Link: Copy-protected CDs iPod-incompatible but sell well.
Can a CD be incompatible with a device that doesn’t play CDs? (FYI iPods don’t have CD drives.)
The real issue is that the copy protection for these discs uses Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio (WMA) format and its DRM and Apple’s iTunes software and iPod devices don’t support WMA.
From online discussions some details become clear, at least to the extent that you can believe what you read on the Internet. I don’t have any of the CDs mentioned in the story so I can’t corroborate but it has been said that the CDs in question can be played and can be ripped into iTunes and downloaded to an iPod on any Mac OS X machine. The copy protection is apparently not Mac OS X compatible. Further the copy protection scheme apparently depends on Windows AutoPlay. (This implies that the copy protected discs are hybrids, supporting both CD Audio and data.) When a data CD is mounted and AutoPlay is enabled, Windows looks for and runs a file named autoplay.inf. The autoplay.inf on the copy protected CDs reportedly instructs Windows to silently install software that enforces access to the music content as WMA files only.
Apple’s FairPlay DRM, contrary to the article, is not at issue. At least not in terms of blocking the use of certain CDs. The sub-text behind the story is the titanic struggle between Apple and Microsoft and others for control of digital media formats.
The headline seems so tailored to Microsoft’s “Play for Sure” campaign that it makes one wonder if there was intent to create anti-iPod FUD.
It’s far more likely that the reporter simply wasn’t savvy about the subject. As the saying goes “Never attribute to malice…”
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