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Post-it Notes vs. Copy-Inhibited CDs
rjoseph writes "MacUser is running an article about how the new Celine Dion CD A New Day Has Come with copy protection mechanisms to prevent the CD from being played on a PC not only won't play on an iMac, but it will lock the CD tray (so it can't be removed) and fubar the firmware (so the machine can't be rebooted), effectivley killing the iMac. Ouch." We mentioned this interesting experiment in consumer relations last month as well, but now it's getting noticed a lot more. However, emkman writes: "What was first thought to be an April Fool's joke, now appears to be true. Some Audio CD protection schemes such as Cactus DATA Shield 100/200, KeyAudio, and perhaps others may be defeated by invalidating the outer ring of the CD with a black marker or post-it sticky note. www.chip.de has their report in German, here is a translation."
The new iMac doesn't have any manual way to do it.
Oh of course. All you have to do is dismantle the computer and void your warranty to get the CD out? Man, some people are just whiners!
mark
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
try this Apple tech info before hitting the panic button...
... what the correct way to treat a Celine Dion CD is. Summary of article: a.) Buy black marker b.) paint underside of CD completely black Next up: The correct way to treat your boy group cds. a.) Buy some acetone b.) ...
They are just punishing you for listening to Celine Dion. YOu deserve it.
No, this is your karmically-correct punishment for buying the Celine Dion CD...listening is its own punishment.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
The soundtrack of Episode 2 seems to be protected in such a way also.
Only dead fish swim with the stream...
I tried to test this Celine Dion CD to see if it would get stuck in my iMac, but then I discovered to my horror that I couldn't get the Starcraft CD out of the drive. Must ... Quit ... Game ... and press ... Eject ... Muscles ... not ... responding...
graspee
P.S. This may have legal implications if my Starcraft CD starts downloading mp3s without my permission. (ha ha. sorry).
-schussat
The hour of noon has passed. Let us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Hello all,
Apple has released KnowledgeBase Article #106882, Cannot Eject Copy Protected Audio Disc , to adress the problem with the cd's getting locked into the drive.
"You may be unable to eject certain copy-protected audio discs, which resemble Compact Discs (CD) but technically are not. Some computers start up to a gray screen after a copy protected disc has been left in the computer."
To hardly seize: With a simple felt marker you outwit Sony Music & CO and notice your right to a backup copy.
Take that Sony Music & CO, I hardly seize you with my simple felt marker and notice my right to a backup copy! You have been outwitted!There is something wonderful in seeing a wrong-headed majority assailed by truth. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
I was also reading on spymac.com that you can get around this with a nikko pen, but what I really want to say is what a precedent this sets for corporations:
We will intentionally cause damage to your property because you did not try to play this in an authorised CD player
I think all those affected now (and more probably in the future with CDs other than Celine) should send a nice happy bill to the corporations that produce these CDs...
Not being a legal person, how can a disclaimer cover something designed to intentionally cripple hardware? Sure you can say in a disclaimer that "it *may* do blah blah blah" but that's a whole lot different to "If you have X this CD is designed to damage this hardware"
... And I also doubt that the disclaimer is in a very prominent position either...
As someone who buys CDs and owns an iBook, I'm not looking forward to the day I pop in a decent CD I've just bought (sorry, Celine fans) I don't want to discover that I can't get the damn thing out of my lappy easily...
-- Dan >:(
We obviously can't call this Celine Dion product a "CD"...We're going to need a new term to denote CD-imposters...Lets see...
CC - Crash Circle
"CD" - Quote-Compact Disk-Unquote
ICD - Imposter Compact Disk
FD - Fool's Disk
ID - Incompatible Disk
SF - Sony Frisbee
CC - Celine Coaster
MW3 - Mommy, Why Won't it Work?
RCD - Record Companies Downfall
18POS - $18 Piece Of Sh*t
SLS - Sony's Last Stand
PD - Poo Disk
Any suggestions?
GL
The music publishers are giving people incentives to NOT BUY CDs...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
"MacUser is running an article about how the new Celine Dion CD A New Day Has Come with copy protection mechanisms to prevent the CD from being played on a PC not only won't play on an iMac, but it will lock the CD tray (so it can't be removed) and fubar the firmware (so the machine can't be rebooted), effectivley killing the iMac."
