Keeping Children's Software on a Networked Server?

mache asks: "I have a seven year old son with his own Windows 98 machine and he has many, many educational and game CDs that his stupid parents have purchased for him. These CDs often get lost and scratched. Many of these applications will not operate without the CD being in the CD drive. At an average of $20 or more, I want to be able to load a CD on to a Linux server once and then access the application through Samba. I understand that there are some applications out there that provide a 'virutal' CD player interface to a remote server and may defeat the copy protection mechanisms (deliberately placed bad tracks) in place on kid/game/educational CDs. I bought the CDs legitimately and just want to use them legitimately rather than having my son destroy them, forcing me to buy him new ones. Does anyone have a recommendation for a Windows-based application that would produce a 'virutal' CD player on a Windows 98 machine and also defeat currently used CD copy protection allowing some sort of CD image to reside on my in-home networked server."

Comments

Re:Crack the progam

[b_pretender]

I don't agree with your comment, chrestomanci. If you legitimately purchased the software, then at the time of purchase, your perceived value of the software (copyprotection included) was greater than the price of the software. Otherwise you wouldn't have purchased it.

After the fact, perhaps the copy protection lessoned the value of the product for you, but that gives you no perfectly entitled right to crack it. Cracking it is illegal under the DMCA and whether you agree or not, it's a federal offense. You are, however, perfectly entitled to attempt to take back the game, to never buy any game with said copy protection again, or most likely, to reasses the copy protection scheme into your perceived value of the next game that you assess. This is a benefit of Capitalism.