Quakester2000 and GristyMcFisty both used our news submit to tell us that last year, AIX and Linux administrator Michael Ellerman sent an e-mail to EMI Australia. He wanted to let them know he was not able to play his copy of the Massive Attack 100th Window CD, in his CD-Player, or on his Linux box it would only play on a Windows PC. Finally, a year later, EMI Australia has responded to his email.

EMI's Australian operation has admitted that its CD copy protection system has resulted in "compatibility issues" since it began using the technology in November 2002. "We have been advised from our parent company that an updated version of the Copy Control software will be available in April 2004 and believe that this version addresses most, if not all, of the incompatibility issues that have been raised in relation to earlier versions," the company wrote.

The reply went on to say they appreciated his patience and were going to find a copy of the CD from another EMI facility. EMI felt this new copy would resolve the compatability issues. Although Mr. Ellerman was surprised and happy that EMI responded at all, he said it was a year later and in his line of work, customers would not have found this acceptable service.

Some believe that EMI's protection system works by introducing errors in the music encoded as data on the disc. The theory is that a typical CD player should have a good enough error correction mechanism to play at a reasonable quality anyway. On the other hand, PC-based CD drives are not supposed to accept these artificially induced errors and thus refuse to play or rip the discs. However, according to Mr. Ellerman, that was the only way he could listen to this particular album.

Further helpful information about audio CD protections can be found in our Audio Forum .

Source: The Register