Somewhere a 4th Grade English teacher is crying, and doesn't know why.
It hurts when I pee.
how horrible, dying with Celine Dion in your mouth! *shudder*
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - May 13, 2002 - RIAA TEAMS UP WITH MPAA TO URGE BAN OF "SHARPIE" STYLE MARKERS.
Local busineses were shocked today when all 2.5 million office supply stores were simultaneously served with a cease and desist order from the RIAA and MPAA banning the sale of any type of felt tip marker. Lobbyists for the media industry successfully bribed and/or threatened a number of local politician, who in turn passed legislation banning the manufacture, sale, or possession of any device on grounds that it violates the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
"This is a great day for freedom in this country", stated I. P. Freely, chairman of the House Committee On Media Graft and Campaign Finance. "No longer will reckless hoodlums and terrorist be able to hold our great media industries down! Already these 'media terrorists' have been implicated in causing a downturn in music sales, a deepening of the U.S. recession, balding, impotence, and dandruff. These terrorists are a threat to the very foundation of this nation. Have I said terrorist enough yet? Terrorist terrorist terrorist!"
A small group of bewildered secretaries and office workers were rounded up by jackbooted thugs and herded into "terrorist containment vehicles" (which resemble black vans) as they went into office supply stores in downtown L.A. to buy Sharpies. "Obviously these media terrorists were bent on destroying Sony Music with these devices", said one S.W.A.T. team captain as he twirled a Sharpie in front of cameras. "Don't worry folks", he said, "you're safe now."
When interviewed on the street, many people expressed delight at the actions of the MPAA and RIAA.
"I'm so glad that these hideous terr'rist folks have been rounded up", says Eva Beaver. "Who knows what they might've blown up with their terror weapons. Next it could be planes slamming into buildings!"
Opposition to this new law is expected to be light, say prominent Washington lawmakers. Naysayers will be rounded up and shot on sight, further adding to the desire to keep people from pirating music and movies with felt tip pens.
Spokesmen for Sanford, the company that manufactures the Fully Automatic Terrorist Media Stealing Assault Weapon (formerly known as a Sharpie Marker) could not be reached following a disastrous fire and explosion at every single one of their manufacturing plants.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
My mother bought the new Celine Dion CD (I've been trying to convince her to take it back for not being a "real CD"). I put it in my PC just to test it. The funny think is that the CDROM won't play it as a audio CD. However, I tried cdparanoia and I can rip it without any problem... I guess it's just another case of a "copy-protection" technology prevent legal use (like watching DVD under Linux), while failing at preventing what it's designed to prevent (you can do a mirror copy of a DVD without decrypting it).
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
You need to restart the system and just after the chime, leave the mouse button pressed until the media gets ejected. No manual way but a work around for people who like me got cought with the soundtrack of Episode 2.
PPA, the girl next door
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
The music companies are quietly removing the CD logo from some of these controversial copy-protected CD's because they do not conform to the Red Book standard.
So here's a way we can fight back. When you are buying your CD's, always insist on CD's bearing the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo.
This does two things:
* Any copy-protected disc that bears the CD logo may be in technical breach of some law, such as misleading and deceptive marketing, and you can possibly sue the store and record company on those grounds (IANAL) or make a formal complaint to some regulatory body such as the FTC.
* It lets the store know that there are people who prefer genuine CD's instead of that crippled copy-protected rubbish. Once you buy the CD, it's your right to do with it as you please, provided you do not infringe on the copyright owners' rights to redistribute the music.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Apple knows. You have three non-pull-apart options.
Or perhaps you need beat the living shit out of the fuck-heads who cavalierly take it upon themselves to fuck with your hardware. Then kill their extended families, burn down their houses with their corpses inside, and piss on the ashes.
Or that paper clip thing might work too, I don't know.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Look, don't play the music industry game. Don't bother to figure out how to defeat the copy protection that just makes them try harder.
Just don't buy the CDs.
Or better yet, buy them, open them, then take them back to the store and complain that they don't work. If the store will only offer an exchange, take the exchange and bring that one back too. Just keep doing this until they learn that they do not work.
The stores can't put them back on the shelves, they have to ship them back to the distributor. I guarantee you when 25% of their stock comes back defective, someone is going to start to notice what a really bad idea this is.
Hmm, I work right next door to a Best Buy. I could buy and return a CD every day for lunch. Might be kind of fun.
