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CDs or not? An interesting take on Key2Audio

Posted by Hemos on from the to-listen-or-not-to-listen dept.

Erik K. Veland writes "Mathew Ruben of MacOpinion has written a long article titled Celine Dion killed my iMac!. An interesting take on the whole CD-issue, the criminalization of the user and a comparison of the technology to cable box-zapping."

5 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What's being executed? by isorox · · Score: 5, Informative
    It doesnt "execute" a file, the data track is just garbled.

    Redbook CD standards are for non "enhanced" cd's. They dont cover cd audio (no fat) followed by data (fat), apparently.

    Bluebook standards are, however, for "enhanced" cd's.

    cd's like this one, are "enhanced" with a data track. However said track apprears to read, then fails, miserably.

    3 things then occur:
    1. drive attempts to read for ever
    2. drive ejects it
    3. drive dies of a heart attack and refuses to open.

      2 is annoying. 1 & 3 are "fatal".

      Sony are disributing deliberatly cripple bluebook standard cd's. They arent cd digital audio (hence no logo on them), however they are deliberatly crippled with the intent to destroy equipment. I sense a class action court case.

      They dont care about piracy (which this doesnt protect against), and arent interested in destroying fair use (which is unprofitable on its own). They are interested in destroying first sale rights, the same rights that allow a video store to buy 1 video and rent it out 50 times without paying any royalties.

      they are attempting to corner the market by eliminating competiters, because they know they are too late to enter on a level playing field.
  2. Excellent Article by erasmus_ · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm surprised there are not more comments about this article on here, as it is very very interesting. Perhaps it is its length that has put people off.

    I think the biggest thing mentioned that I have not heard expressed before is that these cds really _do_ conform to the standards of multisession cds. This is because they have to in order to trick the computer into reading what it thinks is going to be an invalid data track, which in turn is not formatted properly at all. This still conforms to the standard, however, since there is no specification as to what the data track must contain, simply that it identifies itself as one, which this one does. So, the data track can store anything, and in this case stores garbage. I think this definitely opens up Sony and anyone else using Key2Audio to lawsuits. Overall, I think it's at least somewhat funny that these really are "Enhanced CDs", just that they're enhanced to hurt your computer.

    He also defends Apple's role in this very convincingly. Apple has gotten a lot of flack over this, but as he points out, this has happened many times in the past with various cd drives and formats. There are still cdroms out there that cannot handle multisession cds at all, or those that cannot read CDRWs. Now of course Apple could've had the OS handle the whole thing a little bit more gracefully, but could they have counted on every possible thing that a cd-type media is going to contain ever in the future? Certainly no, and certainly not having a garbage data track that is specifically meant to not fit with what a pc maker would count on. So I think as long as they issue a patch for this, they're not the bad guy at all here.

    My thoughts are that consumers should continue to vote with their wallets. Realistically, sales for popular albums will not be hurt by this, but, if enough of us complain to stores, perhaps they'll do something. I listen to cds at work on my computer as I work (doing so now) and the first time I get one of these, I'm complaining my head off to Best Buy or whoever. If enough of us do so, perhaps they'll start putting them in a separate section or ask the labels to start identifying them more clearly, and then more people will be weary of getting them.

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  3. Holding down the mouse button... by tm2b · · Score: 2, Informative

    Holding down the mouse button as the Mac boots has been a way to eject stuck media since time immemorial.

    Is there some reason that this isn't working on these "stuck" CDs?

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  4. Re:Instead of Whining about it here... by phyxeld · · Score: 5, Informative
    My letter:
    Celine,

    I recently bought your new cd.
    I put it in my computer, and it never came out. I had to spend $250 to get my computer repaired. Now I hear this is because your CD contains a corrupted data track designed to keep people from copying it.

    I was curious if this actually worked (it prevented me from even playing it!) so I looked online. Your album has indeed been pirated, there are mp3s of it all over the place. In fact, it was only by downloading a copy online I was even able to hear your album at all! (i'm not going to risk putting that cd back in my computer!).

    I trust that you will send me the $250 that your disc cost me, plus the few cents your record company gave you from the sale of it (what do you get? like 2% of that $18?). You can paypal the money to this email address. If it would be eaiser for you to send a check, just let me know and I'll send you my address.

    Sincerly,
    phyxel dee.
    --
    __
    Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
  5. How to listen to Celine on OS 9 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Look into your extensions folder inside the system folder. There are extensions for the different types of CDs you may use: CD audio, PhotoCD, ISO etc...

    The trick is to disable all extensions except "CD audio", of course. Restart, and you can listen to any copyrighted CD. Enjoy! :-)