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When Copy Protection Fails
StArSkY writes "The Age in Australia has an article today explaining the experiences of a Melbourne guy who purchased the Norah Jones CD tht is 'copy protected.' Unfortunately the only way he could listen to the CD on Apple computers or Intel computers running XP was to copy the CD. This sort of defeats the purpose of the copy protection in the first place. Serious yet amusing at the same time."
When does he get out of jail?
If all the machines he tried the CD on did not recognize, load or play it how did he manage to make a copy?
Return the defective CD under his country's consumer rights law. If enough people do this, then the companies might rethink the whole idea. Many people use DVD players as a CD for their stereo systems. Why should a CD not work in them?
I had to do a double-take on reading the name of that organisation. Needless to say I was greatly disappointed when I reread it. That h just looks so similiar to an r.
I had my credit card out to join and everything.
cheap web site hosting from 3 rocks a month.
Those music disks are not 'copy protected', they are 'playback crippled'.
The best (or worst, depending of if you are an exec of a user) the record companies can do is to make their products a little bit more inconvenient to make copies of. They do this by making it more difficult (but never ever impossible) or time consuming to make copies. That is all.
To call it 'protection' is like wrapping your wiener in toilet paper and calling it a condom. It's stupid, it doesn't get yhe job done and it's only uncomfy. (I think, haven't tried it.)
...um...like...a sig...
My Warcraft III EULA (and I'm sure others -- that was just a random selection from my game collection) explicitly states that I have the right to make one backup copy.
Well, guess what -- that disc is copy protected. So, in order to excercise my authorized right under the EULA, I have to defeat the copy protection...
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Eventually they'll resort to shipping blank CDs to thwart copying, and expect you to just stare at the pretty CD jacket while pretending you're listening to it...
Bought a copy protected CD, which was from EMI. Couldn't listen to it so I made a copy for myself. Then I mailed the original CD back to EMI with note saying what I had to do just to listen the CD and here's the original back, I won't need it, my 20 euros for fighting piracy.
The CD(s) concerned are protected by EMI's favourite copy protection system "Copy Control". You can tell by the little C.D.A.T.A logo on the data-side inside rim. We've been getting these CDs regularly at the radio atation I work for, and for computer previewing they're a real pain.
The way the protection works is by adding tracks (containing corrupt CD-R data) after Track 1 (containing the audio data). This is fine for AudioCD players because they only read Track 1. Standard CD-ROM drives also have no problem, because they ignore the data they can't understand (I think it's a form of corrupt extra session data).
CD-R/CD-RW/Combo drives however attempt to find these extra sessions/writeable areas and when they fail, assume the CD is corrupted and eject it.
What a fantastic copy control scheme, huh? Can't read the disk with a burner, but you can certainly copy it by doing a CD-ROM -> CD-RW copy. And then you can play the burnt copy. Ingenious.
I also wrote to EMI and to News Limited (in response to an earlier story they ran) about my troubles, but neither cared (possibly because I hadn't purchased the CDs in question, they were radio use only).
...I was waiting for that CD to come back in at work before I could buy it again. But since I lsiten to all of my music on my Mac, I guess I won't be buying it. Or, worst case, I'll just download the tracks off of iTunes Music Store and make my own CD.
Yay, copy-protection technology; costing you more business than it will "save" you.
Jay
I'm also in Australia, and I bought the Norah Jones CD. It wouldn't play on my Windows2000 box at work, nor my Mandrake9.1 machine at home. I tried to copy the CD, but I couldn't get the data off it digitally without getting a whole bunch of clicks and pops. Luckily a friend of mine had a US copy of it, so I copied that, and all is well. I vowed never to buy another CD from EMI ever again.
The next day my girlfriend went out and bought Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside", which was released by EMI and featured a big copy protection symbol on the front. Strangely, this one was recognised immediately by every machine I put it in, no problems. I used grip to make copies I can carry around on my Zaurus, and it worked first time, no problems, no clicks or pops. Same company, same copy protection mechanism, what gives?
(Not that I'm complaining!)
Of course, we should boycott artists and record companies that use copy protection (playback protection?). But we should do it in a way that causes the most inconvenience for the stores and record companies:
The store is obliged to pay the refund when the product doesn't work. A "copy protected" disc is not a CD, even if it's (misleadingly) sold as one.
