Stand Up - Dave Matthews Band - Part 1

A future part will contain a bit of a review of the album.

This part will address the issue of the copy protection that is widely discussed all over the CD. I picked up the CD at Best Buy for $10 but I had a $5 coupon, and it made the CD $5, which is a great deal. But I was a little concerned that copy protection would make the CD unplayable on my iPod. The label says that the CD will only play on an "appropriately configured computer" and iTunes is not considered part of the "appropriate configuration."

So I put the CD in my computer and crosed my fingers hoping that iTunes would be able to play it and rip it. It did, no problems at all.

I was overcome by relief. I was curious about this issue and so I went to the website that the CD lists for help, http://www.sunncomm.com/support/bmg - here's what they have to say about the iPod:

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Can I transfer MediaMax digital audio files to my iPod?
Apple's proprietary technology doesn't support secure music formats other than their own, and therefore the secure music file formats on this disc can't be directly imported into iTunes or iPods.

While these discs aren't currently compatible with iTunes or iPod, we are actively working on an acceptable solution, and have reached out to Apple in hopes of addressing this issue. To help speed this effort, we ask that you use the following link to contact Apple and ask them to provide a solution that would easily allow you to move content from protected CDs into iTunes or onto your iPod: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html

Even though there is no direct support on the disc for iTunes or iPod, SONY BMG has worked out a way for consumers to move content into these environments, despite the challenges noted above. If you'd like more information on how to move content to iTunes please CLICK HERE.
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Well, I'm here to report that this is not true. Wondering why, I found this article that talks about using the shift-key to disable the copy protection. That's not what I did, but I have autorun disabled as a security default, and I think that did the trick.

Now a question is, have I done something illegal? After all, I own the CD, don't I have the right to turn it into MP3's? Seems to me it should be fine. It's the same thing I do with all my CD's, put it on the computer and listen to it on my iPod instead of a CD player. I'm still old school, preferring the jewel case and liner notes to having the digital copy.

The next part of this will contain info on the music.