Copy-Protected CD Becomes Best Seller

Advertisement (Why?)

Consumers are warming up to the idea of copy protected CDs, or so reports the Associated Press. Velvet Revolver's "Contraband" sold 380,000 copies since it was first released last week. Even after clearly being labeled with copy restrictions. According to the record industry this technology will help to reduce piracy. Even though all a user has to do is press the "shift" key to bypass it.

A music CD wrapped in copy-protection technology has become a best seller, fueling speculation that U.S. music fans might be ready to accept such restrictions. Velvet Revolver's "Contraband" has sold 380,000 copies since its release last week, when it grabbed the top sales spot with 256,000 units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's one of a few CDs issued in the United States equipped with such copy-protection measures, which the recording industry has been cautious to implement.

"Obviously, this is our highest-profile release to date with copy-management technology, so there's a sense that the technology has matured and our research shows us that consumers are receptive," said Nathaniel Brown, a spokesman for Bertelsmann Music Group. Fans bought the CD despite clear warnings on the jewel case about the copy restrictions. "Contraband" is the first record by the group formed by ex-members of Guns N' Roses and the frontman of Stone Temple Pilots.

News source: Yahoo!

Robert Guillaume - Dr. Eli Vance
Robert Culp - Dr. Wallace Breen
Lou Gossett, Jr. - Vortigaunt
Michelle Forbes - Dr. Judith Mossman
Merle Dandridge - Alyx Vance
Mike Shapiro - Barney Calhoun
Mike Shapiro - G-Man
Harry S. Robins - Dr. Isaac Kleiner
Jim French - Father Grigori
John Patrick Lowrie - Citizens/Misc. characters
Mary Kae Irvin - Citizens/Misc. characters
Ellen McLane - Overwatch voice

(4 replies) #1 Zelpus on 25 Jun 2004 - 20:49

I highly doubt that all the people buying the cd even realize it has a new copy protection system in it...

#1.1 Zepolcire on 25 Jun 2004 - 20:52

Ditto

#1.2 Fanon on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:03

Even if they did, this really isn't news. It's the Beasie Boys album, which would sell anyway. This is like saying:

The Microsoft Windows XP Manual is one of the top selling printed documents of all time......

#1.3 HellBender on 26 Jun 2004 - 01:02

Yeah... It's like saying that consumers love activation and product keys because the best selling piece of software has it (XP).

#1.4 rogerroger on 28 Jun 2004 - 04:39

Just means there is 380,000 people who know how to hit the "shift" key!
Nice try RIAA.

(2 replies) #2 ThePDW on 25 Jun 2004 - 20:55

I wonder if more copies of this album have been "illegaly" downloaded or if more have been sold?

#2.1 digistil on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:28

I also wonder how many people own a legal version, but download an illegal version in order to put it on their digital music player.

#2.2 slimy on 26 Jun 2004 - 03:41

lol!
so true

#3 supernova_00 on 25 Jun 2004 - 20:57

warming up to the idea? hahahahahahaha whatever. They don't know its copy-protected and if they do, they are forced to buy it anywayz.

#4 eris on 25 Jun 2004 - 20:59

I refuse to buy a CD where i have to worry whether it will play in my cd player or not.

(2 replies) #5 tiagosilva29 on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:06

I bought the Goodbye Lenin OST for 5€ and my TEAC CD-532E-A drive doesn't detect it...

#5.1 Cyranthus on 26 Jun 2004 - 15:56

I used to have a TEAC CD player and it crapped out on me a year after i got it (stopped reading CD-Rs and barely even read real CDs)... TEAC sucks...

#5.2 MuD on 27 Jun 2004 - 04:43

^ Well f*cking said. ^

#6 slimshady165000 on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:06

/me is playing Velvet Revolver - Slither

It really worked

#7 deadmonkey on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:12

Just hold shift and EAC will rip it just fine

It isn't exactly a new technology this cd protection was "cracked" (if you can call it that?!) ages ago. I agree music piracy has to stop as it is theft and theft is wrong however I do not think putting cd protection on it will do anything to lower piracy numbers. After all they know every kind of protection they can come up with will be cracked and all it takes is one person to rip it and then a few hours later it is all over the internet! Putting cd protection on it will only put less tech savvy people off from buying it. I remember my sister would not buy a cd (the Shakira (spl?) album) a while back as it said on the case "This Compact Disc contains copy protection technology. Will not play in PC or MAC". Now she plays ALL her music on her PC so she didn't buy it and was basically FORCED to either buy a seperate CD player (not an option, why should she be forced to buy hardware she doesn't need?) or download it from Kazaa (this was a while ago when Kazaa was "ok"

.

</rant>

edit: the album is AWESOME!

