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. :P