WARNING: New Bacharach CD is COPY PROTECTED (early copies)

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Rudy

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I hate to go out on a limb like this, but this is a serious issue that needs addressing.

The new Burt Bacharach CD, "At This Time", is copy protected. For my own part, I will be boycotting this release on ALL formats until I get a copy without the protection.

For many who play the CD on a standard CD player, it should work with no issues at all.

The WARNING comes about for those who play CDs on their computer, Sony/BMG has seen fit to use software that installs it self as a "root kit" that essentially replaces some of your computer's drivers with their own, in an effort to combat copying ANY CD on your computer. Thanks to the "autorun" feature of some computers, the software installs itself without the end user doing anything. If you were unfortunate enough to buy any recent Sony/BMG CD and have used it in your computer, you are basically already infected with what we in the computing industry call "malware". IOW, it disables or severely cripples the normal operation of your computer.

Here's a site that shows how to remove this malware from your computer; it is installed quite deep in your system, requiring you to reboot into safe mode to undo the damage this malware does to your system:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=151461

As I said, I am no longer buying any Sony/BMG CDs that have this copy protection. Burt's new CD is unfortunately one of those, but Neil Diamond's upcoming 12 Songs and the new Santana album are also copy protected.

Sorry, Mr. Bacharach...but in your words, "at this time" I will NOT be buying your new album, in ANY format, until this issue is resolved.
 
Despite my own personal feelings, there are ways around the copy protection issue:

1) NEVER play the U.S. CD in a computer...ever. Unless you want malware installed on it.

2) Buy the UK CD, as I've heard it does NOT have the copy protection on it. (Although I'd take this with a grain of salt until someone I actually know can verify this.)

3) Copy the US CD in an audio-only CD deck; I have a dual-well Sony I could use. Audio CD decks can only read the audio portion of the disc, not the "software" portion.

4) Buy it on vinyl.
 
I take it that the old permanent marker around the edge of the disc won't work in this configuration...I would consider this action by Sony to be an invasion of privacy, because it evidently impairs my right to copy any disc I may have. What about those of us who copy our discs for archival purposes? I know a lot of guys here at the corner are doing that with their new TJB reissues, and probably with other discs, as well.

Isn't Sony involved with Shout! Factory in some capacity? Will this be a trend in the industry?

How can you tell if your computer has the "autorun" feature? I really don't know very much about mine...how can you tell if a disc is programmed to install malware on your computer? Is a general Copyright Protected warning a tipoff?

If this is gonna be an industry-wide trend, things are gettin' ugly!

Dan
 
Well now I AM pissed. I tried ripping a random track into CD Architect from another CD I own on this same computer, and sure enough....it arrives with the same annoying buzz that the Bacharach tracks do, thanks to the Sony malware. This seriously sucks.

UPDATE: I rebooted the computer and tried again, and now things seem to work as normal. So maybe I've dodged this particular bullet? (It still sucks though.)
 
Mike--you might check that link I posted above and see if you have any of the files they show listed there. If so you may have to do some cleaning on the computer to get those files off of there.
 
Neil - I sent you an email about this. Couldn't find any of the files in windows search, and my keyboard will not work in safe mode....so I'm just going to leave things as-is for now and keep an eye on it. Maybe, since I didn't ever use the Bacharach "player" to rip or copy, it didn't damage other things after all. We'll see.
 
Mike, I'm sorry I didn't post my warning sooner in the "Review" thread, but it took me a while to put two and two together and realize what I'd read about another Sony/BMG malware CD and make the transition to Burt's new album. Your post about it being copy protected is what set of the red flag, and I went to gather the evidence.

Hopefully, we've warned people so they won't have their computers compromised. I'm surprised that virus protection and malware protection isn't catching this garbage.

Harry
 
Me too... this computer is behind a firewall, has virus-scan, spam-filter, anti-spyware, etc etc etc and this stuff managed to install itself without even triggering the "New programs installed" note on the Start menu!
 
Apparently Sony/BMG is now backing off and have offered a removal tool on ther website:

http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html

Allegedly, this will make their software "visible" instead of hidden, though if I understand it correctly, it doesn't actually remove it.

