To quote Moby’s blog back in 2004…

“just fyi,
if i release a cd and it has copy-protection on it, it’s not by my choice.
copy-protection annoys the shit out of me, cos it prevents me from putting my own cd’s into i-tunes.
just thought i’d let you know.
moby”

http://www.moby.com/moby_archive/1/1/2004/1/5044

So, what did I get in the post from cd-wow? Moby’s Hotel album (2 cd special edition affair)… copy protected!! Sigh.

Now okay it’s unlikely he really wanted it this way and this leads to my real gripe which is the practise of far-east suppliers providing copy protected versions of CDs that are not copy protected in the UK. It appears the music industry is telling us that if we want to avoid copy protection we need to pay twice as much for rip-off high street prices in the UK.

Now here’s the real bite though…

The BPI recently said copying for personal use is okay. This is a landmark statement as the UK has no fair use clause in copyright and technically anyone could be sued for just making a copy for backup or use on another device. The BPI saying this effectively wipes out any chance of legal action and makes it effectively legal to make copies for personal use, and this is really all we want.

After all, why did I buy this CD? Because I want to be able to use it on my home network through my media system, plus transfer it to my iRiver and whatever device I want in the future, without restriction, and get the best quality. Not to download a DRM protected version that only plays on either an AAC based device (iPod) or WMA device (not iPod) and can’t be transferred and has a crappy bit-rate, all at the price of a regular CD and no physical product to show for it :(.

Now this CD, like all copy protected CDs, has no CD logo. Why? Because it breaks the red-book standard. Basically I’ve been mis-sold an item on the claim that it is a CD but it isn’t. Even more daft though is the fact the copy protection is fairly useless as it can be beaten by EAC or the use of anything other than a PC. The annoyance though is it can take hours to rip the CD that I paid for.