Here’s a great gift idea just in time for the holidays: Make your friends and relatives their very own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs.
Passive protection exploits subtle differences between the way computers read CDs and the way ordinary CD players do. By changing the layout of data on the CD, it’s sometimes possible to confuse computers without affecting ordinary players — or so the theory goes. In practice, the distinction between computers and CD players is less precise. Older generations of CD copy protection, which relied entirely on passive protection, proved easy to copy in some computers and impossible to play on some CD players. For these reasons, copy protection vendors now use active protection — special software designed to block copying.
Discs with XCP or Macrovision protection employ active protection in conjunction with a milder form of passive protection. You can create your own CD with exactly the same passive protection by following a straightforward five-step procedure. I’ll describe the procedure here, and then explain why it works.
What you’ll need:
- A computer running a recent version of Windows (instructions are Windows-specific; perhaps someone will write instructions for MacOS or Linux)
- Nero, a popular CD burning application
- CloneCD, an advanced disc duplication utility
- Two blank recordable CDs
Step 1: Burn a regular audio CD
Start Nero Burning ROM and create a new Audio CD project. [View] Add the audio tracks that you want to include on your copy-protected disc. [View] When you’re ready to record, click the Burn button on the toolbar. In the Burn tab, make sure “Finalize disc” is unchecked. [View] Insert a blank CD and click Burn. Be careful not to infringe any copyrights! For loads of great music that you can copy legally, visit Creative Commons.
Step 2: Add a data session to the CD
Start another Nero compilation, this time selecting the “CD-ROM ISO” project type. In the Multisession tab, make sure “Start Multisession disc” is selected; and in the ISO tab, make sure Data Mode is set to “Mode 2 / XA”. [View] Add any files that you want to be accessible when the CD is used in a computer. You might include “bonus” content, such as album art and lyrics. [View] For a more professional effect, consider adding the installer for your favorite spyware application and creating an Autorun.inf file so it starts automatically. When you’re finished, click the Burn toolbar button. Insert the audio CD you created in Step 1, and click Burn. [View] Nero should warn you that the disc you’ve inserted is not empty; click Yes to add your data files as a second session. [View]
At this point, you’ve created a CD that contains both audio tracks and data files. The data files you put on the CD should be visible in Windows Explorer (in My Computer, right click the CD icon and click Open) and the audio tracks should be rippable with your favorite audio player. To add passive copy protection, you’ll need to modify the layout of the data on the disc so that the audio tracks are more difficult to access.
Step 3: Rip the CD as a CloneCD image file
Make sure the CD you just created is still in the drive and start CloneCD. Click the “Read to Image File” button. Select your drive and click Next. Choose “Multimedia Audio CD” and click Next. [View] Select an easy to find location for the image file and click OK to begin ripping.
Step 4: Modify the image file to add passive protection
The CloneCD image you created in step 3 actually consists of three files with names ending in .CCD, .IMG, and .SUB. The .CCD file describes the layout of the tracks and sessions on the CD. You’ll edit this file to add the passive protection.
Start Windows Notepad and open the .CCD file. Modifying the file by hand would be tedious, so I’ve created an online application to help. Copy the entire contents of the file to the clipboard and paste it into this form, then click Upload. Copy the output from the web page and paste it back into Notepad, replacing the original file contents. [View] Save the file and exit Notepad.
Step 5: Burn the modified image to create a copy-protected CD
Insert a blank CD and start CloneCD again. Click the “Write From Image File” button. Select the image file you modified in step 4 and click next. Select your CD recorder and click Next. Select “Multimedia Audio CD” and click OK to begin burning. [View]
That’s it! You’ve created your very own copy-protected CD.
Now it’s time to test your disc. If everything worked, the files from the data session will be visible from My Computer, but the audio tracks will not appear in Windows Media Player, iTunes, and most other mainstream music players. The CD should play correctly in standalone CD players.
How it works. To see how this form of passive protection works, you can examine the layout of the CD you created. Start Nero and select Disc Info from the Recorder menu. You should see something like this:
(The exact number of tracks you see will depend on how many songs you included.)
Notice that the tracks are grouped into two sessions — essentially two independent CDs burned onto the same disc. Unprotected CDs that combine audio and data files contain audio tracks in the first session and a single data track in the second. The only difference in the passive protected CD you just created is that the second session contains two tracks instead of one.
