Tuesday, January 22, 2002

SIMPLY YEARS AHEAD: An unlikely opponent of the new CDs that you can't play on PCs ("copy protected", as the labels would have it) has emerged in the form of Philips. The Dutch company that invented the format, and still jeaously guards the rules, wants companies who use the copy protection to mark their products with a Poison symbol, and to refrain from using the "Compact Disc" logo. Seems they're upset that the crappy quality of the secure CDs is in danger of undermining trust in the format, and they want it made clear that a CD which won't spin and sing in a CD tray ain't no CD at all. Meanwhile, further opposition to the blocking of copies from CDs is being mounted under 'fair use' rules - because, of course, the giant padlock doesn't only stop pirates from pirating, but people who've paid money for a CD converting it to MP3, say, for their own use. The case is even dodgier for record companies in those countries where they successfully lobied for a surcharge on blank recordable media to reward them for copies made.
Register reports - but has anyone merely tried taping the Natalie Imbroogywoogy track, and ripping the MP3 from that?


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