Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Re: Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 19:44:51 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: Re: IP: Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 16:36:22 -0700 From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> There are two particularly interesting technical aspects to this issue: 1) The copy-protection mechanism involved (as I understand it from published reports) attempts to avoid introducing any distortion for "ordinary" CD players, while introducing various forms of audible read errors when those audio CDs are played on CD-ROM drives. This not only affects typical CD-ROM drives in standard computers and laptops, etc., but also apparently some high-end consumer audio players that use CD-ROM technology in their units. 2) The copy-protection effort seems to be largely predicated on the premise that if people can't make a first-generation digital copy, they won't copy at all and won't try to swap the material. But of course, CDs can also be copied to MP3 files (or whatever) through an analog connection to a computer (albeit with more hassle in the absence of specialized software) with excellent audio quality. All that the copy-protection system does is try to prevent a first-generation digital copy straight off the CD. However, if instead an initial analog-generation copy is made, further digital copies could be made from that initial file without any audio interference as far as I know. Would most users of file-swapping services (for example) notice any audio difference between these two modalities of copies? I suspect not. So it would appear that the overall effective scope of the copy-protection system may actually be fairly limited in terms of reducing piracy, while still potentially creating hassles for significant numbers of legitimate users who try to play their audio CDs on CD-ROM-based systems. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () privacyforum org Co-Founder, PFIR: People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
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- IP: Re: Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores David Farber (Jul 18)