The Plan

UPDATED 5/15/03: How to create/re-create this experiment

We want to answer three questions about the current state of DRM, audio CD's, and current operating systems

1. Can we play CD X under the operating system?
2. Can we copy the audio track onto the hard drive of the PC?
3. Does the application/operating system, by default, report the consumer's activities to a third party, and can the consumer disable any such reporting feature?

To this end, we will set up three "lab rat" computers behind a network gateway. Each "lab rat" will run a variant of Microsoft Windows, and the gateway will run Linux. The gateway will passively monitor all network communication between any of the lab rats and the outside world as we run the experiments, but will not block or modify any communication. The gateway will also provide DNS (in the form of a caching server).

For each CD, we will

1. Play the CD in "scan" mode (the first 10 seconds of each track).
2. Rip three random tracks from the CD to mp3 format.

The lab rats will run

• Win2k, with service pack 3
• WinXP, with no service pack
• WinXP, with service pack 1

We will run each test using Windows Media Player (WMP) 8, then again using WMP 9.

For each lab rat, we will record

• The specific version/subversion of the OS.
• The specific version/subversion of the media player.
• Standard options for the media player (CDDB lookup address, "please track user's music library", etc).
• The specific version/subversion of the CD driver firmware.

• The UPC on the CD case.
• Whether or not the CD has the Philips-approved 'CD' label.
• Whether or not the cover or back (not the liner) has any warning of copyright technology enclosed, "enhanced" CD capabilities, or any other non-standard markings.
• A unique hash of the CD.

For each experiment, we will record

• Whether or not we could play the CD.
• Whether or not we could rip tracks off of the CD.
• Any audio abnormalities not heard while playing that exact CD on a standard CD player.
• All network communication between the lab rats and the outside world.
• All non-standard options used by the media player for that run (don't do CDDB lookups, etc).

What You Can Do

Hardware-wise, we will need

• "Virgin" installations of the three varieties of Windows and WMP.
• Three computers to use as lab rats.
• One computer to use as the gateway, with two NICs.
• A hub/switch (at least four ports).
• Several -- approximately a half-dozen -- CDs. If you've got one of the CD's listed at Fat Chuck's site, please bring it.

• (Possibly) install Windows/Linux on the repsective computers.
• Use WindowsUpdate to get the latest patches and/or WMP9.
• Set up the Linux box as a DHCP server (maybe?) and a DNS server.

Hope to see you there,
-jdm