Is there a website out there that lists CD's that are known to have Sony's XCP and MediaMax "security features?"

[ShotgunSteven]

I know there were some sites out there listing CD's that had general copy protection, I am just looking for one listing the CD's carrying Sony's rootkit crap.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

 

[macwinlin]

From eff.org:

A Spotters' Guide to XCP and SunnComm's MediaMax

Click on the links "List of U.S. CDS affected by XCP" & "List of CDs affected and possibly affected by MediaMax".

EDIT: I remember one of my Foo Fighters had MediaMax on it.

 

[PokerGuy]

The better question is, why would anyone buy CD's these days? You expose your PC to the risk of spyware, rootkits and other such evils, or you could be punished by getting some DRM riddled disc... You can acquire the music in so many ways without those risks.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: PokerGuy
The better question is, why would anyone buy CD's these days? You expose your PC to the risk of spyware, rootkits and other such evils, or you could be punished by getting some DRM riddled disc... You can acquire the music in so many ways without those risks.

If you buy it digitally you're likely going to have to put up with as much if not more DRM, and lower quality to boot. As for illegal means of acquiring it, quality is even more difficult to come by (although I'm sure you certainly can find high quality versions). Granted quality isn't guaranteed these days on CD either (or even vinyl or any other format for that matter).

I don't understand people who say its pointless to care about CDs anymore. Oftentimes they're just as cheap (and in plenty of cases cheaper) than buying them online and generally you're going to end up with one of the highest quality versions of the music. Its not difficult to rip the music to your computer. And, at the end of it all, if something does happen, you've got something physical to show for it (so if your iPod/computer breaks or gets stolen you can always just re-rip it).

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Oh Hell, the German copy of Within Temptation: Mother Earth that I bought has the damned protection on it. Sony quit putting it on their U.S. discs, but apparently decided to inflict it upon the Europeans. :|

 

[DaveSimmons]

Hold down the left shift key before closing the CD tray and for about 10 seconds after. This keeps autorun & autoplay from running. Problem solved.

 

[PokerGuy]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: PokerGuy
The better question is, why would anyone buy CD's these days? You expose your PC to the risk of spyware, rootkits and other such evils, or you could be punished by getting some DRM riddled disc... You can acquire the music in so many ways without those risks.

If you buy it digitally you're likely going to have to put up with as much if not more DRM, and lower quality to boot. As for illegal means of acquiring it, quality is even more difficult to come by (although I'm sure you certainly can find high quality versions). Granted quality isn't guaranteed these days on CD either (or even vinyl or any other format for that matter).

I don't understand people who say its pointless to care about CDs anymore. Oftentimes they're just as cheap (and in plenty of cases cheaper) than buying them online and generally you're going to end up with one of the highest quality versions of the music. Its not difficult to rip the music to your computer. And, at the end of it all, if something does happen, you've got something physical to show for it (so if your iPod/computer breaks or gets stolen you can always just re-rip it).

If you get non-DRM'd stuff, you don't have to worry about your ipod or computer breaking because you can just back it up anytime.

Personally, I think CD's are a waste of time. There's plenty of options, you could go allofmp3 or some similar service and get the quality you want for a fraction of the cost of CD's. Yeah yeah yeah, spare me the whining about whether it's legal or not, that's an argument for another thread. You could search for it on the web, there are plenty of sources..... and you could buy stuff from itunes and other places without DRM. Getting digital tracks means you can make as many CD's as you want of out them if you really want something silver and shiny for your music.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Some of us don't like to steal music, but sure that's a discussion for another thread.

CDs are lossless, and some of us care about that too.

Buy a CD, rip to a lossless format like FLAC, make as many lossless backups as needed, transcode to lossy formats for portables and burn back to CDs as needed.