"BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products." By John Lettice. [Register]

News brief and reader discussion. [Slashdot]

"AOL Time Warner is beginning efforts to add copy protection to CDs, underscoring the company's desire to limit unsanctioned digital distribution of its musical works." By Jim Hu. [CNet]

"Heightening the tension surrounding the music industry's efforts to guard its content in the digital realm, the five major record labels were hit with a class action lawsuit last week for producing and distributing CDs with copyright protection controls." By Scarlet Pruitt. [IDG]

"Sony has released Celine Dion's latest album with some software that will crash your computer if you place it in your drive." News and reader discussion. [Plastic]

Virgin Megastores has responded to a complaint from one of their customers and said that BMG has set up a helpline to allow people who bought the corrupt version, to exchange it for a real one. Virgin and HMV will also be bringing in new stock of uncorrupted CDs. [Slashdot]

"The Register has a new story about claims by Bertelsmann that they'll stop manufacturing uncrippled audio CDs." News and reader comments. [Slashdot]

"Bertelsmann Music Group has had to back down on plans to force anti-rip technologies on British CD buyers." By Tony Smith. [Register]

"To thwart file swappers, Universal Music Group executives have said they want to protect a large proportion of their new releases as early as midyear." News and reader discussion. [kuro5hin]

Articles, documents, research, leaflets, and list of "known bad" CDs in Europe.

How Macrovision's SafeAudio works and how to bypass it.

"The recording industry has begun selling music CD's designed to make it impossible for people to copy music to their computers, trade songs over the Internet or transfer them to portable MP3 players." By Amy Harmon. [New York Times]

"Consumers in ordinary record stores are unwittingly buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage the making of digital copies."

"Makers of a recording by country-pop singer Charley Pride have agreed to stop tracking most listener habits and to warn consumers that the CD is not compatible with MP3 and other players, according to attorneys for a woman who sued the companies." By Lisa Bowman. [CNet]

"The downside of copy-protected music CDs? Some won't play when consumers get them home." By Aaron Pressman. [Christian Science Monitor]

"The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, according to a computer scientist who has put today's antipiracy systems under the microscope." By Barry Fox. [New Scientist]

Reader comments on New Scientist article. [Slashdot]

"Blaming a falloff in CD sales on the popularity of CD burners, BMG Germany recently issued approximately 100,000 copy-protected discs in an attempt to thwart the problem--and had to take a substantial portion of them back because consumers said the discs wouldn't perform in car players and in some home audio systems." By Barry Willis. [Stereophile]

"Complaints about anti-copying technology on Natalie Imbruglia's latest CD force her record label to issue replacements for angry consumers." By John Borland. [CNet]

News and reader discussion. [Slashdot]

"The first copy-protected audio CD in the US will be released in April. The CD is a tribute to country singer Jim Reeves performed by Charley Pride."

"A class action lawsuit has been filed against the five major record labels for manufacturing and distributing defective or dysfunctional compact discs." News and reader discussion. [Plastic]

"New Scientist reports that the new anti-piracy feature on audio CDs, has the potential to damage loudspeakers by introducing square waves into the amplified signal." News and reader comments.

Reader discussion of Reuters article. [Slashdot]

"The five major record companies have been hit with a class-action lawsuit charging that new CDs designed to thwart Napster-style piracy are defective and should either be barred from sale or carry warning labels." [Reuters]

Community weblog discussing protected and corrupted audio cd's.

Fat Chuck's maintains a list of corrupt CDs. Reader comments and discussion. [Slashdot]

"Israeli security company Midbar Tech is releasing 1 million copy-protected CDs in Japan as part of an aggressive push by record labels to curtail digital piracy." By Gwendolyn Mariano. [ZDNet]

Retraction of article saying Cactus DataShield could damage speakers. "Midbar... has asked us to make clear that there is nothing in its technology on the market, past, current or future, that could, or would, be potentially damaging to equipment."

"The first CD title has already sold 100,000 copies, but it is causing concern among audio experts because they fear that the music may be audibly distorted."

