US music lovers are fuming about copy-protected CDs but in the UK they are rare. Is it because the record labels trust us - or fear us?
If you only read blogs, you could have believed that last November all CD buyers were convulsed with fury over Sony BMG’s use of copy-protection software to prevent people ripping some 50-odd CDs - from internationally known artists such as Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys and Santana - to MP3s. True, some bloggers were, but in the UK it was a non-issue: none of the CDs issued here had the software.
So while American bloggers examined the XCP software, written by the Oxford-based First4Internet, which covertly installed files deep in the Windows operating system if the CD was played on a PC, UK buyers could safely ignore it. Every new revelation - that XCP could open security holes on PCs where it was installed, that Microsoft classed it as “spyware”, that Sony BMG was offering replacement CDs - made no difference in the UK.
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