Chaucery Blog

I agree with most of the review of Hail to the Thief “Copy Control ” but it is only to protect the rights of the performer. I understand your frustration. I burn CD’s to put in my car, I would put my real CD’s in the car if thieving dickheads did not brake in for the CD’s around my place of residence. I have gone with out two great cds in my car for age’s hail to the theif and diamonds on the inside.

Thanks for your view on Copy Control

See ya

If you didn't know...

Sony mp3-CD Walkmans are also screwed over by this new valuable feature! They won't play at all, they just keep spinning and spinning... frantically looking for the end of the data!

I don't know if that applies to any other mp3-CD players... not yet at least.

(replies by email, please)

I do the same thing jon. i burn cd's to use in my car. one night i nearly lost about 13 cd's which i think would have been about $400 worth, now i only keep the cd's in the stacker and no more.

I bought a copy controlled cd today and it was utterly pathetic. constant skipping all the time, i cleaned it till you could eat off it but no good in my Kenwood system.

i will be returning the cd to the shop. am very unimpressed. if they will not take it back there will be hell to pay as even on the EMI site it says 'Key areas have been car audio' referring to problems with playback. Source: http://www.emimusic.com.au/faqs_copy_control.asp

Its a shame that honest people who wish to make a personal copy of a cd do not get the chance to because of the minority of people who pirate for profit.

Long Live WinMX!

just like to say ill be returning the cd i bought, and purchasing the US version which has n copy control.

all i wanted to do was make a copy on my minidisc and i cant.

idiots.

I'm another disgruntled mini-disc user who bought Hail to the Thief and tried to make a copy. The strange thing is, Blur & Jane's Addiction's new albums (also both EMI Copy controlled) copied fine.

If anything, all copy control is going to do is drive more and more honest music fans to file-sharing sites to get the quality of music they require.

It just takes one person to work out how to rip the files, post them online and then the genie is out of the bottle.

Just returned my copy of Hail to the Thief as it wouldn't play properly on my PC, not at all my new CD player, and only with the odd bit of skipping on my old CD player. Ironically, the easiest way for me to hear the CD would be to copy it from the Internet. What a stupid idea from EMI. Probably it'll be the last time I buy anything by Radiohead.

Trying to know how this program of protection works... Anybody knows?

Hey, might this be an idea?

if your cd gets stolen/lost/damaged, emi should compensate for a new one. They must be held responsible and pay for a new cd.

This because they infringe in your consumer/property right to make a back up for personal use. When u would have had a copy you could replace it yourself because of the righteous personal copy you would have made.

Is this stupid or would it be really possible?

Hey I found this program that will rip from copy controlled cd's. dbPoweramp. I ripped one cd so far and had one problem, I couldnt rip the first track but hey it's a start.

use exact audio copy - it will copy anything with absolute pristine precision.

I just got my first 'copy protected' CD today - Lene Marlin's new album "Another Day". Stuck it in my Pioneer DVR-A05 and ripped to to MP3 with RealOne - no problems whatsoever.

Try again, EMI!

Nothing more to say than that. I'm one of those that EMI thinks a retarded for having chosen to listen to music on portable digital walkman, mine being a Sony Mini Disc. I'm curious about this: will the market condemn digital music or will the market answer these dickheads behind Cactus Software making them starve to death together with the companies that have decided to adopt their technology?

Please, post here any link useful, the last weekend I bought Lene's Another day, her single cd and the A Perfect Circle's "Thirteenth step" album. Three out of three copy controlled. God (if he exists) bless the few ones computer freaks that will invent a new player that allows us to copy everything which is copy protected without errors, so that we can dispose of it as we wish.

Damien Filth

Just wanted to give a feedback about the two software advised:
Real One doesn't correct the errors, the "lots of pops and crackles". The other one, exact audio copy works as any audio grabber usually, but with Lene Marlin he has converted the .cda tracks with totally "silent" .wav file. Maybe it's just my PC but I doubt it...

Damien Filth

Placebo Covers/sleeping with ghosts is copy controlled, and will not play the last few tracks in a portable phillips player(oh the red book irony of it all)however a little investigation reveals that the protection is just "cactus" again.
if you want to rip it just use alcohol or clone or if you like your own burner then extract the audio with cool edit,theres no problem at with this .I cant believe emi are spending money on this flawed method of preventing copies being made,
scunner

I purchased A Perfect Circle's new album only to discover it was copy controlled, i was worried as i thought i wouldnt be able to play it in my computer, i inserted the cd, opened winamp and hit play, it worked o_O, not only that but i also copied it with clonecd and the copy works fine in my dvd player and car, but not my portable mp3/cd walkman...which doesnt matter because i have ripped the mp3's anyway.
hardly copy controlled for me :D

Just bought Radiohead's Hail To The Theif from cdwow.com (UK). Nowhere on the site does it state that the "CD" is in fact NOT a cd, hence breaking the 1979 Sale Of Goods act regarding trade descriptions. I called cdwow & the guy there said that they'd take it back for free (they usually charge £1.50 handling) & that they can't say on their site that these little lumps of sh1t arent't cds cos the big guys (EMI/Parlophone etc) won't let them, apparently blackmailing them with potential refusal to supply. ("Tell your customers that we're selling them overpriced, cut quality, rights infringing music that won't play on any system and we won't let you sell anything hence run you out of business. Play ball, b1tch")
Seems to me that while consumers can have their say individually by returning their nonCDs, it should be the meduim guys - the retailers - using their muscles to keep the big wholesalers/producers in check.
The things that piss me off most about all this are the glaring ironies: i wanted to buy the CDs i bought because i reckon the artists deserve the cash & i want the cases & everything. I pirate loads of stuff: old motown, mates stuff, whatever, but that doesn't mean i haven't got a 350+ CD collection. I could download Hail To The Thief in 20 minutes with Kazaa & broadband, instead i bought it and can't listen to it.
And as for filesharing killing music: b0ll0x! Without filesharing Elliott Smith would have sold about 4 records, hiphop & underground stuff like D&B and garage would be much less popular than they are, and boybands would take over the world. Completely.

If the big record companies want to stop the rot they need to:
1) Slash their prices, just like they said they would in 1981 "after an initial period of high cost to cover inception/startup costs, we'll drop cd prices". Only 21 years later, after a huge CIA investigation does that look likely.

2) Invest more into getting smalltime artists heard by the mass markets, and stop going for the shortsighted boyband/girlband sh1tpop option. Video's killing the radiostar, not Kazaa.

3) Stop taking the piss out of your consumers. Overpriced them for 20 years, then drowned them in cheap, generic manufactured pop sung by pretty teen clones? Wonder why sales are dropping? Why not solve the problem by lying to your remaining loyal customers and selling them falsely branded, low quality "CDs" that they can't play, then have to return? That'll show them, after all: what have they done for us, apart from make us rich?
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