Re: Corrupt CD updates, Jun-2004

Hi Andy, on Wed, 23 Jun 2004 12:03:11 +0100 you wrote:

> Jim Peters wrote:
[...]
> >   Today conventional CD protection is offered by several different
> >   proprietary technologies from vendors Macrovision and Sony that are
> >   proving both effective and popular with content owners.
<snip>
> The "effective" bit is probably best judged by looking at how prevalent
> songs from "protected" CDs are on file sharing networks

Even ignoring the fact that selling corrupt CDs makes no sense whatsoever,
and looking at it purely from a practical point of view, I had an
interesting recent experience showing precisely how "effective" this stuff
is. (OK, so it's just one example. But it makes the point).

I have a non-technical acquaintance, let's call them "Z". Z is a "normal",
law-abiding consumer who doesn't even have a CD burner, doesn't know what
Kazaa or Gnutella is and just wants to buy the latest Norah Jones CD. Z
goes to reputable high street retailer and pays inflated price for CD. Z
puts CD in standard-fit audio-only (no MP3, data CD or anything fancy) car
CD player in a car that is a few years old. CD skips, seeks endlessly and
generally doesn't work properly. Z returns the CD to retailer (several
times) and still doesn't get a working one. Z is, quite understandably,
pissed off.

Z invites me to have a look at said CD. There's no evidence of a CD logo
and I note from the UKCDR pages that this is indeed corrupt, so I inform Z
that they are being ripped off by being sold intentionally damaged goods.
Nevertheless, out of interest, I stick the CD in my laptop (Toshiba,
default install of Fedora Core 2) just to see what happens. Four clicks
later (menu -> sound & video -> CD ripper -> rip) and within just a few
minutes I have a perfect digital copy on my hard drive, nicely divided
into tracks.  A few more clicks and drags and I've burnt a fresh CD which
is not only a perfect copy but *better* than the original, since it's not
corrupt and actually plays fine in *any* player (including Z's car).

I find that quite a succinct demonstration of just how pointless all this
stuff is.  Not only have Z pissed off an upstanding law-abiding customer,
and had 2 CDs returned as faulty by the retailer (serves them right) but,
most importantly, they achieved precisely the *opposite* of what they
wanted: the CD *doesn't* play in a fairly old, "standard" audio CD player,
but *does* play (and rips) perfectly in a computer with standard-install,
user-friendly hardware and software. (no doubt they would completely miss
the point and see this as a "bug" in the CD corruption which needs
"fixing" though, sigh)

Now, even non-technical consumer Z can see how mind-numbingly stupid this
is, and how you would have to be not only a complete moron but an
extremely foolish businessperson to think that pissing off your customers
by selling them deliberately damaged goods is good business. But
apparently not the idiots at record labels who are falling over themselves
to shoot themselves in the feet, repeatedly.

(If by any chance there is anyone reading this list with the ear of any of
the cabbage-heads that pass for directors at major record labels, for
f*ck's sake please try and fill that vegetation between their ears with
the information that they are being sold snake oil and hurting only
*themselves* with this stupidity, not those filthy scum-of-the-earth 14
year old sea-borne pillagers who are Killing Music And Going To Bring Down
Capitalism And The World As We Know It While They're At It, Along With The
Sky And The Heavens Above).

Oh, by the way, just to cap it all off, Z's repeated e-mails to the record
label in question have been repeatedly ignored. More great business
advice, then: ignore your customers.

Glad to hear that at least one label in Germany is starting to (possibly;
I am very hesistant to give them *any* intellectual credit) see sense
though. It's a strange world where selling customers goods that *aren't*
deliberately damaged is notable, though...


Tim