More actual enduser reviews of MediaMax DRM on the Velvet Revolver album
* This is not an Audio CD., June 18, 2004
Reviewer: johnny50000 (see more about me) from Minneapolis, MN
First off, this is not an "audio CD" as defined by Philips 2 decades ago. Philps denounces these discs, as they do not adhere to the standard "Compact Disc Digital Audio" specification due to their copy protection mechanism. It's too bad Amazon doesn't tell you that anywhere in the description. I would call that false advertising.
That said... CDs don't last forever. Unless I leave it in my car stereo 100% of the time, it's going to get pulled out and put back into its sleeve hundreds of times, and it's going to get scuffed up, and maybe scratched, and eventually it'll be unreadable. Even if I'm as careful as I can be. That's why I don't carry any original CDs in my car - only backups. I leave the original in the house, in its jewel case, where it's safe. But here's a CD that I can't back up. Does that mean I'm supposed to pay for a second copy? I don't think so, since I supposedly bought a "license" for the music on the disc. But does that mean the license is worn out with the disc? Or not? If it's a license I bought, then I should be able to play it on my iPod/Walkman/Computer - not just my dedicated CD player. And if it's a license, I should be able to turn in my old, worn out piece of plastic for a new one, because after all, the plastic isn't what I paid for - the license is. The record companies need to figure out what they're selling before I'm going to buy any more music from them. If I could just give an artist $10 to be able to listen to their songs wherever I wanted, I would do it in a heartbeat. But if this CD is any sign of things to come, then music as I knew it is dead. I will be returning my copy for a full refund, as this is not a music CD as advertised. And I'll just download it from a P2P network somewhere, and now the artists don't get any of my money. Now I've spent all my words talking about corporate greed & monopolistic behaviors. What a shame. I do think it's a descent Rock CD.
Amazon.com review
* The music doesn't matter..., June 18, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from St. Louis, MO
The music doesn't matter if you can't play the CD. This *PRODUCT* is more than just the music, but the delivery mechanism, too. (As well as cover art and other package contents). The delivery mechanism sucks, and Amazon wasn't even nice enough to warn their customers about it. I'm returning mine -- it's obviously a defective CD (and it was sold as a CD, not a CD-like medium).
Amazon.com review
***** Works on Mac, not PC, June 17, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from New York, NY United States
My PC doesn't recognize the disc, as others have said. However, it works fine when I put it in my Mac (a PowerBook). Hope this helps.
Amazon.com review
* Will not play on my computer, June 17, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from Los Angeles, CA
This CD won't play on my PC. So I don't even know if the music is good or not.
Amazon.com review
**** Good Music, but the CD is worthless, June 17, 2004
Reviewer: XY Boy (see more about me) from USA
The 4 stars are for the music. THe CD itself gets a 1-star rating. It seems that RCA must have a bunch of technically incompetent engineers on staff: they made a CD that can't be played in over half of today's normal use-modes.
Also, The LP version of "Contraband" sounds better than the CD does on a good playback system. The LP was mastered by an engineer at one of the old prestige labs that used to do "audiophile" discs. The CD sounds like it was mastered by a trainee.
The CD won't play at all on any computer that runs Windows, or a Windows media player. I'm have not used the CD in (so I am not not sure about) the Apple-OS, or other Operating Systems.
There is no problem playing the CD in a home or car stareo, or on CD-walkman like device. But who wants to do that anymore? Just download a song you like, on MP3 and use it on your MP3 players. It's a lot less expensive too: $0.59--0.99 per song, instead of $14 for a 13-song CD. If the Record companies are going to put out useless CD's, then I think fans should totally boycott the record companies, and just pay the artists for their music.
Amazon.com review
* AGING HASBEENS SELL OUT FANS, TO CORPRATE COPYPROTECTION, June 17, 2004
Reviewer: getlivin from STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS
I buy any other album I can make a copy on my MP3 player. Listen to while at the beach. On cassette & play in my car. That is not stealing. I can't play this on my PC at work.
There is a list of approved portable MP3 Player that are allowed to play this album. I own a Yepp, an Archos niether are approved. IPODS are not approved. Part of the copy protection will not let you rip MP3 it will rip WMA windows media file. Bill gates will descide which MP3 player he will sell enconding to. Right now that does not include Apple. If you want this on IPOD you will have to buy it from ITUNES.
Uniteligent medicated artist have figured out a way to make Bill Gates even more wealthy.
This is out of control. I can't play this on my computer unless I am connected to the Internet. Your not allowed to copy. We are at an important point in the digital age. Buying this or any copy protected CD is sleeping with the enemy.
I bought and paid for my cd why are you applying copy protection on my stuff? I should be able to listen to MY CD anywhere and anyhow I CHOOSE and not have to license (Pay for the same thing three times)or ask Bill Gates which MP3 player to buy. Spend your energy figuring out how to protect your material some other way. It's the knuckleheads on ITUNES & other online delivery systems that you need to worry about. What's next? Give you $5.00 for every DVD player I put my DVD movie into?
All this so Scott Weiland can get his balloon of cheese and Bill Gates begin another monopoly. The CD is average at best. Have you read this clowns lyrics, what's he talking about? One word Scotty, Methadone. GIVE IGGY BACK HIS PANTS Buffoon!
PS you can hold the shift key all you want you aren't going to be able to rip this CD. That simply doesn't work with this encryption. You can not skip tracks copy protection forces you to listen to the whole album.
There is no fast-forwarding rewinding repeating.
