Unbelievable.

Just eject it while the pc boots (before windows get to interfere with it

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Just download the songs.
You bought the CD already.

Even though you shoudn't have to do so.

BTW:
Web development is boring.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Then again if I was paid to do it I would simply because it earns a fair amount of $$.

 

[_xxx_]

Why can't you disable autorun on your work machine? If you only have limited rights, let your admin do it for you.

 

[Simon F]

there was a story on this on slashdot. lesson: disable autorun.

Yeah, I always do at home, but because this is a work machine I don't really have that option I'll search out new winaspi layer and replace the crippled version.

Hold down the shift key when inserting a CD etc. It stops autorun.

There was a concern that, when someone mentioned this tip, they could have be prosecuted in the US for circumventing the DCMA

 

[Mariner]

I actually just bought a CD (The Finn Brothers) which has 'copyright protection' warnings all over it. I've not needed to play it in any PCs, however, as I already have MP3 files for this album!

Just goes to show that whatever the state of the copyright protection stuff, it's always possible to rip one way or another. Since the advent of MP3s I have bought many more CDs - if I listen to something and like it, I buy it!

 

[Diplo]

Why can't you disable autorun on your work machine? If you only have limited rights, let your admin do it for you.

Well, I suppose I could disable it (as I do have admin rights on the machine) but then the tech guys get annoyed when it comes to installing software that they have to run it manually (yes, I know, but techies are notoriously lazy and I don't want to piss 'em off!).

The real question, though, is why should I have to? You just don't expect to insert a music CD and have it install stuff on your machine without your consent. That is the problem.

 

[_xxx_]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

 

[nutball]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

Stop buying music. If everybody did that the music industry... awww shit, yeah, if everybody did that they'd probably sue us all for loss of income

 

[Diplo]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

I'm not sure, to be honest. One thing I will certainly do is look very carefully at any CDs before I buy them and if I see the Copy Control logo then refuse to buy it. Unfortunately I buy a lot of CDs online and it's hard to get this info from online sites. However, I found a site that will help list all the (deliberately) corrupted CDs:

http://www.eucd.org/issues/cd/bad/

There's also an interesting article on The Register about this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/06/no_more_music_cds_without/

 

[epicstruggle]

Why can't you disable autorun on your work machine? If you only have limited rights, let your admin do it for you.

Well, I suppose I could disable it (as I do have admin rights on the machine) but then the tech guys get annoyed when it comes to installing software that they have to run it manually (yes, I know, but techies are notoriously lazy and I don't want to piss 'em off!).

The real question, though, is why should I have to? You just don't expect to insert a music CD and have it install stuff on your machine without your consent. That is the problem.

I think you can set audio cd's to not autorun. I believe you can set whether or not to autorun depending on whether its: audio cd, software, cdr, vcd.... I think it only works if you have xp.

epic

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

Pirate their work.

 

[Simon F]

I actually just bought a CD (The Finn Brothers) which has 'copyright protection' warnings all over it.

Ohh... that's a shame. I've got most of their earlier work (well, except for early Split Enz recordings) on CD but that's enough to stop me getting the latest CD.

Out of curiosity, how would you rate it relative to, say, "Woodface"?

 

[cloudscapes]

Copy protection IMHO is useless with the presense of P2P. All you need is one person to successfully rip a CD and stick it on a popular P2P network. Now it spreads like germs. And because a lot of people will either (a) be having trouble playing it, or (b) will want a file copy for their MP3 player ,the demand for P2P will be exceptionally high. The system just doesn't work, unless they go as far as to actually prosecute as many "legal" downloaders as possible.

About five of my albums sport copy protection in one way or another. Thankfully so far I have been able to rip them, but it might not be possible in the near future. These days I only use CDs once, to rip to OGG. After that it goes straight to my iRiver H120 and also stays on my comp that doubles as a sound system. What happens if I can't rip anymore, or download songs of the net, I can't use my iRiver! Ironic because there is now a HUGE market for these types of players, and it's only getting bigger.

The only way would be to buy songs individually off that abomination iTunes (or similar websites), even though I already bought the CD (which will be of better quality anyway.

The only way that this could work is:
1. First and foremost, do not modify system files like Diplo's. This is EXTREMELLY frowned apon, and will most likely cause more frustration that it's worth.
2. Supply a code (whether embedded in the CD or in the booklet) that allows you to *freely* download FLAC/hq OGG/hq MP3/WAV off the web. Most audiophiles will demand near-lossless audio, if even compressed at all. This would be difficult however, as pressing CDs with different embedded codes is at the moment either financially impossible or not yet realistically accessible.

 

[RussSchultz]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

Sure. They're knowingly selling a product with a trojan horse that damages your property, purposefully, without your consent.

 

[epicstruggle]

My opinion too, but what will you do? Sue them for it?

Sure. They're knowingly selling a product with a trojan horse that damages your property, purposefully, without your consent.

This is a bit tricky. The case that the cd came on MIGHT have had warning labels about it would do. Diplo did not purchase the cd, so he might have very little to complain about. IANAL

epic