New DRM on CD's... WTFF!!!Music

[Prosthetic]

Ok, I'm not to sure where to put this but I figured my best bet was here. So this year I've bought many many CDs. But only 4 albums of recent release. The first one was Dream Theaters new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings which I had no problem uploading all three of the CDs. Now in the last week I've bought four albums, three of them being new releases. Lamb of God's Wrath, DevilDriver's Pray for Villains, and Five Finger Death Punches War is the Answer. All three of those I can't upload to my iTunes or even listen to on my comp which limits me to either paying even MORE money to buy it online through iTunes (yeah I'm not paying close to $30 per CD.) Or pirating it... Which really isn't a big deal, but I shouldn't have to resort to illegal actions to acquire music for my iPod while having the actual CD, which I really love to have for my growing collection. I completely support buying CD's, hell I spend around $500 on CD's every year but I mean come on. Is there away around this DRM? Is this pissing anyone else too? Or am I just to sensitive to this stupid crap. I mean the music industry pisses me off enough, but with this I can hardly stand to give them my money as it is but this kind of crap is just stupidity.

 

[Touring Mars]

Ok, I'm not to sure where to put this but I figured my best bet was here. So this year I've bought many many CDs. But only 4 albums of recent release. The first one was Dream Theaters new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings which I had no problem uploading all three of the CDs. Now in the last week I've bought four albums, three of them being new releases. Lamb of God's Wrath, DevilDriver's Pray for Villains, and Five Finger Death Punches War is the Answer. All three of those I can't upload to my iTunes or even listen to on my comp which limits me to either paying even MORE money to buy it online through iTunes (yeah I'm not paying close to $30 per CD.) Or pirating it... Which really isn't a big deal, but I shouldn't have to resort to illegal actions to acquire music for my iPod while having the actual CD, which I really love to have for my growing collection. I completely support buying CD's, hell I spend around $500 on CD's every year but I mean come on. Is there away around this DRM? Is this pissing anyone else too? Or am I just to sensitive to this stupid crap. I mean the music industry pisses me off enough, but with this I can hardly stand to give them my money as it is but this kind of crap is just stupidity.

I understand your frustration, but you should know that we cannot allow discussion of piracy - including ways to circumvent DRM protection...

Unfortunately, the only legal solution is to make sure you buy your music DRM-free in the first place, if you want to play it on whatever device you want anyway. It's not an ideal solution, but atleast it is legal. And by avoiding DRM-protected CD's (which make no sense to me either), you are letting the music publishers know that it's unacceptable too...

 

[Rykon Zero]

What is DRM? Is it some sort of system that doesn't allow you to copy CDs?

 

[boiltheocean]

DRM is Digital Rights Management. It won't let you copy CD's but it's also going much further now, some won't even let you play the genuine CD on certain players and won't let you put music onto a mp3 device.

In my opion DRM is killing the music industry more than Piracy, pirates can live with DRM because they can find a way around it but the ordinary folk that buy the CD's are stuck with a useless disk that they can't copy onto their mp3 players.

 

[FoolKiller]

This kind of over handed activity is why people resort to piracy and will drive people toward digital music much quicker than anything else out there.


My suggestion is to try taking it back to the store for a full refund. If that doesn't work then write an email to the record company telling them that you expect a full refund because this CD is useless to you. Explain that for a refund you will then buy it on iTunes (even offer to accept an iTunes voucher), but without it you will no longer buy any of their music because this is stupid and over handed and you can't even listen to the music from the CD itself on certain devices, which is not as it was advertised (I am assuming there was no warning label on the case?).

And be sure to CC some media outlets on your email.

The main problem here is that if you are like me when I was in college your computer was your CD player. If they had done this to me I wouldn't have been able to listen to it at all. This is only a fraction of a bit better than buying a badly pressed CD.

I am curious if it will play in a PS3, or if it will allow the PS3 to import the MP3s. If not, then this would definitely screw me as that has become my main home entertainment center.

 

[CDailey]

I don't know what you are looking at, but none of those CDs come anywhere close to being $30 on iTunes.

 

[Touring Mars]

My suggestion is to try taking it back to the store for a full refund.

Good idea 👍 Atleast they couldn't accuse him of copying the damn thing!

I don't know what you are looking at, but none of those CDs come anywhere close to being $30 on iTunes.

I think he means that he is not likely to buy the albums on iTunes over and above the cost of buying the CD already...?

 

[CDailey]

I think he means that he is not likely to buy the albums on iTunes over and above the cost of buying the CD already...?

Perhaps. That's not how I understood it though. My appologies if that was your intended meaning, Prosthetic.

 

[Prosthetic]

I understand your frustration, but you should know that we cannot allow discussion of piracy - including ways to circumvent DRM protection...

I worded it REALLY badly, and my apologies to it. I was pissed at 1am so I did go a little far. I was just wondering if I was just being an idiot and doing something wrong.

This kind of over handed activity is why people resort to piracy and will drive people toward digital music much quicker than anything else out there.

