Music copying (again)

Factual Questions
1

Just reading an artical on cnet about a new copyprotection scheme:
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981279.html?tag=fd_top

got me thinking if all else fails and they do manage to clamp down on digital copying, how ‘bad’ is a analog copy? How much is lost by playing the copy protected CD on a stero and inputing it into the computer sound card as an analog signal and re-digitizing it as a copyable format?

Also if this becomes popular can anyone think of a way to prevent this too?

2

I’ve done it before (only to make compilations for myself including tracks from some of my copy protected cds, thank you) and there really is very little quality loss. The only thing about it is that you have to watch your levels to insure that you have the proper sound quality, but that’s easy. On the ones that I’ve done, you oftentimes cannot tell the difference between an analog and a digital copy.

And really, as far as I know, there isn’t a way to really block something like that. As long as you have a sound source and an input on your computer, you will always be able to copy music, no matter how protected.

3

‘Very little’ was not really the answer I was looking for. More like if you start with something encoded at 192 kb/s convert it to analog and right back to digital what is the kb/s that you can expect it to sound as?

You may actually have to record at a higher kb/s doing this (due to D>A>D). But just because its recorded at a higher kb/s doesn’t mean that it sounds like it is.

(i.e. taking a 96 kb/s mp3 and re-recording it at 196 kb/s does nothing since the info was already lost)

4

You might want to take this over to Hydrogen Audio. Some folks there will be more likely to know the actual answer.

This forum should do:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?act=SF&f=21

5

This anti piracy technology is all so silly…if I can hear it, I can copy it.

6
      • That depends on the recording medium you use. If you used 1-inch tape you probably wouldn’t hear any difference at all, but not many average people have studio tape drives at home. And all you are asking here is an opinion, “how good does it have to sound, to sound that good?”. -Well, about that good…
  • Minidisc recorders don’t cost much, and work very well. The format they use does not permit direct digital-to-digital transferrs either way, so no on-CD anti-copy protection will stop their use.
    ~