I read that the DRMed Sony CDs played and ripped just fine on a Mac.

(and no, I ain't hunting down the link to the original article.)

For anyone who hasn't read Russinovich's original write up on this, I highly recommend it. It's particularly amusing for those with in depth Windows knowledge because you get a really good sense for how stupid the developers are at the company that created the DRM software. After all this PR, I don't think Sony or anyone else is going to be licensing any more software from them!

I know its fun to blame M$ for all those BSOD's, but most of them arise when crappy engineers like these get their hands on the driver development kit. Here's to ripping all of my CDs on my Mac!

Sony has officially made it safer to steal files over the net than to legally buy it!!

They are just attempting to keep an inflated market price that is not at a free market equilibrium point. I bought my 1st CD in 1995 for $14.00, all other technology based industries have reduced cost to compete (what was a computer worth then verse now?) They just have too much EMPIRE to feed and need to realize that anyone with a few thousand bucks can start a recording label and produce and market their own (or other’s) content for much less. All they are protecting is a large marketing / production / distribution network that the internet can and has started to replace. My “Make / Buy” brake point cost is when the blank media + my opportunity cost (time and equipment deprecation) make it better to buy than make. At this point I would pay $4.00 to get a CD that I want with the artwork. I would still rip to my hard drive and use it where and how I want.

Bottom line, they are a dying old technology and they know it, but they are using their shear size and power to continue to breath. Death is near, look at General Motors!!

"On the other hand, this also precludes many music CDs from playing in a Mac."

This is not true. What this software does is prevent Windows from accessing the audio CD portion of the protected, multisession disk. A Mac can access and rip (or play) the tunes just fine. In fact, by holding down the shift key on a Windows machine and not installing Sony's malware, you can also rip the tunes with any number of Windows ripping programs.

Ease of use.... straight forward, and no one wants to feel ripped off.

Death is near, look at General Motors!!

General Motors will do just fine.

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C-weed wrote:
"On the other hand, this also precludes many music CDs from playing in a Mac."

This is not true. What this software does is prevent Windows from accessing the audio CD portion of the protected, multisession disk. A Mac can access and rip (or play) the tunes just fine. In fact, by holding down the shift key on a Windows machine and not installing Sony's malware, you can also rip the tunes with any number of Windows ripping programs.

Hey C-weed, don't be a jerk. The staff have done their research. Depending on the version of the copy protection placed on the CD, the audio portion has so many errors that the music is virtually unplayable without using the installed player - thus ripping the music from the CD becomes almost more trouble than it's worth. Also some standard music CD players, if they're old enough (mine I bought well over ten years ago), cannot play the CDs satisfactorily because their error correction isn't up to scratch.

Alternatively, as happened with a CD I bought a week or so, it wouldn't mount at all, so I returned it to the retailer as being unfit goods.

They're just like Apple in the mid-90s – a lost focus. But just like Apple, they can weather the storm. They've got a fantastic brand, and after they've re-focused they'll be back. Kick them while they're down if you'd like, but realize that this is a common part of the corporate life-cycle. They just got complacent and forgot about the consumer.

It seems as though the biggest threat to any corporation is to think that they are the ones that dictate the terms.

Sign here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/bcsony/petition.html

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LaurieF wrote:

Hey C-weed, don't be a jerk. The staff have done their research. Depending on the version of the copy protection placed on the CD, the audio portion has so many errors that the music is virtually unplayable without using the installed player - thus ripping the music from the CD becomes almost more trouble than it's worth. Also some standard music CD players, if they're old enough (mine I bought well over ten years ago), cannot play the CDs satisfactorily because their error correction isn't up to scratch.

Alternatively, as happened with a CD I bought a week or so, it wouldn't mount at all, so I returned it to the retailer as being unfit goods.

How does pointing out that the "Staff" are making statements which are factually incorrect and never stated in the linked Reuters article make me a jerk?

Also, errors to the audio portion of the Sony protected CD's are NOT part of the intended DRM scheme. So, I stand by what I said.

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LaurieF wrote:


Hey C-weed, don't be a jerk. The staff have done their research. Depending on the version of the copy protection placed on the CD, the audio portion has so many errors that the music is virtually unplayable without using the installed player - thus ripping the music from the CD becomes almost more trouble than it's worth. Also some standard music CD players, if they're old enough (mine I bought well over ten years ago), cannot play the CDs satisfactorily because their error correction isn't up to scratch.

Nope. Sony's system doesn't do that at all. It doesn't affect regular CD players at all. It installs a program in Windows that blocks the user from making more than N (where N could be zero) copies of the music. In that sense, it works a lot like Apple's Fairplay. The problems were 1) it was installed without a clear warning (the "warning" is buried way down in some user agreement); 2) it was installed deep within Windows, making it hard to remove; 3) it made itself hidden, so even antivirus programs wouldn't find it; and, WORST, 4) it became the vehicle for hackers to use to install real viruses. Read the article before you make a comment.

I did read the article. I read it completely. I am having a go at Sony generally. Not only are the putting their own DRM into their CDs, but the way they are generating the CDs, with different layers of protection, has overall made its CDs less playable than before.

The level of errors encoded inside the music appears to be increasing, so that early CD players, as I said, are having a hard time keeping up with them. The music players on the data part of the CD correct the errors (or gloss over them), but playing the music as presented otherwise depending on the CD will insert cracks and pops making the CD otherwise unplayable.

I don't know if it's intentional, but some CDs present so badly that, as in my case with a couple of CDs, the disc won't mount and is immediately ejected.

CDs to look at as examples:
Tasty by Kelis
Le Fil by Camille
This latter took me literally hours to extract a playable version

FYI, this does seem to affecting non-PC users - the recent Burt Bacharach disc 'At This Time' won't mount on my Mac (OSX/dual G5) and my quite recent NAD c541i CD player can't read it either. Pretty damn successful anti-piracy, sony - I can't listen to the dam thing, let alone copy it.