Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : MACROVISION -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (130)	6/4/2001 7:31:34 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 201

yes Issac, but what about SUNX? Waht is your beef with that company? Is it personal or what? Why so viscious?

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (130)	6/4/2001 7:36:20 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Respond to of 201

New CD Protection Schemes: A Course in Flawed Logic By John Davis MP3. What a major part of technology today. So much business has been built upon MP3 technology. It happened to come along at the perfect time and now the world is swept by the mp3 craze. If certain labels have their way, they are going to make a new type of CD that cannot be ripped by current software and computer CD-Roms. I will not delve too deep into the technology, as this is not the focus of this article. To give a brief summary of what is happening, basically a country singer by the name of Charlie Pride (yes, he is ancient, Paleolithic era, I believe) has decided to circumvent his n ewest album from becoming property on anyone's hard drive. (I never knew there was a rampant market for Charlie Pride MP3's heh) This is because his newest CD will not be readable by conventional CD- Rom. The CD will have errors built into the manufacturing process. This confuses the hardware into thinking it is an unreadable CD. Clever? Not really. By doing so, users, in effect will not be able to "rip" tracks from the CD. Sounds good. Doesn't work so well. First of all, you will not be able to listen to this CD on your computer. That is defini tely not cool. Alienating part of your existing customer base is bad business practice. People who have laptops and use them to listen to CD's on plane flights? Well, you can' t listen to the album ei ther. Most of the people who own DVD players? Nope. Many DVD players use the exact same technology found in computer DVD-Rom drives. How about people with upper-end car stereos? The very high-end car stereos use that same technology as well. Sorry, you can' t listen either. Ok, so you're asking "Well then John, who CAN listen?" Let's see. If you own a cheap boom box from Wal-Mart, you probably c an listen. Most home stereo systems will work. Portable CD players will probably work as well. It sounds to me like there are more systems it will not work on than ones that do. Of course, assuming others follow in Charlie's footsteps and this copy protection method becomes mainstream then a few other things are going to happen. Manufacturers of CD-Roms will update firmware and be able to boast reading of protected CD's. Before this even happens, the various "ripping" software packages will probably make a minor update to their software which will enable the CD to be re ad regardless of the copy protection scheme. Think it can't be done? It already has been done in many CD burning software suites. Just check out CdrWin. What a nice piece of software. At best this wo uld be considered a speed bump to people who rip mp3 files. They claim the "average" user will not be able to rip files from this type of CD. I've got some news for ya: "Average" users don't write the software that rips the files from the CD. A few code modif ications, and the end user will not even know there is any difference. This is not hard to see. I just wonder what is going to be accomplished by doing this. I really see no lasting benefits by makin g the software makers rewrite a few lines of code. Let's also not forget to mention that nothing can be done about plugging the output of a home audio CD player into the input jack on your sound card. There will be MP3's of Charlie Pride's newest CD even before you can buy it in stores. Actually, I am willing to go so far as to say, there will be many 1337 H4X0R that have at least one song from Charlie boy's CD. It will become fashionable to hav e one of his MP3's. Just for spite. Bragging rights. Ouch. Sorry Charlie, I'm not buying it. If you want to read more on this issue I suggest these readings: lordsatan.litestep.com