Wheatus had it right: FUCK SONY. I aim this hatred towards Epic/Sony’s new tactic of copyright protecting CDs. First I was pissed at them for holding back Fiona’s new CD, but this has gone too far. In case you are like, huh?, well, let me bring you up to speed. I just got the new CD by Natasha Bedingfield, and was ready to rip it so that I could put it on my ipod. That’s right, I went out, bought the CD (well, James got it for me), and was going to use my personal copy to make mp3s for my personal ipod, which I also paid for. I wasn’t planning on doing anything else with it other than that, because, hey, that is what I do with all my purchased CD’s: listen to them.
I am all about helping out artists, and supporting music by buying the CD’s, but this is ridiculous. Now Sony/Epic has made it so that I now have to go on the internet and try to download a CD that I bought; for free. I now have to go out looking for the mp3s, so that I can actually use the fucking music that I paid for. Now, you can copy the files, but not in a format that is compatible with ipods, which happens to be Sony’s direct competition. Now, one might think that Sony is a bitter little BITCH that is pissed that ipod has cornered the market, and no one gives a shit about their inferior and crappy mp3 players. Could this be it? Or could it be that they are trying so hard to keep control over something that doesn’t even belong to them (remember, I rightfully paid for it, and should be able to use it!), that they will sink to this level and potentially harm their own sales. FOR WHAT??? I must say that I will think very long and hard about buying another CD put out on Epic or Sony, for fear that I will not be able to do anything other than play it. And now, I shall go off and attempt to download the damn thing for free, since I wasted my $15, on this good for nothing piece of shit. Thanks Sony… You have saved the music, and kept me from mass producing it and downloading it illegally. Oh wait… Actually you drove me to it. Fuck you, Sony.
UPDATE: I just got this email from Sony (whom I emailed about this issue… with the help of the CD):
If you have a PC place the CD into your computer and allow the Sony BMG audio player on the CD to automatically start. If the player software does not automatically`start, open your Windows Explorer. Locate and select the drive letter for your CD drive. On the disc you will find either a file named LaunchCD.exe or autorun.exe.
Double-click this file to manually start the player.TIP: If your CD does not contain either the LaunchCD.exe or
Autorun.exe files, it may not be compatible with this iPod
solution. Please reply to this letter for more information.Once the Sony BMG player application has been launched and the End User License Agreement has been accepted, you can click the Copy Songs button on the top menu.
Follow the instructions to copy the secure Windows Media Files (WMA) to your PC. Make a note of where you are copying the songs to, you will need to get to these secure Windows Media Files in the next steps.
Once the WMA files are on your PC you can open and listen to the songs with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher (or another fully compatible player that can playback secure WMA files, such as MusicMatch, RealPlayer, and Winamp). You can then burn the songs to a standard Audio CD. Please note that in order to burn the files, you will need to upgrade to, or already have, Windows Media Player 9 or 10.
Once the standard Audio CD has been created, place this copied CD back into your computer and open iTunes. iTunes can now rip the songs as you would any normal audio CD.
Please note an easier and more acceptable solution requires cooperation from Apple, who we have already reached out to in hopes of addressing this issue.
So not only do they show you how to get around this absurd copyright protection, they show you a way to get the mp3s for your own use (thanks)… but more importantly blame the problem on the lack of cooperation from Apple. Sony, you are a bitch and a half.
Sony’s proprietary formats have always sucked ass, which is a shame because they design some really cool toys. In general, these companies are scared shitless that they’re losing their ability to dictate what’s popular, and they’re only going to drive away people further pulling bullshit like that.
Just so you know, it not only took 1 hour for this shit to burn following their procedure, but now I have two copies of the CD… do need that, no!!! Anyone want a copy?
What a bunch of jackasses. This is exactly why people have stopped buying actual CDs (like myself). Instead, I just legally download them from iTunes. Sometimes. Depends on the artist.
Yeah, I agree Jen, but iTunes is not a saint. I hate that they make you pay more than the song is worth (in most cases), and you have limited control over what you can do with it (only authorize it for use on like 7 computers, and can only put it on ipod). I say, if you buy the music, you should get to use it however you please.
Also, what these idiotic record companies forget to realize, is that the people that were downloading illegally, were the ones that were buying CD’s! I can definitely attest to buying MANY CD’s based on downloading a couple of tracks from an artist, especially artists I wouldn’t have heard otherwise (since I am not keen on the radio). I think that they really shot themselves in the foot, but there is no convincing those power/money hungry idiots, is there?
And the Natasha Bedingfield CD is not even THAT good!!! ARGH!!!!! (I really do love that song “These words” though…)