Norah Jones CD - Sound Quality Purposely Degraded

[aerius]

Great, just fucking great. The new Norah Jones CD "Feels Like Home" is designed so that if you try to play the disc in your computer it degrades to sound quality. According to various owners of the CDon this thread, the CD can only be played with a special player app on a PC, and the app screws up the sound quality. Fortunately EAC can still rip the tracks off the CD and make a non-degraded copy which can be played on a PC. Still, this pisses me off severely, goddamn copyprotection gone insane.

[Joe]

That'll make people not want to download the MP3s.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Christ, isn't that infringement on customer's rights?

I hope this isn't on the UK version too, my Dad may get it and be pissed if this is true.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Why bother with such a scheme when it's so easy to bypass?

[Mitth`raw`nuruodo]

Why bother with such a scheme when it's so easy to bypass?

Because they figure that the fact that it's there means most people won't try to bypass it.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Great, just fucking great. The new Norah Jones CD "Feels Like Home" is designed so that if you try to play the disc in your computer it degrades to sound quality. According to various owners of the CDon this thread, the CD can only be played with a special player app on a PC, and the app screws up the sound quality. Fortunately EAC can still rip the tracks off the CD and make a non-degraded copy which can be played on a PC. Still, this pisses me off severely, goddamn copyprotection gone insane.

Hah, well, now I know what artist's CD I won't be purchasing. Sadly, they'll sell the CDs by the truckload, and they'll be encouraged to do it again, and again.

[beyond hope]

Christ, isn't that infringement on customer's rights?

I hope this isn't on the UK version too, my Dad may get it and be pissed if this is true.

They started using "safedisc" copy-protection schemes a long time ago with European releases; Natalie Imbruglia's "White Lillies Island" was the first one I remember. I remember that because the article specifically mentioned that the domestic release would not have safedisc, so I waited for it to be released rather than get the import right away.

[muse]

Christ, isn't that infringement on customer's rights?

I hope this isn't on the UK version too, my Dad may get it and be pissed if this is true.

I'm not sure, the CD plays full quality sound on a normal home CD player or discman so technically there's nothing wrong. However not everyone has a standalone CD player and some people have to use the CDROM drive on their computers so it can be argued that it's not fair to some customers. I'll just have to make a CDR copy for use on my computer if I decide to buy the CD, what a waste of a dollar...

[neoolong]

If you want to be mean, you can keep going back to the store and replacing copies saying that it is defective because the sound quality is bad on computers.

[Saurencaerthai]

Christ, isn't that infringement on customer's rights?

What rights? If they tell you about it, they have the right to sell it how ever they please.

[aerius]

The problem is they don't tell you a damn thing. Nowhere on the packaging does it say "Playing this CD on a PC will fuck up the sound quality" or anything to that effect. There's just some fine print at the bottom which basically says "this CD protected by XXXXX technology" and a small logo of the company. That's it. How is a consumer suppose to deduce that playing the damn thing in a PC will degrade the sound quality, psychic powers?

[Saurencaerthai]

The problem is they don't tell you a damn thing. Nowhere on the packaging does it say "Playing this CD on a PC will fuck up the sound quality" or anything to that effect. There's just some fine print at the bottom which basically says "this CD protected by XXXXX technology" and a small logo of the company. That's it. How is a consumer suppose to deduce that playing the damn thing in a PC will degrade the sound quality, psychic powers?

Ah ok, I understand. That's fucking deceptive.

[Datana]

Sounds kind of like CDS-200 (AKA Cactus Data Shield), an Israeli copy protection method popular in Japan and some parts of Europe, actually. In it, the first session's TOC is normal, but the second TOC (which is what most CD-ROM drives will load, as they preferentially load the last session written) is corrupted, only containing correct information on the last track. The last track contains encrypted and watermarked WMA files at 64 kb/s that can only be played back with by a proprietary player (Windows-only) also on that track (which autoloads when you stick the CD into your CD-ROM drive). I've found in playing with these discs, however, that the corrupted TOC causes some drives to lock up completely if the firmware isn't recent.

The "normal" tracks also have had their error correction screwed with, so secure reads (like in secure rips and in good sound systems) will introduce pops and clicks in the CD audio (due to the "error corrections" actually corrupting the sound information). It's utter garbage, but fortunately can be bypassed in EAC, which can be told to ignore CD sessions and can (usually) read even corrupted tracks.

Saurencaerthai -- The only indications you're given on the external packaging that a CD has this on it is that there's a tiny logo that says "Copy Control CD" somewhere on the external packaging and a note in fine print that says "Not for use with Macintosh computers." The liner notes also usually contain something in the production credits along the lines of "Uses technology licensed from Midbar Tech." It doesn't say anything about degraded sound quality on a PC, nor does it warn that the disc might cause your CD-ROM drive to spazz. I don't know about the presentation of other schemes used, but it isn't really obvious at all from the packaging that a disc is protected. I don't think that's informing the consumer.