"It is called the Cactus Data Shield, and it is designed to add noisy garbage to all copied CDs. The trouble is, it could also damage the hi-fi and loudspeakers of people who play pirated CDs."

"The music industry is now testing different copy protection systems on mass market chart CDs, with copies of NSync's Celebrity on the Zomba label being sold in at least three different versions."

Information for classical music listeners to help them identify Copy-Controlled CDs, including the graphics that appear on the packaging.

"Officials for Netherlands-based Philips, which licenses the compact disc logo for both discs and players, went on a tirade against the recording industry for shipping discs with deliberate errors burned into them." By Paul Boutin. [Wired]

"According to Philips, recent attempts to add playback restriction technology to new releases is not just a bad idea: Because the Red Book recipe has been altered, the discs no longer qualify as CDs and should be labeled clearly." By Jon Iverson. [Stereophile]

News about Celine Dion CDs killing iMacs and black markers or sticky notes defeating some "copy-protection" schemes. Reader discussion. [Slashdot]

Study suggests that, if the music industry wants to experiment with selling copy-protected CDs, "there [must] be mandatory warning labels on the CDs or the industry risks seriously alienating consumers." By Jon Iverson. [Stereophile]

"Sony's Music Entertainment division has been testing an anti-piracy technology that at best renders illegally copied CDs unlistenable and at worse blows listeners' speakers." By Tony Smith.

Skeptical report on New Scientist's retraction of its warning that Cactus could damage speakers playing copied CDs. By Tony Smith.

"One million CDs have been released in Europe which are protected by the controversial anti-piracy system Cactus Data Shield... The Cactus Data Shield system is controversial because the technology could blow your hi-fi speakers." By Robert Blincoe.

"Macrovision's SafeAudio technology, designed to prevent PC-owning music fans from ripping CD tracks onto their hard drives, has been bypassed." By Tony Smith.

"Details of the method appear in a patent filed by IFPI. The patent, GB2357165, centres on encrypting the track time codes stamped onto every music disc." By Tony Smith.

"Macrovision's SafeAudio and Midbar's Cactus - both new technologies designed to prevent CDs from being copied successfully - may have been defeated by software released over two years ago." By Tony Smith.

"Campaigners will take to the streets of Britain this Saturday (6 October) in a bid to raise public awareness of the music industry's attempts to prevent listeners from copying CDs or playing discs on PCs." By Tony Smith.

"An unnamed Californian woman has sued US country music record label Fahrenheit Entertainment for allegedly misleading its customers by shipping CDs protected with an anti-rip mechanism." By Tony Smith.

"If DVD-A and/or SACD are to supplant CD, not only do their features have to be transformed into benefits, but the benefits consumers currently enjoy with CD need to be preserved." By John Atkinson. [Stereophile]

Reader comments on The Age article reporting that some radio stations are unable to play copy-protected CDs.

"BMG-Entertainment started selling audio-CDs using the Cactus Data Shield, a copy-protection system developed by Midbar and Sonopress which makes it impossible to grab the music from the CD and to listen to it using 'an old CD-Player' or a CD-ROM-drive." News and reader comments.

"NSync's new CD will be released in a least 3 different versions (with different copy protection techniques)." News and reader comments.

"Celine Dion's latest CD will not play in computer drives. In fact: 'Should the consumer try to play Dion's CD on a PC or Macintosh, the computer likely will crash.'" News and reader discussion. [Slashdot]

"Universal Music Group has recently announced it's October plans for issuing CDs which will include software that prevents them from being ripped and encoded to a user's PC."

"How the labels are trying to stop you." [Rolling Stone]

Article pointing out that music companies which use copy protection may be denying the artists under contract to them legitimate play time on radio stations.

Copy protection tracks implanted in CDs are a violation of the right to fair use of purchased music, writes a US Representative to recording industry lobbyists.

"[BMG Germany] was faced with a backlash from consumers complaining that some of the copy-protected CDs were unplayable."