22 replies to this topic

[2005]

Napster and other premium music downloading sites have started wraping their MP3's so that you can only burn them a set number of times... what i am wonder is say that i burn a disk of such mp3's using nero, would i be able to reburn the disk using alcohol or would the DRM protection prevent this.

[Tron]

Not sure, but you could try burning the disc then scan it with A-Ray Scanner to see if it sees any protection...

[Andareed]

They probably download licenses from the internet. They send a unique id based on various hardware serials and attributes. Then they can track how many computers you have "installed" the tracks onto.

[RAS1187]

Would it be possible to burn the songs to a CD and then rip them back to the HD to have un-protected songs using sometihng like musicmatch or windows media player... not taht I plan to "share" them, but I hate being restricted.

[zamiel]

Possibly, but the question you need to ask yourself is, is that legal?

[RAS1187]

I couldn't see it being illegal as long as you don't give the songs away, only for your personal use... not that I plan to buy from Itunes or Napster anytime soon, just curious.

For now I will stick with the drive to Best Buy and getting the actual CD, I like the little booklets that have pictures and lyrics anyways... cant get that from Itunes.

[shawn_nee]

Is it legal for companies to install programs on our computers without notifying me first and/or giving me the option to deny it? Once it is bought can I return it for a refund to the store simply because I dont want to install said program on my computer? I know it's not the right forum to talk about this in but just had to put my 2 pesos worth in.

[RAS1187]

I agree with Shawn_Nee... I was at a record store and noticed 2 recent albums (Velvet Revolver - Contraband; J-Kwon - Hood Hop) that had the little sticker that says it is protected against piracy... if I didn't do my research, I would've just guessed that meant it was protected with some sort of "SafeDisc" for audio which meant the protection was on the disc... I would've never guessed that it would install spyware on your computer that ruins the MP3 rips. I understand they want to control their profits... but this is just wrong. The sad thing is that the majority of the music-buying public does not know about this or the shift trick so they are leaving themselves wide open for whatever the music industry wants to throw on their warped circular shaped discs (I refuse to acknowledge them as Compact Discs as they are not).

At least give me a warning about the spyware when I pop it in the cd-rom drive and give me an option of either accepting the spyware or just not play the CD in my computer.

Whats next... buy a CD and get spyware that reports to the music industry all your internet activity... so that they can see if your uploading songs onto a P2P network?

[zamiel]

Going to move this to the off topic forum.

I personally think they have a right to protect their interests, even if this means installing spyware. The share volume of mp3 trading has really left them no choice but to take drastic action. Sad state of affairs really. Just my two cents worth.

I always disable autorun when inserting music cds in my computer, force of habit.

[fishyfool]

if mp3 downloads were a reasonable price, like a quarter, they wouldn't have any worries.
since they are a dollar (88cents at wal-mart.com)
people still want to avoid paying.
them installing software on computers without permission is insane and should be punished by lawsuit.

[tenndevil]

I personally think they have a right to protect their interests, even if this means installing spyware. The share volume of mp3 trading has really left them no choice but to take drastic action. Sad state of affairs really. Just my two cents worth.

This is the attitude that allows them to do what they do, I haven't bought a cd in a couple of years, and I haven't downloaded anything either, in my opinion no ones putting anything out worth listening to, but they never mention the lack of talent or music worth listening too as the culprit, well except for country music sales jumped 11% this year hmmmm, seems p2p hasn't affected that. I guess you don't care that you can't make a simple transfer to an ipod or other type of mp3 player, they don't have the right to install anything on MY private property without my permission I mean even police have to give you your miranda warnings before they can talk to you about a crime they think you committed, and now you say it's ok for them to put what they want on MY computer without MY permission, there should be al sorts of warning on a protected cd, how is it protected and with what, what are the limitations of this cd I plan to purchase, I have the right to know the information before I decide to make that purchase, at least this. They don't want to tell you it's protected because if they do and you can't transfer to an mp3 player then they know you won't buy the cd, it is them who brought on the onslaught of the p2p trading, they started this mess by not informing their bread and butter us the consumer, they are too busy trying to make us the criminal rather than figure out a workable solution, and we all know they already have them, the problem is the RIAA has no control over them and they really hate that.

[RAS1187]

no ones putting anything out worth listening to

Well stated my friend... I do not believe P2P is the main reason for sales dropping.

Yes they have a right to protect their works, but it shouldn't interfere with normal operation or have to install spyware on my computer. Who is to stop them from taking another drastic step that can be alot worse than this.

All I can say is that they are losing alot of customers doing this and will have nobody but themselves to blame when people just stop buying music completely.

[Jito463]

The funny thing is, the RIAA has known for many years that people copied stuff. The cassette tapes they used to sell included a "piracy tax" which constituted approximately 10% of the purchase price to accomodate the people who copied the tapes. Their biggest fear now is, as tenndevil said, that they have no control over the piracy now. Cassette tapes at least had a generational quality loss to them, digital files have no such loss and as such can theoretically be copied infinitely.

I do disagree with fishyfool regarding the cost of MP3's. I think $1/song is not unreasonable. It's approximately what you pay for an entire album of songs after all, and this way you can pick and choose what songs you want. The only downside is, they encode them at 128Kbit instead of 192Kbit, which means less quality. Mind you, I don't listen to mainstream music anyway. I only listen to Christian music. But in general, I have my opinions regarding the subject and this is just my 2 cents worth.

[2005]

1 dollar isnt too bad.. id say 75 cents, and the catch would be that there was no protection on the disk... IT IS LEGAL TO MAKE BACKUPS OF SONGS YOU OWN

[shawn_nee]

I only listen to Christian music

No disrespect Jito, but I had you figured all wrong. I used to be in that phase, but there was not enough heavy metal christian rock groups out there to create new songs so I had to switch. Now I am into a need to find heavy metal Taoist music

[zamiel]

Each to their own I say.

[ShutDown]

Well, its good the music cd's i listen to arnt copy protected. This is because all the bands i like do not belong to a record company owned by the RIAA. I would never buy any CD from the RIAA. greedy *u**s

[RAS1187]

@ Shutdown

Thats great, I could soon be following that path.

I think I am going to just stop buying music alltogether... I don't listen to/buy much music anyway.

[2005]

well i do, and i like to have backups..... i think its crap that if you download a song they gotta have protections built into it, its my music that i paid for.

[Jito463]

Actually, it's not. It's the artists' music, you just paid for the right to listen to it. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is another matter, but the fact is when you buy a CD or purchase a song online, all you're buying is the licence for it, not the rights to the song.

It's the same thing with games. When you buy a game, all you're buying is a licence to play the game, not the rights to the game, which is how they get away with copy protecting their games so we can't make backups (not easily anyway, and definitely not without some other software like Alcohol).