Copy protected CDs

[Ras Berry]

"Both Sony and Phillips have scrapped copy protection on their CDs following hordes of complaints about the discs being unplayable on computers. Seems that discs with copy protection provide lower quality playback than the unlocked kind and contravene agreed CD standards."

From Mojo mag

[steve0]

Sounds like good news. There are many reasons why copy-protected CDs should never have been introduced, but this has to be the most serious:

"The Celine Dion CD released in the UK by Sony has caused major problems for Macs. We have heard of many reported problems with the new flat-screen iMacs, in which dealers had received machines to repair, only to find a Celine Dion CD inside and no other problems. With a Celine Dion CD inside, these Macs boot up to a grey screen, and will not respond, nor eject the CD. We have also heard about similar problems with a recent PowerMac G4 model. Apple have published a technical note on this issue. Note that Sony are still releasing new CDs in this format, so the Celine Dion CD is unlikely to be the end of the story."

You can get the full lowdown here - http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/quick/[/url]

[Pluto]

I always thought of Celine Dion's music as a great risk for a man's health nevertheless for a computer.

The sooner those copy-protected thingies disappear the better for music buyers.

[Chocolate Soldier]

On Macs.. hmm..
COuld SOny be up to something?
Sabatoging Mac cuz ITUNES has gotten too big?

[steve0]

These CDs are only really a problem for Macs because Apple decided to get rid of the eject button on the front of the CD drive a few years ago. So now you have to either use the eject button on the keyboard, or eject it by dragging the CD icon onto the 'Trash' icon.
Because these copy-protected CDs have essentially been corrupted, not all computers are able to recognise that they have a CD in the drive. So if this has happened and the computer has a slot-loading CD drive, it will not give you the option to eject it because it doesn't think there is anything there.

But the record companies shouldn't have distributed corrupted CDs in the first place.

[Chocolate Soldier]

MACs have a secret eject button in the CD/DVD drives that you activate by sticking in a bent paperclip or some other small implement of that ilk into the front right side of the drive..
Not an elegant solution but it works.
Guess not everyone knows that..
Not sure if MAC makes that public

[rez]

In all fairness, Celine Dion??

They deserve everything they get. Phillips should make a Celine Dion CD that makes your stereo catch fire if you try and play it it'd only be right and proper!