Agreed, I would love to see a record labels response to that

My suggestion is to try taking it back to the store for a full refund. If that doesn't work then write an email to the record company telling them that you expect a full refund because this CD is useless to you. Explain that for a refund you will then buy it on iTunes (even offer to accept an iTunes voucher), but without it you will no longer buy any of their music because this is stupid and over handed and you can't even listen to the music from the CD itself on certain devices, which is not as it was advertised (I am assuming there was no warning label on the case?).

I'd rather not, I do collect so I'd rather not bring it back have hassle with annoying crew of Best Buy, I have bigger better things in my life going on.

And be sure to CC some media outlets on your email.

I defiantly do plan e-mail Roadrunner to let them know that they have monkeys running there company and they need to rethink there business strategies if they still want to have any at all.

The main problem here is that if you are like me when I was in college your computer was your CD player. If they had done this to me I wouldn't have been able to listen to it at all. This is only a fraction of a bit better than buying a badly pressed CD.

Praising the lords brother, my computer is where I do 90% of my work at the moment, so without music it suck. I do use the CD's in my car, and when I'm in my room I use the computer, more then often with some phat headphones on my head.

I am curious if it will play in a PS3, or if it will allow the PS3 to import the MP3s. If not, then this would definitely screw me as that has become my main home entertainment center.

Well one of the companies in question is Sony Entertainment, so that would be interesting.

I don't know what you are looking at, but none of those CDs come anywhere close to being $30 on iTunes.

Well it would be $30 if I were to go back and re-purchase both albums on iTunes, but it would actually be more. 5FDP was $15, LoG's Wrath was $15 and Praying for Villains was $13. Plus tax it would be around $45. No thanks.

Perhaps. That's not how I understood it though. My appologies if that was your intended meaning, Prosthetic.

It's all good, it was written at 1 AM so most of it is a jungle.



Looking back, its a bit confusing. DevilDriver's Pray for Villains is under Roadrunner (which this will be the last I purchase from them.) But two other albums I bought from them new this year don't have this crap on it. Black Clouds & Silver Linings (Dream Theater) and Skullage (Black Label Society,) which I actually just realise was released this year, buts its more of a "Greatest hits" album. So its under three different labels. Armoury, Roadrunner, and Eagle Rock. And I think Zakk has his own label now, but I'm not sure. Wrath (Lamb of God) is under Sony Music Entertainment and distributed by Epic. The only thing I can find for 5FDP is "Prospect Park," but I can't find anything about there label online, so I'm guessing one of the members of the band has some unknown label.

For me anything by RoadRunner and Sony are in the "boycott" bin.

 

[Jetboy.]

That's a straight raw deal you recieved. I have yet to run into anything of the sort, so the future appears dark since I like to support the bands I listen to, also. 👎


Cheers,
Jetboy

 

[mafia_boy]

My missus just came into the evil that is DRM just recently. She bought the Pink CD "I'm not dead" a couple of years back and uploaded it onto PC, and for ages she was able to play the songs without any trouble. Just a couple of weeks ago she felt like listening to the CD, went to hit play and BAM, copped the link to Microsoft saying it was copy protected blah blah blah. I've tried to download the licence migration and it's saying, "My netscape browser does not have Microsoft Windows Media Services plug-in's installed".

1. I wouldn't run Netscape even if it paid me to!
2. I have purchased all my Microsoft software legitimately!
3. We purchased the CD from a music shop!

Stupid RIAA, we BOUGHT the bloody thing so allow us to put it onto our PC so we don't have to put the stupid CD in everytime she wants to listen to it!

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Welcome to buying music, kick in the balls at the door, etc etc.

 

[niky]

Man, major gravedig!

The main problem here is that if you are like me when I was in college your computer was your CD player. If they had done this to me I wouldn't have been able to listen to it at all. This is only a fraction of a bit better than buying a badly pressed CD.

Here's where the whole DRM thing falls to pieces.

Like... who in their right mind actually buys a CD player nowadays? A standalone CD player is a completely useless item. Most people play music CDs on their PCs or through their home theater system... which is oftentimes PC/Mac/PS3-Bluray based.

Talk about antiquated solutions... like using Chastity Belts to prevent the spread of STDs.

 

[Northstar]

That's just plain idiotic, sadly I don't think a brand exclusive CD is that far off.

If only Trent Reznor ran the music industry.

 

[Sureboss]

I have no problem with a company trying to protect their property. Piracy costs entertainment media businesses a lot of money.

If I got a CD that I couldn't play on a PC/any other entertainment centre, and I'd bought it legitimately, I'd simply send a polite e-mail to the publisher (oh and don't CC media outlets, that's an awful suggestion that will get you nowhere), even include a proof of purchase and ask if there is any solution they can offer you to get around it. With our customers, if they ever have problems with our CD DRM (which happens if it detects people who have Daemon Tools on their PC, which even after uninstalling, leaves a lot of traces behind, as it's an awful piece of software that will screw your PC up), we will offer them the digital version for free. I wouldn't be surprised if a tactile e-mail resulted in them offering you an iTune voucher, etc.

 

[crooky369]

I have no problem with a company trying to protect their property. Piracy costs entertainment media businesses a lot of money.

