Why inept CD copy protection is a "Good Thing"(tm)
I took home DMB's new Busted Stuff tonight. Popped into my CD-ROM and found, infuriatingly, that it is indeed busted. It uses RCA's copy protection, which seems to involve spamming the OS with an auto-play macromedia app and preventing the audio tracks from being recognized. The magic marker trick doesn't work.
Then, just as I was loading my Moltov cocktails, I discovered that you can bypass this "copy protection" simply by having iTunes open in the foreground when you put the CD in the drive. Rip, mix, and burn, baby.
Which got me thinking...this is fine with me. If RCA wants to pretend that their CD's are copy-protected, and thereby deter 90% of the sheep, fine. As long as they make it so easy to bypass that copy protection that anyone who might want to do so (i.e. anyone who uses iTunes) and has half a brain, can. I can live with this.
Except that, under the DCMA, what I just did (in order to exercise my right to personal fair use) was illegal. Making this post is illegal. And hosting this post is illegal. And, being the "tool" I used to circumvent this copy protection, [trumpets please] iTunes is illegal!
Joining that other famous felonous implenet, the Sharpie(tm).
What a moronic world we live in.
Then, just as I was loading my Moltov cocktails, I discovered that you can bypass this "copy protection" simply by having iTunes open in the foreground when you put the CD in the drive. Rip, mix, and burn, baby.
Which got me thinking...this is fine with me. If RCA wants to pretend that their CD's are copy-protected, and thereby deter 90% of the sheep, fine. As long as they make it so easy to bypass that copy protection that anyone who might want to do so (i.e. anyone who uses iTunes) and has half a brain, can. I can live with this.
Except that, under the DCMA, what I just did (in order to exercise my right to personal fair use) was illegal. Making this post is illegal. And hosting this post is illegal. And, being the "tool" I used to circumvent this copy protection, [trumpets please] iTunes is illegal!
Joining that other famous felonous implenet, the Sharpie(tm).
What a moronic world we live in.