Beastie Boys Album installs copy protection

[Jory]

Sold out long ago.

The Beastie Boys have sold out, that's all I can say. Actually I've always sort of thought they have been a record company band. Look at their hits, cds IMO were not that good and I've never understood why some many people have liked them.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Beastie Boys had sold out from the very beginning, when they allowed their label to censor their first album. The label said, "We don't want a warning sticker, so you'll need to lose these songs and rewrite these ones." They complied and sold out then. People just realize it happened that early.

BTW, I'm not attempting to start a flamewar or troll. I'm just telling it as I know it.

 

[adamjay]

i bought the CD and just recorded to 320kbps mp3 each track manually via Audio Hijack and iTunes. sounds better than AAC anyways.

i'm not so much concerned with the whole concept of "selling out", if they did or didn't i don't really care - i like their music and tend to agree with their politics. Some will say "selling out has alot to do with their politics" and to them i say Get a F*King life, no one is perfect - stop criticizing people you don't even know.

Hello Nasty was my favorite album because i really felt that they grew sonically on that album. I like this album alot, very raw, with chunk loads of wit.

 

[yog-sothoth]

beastie boys

Hey, I've been listening to bb since aroud 1985, they were a hardcore band (back in the regean era) and they were awsome.

Then they released licensed to ill. The only good thing on that album was Kery King from slayer playing guitar.

Then Paul's boutique (very good album), then Watch your head (very good too), then Ill Communication (all right, the tour was awesome).

Then, I don't know, I stopped listening to them. Like they have nothing new to offer anymore.

I always though that these guys (being buddhist and all) would never have sold out. Being an artist, with lots of money, I would never agree to have my cd released with copy protection software/spyware on it. UNLESS the record company have me by the balls with some sort of contract (which might be the case here, who knows).


As for ripping from vynils:
Plug your table in an amplifier that has a table in. (table out is not 0db)
Then take the tape out and plug it in your sound card in. (usually tape out is 0db).
Then just use a software that can record from line in.
Then apply some audio filter (this is where I like my windows box *ONLY TIME*) using sonic foundry software (Sound Forge).
Then I cut the big mp3 track into smaller tracks (song) using sonic vegas video editor (it do audio only, not just video).

And a couple of hours later, I have my vynils on mp3 and the quality ain't that bad.

 

[Trekkie]

I've pretty much stopped listening to the radio all together. I can't stand all the DJ's and the commmercials. Some stations, they play like one song an hour. My iPod is my hero!

XM Radio baby. No DJs on the stations I listen too, just music, music, music with the occasional station ID between them.

 

[beeshlight]

Actually I don't even watch MTV, because I can't stand it. Nor do I listen to mainstream radio with the exception of morning shows.

you're username is the call letters for the biggest mainstream rock station in the d.c. area...99.1 is worthless.

 

[str8edge]

So much for Copy Controlled

I just bought the "limited edition" version of the disc in Regina, Sask, Canada. There is a big Copy Controled logo on the back. Time to see there is any "alternative" to Mac OS/ Windows that will allow me to extract the music. Solaris has worked in the past.

David

This time it was Linux & k3b that worked. I have a CDRW with "to the 5 bouroughs". In Canada I'm legally allowed under our fair use laws to make a backup.

 

[whfsdude]

you're username is the call letters for the biggest mainstream rock station in the d.c. area...99.1 is worthless.

It's an old username. ....And HFS used to be pretty cool about 4/5 years ago before infinity started messing with it.

 

[eobanb]

Uh...

Okay, if you bought To The 5 on vinyl solely to avoid copy protection, you're, frankly, a complete idiot.

Mac OS X has no autorun mechanism. There's no way for them to stop you from copying tracks. This only applies to Windows and Mac OS 9, if you have autorun turned on.

--Eoban

 

[Longtooth]

FUD

US & UK issues of this cd don't have the "protection". Sounds like EMI just wants to stifle the very lucrative eastern pirates. So I guess we can all relax.
DHR

Bull. It's on both the US and UK versions.

I don't know if you're someone hired by the RIAA, someone in the RIAA, or just spreading lies. Either way, please stop.

And don't tell us to relax. This is such a large load of crap its not possible to 'relax' over it. Installing SPYWARE onto an unsuspecting user's machine is wrong.

