Comic Transcript
ALEX: Ubersoft Technical Support, Alex speaking. how can I help you?
CUSTOMER: Yes, well, I was trying to listen to an audio CD with my CD-ROM drive, and for some reason everything locked up. I can’t open the tray. The CD is stuck in there, and I can’t use the drive at all.
ALEX: It sounds like you’ve purchased a CD with the very latest in Intellectual Property Protection Software (TM). In order to combat the rampant piracy of music and to protect against the victimization of helpless record labels everywhere, some music CD’s are created to check to see what kind of device it’s being played in. If it decides it’s playing in a device that could be used to pirate music tracks, it disables that device. Since your CD-ROM drive can copy tracks to your hard drive…
CUSTOMER: Are you serious?
ALEX: I’m afraid so. The idea is to disable anything that can be used to illegally distribute whatever music the music industry is selling. This “scorched earth” policy is supposed to make it too inconvenient for music piracy to flourish.
CUSTOMER: That’s ridiculous. There’s got to be a way to get around that kind of extortion. I’m contacting my Senator.
ALEX: Alternatively, you could start listening to better music.
