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Coming Soon: Copy Protected CDs
 As has been widely reported everywhere from CNET, to the New York Times to Yahoo, the recording industry is out to keep consumers from copying CDs. Various copy-protection technologies designed by companies such as Macrovision, and Midvar Tech will be (and in some cases already are being) employed. These different schemes are all designed with one goal in mind: to stop the public from copying CDs onto their computers.
Although past copy-protection efforts, including the much ballyhooed Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) and a less high profile release from country artist Charley Pride, have all been unsuccessful, the record industry continues, shrouded in secrecy, to press on. Yes, some of these altered CDs are already out there, mostly in Europe, but which particular titles are affected and how many of them there are remains unclear. What is clear is that in the near future most if not all CDs will be copy-protected.
Is this legal? It seems so. While the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act upheld consumers' right to make 'fair use' copies of their music without being prosecuted, there is no law that says that the music industry is required to make it easy or even possible for such copying to take place. Furthermore, it is still unclear whether or not PCs are protected by this law or not.
Legal or not, a consumer backlash is likely. Not only will CD buyers miss the convenience, customization, and portability that copying to various formats allows, but many experts predict that anti-copying technologies will actually degrade the quality of CDs. In theory the technology would fill the CD with errors and "white noise." These errors would be detectable by CD-ROMs, preventing them from being played or ripped, but not by regular CD players (although some experts and audiophiles claim you can hear the difference). The real problem is that some CD players, such as those in cars or boom-boxes, are more sensitive to these errors, and the slightest scratch or damage would be more likely to render the CD unplayable.
It all means that, whether you the consumer like it or not, ripping CDs to your hard-drive--for storage or back-up, in order to transfer them to portable MP3 or mini-disc players, or for file-sharing--is likely to become much more difficult in the near future.
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I have just read this news on audiogalaxy, it may already be well known to most of you. But this article wil make it harder for some of this music to be shared, and copied to portable mp3 plyers, which will b a great shame.
But i am sure someone will get round it. I hope.
I was just wondering what you all thought about this news???
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