You added the extra track (shown in yellow) when you edited the disc image in step 4. This simple change makes the audio tracks invisible to most music player applications. It’s not clear why this works, but the most likely explanation is that the behavior is a quirk in the way the Windows CD audio driver handles discs with multiple sessions.
For an added layer of protection, the extraneous track you added to the disc is only 31 frames long. (A frame is 1/75 of a second.) The CD standard requires that tracks be at least 150 frames long. This non-compliant track length will cause errors if you attempt to duplicate the disc with many CD drives and copying applications.
Caveat emptor. Yes, your copy-protected CD is “industrial strength” — XCP and Macrovision employ exactly the same passive protection — but even the pros have their limitations. There are many well-known method for defeating this kind of passive protection, such as:
- Enhanced software – Advanced CD ripping programs avoid the Windows CD audio driver altogether and communicate directly with the CD drive. Thus, programs such as EAC are able to rip the tracks without any difficulty. – Better CD copying applications, including Nero, support a recording mode called Disc-at-Once/96; this lets them create an exact duplicate of the protected disc even though the last track has an illegal length.
- Other operating systems – The discs can be ripped with standard software on Macs and on Linux systems. These platforms don’t suffer from the limitation that causes ripping problems on Windows.
- Magic markers – The famous magic marker trick involves carefully drawing around the outer edge of the CD. This blocks out the second session, allowing the disc to be ripped and copied just like an unprotected CD.
And of course, at any time Microsoft could fix the Windows quirk that is the basis for this technique, rendering it completely ineffective.
Despite these limitations, who wouldn’t enjoy finding a homemade copy-protected CD in their stocking? They’re a great way to spread holiday cheer while preventing anyone else from spreading it further.
how too copy cd
I have a bootable CD-rom which works fine. BUT
It only boots from the CD-R burner and not from my DVD player drive.
My DVD Drive does not even recognize that this disk is loaded.
The real problem is that I can not view any of the files on the CD. Even in safe mode or from DOS.
DOS tells me their are 0 files on the disk.
How is this possible ?
I am guessing it is some sort of copy protection.
I want to know how this was done, so I can do it to other programs I write and burn.
Any Ideas how I can view these files ?
I have Win XP and ME. Attrib, Dir and xcopy are of no help.
Please reply
i need to cd copying block software
i really will appreciate if my request is been granted, i really want to say u people are doing a nice job,kep it up.
please help me to make a copy protected disc(vcd,dvd,data…etc).
PLEASE help me, I need to know how to protect data CD.
is it possible that i can “protect” a data cd ?? my problem is that i stdy ICT so, each semester we develop a proyect but later the teachers get a copy of our proyect and then they sell it.. if you can help me, i appreciate it thanls…
Atte. GaBo
comment avoir un software gratuit pour copier mes propres cd (acheté)
pour mon usage personnel ?
Cómo hacer tu propio CD con protección anticopia…
Ed Felten explica en inglés, no sin malicia, cómo fabricar tu propio CD con protección anticopia para que tus amigos/familiares iletrados informáticos sepan qué cosa es esa que nos quieren colar y qué cara se le pone a uno cuando no puedes hacer una co…
whats the process for a Copy Protected Video CD
Can this method be used to copy-protect AVI files or video on the CD?
Its great….Can this be done in VCD also??? If yes could you plz help me in saying how??
