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Recording Industry Gives Linux Users The Finger
It looks as if the thorny issue of copy-protected music CDs is raising its ugly head again.

Previous attempts to introduce copy-protection schemes to the ubiquitous music CD have met with stiff consumer resistance and complaints that such disks can't be played on PCs.

In an attempt to defuse such complaints, the industry has decided to add extra files to their disks that contain computer-playable versions of the protected audio tracks.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) Nothing Yet Have Your Say

At first glance this might seem like a great idea. By providing already ripped tracks there's no way users can complain that the regular audio tracks won't play on their computers right?

Well it's not that simple.

It seems that the industry is going to be providing that ripped content in Windows Media format -- complete with Microsoft's Digital Rights Management restrictions.

They're saying that WMP was chosen because it's the most commonly used player and therefore the digital tracks would be playable on the largest number of computers. But hang on, isn't MP3 *the* defacto standard for music on computers?

If you're an Apple Mac user then the company developing the strategy (Macrovision) says they'll have a version for you in a few months time.

But what about the Linux users?

Well it looks as if the recording industry is giving you the finger. They appear to have no intention of providing these extra files in a format that can be played on Linux machines.

Now given that the hacker community is disproportionately disposed towards using Linux, I suspect that the record labels are effectively signing the death warrant of any fancy copy-protection system that stops them from listening to the music they've paid for. This move will be seen by many Linux hackers as a challenge that I'm sure they'll rise to in very short order.

Remember that the DVD copy-protection scheme (CSS) was effectively broken by someone who wanted to be able to play DVDs on their Linux box. Now anyone can download a long list of free software titles software that use this DeCSS code and copy DVDs to DVDR/RW or even transcode them into VCD or SVCD.

Once again, the recording industry proves that it has as many feet as it has bullets and that when it comes to devising a robust, effective and fair strategy for defeating digital piracy at a personal level -- they really don't have the foggiest idea what they're doing.

CNet has published a story on this new strategy although they seem to totally ignore the Linux aspect.

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