Dion's new CD crashing party for some users

Yahoo! News ^ | Wed Apr 3, 2002 | Chris Marlowe

[Darkshadow]

Dion's new CD crashing party for some users

Wed Apr 3, 1:57 AM ET

By Chris Marlowe

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- 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 purchase, the disc itself bears the same warning.

Should the consumer try to play Dion's CD on a PC or Macintosh (news - web sites), 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% affiliate of Sony Corp (news - web sites). of America headquartered in Austria.

[BrooklynGOP]

Hah! It will be cracked. And if not you can always get a cd player with a digital out and sound card with a digital in... Or you can even use a regular analog cable.

[Aggie Mama]

I thought she retired.

[martin_fierro]

It may already be cracked.

[realpatriot71]

There's ways around everything, and some 12 year old in China will probably crack the code.

However, I personally don't think this is a good idea by the music companies. People could get really pi$$ed about it, and stop buying music.

[Great Dane]

Guess thats one way to make sure it can't be copied, by the way..... can't you get cd writers for regular cd players now, if not, why not.

If the public is smart, leave the disc at the store.

[Revolting cat!]

Sorry, there's been and there'll always be only one Dion: Dion DiMucci!

[Drew68]

The music industry --already in its death throes, is nailing it's own coffin shut with this collosal marketing blunder. "Brilliant! Let's put out a defective product that will 'ef up peoples' computers! That'll put us back in their good graces!"

An entire generation of kids are growing up never having to pay for music, and the mental giants in the business think this is going to get them buying CDs.

Since my PC *is* my CD player, I'm relieved to know that the music industry is honestly telling me to find a source for music elsewhere. At least I don't have to find out the hard way.

[MaggieMay]

hey,hey ta ta de ta ta hey,hey....stay away from RUN-AROUND-SUE

[zeromus]

well. it doesnt make too big a difference. either youre legitimately using the music, or youre not. if you can't rip the tracks yourself, you can download them and just buy the cd and leave it unopened to legitimize yourself. ive done just that with several cds. who cares how we get the music, im just grateful that we have it at all.