If I got a CD that I couldn't play on a PC/any other entertainment centre, and I'd bought it legitimately, I'd simply send a polite e-mail to the publisher (oh and don't CC media outlets, that's an awful suggestion that will get you nowhere), even include a proof of purchase and ask if there is any solution they can offer you to get around it. With our customers, if they ever have problems with our CD DRM (which happens if it detects people who have Daemon Tools on their PC, which even after uninstalling, leaves a lot of traces behind, as it's an awful piece of software that will screw your PC up), we will offer them the digital version for free. I wouldn't be surprised if a tactile e-mail resulted in them offering you an iTune voucher, etc.

But I've got no choice without an CD drive. Unless of course you could recommend me some other free virtual disk drive programs?

 

[Bram Turismo]

If you have bought a CD copy, you are allowed to hold a downloaded copy of it as well. That's what people always tell me. Downloading stuff you did not buy is illegal, but if you have bought a CD and then you download it from the internet there's no pirating since all you basically did was downloading some sort of a back-up file. Correct me if I'm wrong.

This kind of DRM is stupid though. I haven't even used a CD player in years, just because iTunes and my iPod is so much easier to use.

 

[maximumattack]

As far as I understand things, you are allowed to make back-ups of all the cds in your collection as long as you still own the originals, if they have started putting DRM on cds then this stops you doing things which you actually have the right to do. I think its called something like Fair Usage (I'm sure someone with a legal brain will know more)

I've been backing up my cds for years as I use them professionally and from time to time the discs can get so badly scratched that they are unreadable by some players, as I have all the originals this isn't too much of a problem as I just make another back up. I've used these discs in front of PRS & PPL inspectors and after a short conversation where its been established that I do own all the original versions there has never been any further issues.

It would be possible to bypass the DRM on the cd with a little bit of studio tec, but as this would be a bit of an "AUP grey area" I'm unable to explain how you would go about doing it.

 

[Prosthetic]

I have no problem with a company trying to protect their property. Piracy costs entertainment media businesses a lot of money.

People who pirate buy more music then people who don't.

Daemon tools does nothing to harm your computer either..

 

[Sureboss]

1st point is irrelevant, if I go in to a store and am one of their most valuable customers, do you think they'd care if "took" the old bottle of Scotch here and there?

DT is as bad as Norton, horrible programme.

Backing up your CD is within the Fair Usage Policy (and if it's not of that particular one, it'd be very easy to back it up in a court), however downloading an illegal copy of it, isn't. If you don't have an optical drive, that's your problem. As said above though, if you actually e-mailled the concerned publisher and explained your situation (instead of doing the obvious) they'd probably help you. We do.

 

[Prosthetic]

1st point is irrelevant, if I go in to a store and am one of their most valuable customers, do you think they'd care if "took" the old bottle of Scotch here and there?

DT is as bad as Norton, horrible programme.

Backing up your CD is within the Fair Usage Policy (and if it's not of that particular one, it'd be very easy to back it up in a court), however downloading an illegal copy of it, isn't. If you don't have an optical drive, that's your problem. As said above though, if you actually e-mailled the concerned publisher and explained your situation (instead of doing the obvious) they'd probably help you. We do.

I'm a lazy 19 year old boy with better things to do then whine to a company that likely won't listen to me. Fine with I really don't care, I don't blame them.

My neighbor has worked with Warner Bros. music division for 20 something years and we have been told by them that with the rise of music piracy, their sales have gone up... But this is all off topic..

 

[Bram Turismo]

Backing up your CD is within the Fair Usage Policy (and if it's not of that particular one, it'd be very easy to back it up in a court), however downloading an illegal copy of it, isn't.

Exactly how are you supposed to back up that CD when it's protected from exactly these kind of things? The concept just doesn't make sense to me at all. Smart move against the ones who rip the music and put it on the internet, but very unfriendly in terms of usage for those who want to store the music in iTunes or a similar software program.

 

[Northstar]

Smart move against the ones who rip the music and put it on the internet,

Problem is they will wind up on the internet anyways.

 

[niky]

Problem is they will wind up on the internet anyways.

True.

I can think of a few ways (not requiring special equipment or software) to move a song from a CD player to a computer with a bog-standard sound card.

If people are well and truly intent on piracy, they're not going to be put off by something as simple as DRM on a CD... it's the regular consumers who suffer.

Just as regular, ticket-paying customers are harrassed at movie theaters for having puny 1 ccd home video cameras (yeah, some people actually watch movies on their vacation days and on nights out with the family... a weird practice, I know... )* when the pirates are ripping off digital masters stolen from movie previewers or "borrowed" from less-scrupulous theater owners.

(I don't personally buy pirates, but I've seen copies of movies that have just been released, pressed from incomplete screening copies lacking some effects and scenes!)

*and yes, it's stupid to record in the theater, and illegal, but the law itself really hasn't caught up with reality.

 

[lordalucard]

I usually import my cds to the PS3 simply my entertainment center.
This DRM stuff really is idiotic like these record companies are damaging there reputation, they could lose some serious money and true artists would suffer.