My first reaction when I read the subtitle of this San Jose Mercury News article (R)?
MAJOR LABELS TO COPY-PROTECT ALL CDS SOLD IN THE U.S.
Well, I won’t be buying any of those CDs.
Then I read the article.
It looks like the schema being proposed will allow what I consider to be plenty of copies for typical fair use requirements. We do, in the Modulator family, make mix CDs and backup copies for the car and other places with high risk of theft. As long as I can make 3-4 copies I really don’t care whether I can make 7, 8 or more copies of a CD or for that matter whether I can put a song on an IPOD (yea, I know lots of you like IPODs).
Oh, and has anyone run across any betting lines on how long before the most onerous of the copy protection schemes will be breached? If one really wants to some of the approaches appear to be rather trivial to get around.
My issue with copy protection is that half the time a CD with such protection won’t play on all of my CD players. If they could make a CD with copy protection that I was sure would work on every CD player I want to play it on, then I *might* consider buying the CD. But then I’d worry that it wouldn’t work on future players… so there would still be that doubt.
The linked article speaks to this point. The companies allege that the new schemes resolve the problem of CDs not playing on most players.
Experience will tell, though!
Ah… but how can I trust those companies? They are the same ones who told me that the original copy protected CDs would works on all players, and who refused to believe consumers who complained about it when it first happened, and never refunded money or replaced the defective CDs. It’s an issue of trust, and they have completely lost mine.