No Rock And Roll Fun

THE TANGLED TALE OF COPY PROTECTION: The Register follows up a Radio 4 You and Yours report about a chap who couldn't get his CDs to play in his car. The consumer programme talked to everyone involved. Volkswagen said they'd stuck to the rules of the CD format set down when CDs were invented by Dire Straits and Sting one afternoon towards the end of the 1980s; the BPI made some blethering noises about how, you know, CDs have changed and you can't really expect the modern CD to be guaranteed to play on equipment that was made to the proper standard. Eh? Of course that doesn't make any sense at all; and it's notable that the record companies talk about how you can get video clips and all sorts of CD now, but don't actually confess the reason the Volkwagen driver can't play his music is because of the copy protetction they've put onto his CD. Or that in a bid to stop people from copying the music, the record industry is now flogging large numbers of items which aren't actually fit for the purpose.

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