I heard that the latest, copy protected, Robin Williams album was sold in more than 100.000 copies in my country. No more than 10 discs were returned. Let's make that number higher!
Incorrect.
Our copyright law is rather anal. Contrary to popular belieft you can't copy something for personal use at all. No exceptions.
For you to copy ANY music requires permission from the songwriter, the musicians and the distributor as they each hold a copyright for a seperate part of the article (music, lyrics and the sound recording itself).
That being said, if someone infringes someone's copyright it's a civil action rather than a criminal action (except when its a for-profit). We also have something similar to the DMCA except it only enables civil suits (ie, if I remove DeCSS from a DVD the DVD company come sue me if they feel I'm doing anything nasty).
For more information see the Copyright Council's web page and also their fact sheet on music and copyright.
A friend just bought the latest Massive Attack CD. When he got back from the store I asked if I could have a listen to it on my PC at work (NT4 *shudder*)... when I did it did not load my default Winamp, but instead automatically, with no prompting, installed its own player which proceded to crash... leaving me with no way of listening to the CD.
I've also come across this with some other CDs I own (Although not Norah Jones funnily enough).
Every time I buy a CD I rip it and store the CD away. This is so I can listen to the music I PAYED FOR while I'm at work without having to lug all my CDs around.
Also, I make copies of my CDs for use in the car. This is after having a company car broken into twice, where approx 100 CDs were stolen (My wife had the original CDs in those slip-case things in the glovebox)... so now we have a pile of original CD cases with no CDs in them.
I copy CDs so that I can listen to them without having the original that I paid for stolen or broken. Software that tries to stop me doing that... just kinda... PISSES ME OFF!
Right... I'm going home.
And this it why:
Copy protection only works in systems that have been designed from the ground up to be copy protected.
Any video or audio that is decodeable on a PC can be hijacked from that same PC.
The only way to protect your data is to control the hardware. The only reason DVDs are hard to copy is because you can't get a DVD-r that has the same capacity.
the MPIAA is in a much better situation compared to the RIAA considering cd audio is already good enough, that consumers don't really feel the need to switch to a higher quality version of the CD. Where on the other hand, DVDs are much better than VHS tapes, and have the added benefit of being harder to copy.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
they can't yet put copy "protection" on an analog signal; which everything that makes sound must eventually send to an output. then we have a beautiful little thing called an analog input that makes ALL copy protection pointless.
if the primary purpose for the copy "speedbump" is to keep the MP3's off file sharing networks i.e. Kazaa, then it's not going to work. there is someone out there patient enough to encode in real time while listening to the cd.
the problem thw RIAA and Co. face is: the file sharing networks - not the consumer that wants to listen to his/her new cd on the computer or make a backup copy because the originals always get all scratched up on the floorboard of the car.
I listen to most of my music at work using my PC and my headphones. So my wife recently got me the new Phil Collins CD ... for me to find out that I can't listen to it on a PC.
All that this achieves is that I'm being pushed towards downloading the tracks so that I can listen to them. At that point, what stops me from not being the CD since it won't work for me? The record companies will end up shooting their own foot off ...
I have nothing against buying reasonably priced CD's. However, I do not think that 20 euros is reasonable (although Switzerland is fortunately quite a bit cheaper than that).
Maybe I should write to Phil himself .. what do artists think about it?
Cheers.
are they (record companies) so scared? No one wants to rip them off. Most people are going to buy their albums, regardless of format. Sure, some people will steal their stuff, and I have grabed some albums from friends that I never bought, but that;s how it works. I buy most of my music, but I have bought bad music and I can't get a refund.
I guess my point is, they should really stop alienating their customers. I have never seen a business model that treats their customers so badly. People are still going to buy your albums! We made copies of cassette tapes, we're going to make copies of CD's and were giong to make copies of MP3's. Get over it, it's how it works. You're still going to make so much money! Get over it, ok?
They're probably spending more money fighting this stupid war on whatever than they are going to save. All they are doing is making people resent them and want to steal from to the point where smart people are going to keep cracking their stuff and become passionate about distributing it all. Another day, another enemy for the RIAA. Because of their actions, I would wadger that they have made many people angry to the point where they don't want to buy their albums, where they want to steal their albums and frankly, it's a war they will not win. You cannot go to war with your consumers. They are your friends!
