Posted by NRen2k5 on 09/14/05 23:23

On 9/14/2005 11:30:28 AM, "Larry W. Virden" wrote:
>One of the kids was telling me that some of the latest CDs being
>released are in a format that prevents one from ripping them into MP3s.

That's partly true. The whole truth is that the "protection" is pretty weak. It's just an incorrect TOC (table of contents) and a buttload of errors (just like scratches).
A *good* CD-ROM such as those made by Plextor can cut through the "protection" like a hot knife through butter - nay, like a flaming chainsaw through butter.
You just need to use the right software. Some say that I-Tunes will do the trick. I say use the right tool for the right job: Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/).

(Silly kids think they know everything; they barely know the quick-and-dirty ways.)

>In fact, apparently you can't even listen to the CDs on one's desktop
>without a speciality player, which then prevents you from ejecting the
>CD (apparently so that you can't insert a blank one...).

The "specialty player" part is true. I don't know about preventing you from opening the drive. Maybe one of the "protection" methods actually can do that.

>Is this something that's been going on for a while and I just never
>noticed it being discussed, or is this yet another attempt to copy
>protect CDs?

It's been going on since autumn 2003, as far as I know. It has constantly been discussed since then, however not very publicly. And for good reason. Under the "Digital Millenium Copyright Act", it's illegal to even instruct someone how to defeat "copy protection".

>And wasn't there some sort of threat by the people who own the
>trademark on CD-ROM or some such thing that was threatened to be
>withdrawn if a vendor tried one of these nonsense copy protections?

Yes, Phillips, one of the co-creators of the CD-audio format, successfully lobbied for the rest of the industry to remove the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo from any recordings they "copy-protect". Unfortunately that doesn't do the customer much good, because the logo is on the *inside* of the CD case.

Fortunately, the industry, in one of its extremely rare good customer service moves, has mostly decided to put a special logo on the back of the package of "copy-protected" discs, to warn the customer that the disc may not play on certain devices.

- NRen2k5

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