‘New’ kind of DRM
p2pnet.net News:- BMG has been hanging in faithfully with SunnComm, makers of the hapless and much-hacked MediaMax Copy-Prevention System, but it looks as if their relationship has foundered.
Anthony Hamilton’s BMG CD Comin’ From Where I’m From went out under MediaMax protection, only to appear virtually simultaneously on the p2p networks and soon after, John Halderman discovered all you had to do to get around SunnComm DRM was to press the shift key when you were inserting a CD.
BMG band Velvet Revolver issued an album “loaded” with SunnComm anti-copying protection and, “marking a clear step into the mainstream for the controversial technology,” as ZDNet put it at the time. Unfortunately, like Hamilton’s CD, Velvet Revolver’s Contraband appeared almost instantly on the Nets.
BMG has since become Sony-BMG and it seems Sony, the new component, isn’t as enamoured of SunnComm as BMG was.
“A new kind of copy-protected music CD will likely hit U.S. shelves early next year, as record label Sony BMG Music Entertainment experiments with a technology created by British developer First 4 Internet, according to sources familiar with the companies,” says CNET News.
“Several major music labels have already used a version of the British company’s technology on prerelease compact discs distributed for review and other early-listening purposes, including on recent albums from Eminem and U2.”
The company has been working on the disc-protection technology since 2001, following conversations with the EMI record label, says the story.
EMI, too, was once thinking about using SunnComm’s ‘protection’ gear.
In the meanwhile, First 4 has, “worked particularly closely on prereleases in the U.S. market with Universal Music,” CNET says, going on:
“First 4 Internet’s U.S. representative said the copy-protection technology has been included on a number of extremely high-profile CDs while in the review and demo stage, without being broken. ‘Could it be broken? I’m sure that somebody must be able to do it,’ said Graham Oakes, the head of Los Angeles-based Ezee Studios, which represents First 4 Internet.
“But is there a generally known hack that has been put on the Net, or have any of the record label IT people found a hack yet? No.”
In short, if you can hear it, you can hack it.
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See:-
press the shift – Sunncomm won’t sue Halderman after all, p2pnet, 2003
loaded – Copy-blocked CD tops U.S. charts, ZDNet, June 17, 2004
almost instantly – MediaMax protected CD online, p2pnet, June 18, 2004
new kind – New CD copy-lock technology nears market, CNET News, December 16, 2004
December 19th, 2004 at 4:35 am
I dont want their DRMed tracks.
When i buy a cd i want to rip it to an obscure lossless audio codec of my choice at a bitrate of my choice from the original cd session.
If you hide the cd session, my unix machine will find it and mount it. If you try autorun executables my unix machine will be incapable of running it. If you try error embedding my machine has tools to compensate.
Anything else would be incompatible with the CD standard, but is crackable anyway.
I wish you good luck. And as a programming student who makes a hobby of constructive defiance, you can count on my mind and machines to be right in those trenches pounding away in order to nullify your insult to your legitimate customers.
I will work to save you from yourselves, in spite of yourselves, you idiotic record conglomerate.
December 20th, 2004 at 3:20 am
I seriously don’t get why music companies even bother with DRM. An individual with a decent digital recorder can flawlessly record and recompress any cd into mp3 as long as it can be played.
December 20th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
It is best not to confuse these laughable copy protection schemes with actual Digital Rights Management (DRM). The Audio CD format is an open vendor-neutral standard, and you can’t add DRM to a system without breaking vendor neutrality.
The copy protection schemes you are seeing seek to confuse specific media players. In most cases they target Microsoft Windows and seek to confuse the operating system into not playing the CD. If you are using a different operating system (I use a Linux Desktop) the scheme isn’t even noticed and you interact with the CD in the normal way.
Real DRM involves using file formats and cryptography such that “unauthorized” player can not read the contents. The purpose of DRM is to insert the DRM manufacturers as an intermediary between the copyright holder and the audience such that the DRM manufacturer is in control of the communications device (CD/DVD player, VCR, home computer, whatever) and not the owner.
I find it frustrating to see copyright holders supporting DRM as DRM will have a far greater negative effect on their bottom line than copyright infringement. Copyright holders can never control communications devices, they can only digitally encode their content and license agreements and let those files be distributed. They must then trust either DRM manufacturers or citizens to obey those license agreements. While a small percentage of citizens disobey copyright license agreements, the fact majority of people obey them and agree that creators should be compensated for their work. On the other hand the DRM manufacturers have one interest: to control communications to benefit their bottom line.
The worst thing that could happen to culture and creators like musicians is if DRM is allowed to take off. They really are digging their own grave with their current misguided support.
Russell McOrmond
Canadian New Media: Why creators should oppose DRM
http://www.flora.ca/cnm20040908.shtml
For Canadians: Summary of Interim Report on Copyright Reform
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/view/550