The Blog of Harald

[via Anders Jacobsen] New Scientist reports:

A US record company has issued reviewers with portable CD players that are glued shut to prevent two new albums from being pirated online before their official releases.

Epic Records Group has taken the drastic step of sealing CD players shut and gluing headphones onto them to stop digital copies being made from promotional albums. The albums involved are Riot Act by Pearl Jam and Scarlet’s Walk by Tori Amos.

A spokeswoman for Epic told New Scientist: “Obviously we have a problem with piracy and this is one of the ways we’re trying to address it. We’re trying lots of things.”

I find it particularly amusing that after all the hype about the Secure Digital Music Initiative, this is the best security they can come up with. A glued shut CD player is hardly tamper-proof. It would be worthwhile for a genuine pirate to purchase a replacement if she damages or destroys the original while removing the CD. Or one could take the CD player apart and tap into the electronics to get a digital playback of the CD direct from the hardware. Or…