If you are a U.S. resident (you don't have to be a citizen) and want to be part of a class-action lawsuit, go here:
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.submit.html
after you buy a known corrupt CD (one with a red star next to it):
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.html
I will personally forward your info to the group of lawfirms who are already planning a class-action against the record industry. If you have any questions about this class-action or anything else, write me at chuck@fatchucks.com.
Peace.
I am reminded of my teenage days of punching notches into the side of 5 1/4" disks with a hole punch...
::Colz Grigor
Magic markers to avert copy protection schemes... I love low-tech solutions to high-tech problems.
"Apple designs its CD drives to support media that conforms to such standards. Apple computers are not designed to support copyright protected media that do not conform to such standards. Therefore, any attempt to use non standard discs with Apple CD drives will be considered a misapplication of the product. Under the terms of Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty, AppleCare Protection Plan, or other AppleCare agreement any misapplication of the product is excluded from Apple's repair coverage. "
So not only is the computer broken because you didn't see the fine print and tried to play a cd in it, but you have to pay for the repairs.
but...
If I create something that resembles an email message, but really just uses the email message format to carry a harmful digital payload to damage your system, I'm just an evil hacker who's likely to be spending time in prison.
Yup. Makes sense to me.
A new kind of meat designed to appeal to vegetarians.
Slashdot geeks can rant and rave all they want about these horrible booby-trapped 'discs', but the outside world must respond for anything to happen- either endorsing the legitimacy of the 'discs' or rejecting it.
Well, this is a start.
Playing these things on an iMac means basically voiding the warranty. If, God knows how, the corrupted and intentionally damaging 'disc' manages to actually kill the iMac, Apple says it is your fault for trying to put booby-trapped, intentionally destructive junk in the machine!
This is a GOOD thing, and I hope other computer manufacturers do likewise. I wouldn't have believed that such a thing could kill an iMac, but note this: iMacs ARE BOOTABLE FROM CD. It seems possible that these 'discs' could contain something like a boot sector, to trick the machine into trying to boot off the 'disc' and then munging its BIOS. Viruses have been able to do stuff like that for years and years- this is simply the first time the RIAA has made a concerted effort to destroy people's computers.
Apple cannot possibly take responsibility for this. They're doing the right thing- staring in shock, and then quickly announcing, "We will not be held responsible for interoperating with THIS BULLSHIT!"
I say support Apple for this stance, don't criticise them. Or do you feel that computer manufacturers should now be held responsible for maintaining interoperability with VIRUSES?
Apple knows [apple.com]. You have three non-pull-apart options.
[options deleted]
Well, let's see...
The crud they put on the disk locks up the Apple when you try to play it. Thus...
This is "technology" that "effectively prevents" unauthorized copying.
Breaking your computer is part of the correct operation of this technology, so
Fixing your computer is "circumvention" of "technology" that "effectively prevents" unauthorized copying, a felony under the DMCA, and
Apple's post telling you how to fix your computer is "trafficing" in circumvention technology, also a felony.
Quick! Call the FBI! (And ask Adobe for the phone number of the appropriate person to call. B-) )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
- They find the line distant up to two centimeters from the outside edge. Draw now with the pin a tangential line, which covers the dividing line accurately, into which outside range project, but does not affect the last audio TRACK. A sticking tire helps as ruler.
I followed these directions and my Celine Dion disk is now stuck in a tire heading east on I-10 at about 75 mph. I feel better already.Try the result out. If it did not fold, the line covers either the dividing line not completely or lies over the last audio trace - here geht's around tenths of a millimeter. Then you wipe away to the pro copying bars with a damp speed and correct after.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
The drive isn't failing. It's doing what it's suposed to do. It's reading the equivalent of the boot sector of the CD, and attempting to boot the software on the CD. The software on the CD is then doing deliberately malicious things to the computer. Any computer that's capable of booting or automatically running software from any media is vulnerable to attack from what is in effect a boot sector virus.
It does seem to me that Sony are sailing very close to some legal winds here. It would not seem to me to be so much a problem if the automatic-load-and-go program opened a window on the Mac screen saying 'this disc cannot be played on Macintosh computers', but this deliberate malicious damage seems to me quite serious.
Mind you, it's arguable that anyone who buys a Celine Dion record deserves all they get...
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.