Think about it, what other business would do this? If you walked into a store and they started accusing you of stealing and would only sell you things in such a way where you were oblivious to most of what it contained and treated you like shit all around, who would come back? I'm getting to the point where I'm going to want to steal all their music, just to spite them.
In short, they need to settle down and just accept the market as it is. They choose a digital format because it is VERY cheap to make, thus increasing profits one billion fold and yet cannot cope with the fact that this cheap medium will also allow people to send a "free" album out to someone from time to time.
And lets face it, I would bet most albums people download etc are albums they probably would not buy in the first place. How many play lists of people have you seen that have tons of songs you know they would never buy anyways?
Anyways, the main point is that the customer just BOUGHT the album, WTF are you doing? They B-O-U-G-H-T it!
AHHHH!!
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
See also
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/copycontrol.html
How I patched cdparanoia to copy Avril Lavigne in order to play it under linux.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
If the public has their food and drinks and gladiator games, they are easily controlled.
Analogically speaking, EMI just messed up the gladiator games.
Unrest will ensue.
(Gee, I wish I knew the EXACT quote and which Roman Emperor said it....)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Probably said already, but I don't have time to read all the comments:
Get with it guys, dust off the old record player and buy your new stuff on vinyl! Works for me, except I need a clean-room to store my music collection. Oh yeah, and it weighs about a ton.
Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
It's specifically mentioned in our (AU) copyright law.
It's actually quite interesting if you read it. The law makes exemptions for "fair dealing" and then goes on to specifically mention some things that are included in "fair dealing". However the wording (to me at least) doesn't indicate that the list is an exclusive.
I think you'd have every chance to stand up in court and argue that making a backup copy of a CD you own is "fair dealing".
The reason that hasn't happened is because in the real world the record companies have no interest in stopping you doing that anyway. There is no money to be gained and they don't want to cause a weakening of the copyright law by creating a precedent that expands "fair dealing".
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Dead serious... not impressed.
I purchase the CD and try to play it at work on Windows 2000 and it just isn't recognised... WinAmp insisting that no audio CD was in the drive.
So to listen to the album on my PC I just downloaded the bloody thing from alt.binaries.sound.mp3.complete_cd
Not illegal in any way since I now own the original... but bloody stupid and makes me realise that the only way I may now enjoy EMI releases at work will be to download a copy... which really defeats everything their system is trying to stop.
'Tis a mad, mad world.
Damn right! How dare they stop you from being a CD??? Insensitive clods! But they need never find out - all you need to do is kinda curl up into a circle and sandwich yourself in plastic ... all in the privacy of your own home ...
... or did you mean "buying"?? ;)
I wonder whether this "CD" bore the Compact Disc logo we all know and love. If it did then perhaps he should email Philips and let them know - Philips don't (or at least didn't) take too kindly copy-proctected cd's using the compact disc logo. This is because by baring the logo it claims to be a proper "Red Book" cd, but isn't because it has copy protection.
Does anyone actually know who (if anyone) in Philips to bother about this? As I've just discovered that a supposed "cd" (it bears the logo) that I own is copy protected and I'm in a record label bashing mood.
Yeah, unreadable CDs suck.
:)
I've HAD to copy CDs with multimedia content and/or copy protection to listen to them.
That leaves me a copy (or two) that i can actually listen to in ANY player - PC, workstation or my not-so-thrusty old CD player....
Fortunately this is perfectly LEGAL in Denmark - I can even borrow a CD from at friend and copy it. Only one rule; NEVER copy a copy.
I can do that
-B
Before being allowed to purchase a CD you will have to have your house RIAA DRM certified. RIAA operatives will removed from your house any equipment that could possibly be used to infringe upon their artists copyrights. Illegal items include, CD duplicators, PCs, Tape recorders, Video Recorders, wax disks, loudspeakers (you NOT your neighbours have bought the right to enjoy our music). Music shall be listened to through a single (approved) mono-earpiece (some listeners with stereo ear-pieces have abused the priviliedge and let others 'sample' the music using the spare ear bud).
After your music purchase an RIAA representative (probably a student trying to pay off $97 trillion) will sit with you at all times to ensure your compliance with our terms and conditions.
"We hope you enjoy your music purchase and continue to support your record industry"
p.s. Squeal little piggy!
