The writing could be on the wall for computer buffs who copy music CDs for their friends. Sony Music has planted a "poisoned pellet" of software in Celine Dion's latest CD, A New Day Has Come, that is capable of crashing, and in cases permanently freezing, the optical drives of personal computers into which the discs are inserted. Michael Speck, of the Australian Record Industry Association, confirmed yesterday that the anti-piracy software trials were under way but said "spiked" CDs had not so far been distributed in Australia, but it was inevitable. The music companies were "simply protecting their property", he said. Computer users disagree. They say they should be able to use their computers to play CDs for which they have paid, should be able to copy songs into MP3 portable music players and be free to make "personal" copies of CDs they have bought. Most of all, they say, the music companies should not get away with damaging expensive personal computers, which appears to have occurred in Britain. Mr Speck said the big music companies were not concerned about individual copying, but with how to beat mass piracy. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/13/1021002430938.html
There is no way this will happen. It is too risky for the record companies to cause damage to someone's machine. MP3, WMA, electronic media is here to stay, and the sooner record companies accept it and get on with it, the better. Copy protecting MP3s is fine, but loading them with "spikes"? Please.
Record companies should offer their music in digital formats. I would buy an album online, if I could download it. Yep, until the ignorant, antiquated record companies accept modern technology, they will continue to attempt to sabatoge our systems.
Do they know it is illegal to booby trap property? They are in for massive lawsuits if they do this I should start copying now. . .and have my lawyer present If you rigg your car to electrofy anyone trying to steal your radio . . you will goto jail . . . how is this any different? Rocket River
I'm shocked that it took almost an hour for someone to reach this most obvious of conclusions. Kudos.
Good point Outlaw. Not that I care, but wouldn't a counterpoint be the use of a Barbed wire fence. It protects your property and causes pain to those trying to penetrate it. Once the bandit crosses the line he get's hurt. As long as the CD company provides a warning it would seem ok to me. They are protecting what is rightfully their property, and they have provided you ample warning. That's perfectly legal isn't it.
So far I've seen a few mac stories, and one PC story about it. I imagine Mac users are the type who would buy Celine Dion CDs? <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/05/10.10.shtml">Here's Apple's response</a>. <a href="http://www.macuser.co.uk/macsurfer/php3/openframe.php3?page=/newnews/newsarticle.php3?id=1990">Celine Dion kills Macs</a> <a href="http://www.hardocp.com">A guy emailed [H]ard|OCP</a> with this story: <blockquote>The guy who lives in the apartment next to me had this happen to him - he came home with a CD which *he* knew he couldn't play in the iMac, but apparently no-one told their 8-year-old daughter, or she missed it. He's got a lawyer, and is contemplating a case for vandalism. I checked, and the label is on the CD case, fairly small, stating not for use in computers. If its on the CD itself, its lost - much too small. No way an 8-year old who's used to using her iMac is ever going to find it. I don't know if he'll really bother suing or not, but he's up the creek without a paddle; he uses the Mac for work out of his home office, and its *down*. Way to go Sony.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.chip.de/praxis_wissen/praxis_wissen_8725919.html">Here's a way to get around the copy protection</a> but it's in German <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/14/0040215&mode=thread&tid=141">And here's Slashdot</a> with a TON of info.
I've read stories about previous copy-protection schemes causing CDs to be unplayable in many upscale CD players that use similar technology to CD-ROM drives. I wonder if this copy-protection scheme has the same problem. And by the way, I don't think putting "Not for computer use" or "Will not work in a PC/Mac" in small type is really a proper warning. That's like putting a small sign on my front door that says "Doorbell doesn't work" and if someone does push it, it electrocutes them. It's one thing to develop CDs that are unplayable on CD-ROM players or otherwise hard to copy. It's quite another to include what is essentially a virus that can destroy the computer itself. You'd think that might well violate the Federal Computer Abuse Act of 1994 which outlaws the "transmission of a program, information, code, or command" that "cause damage to a computer, computer system, network, information, data or program." 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1030(a)(5)(A).
This sucks so bad I wanna drive to a store, buy a Celine Dion CD, open it, walk over to the Sony VAIO's, stick the CD in, and walk away. The easiest way to screw someone over is to stick a Celine Dion CD in their drive Bastards
I call bull**** on this. There is no way sony could legally do this. There is absolutely *NOTHING* wrong with copying songs to your own hard drive if you don't distribute them. Personally, I rip EVERY cd I purchase to my hard drive for easy playback. Lawsuit city if it is true.
I agree. It violates consumers' fair use. Personally, I make a CloneCD image of every one of my CDs, then burn copies to listen to, rather than risk damaging or losing the real one. Now that I have 200 Gigs of space in my main PC, and 80 in my other, I've got enough space to hold most of my CDs.
Thats like putting a small sign saying "This area is hazardous". Then have your house be the inside of a nuclear reactor. Then the people touch the rods and die. But you snipe them first.
I buy music not for the medium it is on, but for the intellectual content of that medium. I think it is an absolute right for me to protect my investment by storing the content in a form that I can migrate across media and time. Given the crappy CDs music companies are pushing these days (it seems they scratch and deteriorate much faster than a few years ago) and the fact that the case costs more than the CD, I have no problem justifying the copying of music for my personal use. Thankfully, I won't be buying any of today's popular music and it will be a cold day in hell before I buy a Celine Dion CD. Music companies should put their money into creating a better product instead of anti-copying technology. The problem is they see the end of the album/8-track/cassette/cd gravy train that they have been sucking dry for the last 35 years or so.
That's like putting a small sign on my front door that says "Doorbell doesn't work" and if someone does push it, it electrocutes them. I want one of these!! As far as the CD thing goes, exactly how can a CD destroy a computer CD player but work fine in a regular CD player? I mean, the CD is flat and spins in circles -- that's it. It doesn't seem like there's anything it could do to damage the player itself.
There's no way this can even be done. Basically, the only way you could kill a cd-rom would be to make it a CD-extra with a data track in that track you'd have to have some bit of virus-like code that would somehow manage to write something new to the firmware. Firmware flashing procedures varry by model, type, etc. You'd have to have some sort of engine that'd query the device, get a model number/type, and then match it with a database. If they somehow managed to do this, most OS's don't allow programs like these to have direct access to hardware. Then, of course, they'd be subjecting themselves to the same liabilities that virus writers are subject to. Not likely.
Could it be that something within the copy protection software itself causes such a reaction from iMacs in particular (or some models of iMacs)? I'm a computer idiot (actually, I'm a idiot in many areas), so I apolgize if it's a stupid question. I mean, it could be that the crashing of the computer as related is not the desired result of the software but an unfortunate byproduct.
The people of Sony should face the same law that the starters of viruses do because that is all this is. One big computer virus. Sony is just losing about 5 million custumers over this. i hope everyone boycotts sony just to make an example. That way companies that just make cds cannot do this. If a company that just makes cds does this, they will be put out of buisness.
Isn't the CD just defending itself against your violation of it....You are the one breaking the law. The CD is simply trying to prevent you from doing so. It's actually doing you a favor when you think about it. Copywright violation is a serious issue. It's not a civil liberty.
