Craig Matusinski posted this in the latest issue of the Detritus hardrock e-newsletter:
“Well, I guess it had to happen, but I’m still shocked. It’s no longer
just the thoroughly evil major labels fucking over consumers with this
new CD copy protection scheme. One of our little melodic rock labels,
newbie Atenzia Records, has decided to use it on their first three
releases. Now I understand that the label wants to make as much money
as possible, so they need people to pay for the music they put out,
but this is simply not the answer, no matter what kind of bogus spin
they might want to put on it.
“Let’s think about this logically for a second. What exactly does copy
protecting these CDs accomplish? Well it accomplishes two things…it
pisses off consumers, and it inconveniences them, by making it
difficult for them to legitimately use and enjoy the music they’ve
paid for. I, like many other people, own a portable MP3 player, which
I like to fill with the MP3s of all the new albums I buy. In theory,
this copy protection crap would mean I’d be the proud owner of a $300
paperweight, but more on that later. The most important, completely
unacceptable, and infuriating thing about this, is that the copy
protection prevents me from listening to the CD on my computer. I
listen to every CD I buy on a computer at some point, and when I am
shelling out my money on a disc, I expect to be able to play it at any
time I want in any player I want, and anything that prevents me from
doing that means owning the disc is useless to me. This is where
Atenzia has been completely idiotic. If the people at the label had
stopped to think about their target market, I can’t imagine how they
would have thought this was a good idea. How do the European melodic
rock labels, like Atenzia, move most of their product? Why, through
on-line shops, of course! And how does, what, 98% of the promotion of
their discs get out to people? Over mailing lists, e-zines, and Web
sites! So, knowing both of those things, do you think it might be
possible that the label’s already very small target audience might use
computers a lot and would want to listen to their discs on their CD
drive??
“And now the real kicker to all this…the copy protection doesn’t even
work! People have already cracked it for the Atenzia releases and
ripped them to MP3! The people who want to pirate it are still going
to. And yes, that means I could still rip it and put it on my MP3
player, but I still have to go through the hassle of the cracking
process (which I won’t get into here, but pretty much everyone has
already heard about the easiest way). And as for the releases not
playing on computers, well, it’s hit and miss…some people can play
them fine, while others, like a friend of mine, have the CD lock up
their drive and give them a lot of trouble actually managing to get
the thing back out.
“I spend a lot of money on releases by the melodic rock labels, and I
certainly would have spent a sizable portion of that money on releases
by Atenzia…”would have” being the operative words here. There is no
way I will ever spend a cent on one of their releases now. I know I
won’t be the only one, either, as I’ve already heard many people in
the melodic rock circles say the very same thing. The copy protection
is easily circumvented, and isn’t stopping *anyone* who wants to
pirate it from doing so, but it sure as hell is making things a major
hassle and pretty annoying for people who actually spend their money
on the release. So much so, that the incentive and value of plunking
down the cash to purchase such a CD is completely eliminated.”