Also, no, it doesn't affect OS X, and only affects OS 9 if you have Autoplay enabled.

 

[mkrishnan]

Also, no, it doesn't affect OS X, and only affects OS 9 if you have Autoplay enabled.

Has anyone who, ermm, got *infected* by this been able to figure out what files are installed and where?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

i bought the CD and just recorded to 320kbps mp3 each track manually via Audio Hijack and iTunes. sounds better than AAC anyways.

i'm not so much concerned with the whole concept of "selling out", if they did or didn't i don't really care - i like their music and tend to agree with their politics. Some will say "selling out has alot to do with their politics" and to them i say Get a F*King life, no one is perfect - stop criticizing people you don't even know.

Hello Nasty was my favorite album because i really felt that they grew sonically on that album. I like this album alot, very raw, with chunk loads of wit.

Why don't you try ripping to 320 kbps AAC? I'd bet that sounds just as good as 320 kbps MP3, if not better. I've never encoded anything at that high of a bitrate, but I'm just passing on what I know about AAC vs. MP3 at the same bitrate.

 

[unapucker]

off the topic, but cont. the conversation

Wow. You must be really young. I'm 28 and remember the beginning of hip-hop coming to the main-stream. B-Boys played a huge part of that. This is a group that defines the word "original" in terms of lyrics and music, especially for paul's boutique, check your head, and ill communication. If you call these guys a "record company" band I can only imagine that you have listened to too much insane clown possee and think anyone who doesn't wear a mask or put on make-up is a "sell-out". Don't feel bad not understanding why so many people like them, you'll get it when you stop basing your music taste on mtv.
DHR

The novelty of both Beastie Boys and Insane Clown Posse is a many reason for platinum selling records. However, I disagree with the "beginning of hip-hop coming to the main-stream, B-Boys played a huge part of that. This is a group that defines the word "original" They played a part but, I personally believe it was before their time. But I respect your viewpoint. LL COOL J, TOO SHORT, BIG DADDY KANE, Blowfly, Pete DJ Jones, Kool DJ Herc, DJ Hollywood, Eddie Cheeba, "Love Bug" Starski, Grand Master Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC. What you all think?

 

[cheekyspanky]

Just to let you know, the new Avril Lavigne album installs stuff when you put it in the computer for the first time, I have a PC so I don't know if this applies to Mac's.

After it installed whatever it installed - without asking my permission, I opened iTunes and it seemed to work fine except half the tracks were 10 seconds long with one 13 minutes track. I swapped the disc to a different drive and the song lengths then became their normal lengths and I could import all but one song. The last song would import until 2 seconds before it was finished, then iTunes would crash. I tried importing the last track into Windows Media Player 9 and it encountered the same error.

Finally with one last attempt to get the last track onto my iPod, i held shift as I put the cd in, and low and behold, it worked fine.

So they are putting this stuff onto UK copies as well.

 

[crenz]

i bought the CD and just recorded to 320kbps mp3 each track manually via Audio Hijack and iTunes. sounds better than AAC anyways.

Uh, doesn't make sense to me. Why not just rip it losslessly, using FLAC or Apple's lossless encoder?

Apart from that, can any of the American buyers please sue them? I'm sure it is illegal to install software on a computer like that without giving a choice to the consumer.

 

[MacFan26]

Just to let you know, the new Avril Lavigne album installs stuff when you put it in the computer for the first time, I have a PC so I don't know if this applies to Mac's.

That's not cool. Do you know if it really installs something? or just won't work when you try to import it?

 

[cheekyspanky]

Im pretty sure it installed something, I put the cd in, turned around and picked up my iPod, turned back, and on the screen was the installation bar (the thing that goes from left to right with a percentage figure showing how much has been installed).

Now when i put the cd in a proprietary player pops up and the cd plays via that, so that must be what was intalled, and at the same time something that messes up the cd when you try and play it with iTunes and Windows Media Player.

 

[etoiles]

Bull. It's on both the US and UK versions.

I don't know if you're someone hired by the RIAA, someone in the RIAA, or just spreading lies. Either way, please stop.

And don't tell us to relax. This is such a large load of crap its not possible to 'relax' over it. Installing SPYWARE onto an unsuspecting user's machine is wrong.

