Sony BMG is testing CDs featuring technology from UK anti-piracy specialist First4Internet, that allows customers to only make a limit number of copies of the CD and doesn't allow copied CDs to be copied again. This concept is known as "sterile burning" and according to Sony BMG, it is vital for their battle against casual CD burning. "The casual piracy, the school-yard piracy, is a huge issue for us," Thomas Hesse said, president of global digital business for Sony BMG. "Two-thirds of all piracy comes from ripping and burning CDs, which is why making the CD a secure format is of the utmost importance."
Titles of upcoming CDs that will carry this technology were not disclosed but since March, Sony BMG has released about 10 titles (which would easily be about 1 million CDs) featuring the new anti-burning technology. First4Internet is not the only partner that will be involved in this effort; other partners are expected to begin trials of sterile burning too. To date, DRM protected music downloads and copy protected CDs have not included any sort of secure burning.
Music purchased from stores like Apple's iTunes can be burned to CDs as unprotected streams, which means it can easily be ripped again after it is burned, and the resulting files will contain absolutely no DRM protection. Under the new solution, tracks would be ripped from a disc Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. If a CD is burned with protected audio, the DRM on the disc prevents it from being burned again. "The secure burning solution is the sensible way forward," First4Internet chief executive officer Mathew Gilliat-Smith said. "Most consumers accept that making a copy for personal use is really what they want it for."
Source:
ABC News
Music purchased from stores like Apple's iTunes can be burned to CDs as unprotected streams, which means it can easily be ripped again after it is burned, and the resulting files will contain absolutely no DRM protection. Under the new solution, tracks would be ripped from a disc Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. If a CD is burned with protected audio, the DRM on the disc prevents it from being burned again. "The secure burning solution is the sensible way forward," First4Internet chief executive officer Mathew Gilliat-Smith said. "Most consumers accept that making a copy for personal use is really what they want it for."
Source:
ABC News
Then you can just pop-in your backup dvd and run off (any) selected music cd whenever you feel like it.
I share the Prophet's utter loathing of all end-user DRM. DRM is a cancer, a disease; it's saps all of the joy from life, causes untold grief, and only serves to increase people's unwavering determination to defeat the damn shit.
Semi-Related:
I was really disenchanted, horrified, pissed-off, etc., to learn that DVD copy-protection has finally crawled it's miserable way into Canada. I know that dvd copy-protected discs were being sold in Europe, but only last week it came to my local video-rental store.
The Simpson's Season 5 Box Set. It's a 4-disc set. My computer burner flatly refused to recognize disc #3. (It reads the other discs fine). No, disc # 3 was not damaged in any way. (It was new). It played fine in my other set-top dvd players. But it absolutely would not be recognized by my computer.
I returned the boxed set and rented the same one from a totally different video store.
Same shit. Disc 3 would not be recognized. I <feel like punching someone in the nose>. :-( Never mind about the dvd containing various anti-copying schemes to trip-up your favourite ripper - *this* disc is balls-to-the-wall unrecognizeable!
No really...... has anybody else noticed the same with this particular Simpson's set?
I just bet this was a "test" done by 20th-Century-Fox to see how many complaints they will get, and to see just how much they can get away with.
DRM also sucks when it comes to downloaded music files. I just downloaded (and paid for) three albums in the "PureTracks" wma format. The company promises, "Burn The Music You Want!" (horseshit)
2 of the 3 albums are burnable, and one is definately NOT. On a fourth album, all but ONE of the tracks are burnable! ( What f-----g good is that ??? ) I swear to god, I had to go to a P2P net (WinMX) and download the same track in .mp3 format, (I was *lucky to find it!), then delete the shitty wma file, then *insert* the mp3 file, JUST to complete my album! (This is madness).
It's bad enough that I'm forced to use that godawful Window's Media Player (with shitty Roxio plugin) to burn the friggen wma files, but they are flat out lying about their files' ability to be burned.
I am still waiting for the dummies to get back to me. I'll bet I only get some sort of "kiss-off" reply.
(Sigh........)
What should we do, Prophet?
I vote we line them all up against the wall and start firing !
If you have a purposely buggered-up dvd (screwed up table of contents; deliberately introduced errors; false file-size reporting, etc), that's one thing. At least you can deal with these anti-copying schemes one by one. Rippers (and dvd-backup packages) are getting more sophisticated all the time. These measures can be counter-acted.
It's when the <<Entire Disc>> is flat-out unreadable that you have to start worrying.
If you can't even _load_ a god----d dvd into your reader/burner, no dvd playback software on earth (or ripper or backup package) is going to make a hoot of difference.
People have a *right* to view rented and/or purchased discs on their computers, so you are right, nonoitall, 20-th Century Fox *should* be sued (a class-action suit would be nice), for selling/renting unplayable discs, but who's gonna do it? Got any spare lawyers you want to send my way?
I pray to god someone can come up with 7 more lines of Perl code when BluRay hi-def commercial discs finally come out.
