Jan Depner wrote: > On Mon, 2004-06-28 at 02:46, Anahata wrote: > >>On Mon, Jun 28, 2004 at 12:35:03AM +0300, Sampo Savolainen wrote: >> >>>you could try to find a CD player >>>with spdif output and, presuming you have spdif input on your computer, >>>record the data digitally from a normal player. >> >>The possibility of doing this (I assume copy protected CDs can't prevent >>it, if they can be played at all) is one more thing that makes a >>mockery of the whole business of copy protection. > > > What really makes a mockery of the copy protection racket is what the > RIAA calls the "analog hole". If I can hear it, I can copy it. Find a > CD player that can handle the chewed up CD, run the analog outs to your > computer, record it. I seriously doubt that there is anyone around who > can tell the difference between a digitally ripped copy and a digitally > encoded analog copy. I can tell the difference, if it's not done properly, and it isn't entirely trivial to do it properly. For starters, you need a decent soundcard ... I've tried the stereo mini-in jack on this laptop and also on a couple of other older motherboards / soundblasters and the quality is _nowhere_ near the quality I get out of the VXpocket v2 with balanced inputs, and even that's probably at the lower end of the "prosumer" range. Non-sound people I know can immediately tell the difference too. I've heard enough badly ripped vinyl recordings that I don't really trust the general populace to make analog-to-digital encodings of any work. Admittedly there are more complex factors involved with vinyl than with CD's, but if it's any indication ... I would like to agree though, and also find copy protection of any sort to be ridiculous, in that "if I can read it, I can copy it". It's just that in practice there can be so many hoops to jump through that you start asking, "why do I even want this in the first place?" Cheers, Chris