Also, no, it doesn't affect OS X, and only affects OS 9 if you have Autoplay enabled.

I just ripped the US version using iTunes and it worked fine. But so far I can't see any signs of spyware either...(windows 2K).

 

[Abstract]

What I don't understand is what these CopyProtected CDs are supposed to do? I'm in Oz right now and bought the BBoys album, and the big Copy Protected logo is on the back, but I have had no problems ripping it or listening to them. I haven't tried moving these tracks to another computer, but could that prove to be a problem?
How do you recognize that your ripped tracks are a bit dodgy? Also, how can the CD install software on my Mac when a password is required to do so? Sorry, but none of this makes sense to me unless someone can actually find these installed files and show that they can't play their mp3s under all circumstances.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

What I don't understand is what these CopyProtected CDs are supposed to do? I'm in Oz right now and bought the BBoys album, and the big Copy Protected logo is on the back, but I have had no problems ripping it or listening to them. I haven't tried moving these tracks to another computer, but could that prove to be a problem?
How do you recognize that your ripped tracks are a bit dodgy? Also, how can the CD install software on my Mac when a password is required to do so? Sorry, but none of this makes sense to me unless someone can actually find these installed files and show that they can't play their mp3s under all circumstances.

There are a few different things at issue here.
The CD specification includes error correction.
The BB's album lacks this error correction and includes errors intentionally. The idea being that computers are "too smart" and will try to error correct and won't be able to read the CD's. There was actually a version of iMac's that would hang viscously and refuse to eject. (patched I believe) These CD's are also notoriously flakey in car CD players and may not work in them since well, bumps in the road cause errors.

People claim to hear pops and some hiss from this.

The second issue mentioned with Avril Levine CD is that there is a windows installer of some sort on the CD and it apparently does some crippling on windows machines.

AutoPlay is *BAD* *BAD* *BAD* Turn it off. Just say no.

Honestly I am surprised the RIAA hasn't launched an autoplay worm that corrupts cd-r drivers to install itself on every audio CD burned. Hey they could even put it out on the P2P networks as a utility to hide your IP address from the RIAA search engines, (which it would do...)

 

[broken_keyboard]

What I don't understand is what these CopyProtected CDs are supposed to do?

One of my CDs (Sarah McLachlan, Afterglow) installed copy protection on my Windows box. It installs a "filter driver" on the CD-ROM drive so that when you try to rip it comes out all fuzzy. You would know if one of these things had been installed on your system - it is quite obvious. A quick Internet search revealed the necessary registry edits to remove it, but it still leaves an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

The same CD on my Mac OS 10.3 box did not install any copy protection, and works just fine.

If anyone has a CD where they have messed with the error correction bits, there is a checkbox in the iTunes importing which may interest you...

 

[takao]

when i'm buying a cd and see it has not the official CD-Audio logo on it or a copyprotected message than i'm not gonna buy it.period.

the chance of them not working a in a car radio/normal cd-player is too high for me....

 

[adamjay]

Uh, doesn't make sense to me. Why not just rip it losslessly, using FLAC or Apple's lossless encoder?

audio hijack is extremely lossless, it records the digital output of any particular application you specify... it can even record 24 bit, not to mention can use VST FX, and can record uncompressed to .aiff. Its a pro audio application.

my car's mp3 stereo won't play a disk full of .aac's as data - but it will play 700MB's of MP3's
and i prefer MP3 as it will play on my Archos mp3 player.

make sense now?

 

[decksnap]

If this is the same protection scheme that I read about a while back, it will only work on PCs and possibly OS9, but not OS X. They say on a PC all you have to do to get past it is hold down the shift key while inserting the disk. You then have to either rip it and be done with it, or hold down the shift key every time you put it in to avoid the sneeky little software install. I wonder though, would it not also be possible to locate 'track 1' visually on the underside of the disk and put a piece of tape over it? I've seen this done to bypass other types of things on discs.

 

[MacNut]

If this is true, Does Apple or Microsoft have legal grounds to sue the RIAA?

 

[adamjay]

i think the fact that there are ways to get around copy protection... just shows that its a futile attempt to control us to begin with. since it doesn't really protect against copying, but rather just detours - its more of an annoyance. they aren't saving any money really - just pissing us off. the general public is annoyed enough with the RIAA... what are they really trying to accomplish here?