Alien Invasion! – Arista Releases “Secure Digital” CD

Since customers said “bite it” when labels released encrypted CDs that simply couldn’t be copied, this latest attempt at control can be copied but not uploaded to the Internet. I wonder how R&B singer Anthony Hamilton got to be the guinea pig:

The disc has two sets of music tracks: one set of “encrypted” songs that can be handled by CD players but cannot be ripped on computers, and a duplicate set of tracks in the Windows Media format. These can be downloaded from the CD to a computer and then transferred to portable devices or recorded to home CDs.

But these “secure digital” tracks cannot be played on another computer should they be uploaded to the Net. “The whole concept was to create a legally licensed structure” for computer use of recorded music, says William Whitmore of SunnComm, which designed the anti-copy technology.

….Record labels are hoping this CD will prove more acceptable because it lets fans use music with their own devices and share with friends, but not with millions of others, says Nathaniel Brown of BMG, which distributes albums on the Arista label. “This is the first generation that allows the kind of personal use that we have deemed appropriate,” he says.

….Many Net swappers “think it is their God-given right to steal music,” Whitmore says. “They don’t know any better. We have to teach them.” [USA Today]

What outrageously arrogant pricks: “we have deemed appropriate,” and “They don’t know any better. We have to teach them.”

The customer will “deem” to you, you clueless imperious coxcomb, whether it is appropriate to waste money on this crippled product. And I think it unlikely that anyone needs to be “taught” that the record labels don’t want people to share music – they just don’t agree that it’s “stealing,” you wishful pud.