Disk Copy Protection CD

[porcy 62]

Did you find any problems playing a copy protected cd?
I bought Bowie's Ziggy Stardust OST, on the label there was a statement like "this cd is protected from illegal copy with a system...
this cd can be played with cd player, sacd player...macintosh, windows ...everything"
My new Linn cd player could not read it, a Toc Error was detected.
Back at the shop they told me that can happen, specially with Car Cd player.
I simply bought another Cd.
Is someone in the major's high floor thinking to push the music market in such a idiotic way?

[henning55]

Today I made my first experiences with a copy-protected jazz CD, namely the brandnew album from Italian trumpeter Flavio Boltro entitled '40°' and released by EMI France on the Blue Note label.

The CD cover carries a 'Copy Controlled' logo but claims to be compatible with CD audio players, DVD players, and Windows 95 or higher (it does not mention Mac OS). I was quite surprised as the Web shop from where I had ordered the album did not indicate that it is copy-protected and because I assumed that copy protection would primarily affect the megasellers from the pop-business (which Flavio Boltro certainly does not belong to). When I tried to play the album I found the following;
-it played without problems on my audio CD player
-on my notebook computer Windows had some trouble reading the CD but finally recognized it as a data CD. There were a number of files / programs on the CD, but I could not trace any sound files. There was an installation program for some player program but without ReadMe or other documentation I decided not to install it.
-the notebook also has a so-called Audio DJ function (allowing to listen to Audio CDs without booting the computer) that I use often when listening on the computer. However, this CD could not be played .
-Finally I tried the CD on my son's old Power Macintosh and--surprise, surprise--it played there.

As I often use my notebook for listening, it is essential for me that I can play a CD on that machine without problems. I phoned the CD dealer who offered me to take the CD back and to refund me the money. In the future I will avoid copy-protected CDs but when ordering from the Web it is not always obvious whether an album is copy-protected or not and which consequences this may have.

[Claude]

Originally posted by porcy 62
"this cd is protected from illegal copy"

Wow, does it really say "illegal copy"? How does the CD know if the copying is illegal or legal? All copyright legislations in the world allow for some legal copying of music. This looks to be a very advanced technology with built-in legal analysis functions.

A recent article (http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/sha-03.04.03-000/) on the german Heise news page said that in Germany almost all pop Top Ten albums are sold with copy protection, while in the US copy protected CDs are much rarer. The reason is that Germany has much weaker consumer protection laws and european consumers are less willing to protest against "crippled" CDs or boycott them.

Heise is also running a database of "Un-CDs" (copy protected CDs that violate the Redbook CD standards): http://www.heise.de/ct/cd-register/

Listening tests in german hifi magazines have also shown that copy protected CDs sound worse on many CD players. The current CD copy protection systems all use the same principle: They deliberately produce data errors. Audio CD players have error correction circuits which make these errors (almost!) inaudible, while CD drives in computers cannot read the CDs because they use a different error correction system. But a few CD players and a lot of DVD players have problems too reading those discs. And generally a CD player that constantly has to correct errors doesn't sound as good as with a "clean" CD.

The only positive thing about this tendency to copy-protect CDs is that until now it only concerns the pop market. I buy a lot of european-made jazz and classical CDs and haven't yet encounted a protected disc.

[marvin g]

GET A RECORD PLAYER and some CASSETTE TAPES!! ;)

[henning55]

I am not sure whether the record companies really know what they are doing. Take the example of Blue Note: according to Heise's c't magazine the Norah Jones hit album 'Come Away With Me' is one of only three Top 10 albums in Germany that are unprotected, on the other hand they copy-protect the Flavio Boltro CD (which will probably never make it into the Top 1000). Does this make sense? But the example shows that even minority music is no longer safe from so-called copy-protection (which turns out to be play-protection sometimes).

[alankin]

Originally posted by Claude
Wow, does it really say "illegal copy"? How does the CD know if the copying is illegal or legal?


The warning should probably say that "this CD prevents illegal, as well as legal, copying; cannot be played on many CD players; and may produce distored sounds."

[visprashyana]

I specifically remember Macintosh/Apple doing a press release through Routers which stated that owners should not play the copy protected cd's in their computers. The release stated that there were very serious problems with the new copy protected cd's. If I remember correctly, the computer would lock-up and it would be very difficult to restart the machine.

In regards to the German example, it's basically after the fact to begin issuing cd's with copy protection. There are rip programs which will undo the copy protection. The better move is the SACD which does not have a digital out and will prevent anyone from retrieving the DSD data.

Just purchase a TT and record to cd's, they even sound better.

[Claude]

Originally posted by visprashyana
The better move is the SACD which does not have a digital out and will prevent anyone from retrieving the DSD data.

I don't think even this would solve the problem for the record industry.

At this time, all labels that make SACDs are moving towards hybrid discs, whose CD layer can still be copied digitally. Single layer SACDs cannot be copied digitally, but they aren't accepted by the market. Even if SACD will replace the CD (not sure), it will take at least 5-10 years until the CD layer can be abandoned.

In my view the quality of the signal that can be copied is not really an issue, as most music consumers will not hear a difference between the original and a copy even if it is made from the analog signal (recording the CD/SACD player output with a PC or CD recorder and writing it to CD).