Future CD copy protection flawed?

[vass0922]

Just like network security, its impossible to make it impenetrable, but the key is to make it difficult as to deter the largest group of people. If they at least make it required so that you have to take a couple extra steps to do it, more people may not be as willing to take those extra steps.

[bdunn13]

If you can read it.... you can copy it! the RIAA screwed over customers with price fixing in the 90's...... they had their turn.. now its our turn... feel our WRATH!

[falcompsx]

music will always be copyable unless ONE thing is done...SCRATCH THE HECK out of the CD. then nothing can read it. as long as it can be read, it can be coppied. they are only making it a bit more difficult, maybe enough to detour the average computer user. Time will tell.

[Willie]

First, the SHORTNEWS.COM link was broken when I tried it. (8/15/01 9:13pm Eastern)

I remember ripping a CD recently, and it had NUMEROUS single-word errors throughout. I just ran it through Cool Edit's "click & pop" filter, and it was as good as new.

If this is what they mean by "copy protection", all the ripper software needs to do is look for a data word that is drastically different than the one before & the one after. That would be the "copy protection" data word. Ok, no biggie... compare the word before and the one after, and take the average. Presto: Rip the CD without the bit-errors. It's almost a DUH! For the average programmer!

The whole thing is stupid... it's truly a cat & mouse game, and let's face it... every time THEY try to build a better mouse, another clever user (or group) programs a much better cat! The only way they could EVER win this battle is LOWER THEIR DARNED PRICES!!! What's the deal with charging $16 for a lousy CD, that takes less than 50c to make??? Egads! No wonder Napster et al are so popular! They won't be able to completely stop MP3's, either.

It's time they decided "If ya can't beat 'em, JOIN 'em." because they are totally outnumbered. Start making music available at REASONABLE prices, and piracy will drop off sharply.