Is copy protection dead on arrival?

Again CD Freaks is mentioned in a article on CNet, again about SafeAudio, the anti ripping technology by Macrovision. Our article seems to become more and more populair

Macrovision however does not want to tell the press what CD's are protected, and how many of them are on the market. We suspect them to have created a little hoax.

For several weeks, news that record companies have quietly been selling copy-protected compact discs in stores has been filtering around the Net. Although nobody has yet produced a verified copy of a CD loaded with this technology, developed by copy-protection giant Macrovision, it has produced a wave of "sightings" that have swept even to places as prominent as Amazon.com's consumer reviews.

Accusations have been flying in e-mail, mailing lists and Web sites from people who claimed to find tainted CDs, ranging from 'N Sync singles to the latest works by the Dave Matthews Band. For the last several days, Amazon's lead consumer review on the page advertising the soundtrack to the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou" has been headlined "Warning, Warning, Warning."

DO NOT BUY THIS CD if you are going to copy it to your computer,Wrote James Dunn from Mercer Island, Wash. "It contains the music distortion scheme from Macrovision...What a horrible thing to do to such beautiful music."

Even as Macrovision claims success in its efforts to slip copy-protected CDs past unsuspecting music buyers, the effort is raising new doubts about the viability of products that take away consumers' ability to copy songs. Beyond ratcheting up consumer fears of purchasing distorted CDs, hackers have targeted the effort as a test of their prowess, with some already claiming success even before they've had the opportunity to test out their techniques on an actual copy-protected CD.

In an article published on Dutch Web site CDFreaks.com, an analysis of the SafeAudio techniques claim that the copy protection can be evaded by using one of several CD copying techniques that have been floating around the Net for years, long before the current debate erupted.

Read the full story Here and see how nicely they have linked us

Source: CNet