[…] Alex Halderman neuvoo Freedom-to-Tinker-blogissa, miten kopiosuojatun CD-levyn tekeminen onnistuu keneltä vain. Haldermanin mukaan itse tehty kopiosuojattu CD on oiva joululahja. […]
[…] Here’s a great gift idea just in time for the holidays: Make your friends and relatives their very own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs. Passive protection exploits subtle differences between the way computers read CDs and the way ordinary CD players do. By changing the layout of data on the CD, it’s sometimes possible to confuse computers without affecting ordinary players — or so the theory goes. In practice, the distinction between computers and CD players is less precise. Older generations of CD copy protection, which relied entirely on passive protection, proved easy to copy in some computers and impossible to play on some CD players. For these reasons, copy protection vendors now use active protection — special software designed to block copying.Click here to read this article Thursday 15 December 2005 – 15:00:39 | Misc Hacks | Comments: 0 | […]
[…] built into XCP and Macrovision discs.More > 2005-12-15 :: tell a friend :: add to del.icio.us :: digg it You can rent this space for 30 days.Interested? […]
[…] J. Alex Halderman at Freedom to Tinker has a helpful guide to creating your own copy protected audio CDs. You can be just like Sony only without the rootkit or public humiliation. […]
[…] fool most standard media player software.[Via Boing Boing] ReadPermalinkEmail thisLinking BlogsComments[0] […]
[…] Make Your Own Copy-Protected CDs || 12/16/2005 || Make Your Own Copy-Protected CDs – Here’s a great gift idea just in time for the holidays: Make your friends and relatives theirvery own copy-protected CDs using the same industrial-grade passive protection technology built into XCP and Macrovision discs.From cw Add a Comment ! […]
[…] Bald ist Weihnachten, und was erfreut das Herz mehr als eine selbstgebrannte CD geschenkt zu bekommen? Wer seinen Mitgeeks eine besondere Freude machen will, verschenkt aber nicht nur einfach die Lieblingsmusik, sondern appliziert auf dem Tonträger auch noch Kopierschutz und Abspielsperren. Musik, Herausforderung für den ambitionierten Ripper von Welt und dazu noch Anpassung an gängige Standards der Tonträgerindustrie: Drei Dinge auf einmal. Das geht nun wirklich nicht? Doch, Ed Felten schrieb eine Anleitung. […]
Is there a way to put a copyguard on straight DVD recorder setup (non computer copy). Using Liteon Stand alone Recorder LVW-5006 and Panasonic Stand Alone DMR-E20. Need to add a session or something to keep others from copying my production.
DVDs. thanx.
Zeikko wrote:
“Is there a way to create an multisession image to your hard drive and then burn it?”
That’s what we were discussing: an ordinary multisession CD iso (image) is no more difficult to create than an ordinary audio session cd iso or an ordinary data session cd iso… all three have specified formats.
But the copy protection multisession CD has a deliberately corrupted data session… and so far no one has reported back on what happens when you try to mount that corrupted iso in software.
I’m too poor to afford two CDs because blank CDs are very expensive here in finland. And that’s because 0.2€ from every CD goes to some big companies involved in the music business. Is there a way to create an multisession image to your hard drive and then burn it? Would save a lot of money.
Kris Thorn
You may be correct there as to the relevance of those two applications not belonging, at present, to SunnComm. Yes, arguably they could avoid them going to creditors in a bankruptcy this way (it depends on a lot of things we don’t know, such as whether the inventors have the type of agreement with SunnComm that most high tech companies have with their employees that mandates patent assignments, and on several other factors).
But one thing to keep in mind is that usually patent applications are assigned at the time of filing. These were not done that way, though it appears that earlier applications were assigned to SunnComm. On the other hand, this was back at a time when the company was flying a lot higher than it is right now.
So, in the end, the non-assignment of those two applications may be important, or it may not. And we don’t have enough information to really decide.
Probably as important though, two of the four SunnComm inventor apps are going, or have gone, abandoned. The one where no one responded to a non-final office action was esp. curious. It might prove illuminating to look at that office action. The problem is that the only cost to responding to a non-final office action within three months are the attorneys’ fees. It is extremely rare, in my experience, to abandon an application at this point. Very rare.
If you want more information on the process, I have a patent prosecution flowchart and a patent outline on my patent practice website. In particular, this is at boxes 20, 21, 22, and 23 of the flowchart.
the zapkitty wrote:
“But Musicmatch firmly integrates into the Windows DRM…”
Of course you were speaking of the protection that was the original subject of the article.
Alex is right… there is life beyond Suncmaxx… must remember that… 😉
I will see what Linux makes of it… but where will I find a Windoze PC to test it on to doublecheck the results?…
Hmmm…
To Bruce
“Looking through the USPTO database, I was unable to find any issued patents assigned to SunnComm, but found two pending applications that were so assigned, and two others that have the same inventors and aren’t assigned to SunnComm. All appear to have Eric Vanderwater and Peter Jacobs, both of the Phoenix area, as inventors.”
