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DVD Drives Defeat Cactus Data Shield

Posted by michael on from the trees-obscure-view-of-forest dept.

jsepeta sends in a story about Cactus Data Shield, one of the schemes to be used for copy-protecting compact discs. A reporter for TechTV notes that DVD drives see right through the disc corruption that Cactus uses to supposedly prevent those CDs from being ripped.

10 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. Difference between copying and reading? by hughk · · Score: 5, Informative
    Look, I know that there is supposed to be a big difference between the error correction on Audio-CD players and the normal CD-R drive, let alone a DVD drive, but in the end, it is a digital bit stream. Bits can be copied, end of story.

    Another point is that many drives have maingenance modes which allow the host computer to see exactly what is on the disk without correction. This is normally used for testing, but again would be very useful for breaking the DMCA. Just read track w/o correction and aply the correction at software level ignoring the bad bits.

    I guess that a DVD-rom drive is more sensitive to errors on conventional CD's as they have much finer bit resolutions for DVDs so they alreasy have the modified error recovery built in.

    Protection of CDs is pointless and it interferes with customers' own rights and annoys the customer. The original article mentions a class action against Universal about Unplayable CDs.

    --
    See my journal, I write things there
  2. Another way around it: by arbitrary+nickname · · Score: 5, Informative

    As described in a comment on FatChucks

    (Tested it on 'Natalie Imbruglia - White Lillies Island' with a Yamaha 6x4x16x SCSI CDRW drive)

    1) Get IsoBuster (A Win32 app)

    2) Rip the entire disc as raw data. May struggle/take a while. Tell it to ignore any read errors

    3) Open the raw file in CoolEdit (or any decent audio editor) as a 44.1Kz 16-bit stereo sample (with Intel byte ordering)

    4) There you have it! The entire CD as one big sample!

    5) In CoolEdit, you can use 'Edit->AutoCue->Find Phrases and Mark' to split the tracks up automatically

    6) Save 'em out, and convert to MP3/Ogg if neccesssary

  3. The people who wrote this article are idiots. by amitv · · Score: 5, Informative

    They keep saying that they couldn't play the first track. Of course they can't play the first track, that's what contains the filesystem with the CDS player.

    Correct me if I'm wrong (nobody's perfect), but this seems pretty simple to me.

    --
    Can you imagine a MOSIX cluster of these?
    1. Re:The people who wrote this article are idiots. by dimator · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, The Screensavers is not a show for techies, it's a show for the average PC/Mac user. They usually go through the most simple of steps in great detail, probably so that normal users don't get frustrated and change the channel.

      --
      python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
  4. Re:Soon to be illegal... by Yusaku+Godai · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's a frightening idea. I "fully copyright-compliant computer." I guess I can just imagine big copyright-holding groups paying major computer vendors to build something like that for consumers. And in a way that seems like a good idea. If most people's computers can't rip a CD, they probably won't bother trying to fix it. But then what if they make something like that a law? You build your own computer, and it's illegal. You *have* to buy your computer from a copyright-compliant vendor or else risk fines.
    Oh well, this is getting offtopic so I'll shut up now.

  5. Re:Soon to be illegal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    But of course.

    There is an excellent review of CPRM, SSSCA and the coming "Secure PC" on The Register. Here's a short excerpt from this article:

    But the CPRM gambit was an early indication that the entertainment industry was deadly serious about removing the free movement of digital media on what has been, for fifteen years, on open platform. ... In August a draft bill called the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) was proposed by Senator Hollings (D). It proposed mandatory inclusion of copy-protection schemes for domestic and imported PCs, anything in fact, capable of recording digital media.
  6. Missing the point by jridley · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't rip CDs to steal music. I rip CDs because most of the ways that I listen to music anymore are MP3. I put 10 or 15 albums on one CD, then drop it into my DVD player (Apex) to listen at home, into my computer to listen at work, and into my portable MP3 player to listen while walking or in the car. The convenience of many albums on one CD is great.

    The copy protection won't stop me anyway; I have a line input on my computer. It will just make it a pain in the ass for me, someone who DOES give them money, to use albums the way I want to.

  7. Re:Good for music trading after all? by snillfisk · · Score: 2, Informative
    groups will end up doing the releasing, like in the warez scene

    .. they already do. check EGO, APC and so on. This will however -probably- boost the popularity of such groups, since your average John Doe will have to download the mp3s instead of converting them himself.
    --
    mats
    One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  8. Re:Alternative OSs? by thesolo · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article specifically mentions that the player software on the disk is Windows only. Will I be able to play this disk on my Mac/PlayStation2/Linux/Car CD Changer?

    I was recently in a local music store that carried "The Fast & The Furious" soundtrack. (First off, figures Universal would start with a CD like this--no one wants it, so there won't be a huge outrage over it!) On the back, it states something to the effect of "This CD is copy protected and it meant to be played in standard CD Audio players or Windows-based PCs"

    No, it will not play in your Mac. No, it will not play in your consoles. It may play in your car CD player, but that totally depends on the model. And to be honest, I'm not sure about Linux--I'm not going to spend $20 on that POS CD to see if it works under redhat or not.

    On top of the fact that this protection decreases the quality of the CD-Audio, etc., it also further extends Microsoft's monopoly. Now if you want to play an Audio CD in your computer, you had better have Windows! This is something that needs to be fought immediately. (Some nice "DEFECTIVE CD" stickers would help, I think)

  9. Copying from the iPod is easier than it appears. by Macster · · Score: 2, Informative
    "The only copy protection on my iPod is the fact that it's a one-way sync. And for what it's worth, it's a LOT LOT LOT harder to do a 2-way sync than a one-way sync."
    A two-way sync with the iPod is actually quite simple. Apple's only means of copy protectection on the iPod is to restrict syncing in iTunes to one machine and render all the MP3 files on the unit invisible to the Finder. In this way, MP3s from your computer can be copied onto the iPod, but copying from another machine will only work if you are willing to wipe the entire contents of the iPod clean.

    The trick around this is to access the invisible MP3s on your iPod with any number of free file utilities (take Hidden Hunter for example). Once you find the invisible MP3s, you can copy them over to any machine and change the invisible attribute with a file editor like ResEdit. It's that simple.

    I absolutely agree with Jobs. This is a social problem, not a technological one. And Apple's take on this is apparent given the relative ease with which its technological means for copy protection may be compromised. As for Apple's social means of copy protection, read the fine print at the bottom of ads for the iPod: "Don't steal music."