🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <FOX.89Sep5161157@cs.cs.columbia.edu> fox@cs.cs.columbia.edu (David Fox) writes:
>I'm pretty sure this is how the DAT copy protection *really* works:
>
>	CDs are marked "I'm copyrighted" in their non-audible info.
>
>	When a DAT records something marked "I'm copyrighted" it
>	produces a copy marked "I'm a copy of something copy-
>	righted."
>
>	DATs will refuse to copy something marked "I'm a copy of
>	something copyrighted."

First, a nit to pick: all above occurances of "copyrighted" should be
"copy-protected". Commercial recordings are (always?) copyrighted, but
none (few?) have been copy-protected, and won't be until the DAT issue
is resolved.

David's description matches my understanding of DAT copy protection,
as gleaned from an article in a recent issue of Electronic Engineering
Times.  However, I have a really serious worry about this scheme:
what's to prevent a CD manufacturer from marking the CD "I'm a copy of
something copy-protected"?  All they have to do is change the value of
the appropriate sub-code, and the DAT will refuse to copy it.  Then I
couldn't even make my own private copy!

Surely they wouldn't be so restrictive, would they?  Just because they
originally championed protection schemes which allowed absolutely no
copying, we can trust them now, right?  It really alarms me that I
haven't seen any discussion of this possibility.  Since the recording
industry hasn't said they will not do this, I have to believe they are
at least considering the idea.  Greedy little buggers.

On a more positive note, the copy protection scheme also allows CDs to
be marked as "no copyprotect", so that you *could* make copies of your
copies (of your copies...).  Let's hope that some labels/artists are
smart enough to do just this, making the whole issue of
copy-protection totally moot.
-- 
Mike Bryan, Applied Computing Devices, 100 N Campus Dr, Terre Haute IN 47802
Phone: 812/232-6051  FAX: 812/231-5280  Home: 812/232-0815
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"Did you make mankind after we made you?" --- XTC, "Dear God"