Copy protection for CDs does not have future

January 9, 2002 3:07 PM

Copy protection for CDs does not have future says Philips. Philips spokesperson Klaus Petri, speaking to Reuters, says its company counts on the fact that the refusal of consumers will convince the music industry to step back from copy-protected CD's. Petri said that Philips could sue the manufacturers of CD's with copy protection (as managers of the world-wide CD patents), because they would not correspond to the standards. "those are silver disks with music on them, but which do not resemble CD's". [via Neowin.net]
posted by riffola (16 comments total)

The translation from Neowin:
Copy protection mechanisms on current audio CD's have no chance of success, in the opinion of Philips's. Philips spokesperson Klaus Petri, speaking to Reuters, says its company counts on the fact that the refusal of consumers will convince the music industry to step back from copy-protected CD's.

Petri said that Philips could sue the manufacturers of CD's with copy protection (as managers of the world-wide CD patents), because they would not correspond to the standards. "those are silver disks with music on them, but which do not resemble CD's".

According to Verbraucherschuetzern, media reports and also the Elekronik company, complaints are accumulating over problems with the copy-protected media in recent times. They is resulting in that not all silver disks cannot be played in all drives. The industry would like to prevent CD's being copied by computers. Meanwhile according to the Philips spokesperson, new drives in CD Players and PC's resemble each other technically so much so that problems occur also in devices of entertainment electronics
posted by riffola at 3:07 PM on January 9, 2002

Wow...

I've got to admit it's getting better... getting better all the time.
posted by SilentSalamander at 3:56 PM on January 9, 2002

Indeed, I like the sound of this.
posted by mmesker at 4:03 PM on January 9, 2002

Mmmmm...God bless the Dutch. =D
posted by tpoh.org at 6:20 PM on January 9, 2002

Nice -- anyone able to find an native english version of this story? I'm assuming if it is Reuters there would be one, but I can't find it.
posted by malphigian at 7:17 PM on January 9, 2002

I tried looking for it too, but couldn't find, so I ultimately decided to link to the German story, and use Neowin's translation.
posted by riffola at 7:22 PM on January 9, 2002

Yep, it's true. You know that little "compact disc digital audio" logo that can be found on most commercially sold cds? Well those new copy protected "cd's" can't use it cause they do not follow above mentioned standards.
posted by jeremias at 7:55 PM on January 9, 2002

Philips has been walking this walk for a long time - they sold their stake in Polygram a few years back and went into the production of CD burners.

Pretty good for a company that used to be known for consistently misreading the market. These are the guys that invented the CD and let Sony capitalize the profits.
posted by thijsk at 12:28 AM on January 10, 2002

It's hard for me to articulate why I find this so amusing exactly, but it seems like it sets up the more tyrannical members of Die RekordIndustrie for more than a little pie in the face.
Y'know, they've started to piss off the people who invented the fucking thing... perhaps the tide of their influence is turning away from them a wee bit.
The RIAA's assumption of their ability to dictate to the music consumer really irritates me. Any poke in their eye gives me the giggles.
posted by dong_resin at 1:01 AM on January 10, 2002

Do any the copy-protected CDs that have been produced so far have the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo on them? That could in itself open up their producers to action surely.
posted by kerplunk at 5:26 AM on January 10, 2002

Nice one. I'm going to be buying Philips from now on, whenever there's a choice.
posted by walrus at 5:51 AM on January 10, 2002

But how is this going to fly in the face of the continued push for the Super Audio CD format? Sounds like Philips is mighty cosy with Sony and Vivendi/Universal on it. It also sounds like the "Beast" (recording industry) is intent on making SACD the de-facto standard.
posted by tpoh.org at 6:25 AM on January 10, 2002

For 99.5 percent of audio consumers, CD's are Good Enough, so it's tough to imagine another physical format supplanting it when the vast majority of listeners will never be able to discern a difference that matters to them.
posted by NortonDC at 6:53 AM on January 10, 2002

And yes, I did pull that number out of my ass.
posted by NortonDC at 7:51 AM on January 10, 2002

When you pull a number close to 100% out of your ass, the correct number is the purity of Ivory soap -- 99.44%.
posted by kindall at 9:09 AM on January 10, 2002

Few things that come out of my ass remind me of soap... maybe 0.56%.
posted by NortonDC at 10:36 AM on January 10, 2002