Copy Protection Nonsense

I will admit it - I like buying CDs. I like having the sense of owning the music that I really like and supporting the artists (even if most of the money doesn't go to them). Yesterday I was at the store and saw Radiohead's Hail To The Theif. I had heard a great deal of good about this album, so I thought that I would get it.

Then I saw it - The Copy Protection logo.

I looked on the back and saw the system requirements. It said it would play on regular CD players and Windows and Macs. If I hadn't heard anything about copy protection before I would have been fooled and would have bought the album right then. However, I have heard what it's all about. The information on the "CD" doesn't tell you that you wont be able to copy it on to your computer for listening any time or making mix CDs for your own use. It doesn't tell you that you can't put the music on any portable digital music players. It doesn't tell you that you can't play it in your favorite CD player/MP3 software - you have to play it in their own crappy proprietary client.

This is incredibly confusing for uninformed customers. It looks like a CD to them and it is mixed in with all the other CDs in the store, but it doesn't behave like a real CD. These Copy Controlled discs should be in their own section with a big warning sign telling you all about them.

Furthermore, the whole idea behind these copy controlled discs is absolutely absurd to begin with. With this method you are actually punishing those who are willing to buy your product! Unless they think they can get rid of all copies of the music on P2P services, it wont work. Those who wont buy the album will still download it - copy protecting CDs isn't stopping it. The only thing copy protecting CDs does is it makes your customers really angry.

I do the majority of my listening on the computer or my iPod and I like all my music in one program (iTunes). If they wont let me do this, I wont buy it! It's as simple as that! Furthermore, I might even download the whole album because of this. They would have had a customer if they didn't limit how I could listen to the music. Instead they lost a customer. I have a feeling that this will happen more and more as customers begin to realize what copy protection means and MP3 players become more prolific. The record companies should be rewarding those who buy the music! They wont be able to cut off the source of file sharing in this way, since there will always be a way to copy the music (even if it is by hooking up your stereo to your computer).

I want to pay money and listen to the CD. Why am I being denied this? It's a shame that they lost my money. Is it too much to ask to be treated like a customer instead of a criminal?