Harry
 
Here is a bit from the FAQ on Sony's site:

6. I have heard that the protection software is really malware/spyware. Could this be true?

Of course not. The protection software simply acts to prevent unlimited copying and ripping from discs featuring this protection solution. It is otherwise inactive. The software does not collect any personal information nor is it designed to be intrusive to your computer system. Also, the protection components are never installed without the consumer first accepting the End User License Agreement.

If at some point you wish to remove the software from your machine simply contact customer service through this link [see Harry's like above]. You will, though, be unable to use the disc on your computer once you uninstall the components.

Our technology vendors are constantly looking to improve the product as well as respond to any critical software issues found.
 
Is it made clear whether a disc has this feature or not? Is there a risk that you don't find out until it's too late?

Stephen
 
It's kind of funny that Sony/BMG says it is NOT malware, when in fact it is. Anything that silently installs itself without your knowledge and approval, gives you no means to remove it, and disables functions on your computer IS malware. The only way their "technology vendors" could improve the product is to remove it completely from the CDs.

I don't know if there is a way to tell if the disc is protected or not--I've never owned one to find out.
 
All you have to do is slap it into your PC to find out...I don't think the malware goes into your PC unless you click 'agree' on some 'user agreement'...though I'm not sure that's true of every copy-protected disc. Of course some may simply not play or function properly in your setup. If I've got copy-protected discs, they have posed no problems on any other deck I have, whether standalone or vehicle. Just in the PC....

There is a tool to remove the parasite from your PC at SonyBMG's website posted by someone at Steve's place: http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/updates.html



:ed:
 
You do have to click on a "user agreement" to "install" it, but I thought that would be for some other content like lyrics. (OK, I admit I didn't read the damn thing but who ever reads that stuff) And there is no way to play it on a computer if you don't install this thing.
 
Whatever it's called, it does smack of "technological profiling." Based on assumptions, that's what it sounds like.
 
Well, maybe I should see how it will sound if I hook my CD player up to the Ol' Cassette Deck...

There DID use to be "Freedom" to do this, as long as it was done responsibly... Only when something is RESTRICTED like this, then...


Dave
 
Dave said:
Well, maybe I should see how it will sound if I hook my CD player up to the Ol' Cassette Deck...

There DID use to be "Freedom" to do this, as long as it was done responsibly... Only when something is RESTRICTED like this, then...


Dave

I have a few copy protected CDs. To make a backup copy for the car, all I did was hook a CD player up to my sound card, and played it while recording the sound to my harddrive. It's no different than making a needle-drop recording of a vinyl LP... even easier actually, as you don't have to flip the CD over halfway through.

Personally, I'm opposed to the whole idea of copy protection, as it infringes on my "fair use" rights, but if I really want to hear the music, I'll still buy the album and make an analogue copy. I won't be buying this Bacharach album though, as the political content doesn't interest me.

Murray
 
I could easily run a copy on my dual-well deck, at 4x speed, but I shouldn't have to. If anything, I may wait for our library to get it in, and just borrow it and make my own copy that way. That way Sony/BMG doesn't get my money, and I've circumvented the copy protection they have been shoving down our throats.
 
Rudy said:
Here's a link to a BBC article about the Sony/BMG copy protection:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4400148.stm

:shock: After reading that article, I wouldn't buy another Sony/BMG CD, ever! :mad: The few copy protected CDs that I own either won't play at all on the computer, or only play a low-res compressed version of the tracks, and don't allow access to the regular CDDA tracks on a computer. None of them actually install anything, and while annoying, don't cause any damage. This Sony/BMG copy protection system is scary stuff indeed! How long can it be before there's a class action lawsuit?
 
What about Mac Computers???
Maybe that's a way to get around it?
PC software may not work on a Mac...
 
Trevor said:
What about Mac Computers???
Maybe that's a way to get around it?
PC software may not work on a Mac...

I don't claim to be an authority on this, but I do have several CDs that say they're "copy-controlled" (the ones that come to mind are a UK Talk Talk collection, the UK version of Robbie Williams's Escapology, and the remastered US version of Queen's Greatest Hits). I had no problem at all copying tracks to iTunes on my Mac or getting them loaded onto my iPod. So maybe Macs aren't affected (yet)?
 
I don't think they're affected yet, but I'm sure the companies are looking at ways to do it there too. The labels and the RIAA want to plug any "hole" they can find.
 
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