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Newest Audio CD DRM Proves Ineffective

Posted by simoniker on from the strike-seventy-three dept.

The Importance of writes "As noted previously, a couple of weeks ago BMG released a new CD by Anthony Hamilton that included DRM. Slashdot readers speculated that the system wouldn't work. Now there is a report proving it doesn't work by Alex Halderman, a graduate student at Princeton's computer science department and the author of an earlier, definitive report (PDF, HTML version) on first generation CD copy protection. Famed computer scientist Ed Felten asks: "Is this the end of the road for CD copy protection?" His answer? "It ought to be.""

5 of 703 comments (clear)

  1. Defeated by disabling autorun! by Rex+Code · · Score: 2, Redundant

    I hope we see more DRM like this. Who would have thought turning off autorun would be a DMCA violation?

  2. It only *seems* like it doesn't work... by Dimensio · · Score: 2, Redundant

    The DRM feature works in tandemw ith the DMCA. Alex Halderman can expect to find himself relocated to a federal prison soon. I bet that he won't be writing about the weakness of DRM systems anymore.

    See, DRM does work when you make it illegal to point out where it is weak.

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    STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
  3. Wow, it's as if they didn't even try... by *weasel · · Score: 3, Redundant

    It loads a custom device driver via 'autorun' when you stick the CD in.

    So if you hold shift, disable autorun, or run an OS that doesn't do autorun, the CD might as well have no copy protection whatsoever.

    This is about as effective as putting a sticker on the front that says 'Pretty please do not attempt to extract data from this CD on your computer'.

    I wonder how much money this company got for their incredibly secure DRM system...

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    // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
  4. The layman's way around any DRM by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 2, Redundant

    All you have to do is own a tape/cd/etc audio recorder that has a "line in", and voila, take the line out/speaker out from your computer, run a cable, and presto! you can defeat any drm package for a currently existing computer, unless the computer is hard-wired to not have "line out" or "speaker out" (not likely)

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    stuff |
  5. Re:I love the text on the CD.. by deander2 · · Score: 0, Redundant


    about the same time my laptop started being 1" thin. ;-p

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    http://kered.org