AT LEAST WARN US YOU HAVE DEPLOYED THIS COPY PROTECTION SO WE CAN MAKE AN INFORMED CHOICE. LIST APPROVED MP3 PLAYERS ON CD COVER. STATE THAT YOU MUST HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO PLAY ON PC. I PERSONALLY WOULD NEVER BUY ANY CD THAT USE THIS FORM OF PROTECTION.
FIGHT THE POWER, SKIP THE SONGS YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR. QUIT MAKING BILL GATES RICHER.
Amazon.com review
* Why should I buy this?, June 11, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from Los Angeles
What's the point in buying a cd, when downloading it illegally off the internet will provide me with a product that I can actually use in the ways that I want to? Do the record companies think that this silly copy-protection is going to prevent these MP3 from being traded all over the internet? All its doing is punishing the people who actually paid for the CD. This also makes the downloadable version better and more enticing. If anything, silly copy-protection manuevers like this are only going to promote internet theft. This makes me want to download it off the internet (even though I didn't particularly like the music) and make sure that everyone I know also pirates it off me, just to protest this kind of stupidity. Didn't anyone learn from what happened to Metallica's career after Lars' Napster crusade?
Amazon.com review
* Not Compatible with Your iPod, June 10, 2004
Reviewer: Brandon Fuller from Longmont, CO USA
So I just bought the new Velvet Revolver CD. It showed up yesterday. There is a sticker on the package that says:
This CD is protected against unauthorized duplication. It is designed to play on standard playback devices and an appropriately configured computer. If you have questions or concerns visit www.sunncomm.com/support/bmg
Whatever. So I pop the CD in the computer so that I can rip it and put it on my iPod. The CD starts playing some auto play stuff and then an embedded Windows Media Player comes up in a web page and allows you to play the songs. Exit. I went into iTunes and hit Import to rip the tracks. When it finished I went to play the tracks and they were all garbled. What's going on? Guess I ought to read that web page.
So on that Sunncomm site it basically says the CD is protected. It will only allow you to play it on a computer with its technology. You cannot rip tracks from the CD. It specifically states that you cannot move the songs to an iPod because they (in so many words) don't like Apple and Apple isn't working with them so screw Apple. Huh? No, screw you. I like Apple and I just bought your music. But by the way, this album is available at the iTunes Music Store.
After doing some research, it turns out that this company is putting their copy protection on more and more CDs. This one happens to be the first one that I have bought. So now what? How does this work? Turns out that when Windows starts to auto-run the CD, it quickly installs a hidden driver on your machine that is used to garble the sound of CDs protected by this technology. So now my computer is "infected" with this driver. Some grad school student figured this out a while back and let the world know if you just hold down the shift key, Window's auto-run does not run and you have ready access to the CD. They threatened to sue him.
That solution is too late for me, I already have this installed. More research and system scans pointed me to a hidden driver on my machine called SbcpHid. You will find it in your Windows\System32\Drivers directory. So all you have to do is go into the Windows device manager, find it, stop it. Now you can rip. If you want it off your machine, you can uninstall it from there too.
While there was a sticker on the front of the CD, I found this to be very sneaky. I mean installing hidden drivers on your computer. The driver is not marked with any company name or details so you don't know what it is. The timestamp of the driver was manually adjusted so you couldn't tell that this was installed today. This sounds like most of the spyware that we are all trying to rid our computers of.
So where does that leave us? If you buy the music in a store, you can only play on these certain devices? If I would have bought this music at the iTunes music store, I am limited to what Apple wants me to do. So in this case, if I wanted a good old CD case and disc plus the music on my iPod, I would have to buy the same music 2 times according to the record company. That isn't right. Fair use law dictates it. If the industry doesn't get this figured out, we are going to be in trouble. For now, I guess you and I need to be selective about how we buy our music.
Amazon.com review
* cd will not play, June 10, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from compton, ca
this is the second velvet cd i have bought and it still will not play on certain cd players. I will return it and go with something better like 50 CENT. Borrow a friend's copy but don't waste your money people.
Amazon.com review
* what the heck?, June 9, 2004
Reviewer: bsaxman (see more about me) from Virginia
I'm in a difficult position here... this album is pretty damned great, but the artists aren't the ones preventing me from enjoying this music... RCA/BMG have decided to implement a CD Copy-protection program in this that prevents it from playing in my car cd player, and prevents me from downloading any of the tracks to my computer for archhiving or even transferring to my mp3 player... so again What the heck??? I spend good money on a CD that I can only listen to on one cd-player in my house which isn't even close to my primary listening station. I now have to wait a few weeks for some super-genius out there to crack the protection before I can really enjoy this disc... I understand the need for cracking down on piracy, but don't do it at the expense of the loyal consumer, for pete's sake I've purchased over 1,000 CD's in the last 10-12 years, its EXTREMELY inconvenient for me to have to search my storage for the right disc I want when I normally just play them from my 200GB hard drive on my PC on which I spent a metric (...)-ton of money on the sound system. so yeah, reviewing again, great music, but find a different way to get these tunes, and write your congressman or something, these greedy record execs are hurting the wrong people.
Amazon.com review
* DONT NOT BUY THIS ALBUM, June 15, 2004
Reviewer: A music fan from buffalo ny
i can NOT play this CD in my computer at work. the "digital permissions-whatever-things" wont load up, therefore, i cannot use any media player to listen to my new CD. thanks a lot. IF I PAY $15.99 FOR A CD I EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO IT WHEREEVER I GO@@AMN WANT TO. IF THE EMBEDDED ANTI PIRACY TECHNOLOGY ISN'T GOING TO WORK SEAMLESSLY THEN DON'T USE IT.
Amazon.com review
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