I ran into the same problem with Archon published by Electronic Arts. The copy protection was incompatible with the Epson Equity I BIOS. Electronic Arts "support" suggested getting another computer to play the game (which wasn't realistic for me at the time). Instead, I found a cracked version of the game where the copy protection was skipped and the game played fine on my existing computer.
More recently, I have found that I need to crack any games that use SafeDisc v1 to play them on my DVD-ROM drive. For whatever reason, it treats using the original CD as if it's a copy but the crack version will use the DVD-ROM drive for playing just fine. Neither Macrovision or the game publishers provide any useful help in getting these older games working with DVD-ROM drives.
The question becomes, if the long term solution is to get a cracked version then why pay for the original version in the first place?
A friend said he bought the Norah Jones CD and went to make a copy at work, then realised halfway through the burning process that it was copy-protected. Not a peep from the burner, Windows or anything. The copy worked just fine, too...
But far, far worse than any of those crimes....
I'm a girl too! See naked chicks in my journal!
I don't exactly know what you mean by that. The copy protection is obviously failing since he COPIED the CD, not only did he copy it, but the copied CD was the only version that worked.
Lower the price of CD's!
Ok, it costs a lot to make a CD. You need to spend a time in the studio. (expensive) You need to make sure it souds right. (not so expensive, I guess) And you need to promote it (expensive).
Then why in the name of all holy cows does the anniversary Dark Side of the Moon cost the same as the newest girl/boy band CD?
You don't need to record it, you don't need to promote it. (Have you seen much Pink Floyd on MTV lately?) You just remix it and press it. Voila! You have a great CD that people will buy, even though they have at least 2 versions already of that album!
I don't give a rat ass anymore about RIAA...
Copy protection licencing is sufficiently expensive and a hassle to the producers that's it's only used on 'popular' artists. So take that as a hint and listen to 'unpopular' ones.
Spend your CD money on world, jazz, classical, flamenco, folk, blues, celtic, indie or anything else outside the mainstream - but just stay away from the popular artists. There's a vast world of great music out there to be discovered - help out the artists, broaden your horizons, and give the big music companies a kick in the pants. Furthermore if they see their cd sales drop, but cd sales in general rise they're not stupid enough that they won't draw conclusions.
One issue that people don't see with these discs is that even if they work on whatever hardware you have now that doesn't mean it will work in what you buy later.
With a CD you know it will work in anything with a CD logo on it. With these things you could find in five years time that you don't have any hardware that will play it.
When my bog standard CD player dies I'm unlikely to replace it. I already have two PCs, an xBox and a DVD player that should be perfectly capable of playing my music but won't these discs don't work (or at least the one disc I tried).
If particular versions of copy protection are only employed for a short period time then future hardware manufacters aren't going to worry too much about compatibility with every single different type.
That's why I took 100th Window back and why I haven't bought one of these discs since. And I used to buy 3-4 CDs a month.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The thing that seems to be missed most in these discussions is loosing and regaining your purchased material. When I buy my music I buy a LICENSE to listen to that music. Lets face it, the cd cost a couple of bucks, where does the rest of the money go. The pysical media cost next to nothing.
I was unlucky enough to have almost my entire cd collection stolen (yeah no insurance but there u go) and I'll put it straight: There is no way in hell that im going to fork out the hundreds of dollars to get them back again. I have already paid for my license to listen to the material I purchased a long time earlier. I am merely regaining the physical media to execute that license.
But that makes me a criminal? Well, bring it on!
Christ. Get the mp3s. If there are no mp3s og oggs, borrow the CD from someone and make mp3s and oggs and publish them. If we can make sure rapid dispertion of high-quality copies of copy-protected works - plus we don't buy the crippled hardware they offer us, then the effect of crippling the discs will be negative. All it takes is a high quality cd/dvd-player with digital output paired with a pc that accepts digital input. Then, you'll have a pretty good quality copy of any crippled cd even if they made it _impossible_ to play back on a computer.
Or, buy the disc, make a copy as described, and return it claiming it didn't work on your computer at work and that you primarily listen to music at work.
Maybe I should try that approach with the new Ed Harcourt CD? I used to convince myself that a simple boycott is enough. However, a bit of piracy of the supposedly "safe" format will make the business case for "copy protection" even worse..
Stop the brainwash
There are two groups of people that buy a CD. Those that can copy it and those that can't.
