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Submitted by DemosthenesFrom
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=495&e=1&u=/ap/20040625/ap_en_mu/cd_copy_protection">this article:
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.
...
And users loading the CD on a PC running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system can easily bypass the protection features by pressing the "shift" key.
Phoenix-based SunnComm Technologies Inc., the company behind the copy-protection features on "Contraband," says its technology is not supposed to be hacker-proof, just effective enough to reduce piracy overall.Which won't reduce piracy at
ALL, since anyone actually intending to create and distribute illegal copies of this CD will be more than capable of bypassing its half-assed copy protection.
So again, the only people copy protected CDs hinders are legit users. Because CDs "copy protected" in this way don't work in many CD players, and won't play on most portable MP3 players (like iPods, for example).
But anyone that wants to circumvent these schemes can easily do so.
So what's the point?
At this stage in the game, I'm half-convinced that the music industry is
going out of its way to reduce their own sales. Sure, this particular album has sold a lot of copies. But how many of those copies were sold to individuals that had no idea what the "copy protection" label on the CD meant when they bought it? How many of those individuals ended up with a CD they can't play in their stereos? How many of those individuals ended up getting mad because they discovered that they couldn't rip MP3s off of it and play them on their favourite portable MP3 player?
How many of those individuals are going to be wary of "copy protected" CDs in the future because of this?
If that number of people is significant, then that will simply mean fewer sales. Which makes me think the RIAA labels are doing it on purpose to add further fuel to the "anti-piracy" fire they've started.
But I'm sure it's still just incompetence. The people in charge of this industry are mind-numbingly
stupid, and this is just one more thing out of millions of others that continues to reinforce that notion.