Is it significant that they are not assigned to SunnComm? I have seen a suggestion that by not assigning them to SunnComm, the inventors can sell them to someone else or use them in a new company that they might set up, should SunnComm go bankrupt. I would assume that if assigned to SunnComm, they would become assets to be disposed of by the administrator in the event of the company collapsing and the inventors would have no recourse to them.
Considering Jacobs is president and CEO, and Eric Vanderwater is Chief Technology Officer, would it be normal under those circumstances, for the applications not to be assigned to the company?
I removed a large number of comments for being off topic. Please find another forum to discuss the InvestorsHub site’s policies.
But Musicmatch firmly integrates into the Windows DRM… so would there be a handshake there, or is Mediamax off in its own little DRM world?
Musicmatch bypasses the protection reading the CDs with no problem at all. WMP and Winamp failed.
Regards.
Ooops… seem to have bufferflowed hashcash…. gomen… 🙂
*bufferflowed: pronounciation akin to “buffalo’ed”, from Old Net “Buffer Overflow”
verb: To glitch a system by inability to keep mouse off of submit button long enough for system to recover. See also “twitchy”, also “spastic”…
Smoking Spyware Gun:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050177516%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050177516&RS=DN/20050177516
US 2005-0177516 – 10/773,686 Filed 2/6/04
The known “phone home” behavior was already sufficiently damning, but this?:
“[0037] In one embodiment of the invention, the administrative program 28 will maintain a log detailing relative information relating to requests that are received for access to information from the Red Book session from all software programs, authorized and unauthorized. This information may periodically be uploaded to a central server via the Internet for analysis.”
Doesn’t phone home… phones home but only for data, no identifying info given out… phones home with identifying data but does not pry into your system… phones home with identifying data and pries into your system but does not log your activities… phones home with identifying data and pries into your system and logs your activities so shut the fuck up it’s not your PC we’re just letting you use it…
Just a note:
Sunncomm published updates to it’s patch/uninstall crap yesterday… and yet NO security announcements anywhere at all?
http://www.sunncomm.com/support/faq/
Did I miss something?
Or is the proper question “What are they up to… and what did they screw up in the process?”
Does that mean I can now create near enough original versions of CD’s I buy from iTunes complete with copy protection! At least it doesn’t have XCP on it!
Great! will try it later!!!
I would imagine that F4I have more pressing matters to worry about.
Now that raises a thought. If F4I were a “third party vendor” in the normal meaning of that expression, I would have thought that there would have been talk of Sony suing them by now.
In response to the comments about C&D notices, I point you directly to the US Patent Office website:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#patent
“The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling†the invention in the United States or “importing†the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO. ”
As patents are public knowledge, this description could be deemed merely as an indepth description of the patent and not an actual violation of the patent. If F4I can prove that he has employed their patented method, then they may sue him. If they can prove that someone who has read these instructions has violated that patent, they may sue that person.
They _may_not_ sue him for talking about their patent. Public disclosure of _how_ to do this is not a violation.
Any worries about getting sued or C&D threats for posting this article should simply be dismissed.
Is it understood how to make the disc recognized by the suncomm DRM as one it should actively protect? This would enhance the value of the CD when used by a friend who may already have that spyware installed on her machine.
Include, on the ISO portion of the disc, the audio in extremely low-quality Mp3. Also, put on a compact CD burning application. Then, make an Audio CD project file using that application which will include those Mp3s. Put this project file in the root directory of the disc, giving it the title “Pirate this CD…”
When the person gets their CD and finds out they can’t pirate it using ordinary means, they will be forced to use the “Pirate this CD…” project file and they will get an extremely low-quality copy of the CD. This will make the person who recieves the copy to want to buy the real CD!
nubious wrote::
“In theory, couldn’t you make the first image, mount it, then rip it with clonecd, therefor saving on cd’s?
But wouldn’t that depend on what the mount command expects to find in the iso, ?
In Linux it’s usually something like “mount -o loop -t iso9660 -r catgirl.iso /mnt/iso”… but iso9660 is what this ain’t, right?
i see a possible c&d notice because macrovision and others may not like the info so here is a tip to defend your self against the c&d.
if there is a legal threat to this site ignore it treat the threat as spam.
just like a terrorist will make an empty threat to see their prank mentioned in the news and the emptying of a building.
the riaa and macromedia wants to do the same.
wait until the police is showing up to raid your house before removing the site
In theory, couldn’t you make the first image, mount it, then rip it with clonecd, therefor saving on cd’s?
