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Felt Tip Marker Defeats Copy-Protected CDs

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the felt-tip-markers-are-now-illegal dept.

We posted this story over a week ago but the mainstream media has flooded us with stories about felt tip markers and copy protected CDs so I figured I'd post it again since I'm really sick of deleting hundreds of submissions from people who didn't read Slashdot on May 13 ;) Basically you can mark the rim of some CDs and defeat the copy protection. And we all know what the DMCA says about tools for circumventing copy protection.

6 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Confused editor by AirLace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And we all know what the DMCA says about tools for circumventing copy protection.

    I thought the DMCA only stipulates laws for devices designed specifically copyright violation? A marker pen clearly doesn't fall into this category. Otherwise they could have outlawed CD burners, photocopiers and who knows what else by now.

    1. Re:Confused editor by roybadami · · Score: 5, Insightful

      His software was designed solely for the purpose of pirating eBooks.

      FUD

      His tool was designed solely to allow copying of e-book data to another format. Not all copying is piracy; some is fair use.
  2. Are news sites all in violation of DMCA now? by baboin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If 2600 couldn't even link to sites offering DeCSS downloads, does the DMCA also prohibit news sites and Slashdot from even mentioning that markers can defeat Sony's CD copy protection mechanism? Whoops, did I just incriminate myself?

  3. DMCA jokes by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Call me crazy, but I'm getting tired of all 30 billion variations of "OMG! A paperclip is an illegal copy protection circumvention device because I can use it to poke out the eye of the person who makes the CDs, causing him to go to the hospital when he's supposed to be putting on the security track."

    At this point, I long for the days of trolls posting haikus about a petrified Natalie Portman slathered in hot grits driving the Slashdot Cruiser over to a Beowulf cluster. At least those posts tended to get appopriately modded down as trolls rather than modded up as both insightful and funny.

    The DMCA circumvention device joke has been made. Several times. Stop mindlessly repeating it like you're Raymond going through the Who's On First routine. Besides, I hear Amazon.com has a patent on the business model of mindlessly repeating a joke.

    (I apologize for cluttering up the comments with meta-discussion, but I felt the point needed to be made. Also, since this is just a repost, most important points have already been made.)

  4. It was bound to happen... by l1gunman · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Funny, huh?! This is major egg-on-the-face for the developers of that so-called protection. In my 'experience', this has always been the case. Even the most sophisticated protections are defeated by the simplest of hacks. You can keep your data encrypted, and protect the decryption routines with anti-debugging methods but, at some point, the data must be rendered. Once it's rendered, it's fair game again and everything you did until that point is moot. Take TotalRecorder, AudioJacker, LoopRecorder, InternetNinja, even the PrintScreen key as examples of that. (Or a scheme of siphoning the audio from a protected DVD by rendering it in a hand-built filter graph with a splitter and dump filter in the audio path.)


    This latest hack is a twist on that theme - the marked lines invalidate the disc track that's supposed to keep make your PC think it has a bad disc. If you kill the bogus track, the PC's CD-ROM drive can simply go on to rendering the next one, the real one.


    No matter what you do in the digital world, there is still the possibility of ripping at the analog level. Standard consumer equipment exists that can make a really good A/D conversion and get a high-quality rendering of the audio content back into the digital realm without any DRM encumbrances. CD players exist that have digital output (S/PDIF) - run that output back into a sound card with matching inputs and you're done. Any of these so-called protected discs can be played, and ripped, in such a set-up. My goofy DVD/CD/MP3 player has such an output (yours too?). Once you have one digital copy, it'll show up on the Internet all over again.


    Only by encrypting the data all the way to a closed rendering subsystem (decrypting speakers or headphones?) could you prevent this - and consumers will never stand still for that. Any solution that prevents consumers from getting their fair use out of purchased content, by that I mean the ability to play it wherever they want (iPod anyone?) is akin to handcuffing everyone in order to prevent crime.


    This is a war that can never truly be won, the only solution is for the content producers to embrace the technology rather than trying to kill it. A new business model that exploits the Internet and its bandwidth and provides a reasonable exchange of fair value for goods received is the only way they can inhibit (not wipe out) piracy. If discs were fairly priced, rather than selling for 30 times their manufacturing cost, there would be little need or impetus for Joe-Sixpack to participate in piracy. If you could buy the songs you wanted, rather than pay full price for an album that has more filler than meat, that would also help.


    I'd really like to see an unbiased, non-knee-jerk-reaction analysis of the so-called harm done to RIAA member studio profits by the file sharing. We've all read analysis that suggests CD sales were actually helped by the emergence of Napster. Recent downturns in the industry are more likely due to general lagging in the economy rather than lost sales due to piracy. Any 'solution' to this problem needs to take a cold, hard look at those facts, first.


    I have a very curious view on this given that my 'job' for the last few years has been on the side of the protectors...

  5. The Important Thing is that it Works by serutan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok ok ok, we get the jokes (most of us anyway).

    The important thing is not whether felt tip pens will become illegal. It's that somebody figured out a laughably simple way to defeat something Sony must have spent a good chunk of money coming up with. I'm thinking meetings, demos, testing, approval, and at least one large congratulatory catered lunch. And now they look like idiots. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, upsets corporate management more than being made fools.

    Right on.