We all know how badly the record industry wants to clamp down on CD copying. But what they think of as piracy, we think of as doing what we want with something that we legally purchased. An article in the Register reaffirms just how futile the record industry's fight really is. The article refers to a German program called CloneCD that, according to their website, "writes in RAW mode, allowing full control on the written data. Therefore, CloneCD 3 will produce real 1:1 copies of your CDs." Sounds pretty great. I've always feared that my digital audio extractions were somewhat lossy, so after I try this out I'll let you know how it works.
There's also High Criteria's Total Recorder, which is totally worth the $11.95 registration fee. It allows you to convert any sound file on your computer to a WAV file (which you can then burn to CDs or convert to MP3s or whatever you want to do). Yes, any sound file, even streaming media and those fucking annoying Liquid Audio files. It doesn't make perfect, digital copies since it has to use your sound card driver, but the fidelity loss is negligible.
If you download these programs now and make backups of the installation files, as long as you have a working computer with a CD drive, the Man will never be able to keep you from listening to your music whenever, wherever and however you want to. Sock it 'em.
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Right. I've been using the total recorder for porjects for over a year and it works like a charm. It's simple and cheap. I love it.
Some of these new technologies are facing scrutiny in congress though as they MAY infringe on Fair Use clauses in copyright law. It's something we'll need to watch closely and sound off on.
That's why we have to download these apps NOW and hold on to them. Congress has the authority and ability to take down Total Recorder, but they can't get at the copy I already have on my machine.