Hi, thanks for the great article! I’d like to know more about how the form used actually generates the copy protection. While modifying the .ccd by hand maybe tedious, I’m still interested in how the nuts and bolts of the copy protection works 🙂
A google search of “ceri coburn” returned a number of hits, many of which showed a first4internet address. Doesn’t prove that this is even a real person, as mentioned before. I like this posting:
—– Original Message —–
From: “Ceri Coburn”
To: “File Systems Developers”
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 1:21 PM
Subject: [ntfsd] RE: CDAUDIO Filter Driver Dynamic Load
Tony,
What I’m trying to achieve is to filter SCSI Commands sent to a CDROM
drive. What would be the best approach for me to do this while being
able to load the driver dynamically? I am very new to programming
drivers so if I sound un-knowledgeable then it’s because I am.
Thanks
Ceri
===========================
That link is:
http://www.osronline.com/showThread.cfm?link=42117
Since there was a mention above of First 4 patent applications, I looked up any patents or patent applications assigned to that company in the USPTO assignment database and found two pending applications:
US 2003-0169878 A1 – 10/217,994
Docketed to examiner – 8/22/05
US 2005-0223240 A1 – 10/506,964
Docketed to examiner – 09/23/05
The US 2005-0223240 A1 application appears to be a US prosecution of the WO 2004-109681 A3 / GB 2402802 A European Patent Office (EPO) application cited above.
Looking through the USPTO database, I was unable to find any issued patents assigned to SunnComm, but found two pending applications that were so assigned, and two others that have the same inventors and aren’t assigned to SunnComm. All appear to have Eric Vanderwater and Peter Jacobs, both of the Phoenix area, as inventors.
US 2004-0103115 – 10/304,259
Filed 11/26/02
Abandoned 11/03/05
US 2004-0103044 – 10/412,453
Filed 4/11/03
Unexamined
US 2005-0278256 – 10/868,576
Filed 6/15/04
Final rejection mailed 10/24/05
US 2005-0177516 – 10/773,686
Filed 2/6/04
Non-final office action mailed 6/15/05
(which means that it is abandoned but can be revived).
I should note that I haven’t had a chance to read these patent applications, nor have I looked to see if either of these two inventors had other patents or patent applications.
Could be fun to toy around with every now and then and mess with friends, thanks for the info.
Nice Instructions! Made a copy protected Audio CD and gave it to my teacher, it took him hours to figure out what protection scheme was used!
The comment about Ceri Coburn was said tongue in cheek.
The link to that forum is:
http://www.osronline.com/showThread.cfm?link=42117
It could have been an imposter – but it was nearly three years ago and the email address there is on the first4internet.co.uk domain (which is registered in the name of Ceri Coburn). If that thread was bogus, I suspect that osronline would have been asked to take it down by now.
If you really want a site full of information relating to the cans of xcp worms, go here:
http://member.telpacific.com.au/rolyroper/index.htm
To “Anonymous”, who said, “One of the inventors is listed as Ceri Coburn – I seem to have heard that name somewhere recently – does that name ring bells with anyone else?”
I believe Ceri Coburn was/is one of F4I’s 4 employees. As you might recall, the whole XCP fiasco was initially broken over at Sysinternals by Mark Russinovich [http://www.sysinternals.com/blog] (although Ed and Alex say that they knew about it in early October but were in the process of consulting with several lawyers about whether or not they and Princeton could be sued by going public).
Anyway, Russinovich noted not only that XCP used a cloaking rootkit with ridiculous security holes, but that it contained several basic programming mistakes that made the system unstable. Somebody then posted in the comments a link to a programming forum where a person who was identified as “Ceri Coburn” requested and received advice on coding software that had very similar objectives as XCP. It appeared to me that many of those people responding to his questions were Indian students who were just starting Windows programming classes.
Of course, this “Ceri Coburn” posting on the message boards could have easily been an imposter. However, reading the responses, it seemed like many of them *may* have found their way into XCP. I want to emphasize, however, that the only people who could really “prove” that Ceri Coburn made those posts are the people who run that messageboard or people with access to Coburn’s computer. Therefore, all of the above should be regarded as nothing but idle speculation with no “real basis in fact” until it can be proven otherwise.