The copy protection is obviously supposed to stop group 1 from copying the disks but this is the group that probably knows how to get round the protection anyway.
All that is happening is the record company is inconveniencing group 1 and annoying group 2. Its a lose/lose situation.
If its possible to listen to a cd then its possible to copy it, so why are the record companies determined to p1ss off 100% of their customers with these half-baked schemes.
How if you want to have fun when entering Australian customs, if they ask if you are a convicted felon, asnwer "Oh, is that still a requirement?". But be ready for no sense of humor and a quick return flight.
Remember, it's an ollllld joke.
Infuriate left and right
The problem with your argument is, you're ignoring something pretty huge.
.....
Yes, in theory, LP has a high-end rolloff limited only by the equipment used - up to 40kHz is readily acheivable with a decent magnetic pick-up. CD, by contrast, has a high-end rolloff limited by the quantisation process - the Nyquist Limit of 0.5x the sampling rate. Basically, to know what the frequency of a signal is, you need at least one sample somewhere in the crest and another sample somewhere in the trough. This is a fundamental limitation that no technology will get around.
Changing the sampling rate of a digital signal is non-trivial (except for integer multiples). So the entire mastering process is performed at 44100 samples / second, the ISO9660 red book CD sampling rate, and gives a Nyquist limit of 22.05kHz - above the limit of a child's hearing. In practice no filter can be made with a sharp enough "knee" to fit the limit, so the response typically begins to tail off around 18kHz, in line with an adult's hearing.
So your analogue vinyl LP was recorded and mixed digitally at 44100Ss-1, and therefore contains nothing that wouldn't be on the CD of the same work. Except Vinyl Warmth, of course.
Apple Records tried to copy-protect The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper LP by including a frequency too high to hear, that was meant to beat with the ultrasonic bias of a tape recorder and cause the volume to modulate up and down on playback. One resistor and one capacitor would have got around it. It worked fine in the labs, but most home equipment of the day couldn't reproduce the copy protection signal at all and the album was easily ripped off
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
I can't believe that the recording industry believes that locking down CDs, making them less versitile, and restricting where you can play them is going to make them a more attactive product than a free MP3. Please, at least give me some reason to feel guilty. I suppose the dinosaurs trapped in the La Brea tar pits thrashed around a bit before they went under as well.....
from the report:
:
.. could someone explain to EMI how hard it is to use an embedded player on the CD itself when your computer system cant even see the CD ?
"Once there, he tried to listen to his new acquisition, using his Titanium laptop which runs version 10.2 of Apple's operating system. There was no response, with the disc not being recognised.
One can't blame Marovitch for not trying - he tried to listen to the disc on a workstation which runs Windows 2000 and then on one which runs Windows XP.
In both cases, he got no joy. The disc was not picked up by the system. "
from EMI
"As the technology was created to be played through its own embedded player on the CD itself and not any other player that is currently available to the PC/Apple, it will cause anomalies if played in any other manner."
Now
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
I had to do this with a CD last year because of some old CD players we have at home. I e-mailed Sen. Hatch about it and explained in detail what I had to do and why I had to do it. I then pointed out that the music industry was 'forcing' me to make copies of their CDs in order to be able to use what I had paid for.
I also told him that I copy every single computer CD that I get and only use the copies so that my originals won't get ruined. I would do the same with DVDs if I could. I don't steal software, but I copy everything I have. Luckily, I pointed out, I am knowledgeable enough to get around all of these copy protection schemes; but most people aren't and it is illegal for me to help them.
Everyone should write their congresscritters and legislators about their experiences like this so that they will be more aware of the problem. Be a squeaky wheel.
Those who open their minds too far often let their brains fall out.
Not even close to reality.
In the first place, the high-frequency tone on Sgt Pepper was ONLY put in the runout groove that takes the playback stylus into the locked concentric groove. Nobody records that part, and if they did it would not affect the rest of the recording. It wasn't even included in US pressings.
In the second place, Apple Records did not yet exist. Sgt Pepper came out in 1967; Apple's first release was "The Beatles" (The White Album) in 1968.
In the third place, copying a record at home in 1967 was cumbersome because it meant using a reel-to-reel machine. Philips had JUST introduced the cassette as a dictation medium of low fidelity - nobody had made a cassette or cassette machine capable of coming even remotely close to the sound of the original LP.
