BMG, a large music distribution company, have declared that soon all of their music CDs in Europe will feature “copy protection”. There is no way to add copy protection to a real compact disc, it just isn’t in the standards. What they are actually doing is selling deliberately damaged CDs that will be rejected by more sophisticated CD players.
This means your new music CD will not play on your computer, your console, or maybe even in your car’s CD player. Some DVD players and sophisticated CD players will also reject the CD. Sometimes these “protected” CDs can permanently damage your computer.
BMG are doing this because they think it will limit music piracy. It won't. None of the "copy protection" schemes can stop a skilled computer user from copying the CD's music. When just one of them posts the music to the Internet, it can be copied just as much as before. All this stupid scheme will do is rip-off consumers and possibly damage their equipment.
If you buy a CD that won't play in your computer, console or DVD player, look on the case. If it has a Compact Disc logo you can return it at any point, as it's been sold to you illegally: it isn't a real compact disc. Please take it back and tell the shop why.
You can get more information about the threats to consumer freedom at <a href="http://uk.eurorights.org/issues/cd/">The Campaign for Digital Rights.</a>
Link: <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27960.html">'No more music CDs without copy protection,' claims BMG unit</a>
