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Copy protection issues with the tour edition RotD?
We’ve gotten a report from Reinder Dijkhuis regarding the European tour edition of Rapture Of The Deep — according to the package labelling, it apparently won’t play in PCs:
Consumer warning to continental European Deep Purple fans: Do not buy the Tour Edition of Rapture of the Deep!
Even though I already own a copy on vinyl, I’d been eagerly awaiting the Tour Edition of Deep Purple’s Rapture of the Deep, because there’s a whole CD full of bonus material including several live tracks. (BTW, I’ve warmed a lot to the record since my initial review.) Today, I finally saw it in the shops, but as I was waiting in line at the checkout, I noticed a “Copy
Protected – Not Playable On PC” on the back, with a logo that I hadn’t seen before, so I put it back.80% of all my music listening is done on either the iBook or the home PC, which means that the “Copy Protection” (assuming it works at all) reduces the value of that bonus CD from € 19.90 (the price at which I was willing to buy it before noticing the logo) to € 4. And that assumes that the “Copy Protection” doesn’t affect playback on my DVD player or Diskman (which “Copy Protection” CDs invariably does in my experience), and that it isn’t some sort of rootkit-based crap that would try to compromise my computers (they’re likely to be immune but who knows), which would give the disc a negative value. So back into the bins it goes, and I’m warning
Deep Purple fans in continental Europe to be very cautious with this disk, and when in doubt, not to buy it. Does anyone know if the UK edition is clean?
You can read his complete article (and any further updates) at his blog: http://rocr.xepher.net/weblog/archives/001493.html
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Quick first comment: in my blog post, I deliberately expressed myself a little more contentiously than I normally do. The “Copy Protection” may be completely harmless and ineffective, or it may be very damaging. If it does exactly what it said on the label, it will simply make the CD unplayable on a PC. These things can be worked around although I don’t think that as consumers we should have to. I used the monetary value calculation as a handy means to quantify how much my use of a CD with “copy protection” could be affected. Experience tells me that I can sometimes be persuaded to buy a CD with weak copy protection if the price is lower (eg the 30th Anniversary edition of Burn – I bought that when it went midprice and, er, copied it to my iBook).
Right now, I think we all need answers to these four questions:
1) How bad is the “Copy Protection”? Is it like the weak “Copy Protection” used on Burn in Continental Europe? Is it comparable to the rootkit software used by Sony (which allowed WMA content from the CDs to be played on a PC but installed spyware on any PC it was played on)? Or somewhere inbetween?
2) Does the “Copy Protection” affect non-PC CD players such as car stereos, Discmen, or DVD players. I don’t have a car stereo but CDs with even weak “Copy Protection” show problems in my old Discman and my cheap DVD player.
3) What computers are affected? It said on the label “Not playable on PC”? Do they mean all Intel-based computers, all personal computers including Macs from before the switch to Intel or only Intel-based PCs running Windows? My iBook mounted “Burn” without any problems.
4) Is the UK edition free from “Copy Protection”? They often are, I’ve noticed. If so, I would strongly recommend ordering it from Amazon instead of buying the continental edition in the shops.
Anyone who owns a copy of the Tour Edition bought in the Netherlands or Germany (or any areas where the “Copy Protection” applies), please reply. I’d also like a scan of the warning label to post on the blog. Thanks!
March 8th, 2006 at 05:55Hi all, I got my copy in Milan last week whilst out there for the Purple show. It plays fine in my car and on my IBM T42 Thinkpad notebook as well as my Dell workstation at home. It is the generic continental European release and features the copy protection logo. I’ve not tried ripping it to my iPOD but will do so and report back.
Don’t know if this helps but I’ve had no problems with it. It’s also well worth picking up.
Cheers for now,
Mash
March 8th, 2006 at 10:36hi there,
March 8th, 2006 at 10:59i have several cd with copy protection, which don’t work on my pc nor in my car’s cd-player. that makes me very angry indeed. but the tour edition is running as well on the pc as in my car, don’t know why…
maybe it helps you a little bit.
Hi fellas,
I´ve got the German edition of ROTD Tour Edition, complete with the “copy protected” symbol, and haven´t experienced any troubles at all. I can use the disc in my computer and I have transferred it into my Sony mp3 player using their Sonic stage program as well. So, no problems at all with a record well worth having (and of course listening to!).
Rock on!