I took it home, and...you guessed it. It wouldn't play with WMP 8, Real, or WinDVD in any of 4 drives I tried on two machines. I did find some old shareware player that would play it, but it was a crap player, and I couldn't stand the jumpiness, digital blocking, and other fine artifacts whilst I watched.
So, I trotted it's little shiny ass right back to Walmart, stood in line for 20 minutes, and, after reading the "no refunds on opened CDs, DVDs or Software" about 412 times, I got to the front of the line. I handed the 17 year old girl my DVD, which she inspected closely.
"Yeah, it's been opened," I said. "It's ok. I just need a refund." "Uhhhh, sir? We don't really...ummm...do refunds...on...ummm...opened...uhhh...stuff like this."
I grinned, and said, "That's ok. Just need my money back, thanks. It doesn't work." I was thinking to myself, how do I explain DVD copy protection to this girl without making her head explode or having her gnaw her arm off to escape?
"Well, I can't really...ummm...give a refund on this. Would you like to exchange it for another one?" "Nope," I said with a smile. "Just my money back. Thanks."
She pointed to the tiny sign about no refunds on DVDs and said "Well, we have a policy..." I interrupted her with my best Fargo-esque Minnesota accent, "Hey, you betcha. Y'know...Yeah, I see your big sign right there...yeah, that one. Hey, that's great. 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' Wow. That sign's gotta be 12 feet tall, huh? Dontcha figure that sorta makes this little one here not really all that important?" She stared at me blankly (We're in Portland, not Minnesota, and I don't think she got it.)
"Yeah, ummm...I'm gonna have to call my manager." "Not a problem," says I, with a chorus of groans from the people in line behind me...So, the manager shows up, and she's gotta be at LEAST 19, with a cool ring of keys around her wrist. GOTTA be important stuff, huh? The clerk hands her the DVD with a conspiratorial look at me..."it's been opened..." she whispers quietly to the manager.
So, after a 5 minute diatribe about the horrors of this copy protection crap, she just shook her head, "We can't return this." At which point I pulled out my cell phone (which was off), punched 911 so she could see me, and said, "Are you suure? I've got nothing else to do tonight."
So, I got my money back.
Return your DEFECTIVE DVDs and CDs. If we don't, all we're doing is encouraging them!
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
The long-time stance of the Slashdot crowd has been that if digital music distribution were made available to bands, they'd see more of the revenue from music sales. I was listening to the radio last night and heard the band "Cold" talking about MP3s. Their stance seemed to be that the money earned from CD sales is owed to the record labels for the work they do promoting the music, pushing the concerts (something that apparently generates a lot of revenue for the band), and making sure their songs get played on the radio.
This seemed completely backwards to me. Cold has basically bought into the line that they need the RIAA for promotion, and they're willing to give up their revenue from CD sales in exchange. It was the first time I'd heard a band actually come out and say this.
I think the digital music battle has a long way to go if artists fail to understand that what digital distribution offers is a way to break free from the record labels. I can't believe that so many artists are willing to give up their CD revenue in exchange for promotion and production costs as long as they still get their take of the concert sales.
Tried Real Jukebox that came with my Yamaha CD-F1, wouldn't recognize the disc in the drive. "Hmm..."
Look at the back of the CD case and in 4 pt font there is something about "Made with Macromedia." Now I'm mad.
First I used Clone CD to make a virtual CD image on the hard disk. This program is great, for making backup copies of CDs or allowing you to play a game with "Please insert original CD in drive D:". It is $40 well spent.(I'm in no way affiliated with elby.)
Now I had a readable image. Next I used CDEx to remove the copy protection from the image and create a Redbook compliant CD. CDEx is free from SourceForge. Hat's off to an impressive program.
Ahhh... Now I can listen to my new CD while I work. I wasn't copying to CD to copy it (it would have been more cost effective to buy another, as this process took an hour and I get paid more than $15/hr...) I space-shifted the CD so I could listen to it in the device of my choice.
I've never downloaded an MP3 from P2P, and have no intention to do so. It is very frustrating not to be able to sit down and listen to a CD that I just bought. (Actually, it was a gift from my sister.) Also, I typically make one copy to use in my car and keep the original in my home CD changer. Car CD's tend to get damaged easily.
