DMB Undermining RCA Copy Protection

By Waldo Jaquith
Stand Up was one of the first albums released by RCA encumbered with copy protection. The limitation prevents the album from being copied to an iPod, which is a pretty severe restriction. It's stricter than copyright law, and certainly more limiting than is rational. And so, since its release, the band has provided instructions for circumventing that copy protection, encouraging fans to import the audio in the Windows Media format, burn a CD, and then rip that CD. Weirdly, the notice blames Apple for the need for the workaround when, clearly, the problem is with RCA; in fact, the limitations have no effect on Macintosh users. Billboard took notice of DMB who, among other artists, is actively working against the wishes of their label, and wrote this article on this odd little battle.