Copy-protected CDs - philosophical discussion


My previous copy-protection thread probably deserves a follow-up since the issue is just as troubling ethically/legally/philosophically as it is technically.

Record companies are selling CDs which do not play on a PC's CD player. However, the CDs are not identified as such and, according to at least one source, may have trouble playing on high-end systems and car CD players.

Here's the news story:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6604222.html

Here's an unofficial list of copy-protected CDs, authored by a guy whose opinion on the matter should be quite obvious:
http://fatchucks.com/corruptcds/corrupt.html

Reserving the technical discussion and "can you actually hear it" discussions for my previous thread, what are your feelings on the softer side of this issue, especially given the vast amount of software that we collectively gave/received over the past couple of weeks?

Don't hold back, now!

FWIW, my take is that this is just another case of technology scaring the crap out of a lumbering entrenched industry with severely dated business models because the geeks are infinitely smarter and more creative than the suits can ever hope to be. Just like the lawsuit against Napster, it may succeed in its immediate goal (for a month or so), but misses the real point completely. Alienating customers who are not criminals is bad business. For many of us Audiogoners, I imagine the presence of "all but inaudible" distortion on a recording is reason enough to avoid it like the plague. The music business is not about “clicks and pops”; it's about music.
powerste
Frogman, you bring up some interesting points, but at the same time not many people are burning CD's for resale. I don't agree with copying CD's period, but many here enjoy a "spare" copy for the vehicle which is wrong and they should not do it, but I don't think you are going to change them. Hackers hack everything, if encryption is going to be what happens those who break laws will continue to break laws and in the end the only people who will suffer and pay for it are honest consumers like most all of us here, sad eh?
So what, specifically, do people recommend we do as consumers to not just roll over and accept encryption and watermarking? I don't imagine anybody on this forum wanting either of these, but it seems just as apparent that the major players are going to bring it to us, like it or not. Call it corporate greed or whatever, it's deep-pocketed corporations who have a huge revenue stream to protect and, having woken up, they're going to do something even if audiophiles don't like it, so what are we going to do? Will we just stop buying the "tainted" product? Will we say "this is war" and start leveraging the efforts of the hackers to utilize the product as we see fit, whether that's to make personal copies to protect your investment or dozens of copies to give to friends for "evaluation"? Anybody planning on suing Sony or organizing a class action suit?
Suing sony, no way but I made a hell of a law suit against Mcdonalds and their too hot coffee :) well maybe not me but I am sure we are all familar with that one. I am sure someone will find a way to file a class acion law suit, but I probably won't be involved, I would simply boycott who ever's product is "tainted", hell I have been looking for an excuse to focus my energy on vinyl! There are plenty of good recordings out there already(on digital) perhaps it will bring value to our current collections, maybe the used non-encrypted CD arena is the next BIG thing, who knows, but I will NEVER buy an infereior CD simply because others are breaking the laws. Tyrants rule when good people sit back and do nothing, it is time for those who follow the rules to stand up and say that this isn't fair!
Music software sales fell by 5% in 2001 compared to 2000. The best selling software in December for Wintel machines was Easy CD Creator; the Mac best seller for the same month was Toast, another CD burning software. It's easy to see why record companies are trying to prevent the computer copying of their products.