I first read this as "creative director of the Richard Simmons group". Oh my.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
I don't have a laptop, unfortunately, or I'd try this... Go to a big music store with your laptop (some time when you've got a lot of free time). Bring along a printout of the Redbook standard (the one that they have to comply with if they want to put that little Phillips 'Compact Disc' logo on the disc).
Buy a Phil Collins CD that you know is copy protected. Bring it over to the service desk. Open the CD in front of them, stick it in your laptop, have it fail to play, and insist that it's broken and you want another one.
Go get another one, open it, and do the same thing.
Repeat until you've opened the shrinkwrap on every copy of the CD, forcing the store to either re-wrap them or (more likely) send them back to the manufacturer as defective (at the manfacturer's cost).
Then go on to Norah Jones. ;)
-T
Not that my computer has any programs ending with .exe, but still...
In this case, however, laziness plays the exact opposite role. While pirates are going to step up to the plate and see this as a challenge (perhaps even a welcome one), your average consumer simply won't buy a product that doesn't work in the way they believe it should (in this case, CDs that, well, actually play). It might take a while since public knowledge of this scheme is still very low, but all it's going to take for your average person is one such incident as cited in the article, and you can bet they'll stop buying cd's with those new-fangled operating instructions on the artwork.
In a couple years these ridiculous, half-assed protection schemes are going to be chalked up as a lesson in business failure in some MBA textbook, and beyond that will only be history. In Soviet Russia, the KGB makes unauthorized copies of you.
I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember the "look for the Union label" jingle. However, what you need to do as far as CDs go is "look for the CD-DA logo."
From what I understand, Royal Dutch Philips is actively looking for CDs labeled as proper Red Book compliant, non-broken CD-DA CDs but which are copy-limited, and therefore broken. If that Phil Collins and/or Norah Jones CD has the logo, but does not conform to the Red Book standard, Philips needs to be let know so they can SUE. And they have specifically said they WILL sue if cases like that are brought to their attention.
If the CD DOES NOT bear the CD-DA logo, you can't do this. But if it does...you can put a world of hurt on the music industry strictly by bringing this to their attention.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Buy a CD player.
More and more people (like me?) just DON'T have any CD players at all!
I have a DVD player in my living room, which I doubt will be able to play those disks (heck it can't do CDRs/CDRWs).
I usually play my CD's on my computer and then redirect the audio to my home theater system.
Will I have to become a pirate to listen to my future CDs?
I guess this also raises the question whether or not you own the media or the songs on the media? What do you pay for? The right to listen to the songs (if so, can other people around you listen too?) or the right to listen to *that* media only? (then you can't make MP3s for your walkman/car player?)
It seems like the fact that you can't play that CD on some hardware is some sort of discrimination. You can't fully enjoy your CD. Will record companies refund you a part of the price since you can't play it on all your players? If you own the right to listen to the song, would making a copy be legal in that case?
-- Leeeter than leet
That is exactly the point. It only takes one illicit copy to ruin the whole effort.
:) The track breaks &c. can be got either from the embedded timecode or (for real diehard hackers with points to prove) the LCD drive signals.
.....
It wouldn't be too hard to take a feed of the zeros and ones as picked up by the laser in a standalone CD player (even if there wasn't a digital out) and decode that. The process is published in the Red Book
Or, you could build a card that sat on a computer's bus, and emulated a well-documented sound card well enough to fool Windows - and grabbed the resulting data in onboard RAM, or possibly a dedicated separate HDD. All in all, copy protection is a fallacy. The only workable scheme would be one that could truthfully detect whether or not the listener is doing anything dishonest.
Anyway, even if the record companies do succeed in implementing such a scheme (I for one believe it's impossible) we can always make our own music! Unless/until the record companies find a way to regulate the manufacture and sale of instruments [excuse me chummy, that there guitar looks as if it might be going to be used to play a copyrighted song - you're nicked], anyway
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
You must remember that, up until VERY recently, all CDROM drives have a little "play" button on them that will blindly seek to track 1 and start playing redbook audio through it's analog and/or digital output ports (you know, the little thin cable that you can never find when you're trying to hook up your CDROM drive to "AUX" on your sound card). You don't even need to have an OS booted -- just supply power to the CDROM drive and press the little button and it will play.
While the above is sarcastic, I'm actually somewhat serious -- what EMI said was perfectly and technicaly valid. Incredibly insulting to the computer user community, but valid.