#8 astrokat on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:16

ROFL

(3 replies) #9 djesteban on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:25

damn... people are crazy...
I'll never buy an album with copy protection on it... not because it's protected...
First, who the f*** do they think they are to punish people that have just bought their album!?!? if I want to make a millions copies of it for me... IT TOTALLY legal.
Second of all, I remember my sister bought a copie of chemical brothers - singles 93-03 album from BMI. It was impossible to play the damn CD anywhere except on one cd player in my house. I even heard this copy protection puts CRC errors on the CD so it can be harder to copy on a computer.. LOL! CRC errors... what you are buying is a deffective product!!!!
anyway, please boycott companies that puts CD protections... it just proves that they don't give a damn about the customer...

Congrats BMI! i'll never buy a CD from your **** company again... what i'll do to get your songs?? GUESS HOW biatches!!

#9.1 moeburn on 25 Jun 2004 - 23:02

they're not CRC errors, they're bad sectors. Any game with Safedisc2 also has intentional bad sectors.

#9.2 HellBender on 26 Jun 2004 - 00:59

Yeah, there's no such thing as a "CRC Error". The recording companies can put whatever CRC on there that they want and its the correct CRC because they chose it. If there is a CRC error, that means that the file is not the same file as it was when it was first put on the CD.

Bad sectors is correct... Even PS[2] / xbox games come with bad sectors, that's why they're unplayable w/o a modchip.

#9.3 arsekicker on 26 Jun 2004 - 17:20

Um no. PS/2 and XBOX games do not come unplayable w/out a modchip.

(3 replies) #10 Dashel on 25 Jun 2004 - 21:37

Yep, I wanted to pick this up until I heard about the protection scheme. So as usual, I ripped it off the net and sent the band's fan club $10 with a note about what I thought of the whole idea.

#10.1 tool hippy on 25 Jun 2004 - 22:05

That's a great idea! I might just do that!

#10.2 the evn show on 25 Jun 2004 - 23:51

QUOTE (#10.1)

I did the same thing with Massive Attacks 100th Window.

I was in the store with the CD in my had a few days ago - saw the "Copy protected" logo on the bottom and put it back. I filled out a "how can we server you better" comment card before I left so they'll know that they lost the sale because the product was not acceptable even though the price and availability were.

If you're planning to buy the album but refuse to play the copy protection game for whatever reason (ie: you own an iPod and want to store you music on it) then let the stores know so they can inform their suppliers who can inform their suppliers...and just maybe one day we can get back to standard red-book audio cds.

#10.3 HellBender on 26 Jun 2004 - 01:02

ROFL! Really good idea. If this was a CD that I wanted to buy, I would totally do that.

#11 supernova_00 on 25 Jun 2004 - 22:09

I think congress should make the record labels put huge warning label on every copy-protected cd stating in ledgeible print (not something you need a telescope to read) "This CD will not work in all portable, car, stereo, and/or computer cd players. You will not be able to backup your cd at all." Make them put something like that on every cd just like the Explict Lyrcis warnings! or even a good sized icon about the same size as the explict lyrics icon.

(8 replies) #12 aristotle-dude on 25 Jun 2004 - 22:39

I"m glad I have a mac. No worries ripping for me.

Message to the record companies. Sod off. We can by-pass the "protection" but it does not mean we like the hassle or the possibility of a CD installing malware on insert. Fortunately, OS X is imune since there is no autorun feature. That is a feature I do not want ported from Mac OS 9.

#12.1 HellBender on 26 Jun 2004 - 01:01

Uh.

You realize that autorun can be turned off on Windows, right? We don't have your "ripping worries" either.

#12.2 aristotle-dude on 26 Jun 2004 - 03:09

Yeah, turned off with a hack/tweaking app. Or the shift key but noobs will not know that.

#12.3 Reapah on 26 Jun 2004 - 10:31

It's a feature that can be turned off via Windows itself. No "tweaking" app needed.

#12.4 georgi55 on 26 Jun 2004 - 13:24

Oh, you mac-fanboy again LOL
You can rip it in Mac because record companies didn't have to worry about such a minority of people.

#12.5 theLANDofSMEG on 26 Jun 2004 - 17:16

My computer can play CDs because I have Firefox

#12.6 ubugmetoo on 26 Jun 2004 - 19:05

Hack/tweaking app LOL I think mac is only around still so people can have a pink computer.

#12.7 MuD on 27 Jun 2004 - 04:46

QUOTE (#12.4)

LOL, yeah! DIE MAC DIE!

#12.8 saralk on 27 Jun 2004 - 10:26

QUOTE (#1.2)

Im sure u can just right click on the cd drive and choose "do not auto-run from this drive"

#13 Phil Gates on 25 Jun 2004 - 23:04

i thought they were talking about the Beastie Boys album when i clicked it

#14 callanish on 25 Jun 2004 - 23:06

Let me get this straight. It cost how much money and how much research to come up with this piracy preventive technology on these new protected CD's and holding down the shift key cracks all their effort. You've got to be Shi tting me. Do these people who came up with this protection still have a job after this? I mean really, does anyone else find this unbelievably rolling on the floor laughable that this copyright company would even have the balls to show their faces in public and say with a straight face that they didn't think anyone would have came up with the shift key to bypass all their efforts? I find that unbelievable. If they were the Germans in WWII, their Enigma machine would have been cracked by the U.K in about 30 minutes and that's taking time out for lunch!