Larry
March 8th, 2006 at 13:18I have the european version of the limted touredition (DigiPak). With the copy protection logo. It works also on my PC.
But the live tracks on CD 2 have some very silent crackles like a vinyl-longplayer. Best to hear on the first 10 seconds of “Rapture Of The Deep (Live)”.
These crackles are also to be heard if I play it on my normal HiFi-Device.
I think that is a problem caused by the copy-protecction.
This would by a pity.
Karl-Heinz
March 8th, 2006 at 15:48Hi, I’ve put off buying ROTD and downloaded it instead because my copy of Bananas sounded like crap, completely distorted. The shop wouldn’t take it back, either… The production couldn’t have been _that_ bad, even though I’ve heard many complaints about this being the case, my theory is that they’re using a violation of the CD Red Book standard (the specification on how a CD should be made) which is popular among the idiot record labels: they simply introduce so much random bits on the CD that it becomes near unplayable, so the PC won’t recognise the disc as a CD (which it technically isn’t). “Real” CD players (i.e clunky deck players) will (usually) play the disc because of all the oversampling they perform.
I’d really like to ROTD, especially the tour edition, but I think I’ll pass and download a bootleg instead… (and spend my money on a DPAS disc instead).
March 8th, 2006 at 17:04I bought the European Tour edition. I had no problems because of the protection. But I only checked CD2 in my car player and computer. CD1 had no problems in the car but was not checked in the computer.
March 9th, 2006 at 07:14I hope it helps.
Plays fine on my Mac (G5 and iBook), no problem copying to iTunes and to my iPod! yes, the copyright protected logi is there on my Tiur edition, it won’t copy on a 1:1 basis but other than that: it plays fine, rips OK to iTunes/iPod, so don’t worry, just buy 🙂
March 9th, 2006 at 08:17For me both CDs work fine on my MP3 CD walkman and PC too, though I think that the sound is a little crappy and distorted. Maybe its just my idea… I will compare it to the limited edition and will see 🙂
March 10th, 2006 at 12:44Speaking of the Sony Bmg thing, it seems they have to pay for that now: http://www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com/
March 10th, 2006 at 12:53The CD’s works fine for me as well. I can play them on my PC and rip them as well. Can’t find any copyprotection on them.
Take care
March 12th, 2006 at 05:07Benny Holmstrom
Hmmm.
March 13th, 2006 at 05:49I bought the German tour edition and I’ve no problem with my Panasonic player. But I think producing such protected CDs is a hysteria. Don’t exaggerate. The more random bits, the more pirates will be. Heimdall is right.
I’ve heard some problems exist with the crackling on some of the live tracks. This has been reported on my site by some of my members. The guess is that correctring this problem is what has pushed the other release date back to June. I ordered mine from the Amazon link here on the Highway Star and I haven’t received mine yet, although the order form says to expect it in early April. I guess I’ll be getting the European copy of this. I sure hope it’s not in a “digipak”. I hate those things! Jewel cases PLEASE! I’ll report on what my experience is with it when it arrives.
Brent
PS… Hello to all the Hub members out there!!!
March 14th, 2006 at 10:37I haven’t heard nor bought that European Rapture of the Deep live cd. But there is distortion on the studio album; Rapture of the Deep, its not as bad as on Bananas, but still annoying!
March 15th, 2006 at 10:56There were no distortion with Purpendicular and Abandon, the sound on those albums sounds really good!
When playing Bananas on a dvd player with digital sound cable connected to a receiver, the distortion is even worse! Probably because a digital sound system discloses all of the distortion, while a analog sound system doesn’t.
By the way I bought the Whitesnake dvd; In the still of the Night, its awesome!!! It got superb DTS sound. It was great to hear and watch year 2005 live versions of Burn and Stormbringer, I’ve only heard live version from the 1970’s. Whitesnake of 2005 sounded really like DP Mark3! Coverdale is cooler than Gillan, more rockn’ roll!
Thanks all for your comments. Since it looks like the “Copy Protection” doesn’t actually do anything, I have bought the CD and updated my post, withdrawing the “Consumer Warning”. Why Edel would waste money on a “Copy Protection” scheme that does nothing is beyond my comprehension, but that’s the music industry for ya.
March 22nd, 2006 at 08:49Why do people even want to buy a Morse era CD? hehehe
May 26th, 2006 at 13:13