Skip to main content

Copy Protection & CDs

Not having receiving a new CD for quite some time, I was quite surprised to find that my new copy of Let It Be...Naked featured a copy protection scheme that effectively prevented me from including it in my CD collection.
 
Many of you will likely think I've been living under a rock - I haven't - I just haven't needed to buy a new CD. I knew they were doing some things for copy protection but EMI has really taken it to the level where it's unbelievable.
 
To play the CD on your computer, you need to install "their" program OR you effectively need to ruin the CD. Yes, supposedly this can be done by using a marker and going around the outside of the CD with it. That kind of scares me because after actually paying money for a CD, the last thing I want to do is possibly ruin it.
 
This isn't about circumventing licenses either. This is simply about wanting to listen to the music where I want. I have an AudioTron device (http://www.turtlebeach.com) that plays music on my stereo from all sources. I need to move the music there to run.
 
What this effectively does is tell me that these companies do not want my business. I would far rather purchase the music online for $0.99 a song instead of buying a CD. Thankfully that is precisely what some companies are doing.
 
So now, instead of being able to enjoy my music, I have to burn another copy of the data CD and then play around with the black pen. Unbelievable...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elevating Project Specifications with Three Insightful ChatGPT Prompts

For developers and testers, ChatGPT, the freely accessible tool from OpenAI, is game-changing. If you want to learn a new programming language, ask for samples or have it convert your existing code. This can be done in Visual Studio Code (using GitHub CoPilot) or directly in the ChatGPT app or web site.  If you’re a tester, ChatGPT can write a test spec or actual test code (if you use Jest or Cypress) based on existing code, copied and pasted into the input area. But ChatGPT can be of huge value for analysts (whether system or business) who need to validate their needs. There’s often a disconnect between developers and analysts. Analysts complain that developers don’t build what they asked for or ask too many questions. Developers complain that analysts haven’t thought of obvious things. In these situations, ChatGPT can be a great intermediary. At its worst, it forces you to think about and then discount obvious issues. At best, it clarifies the needs into documented requirements. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Respect

Respect is something humans give to each other through personal connection. It’s the bond that forms when we recognize something—or someone—as significant, relatable, or worthy of care. This connection doesn’t have to be limited to people. There was an  article  recently that described the differing attitudes towards AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini (formerly Bard). Some people treat them like a standard search while others form a sort of personal relationship — being courteous, saying “please” and “thank you”. Occasionally, people share extra details unrelated to their question, like, ‘I’m going to a wedding. What flower goes well with a tuxedo?’ Does an AI “care” how you respond to it? Of course not — it reflects the patterns it’s trained on. Yet our interaction shapes how these tools evolve, and that influence is something we should take seriously. Most of us have all expressed frustration when an AI “hallucinates”. Real or not, the larger issue is that we have hi...
Post a Comment
Read more

When A Machine Starts To Care

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke (1962)  I first used that quote when I was starting out in the tech industry. Back then, it was a way to illustrate just how fast and powerful computers had become. Querying large datasets in seconds felt magical—at least to those who didn’t build them.  Today, we’re facing something even more extraordinary. Large Language Models (LLMs) can now carry on conversations that approach human-level fluency. Clarke’s quote applies again. And just as importantly, many researchers argue that LLMs meet—or at least brush up against—the criteria of the Turing Test.  We tend to criticize LLMs for their “hallucinations,” their sometimes-confident inaccuracies. But let’s be honest: we also complain when our friends misremember facts or recount things inaccurately. This doesn’t excuse LLMs—it simply highlights that the behavior isn’t entirely alien. In some ways, it mirrors our own cognitive limits....
Post a Comment
Read more