#15 ^_^ Silly Willy on 26 Jun 2004 - 01:06

using the ol' shift key kinda protection eh.

#16 SunnyB on 26 Jun 2004 - 01:09

It must already be ripped because I found the entire thing
abandoned on a channel today. So, instead of leaving it there
for some unexpecting innocent bystander to find, I DL'd it
and put it away for safe keeping.

Just being a good citizen, see.

#17 Aeonandromere on 26 Jun 2004 - 03:53

Whats really odd is that if the CD is copy-protected how come I was able to put my 100% legal copy into iTunes, rip it and also copy it multiple times to CD?

(2 replies) #18 SecretAgentMan on 26 Jun 2004 - 08:31

380,000 stupid people.

#18.1 MuD on 27 Jun 2004 - 04:46

LOL.

#18.2 [ timko ] on 27 Jun 2004 - 11:50

Indeed

#19 akuma-x on 26 Jun 2004 - 09:10

I would like to know how many of these 380,000 people tried taking the CD back after finding out that they could not rip it or it would not play in their CD player? Even when a CD is returned the sale still counts.

(1 reply) #20 kowcop on 26 Jun 2004 - 09:22

I like how they hype it up to sound like people buy it to get the new improved copy protection scheme... wow, I gots to have me some of that!!

Maybe people buy it because they like the band?

#20.1 cybershark on 26 Jun 2004 - 22:36

Yeah, the article title should be Contraband First Album Becomes Best Seller

(3 replies) #21 arsekicker on 26 Jun 2004 - 17:25

SOURCE : BEASTIEBOYS.COM

1. There is NO copy controlled software on US or UK releases of Beastie Boys' "To the 5 Boroughs."

2. The disk *IS* copy controlled in Europe - which is standard policy for all
Capitol/EMI titles (and a policy used by ALL major labels in Europe).

3. The copy protection system used for all EMI/Capitol releases including "To the 5 Boroughs" is Macrovision's CDS-200, which sets up an audio player into the users RAM (not hard drive) to playback the RED book audio on the disk. It does absolutely NOT install any kind of spyware, shareware, silverware, or ladies wear onto the users system.

You can find more information on the technology used here:
http://www.macrovision.com/products/cds/cds200/index.shtml

This is what EMI has to say about it:
Reports that "spyware" is being included on the Beastie Boy's CD, 'To The Five Boroughs' are absolutely untrue.

While the Beastie Boys CD does use copy control in some territories, there is no copy control on the Beasties Boys discs in the US or the UK. Where copy protection is used, it is Macrovision's CDS-200 technology; the same technology being used for the past several months around the world for all of EMI's releases in those territories. This Macrovision technology does NOT install spyware or vaporware of any kind on a users PC. In fact, CDS-200 does not install software applications of ANY KIND on a user's PC. All the copy protection in CDS-200 is hardware based, meaning that it is dependent on the physical properties and the format of the CD. None of the copy protection in CDS-200 requires software applications to be loaded onto a computer.

The technology does activate a proprietary Macrovision player in order to play the CD on a PC, and that player converts WMA compressed files to audio on the fly. It also temporarily installs a graphic "skin" for the player. Nothing is permanently installed on a hard drive. These details can be verified in the 'install.log' file in the computer's root directory.

#21.1 epple on 27 Jun 2004 - 00:58

I like

QUOTE

In fact, CDS-200 does not install software applications of ANY KIND on a user's PC.

and

None of the copy protection in CDS-200 requires software applications to be loaded onto a computer.

combined with

The technology does activate a proprietary Macrovision player in order to play the CD on a PC, and that player converts WMA compressed files to audio on the fly. It also temporarily installs a graphic "skin" for the player.

Might just be me tho...

#21.2 drift3r on 27 Jun 2004 - 01:01

2. The disk *IS* copy controlled in Europe - which is standard policy for all
Capitol/EMI titles (and a policy used by ALL major labels in Europe).

there is no copy control on the Beasties Boys discs in the US or the UK

Yeah ... we in europeans fuc**** rock. We are the worst of the worst. Europe is the new wild wild west.
For those of you who don't know europe, we all live in the streets and run around naked waving guns and wireless laptops downloadin' the whole Internet. Oh yeah ... we run so that we can't get caught!

The thing is that I believe in "I like it I buy it". But this is rapidly changing to "I like it I buy it unless it's copy-protected."

It's evolution.

Who tha fu** are they to run whatever stuff in my machine without my authorization? Even if it is *only* in RAM?

Just pass out in an corner somewhere far far away (like ... not in europe) and stay there while we here run around all naked.

#21.3 mgicash on 27 Jun 2004 - 06:58

and wireless laptops downloadin' the whole Internet

For some reason that left me rollin.

#22 stncttr908 on 27 Jun 2004 - 02:05

Did these execs ever stop and think that perhaps the reason it sold is because it doesn't suck like 99% of the worthless drivel that goes mainstream today?

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net