Damn The Machine

Recently I placed an order with Amazon for a few goodies. The shipment arrived today. I got this cool Star Trek Star Chart book. (Ok, maybe it’s pretty geeky, but it’s also cool.) I’ve always been curious how it all fits together. Where’s the Federation–Romulan border? In fact the Federation also has borders with the Klingons and the Cardassians. Where are they? Sure it’s all a fantasy, but I have a great Atlas of Middle Earth which I love too. Those kinds of things always fascinate me.

I also bought the new Gun ‘N Roses Velvet Revolver album. I was extremely disappointed when I saw the sticker on the front proclaiming that it was protected from copying. I hate that stuff. It needs to go away. So after several choice expletives, I slide the CD into my laptop, and held my breath…

All I can say is, you gotta love the Mac. iTunes had no problem ripping the CD. Despite the so-called copy protection on the disc I was able to make my own personal digital files. I didn’t even have to hold down the Shift key to bypass the protection. (I’ve read that’s the way around it.) And I didn’t have to touch those stupid pre-ripped DRM-filled WMV files on the data portion of the CD.

The big thing that bugs me—well, the second big thing, the first is the copy protection itself—is that Amazon makes no mention on their website that the CD has the protection. They have a huge database with all kinds of field associated with each product. I really feel that they should make a note of the albums that make use of this. If I had been in a record store, I would have been able to see the sticker and decide if I wanted to buy the album. Online I had no such warning.

It all worked out, so no harm done I guess. But the big lesson of the day? Sucks to be a Windows user. 😛