So what do you guys think of this (cd copy protection)

[resnullius]

By CHRIS MARLOWE - The Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES _ Celine Dion's latest release is generating heated discussions on Internet message boards. But the subject under fire is not the star's music _ it's that the CD will not play on computer CD drives.

Epic/Sony released ``A New Day Has Come'' embedded with Key2Audio copy protection in Germany and several other European countries. According to a spokeswoman for Sony Music Entertainment, it is clearly stated on the front of the booklet and on the back of the jewel box that the CD ``will not play on a PC or a Mac'' in the language of the country in which it is sold. Besides those notices, which the spokeswoman said were readable before purchased the disc itself bears the same warning.
Should the consumer try to play Dion's CD on a PC or Macintosh, the computer likely will crash.
Some fans believe that the CD is more damaging than that, however. On the German discussion boards at MacFixit, Mac users claim that the CD will not eject using normal methods and that the intentional corruption of the disc's session data could unpredictably affect the drive's firmware. (Firmware is a combination of hardware and software instructions that are permanently embedded in the hardware's controlling chips, such as with a
computer's CD-ROM, and altering it could cause permanent damage.)

Sony denied these allegations. ``The CD will probably cause a system to crash, but it will not alter anything,'' the spokeswoman said. ``And it won't eject properly, but that's just because the computer has crashed.''

``New Day'' was released in the United States on Tuesday. Industry watchers expect it to sell more than 500,000 copies by the end of its first week.

More than 10 million discs using Key2Audio CD-audio copy protection have been produced and sold, primarily in Europe. Key2Audio is a product of Sony DADC, a 100 percent affiliate of Sony Corp. of America headquartered in Austria.
(from billboardlive.com)

[liquid217]

heh heh, bring it on (Liquid owns a cd player with an spdif out, and a computer with spdif in, heh heh)

[Greg12]

It's illegal

[MOVIEGEEK]

Gateway is airing a commercial tonight in the U.S. criticizing copy-protection,Philips has defended consumers rights as well.I think a
class action suit against Sony et al would put an end to this nonsense.

[homerpez]

Let the computers get ruined!

Ruined computers = lawsuits = LOST SONY $$$$ !

They deserve that. Mac users, all together now: corrupt your firmware!

[larsli]

According to a spokeswoman for Sony Music Entertainment, it is clearly stated on the front of the booklet and on the back of the jewel box that the CD ``will not play on a PC or a Mac'' in the language of the country in which it is sold.

In Norway the warning is in English. The Consumer Council is not very happy about that!

[wellmashed]

Some peoples PC setup is a lot better than their home stereo setup.
What right have they to stop people playing music on their PC's.

[homerpez]

Another thing to remember...

All it takes is ONE person (maybe even liquid217 he he heh) with a CD player with digital-out (more common than you think) and a PC with a digital audio-in... transfer to perfect-quality .mp3 ... and voila! INSTANT CD BOYCOTT!

In the end, the hackers always win. But somehow I don't think there's much danger of this happening to a Celine Dion CD... most of her fans won't care about computer users being screwed, and most computer users are too smart to be fans of hers