Let's face it. It doesn't stop people from ripping the CD. I know.
I ripped it myself. It's not like I'm going to carry around my
precious CDs out of my particle/humidity controlled environment. In
fact, for CDs like these, I wouldn't feel safe unless I made a good
copy of it since the original is so susceptible to errors. Almost all
CD-ROM drives sold these days can read audio streams perfectly. On
CDs like these, it just needs to be told to go slow so that errors
don't overwhelm the error correction logic.
Obviously, I'm very much against illegal copying and distribution.
I'm not even talking of the artists not getting paid for their work,
although that's certainly the most important part of this. The more
immediate issue I have is why these people can have the music for free
when I'm paying my hard-earned money for them. Basically, I'm paying
for far more than myself, even though I have absolutely no desire to
do so.
Anyway, regardless of all that, the point about these so-called copy
protected CDs is that it only hurts the real buyers like myself. I
only have two copy-protected CDs and I try to steer clear of them.
Not only does it not work, it also pushes away good consumers. Gee,
smart move.
Finally, I can talk about the content. The strongest impression I got
from this CD is that it sounds like an amateur production made by high
school students. Except for a few songs, most of the songs do not
have too many accompanying instruments. I'm not saying that this is a
bad thing at all. I think some of the songs on this CD are
wonderful. A few of the songs are too unsophisticated, though. It's
a mixed bag. If you're really on a budget, I highly recommend
"Tomorrow / Karenai Hana" single listed on my Full Metal Panic index
page.
As a final note, I wanted to say that this CD would've gotten a 'B' if
it weren't copy-protected.