Unfortunately, I have lost the link to this message board. If you had the time to look real hard over at Mark’s blog at his first couple XCP posts, you might find it. Sorry, I’ve been busy as of late.
A link to a fuller explanation of the First4Patent patent is as follows:
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdes?DB=EPODOC&IDX=WO2004109681&F=0&QPN=WO2004109681
Of particular interest is the following passage:
The software may conceal critical registry entries by deploying filters within the host operating system. This makes it difficult to inhibit the software by changing registry entries.
Looks like they own the patent on rootkits!
First4Internet Ltd. (remember them!) have two patents –
The first one is UK number CN1647188 but no abstact shows on the asp@cenet site.
The other is UK number WO2004109681. One of the inventors is listed as Ceri Coburn – I seem to have heard that name somewhere recently – does that name ring bells with anyone else?
Anyway, the abstract on the asp@cenet site reads as follows:-
A copy-protected compact disc includes, within a single session, a table of contents (TOC) and a Video CD index (VI). Each track (T) is prefaced by unrecoverable data (UD) at a track start position (ATOC) indicated by the table of contents (TOC). However, the Video CD index (VI) indicates the actual position (AP) of the tracks. DVD players use the Video CD index (VI) to locate the tracks, while CD-ROM drives use the table of contents (TOC) and read the unrecoverable data (UD), which prevents them from reading the subsequent track (T). The unrecoverable data (UD) may be prefaced by data pointers (DP) which cause the CD-ROM drive to load a player program in response to the error condition. The player program can be used to play the tracks (T), but restricts copying. Subchannel data (P; DX) causes audio CD players to ignore the Video CD index (VI) and the unrecoverable data (UD), and to play the tracks (T) at their actual start positions (AP).
So if a person (under fair use) copies a Macrovision protected video recording by using an old vcr that pre-dates the auto-gain circuitry that Macrovision relies on, and they end up with a good quality undistorted copy which itself is Macrovision protected, they are not infringing the copyright of the content, but they are infringing Macrovision’s patent ????
BubbaJones
No Fair Use in patents. That concept applies primarily to copyright, but somewhat also to trademarks.
However, patents lack statutory damages (and usually attorneys’ fees). So, if SunnComm, or whoever owns these patents, wants to spend $1/4 million to sue Ed, then fine. But the damages they could win for this money would be in the single digits (or less), since actual damages would have to be proven.
Scott, do you have the patent numbers? I would love to read more about them.
Ditto what MK said about patent infringement. The owner of a patent controls the rights to make, use, and/or sell any product that would infringe any claim of his patent. Ed may have “made” an infringing CD (if CDs made this way were actually claimed), and “used”, again depending on the claims. But as noted, any such making or using would be de minimis, and hard to prove. And, as far as we can tell, he hasn’t “sold” such at all.
Of course, if you have some patents in mind, either post them here, or send them to me, and I may change my (non-legal) opinion here.
Very interesting. Pointless but interesting. Decent satire.
I don’t think Scott means the article itself violates patent but actually doing the process would in some cases. (I don’t want to get into debates about fair-use on that. ) But maybe he did and is wrong. 🙂
While I doubt anyone will ever make audio copy protection work, I hate that it’s “necessary” to protect music from being stolen.
Scott, I’m sure you don’t seriously think that Ed is expecting people to go and make their own corrupted CDs for fun, and if anyone does just to test the method then frankly that’s not what patent law is intended to control (de minimis non curat lex).
You also can’t possibly think that providing information can violate a patent – a patent is by definition public information. So what do you think is the violation here?
lol, never mind, i scrolled to much
Why dont you use the image recorder in nero, use Acohol 120% (or 52) mount the image, and then use it in CloneCD
“The CD standard requires that tracks be at least 150 frames long. This non-compliant track length will cause errors…”
What you’re creating isn’t really a CD according to the spec. Spooky.
Haha, excellent.
Geil!
if that implies that MediaMax ‘phones home’ with user data of any kind, i would *love* to see that email and hopefully details on how it’s done. i would very much like to see what you think you know.
This is special thanks Sony BMG.
Alex I sent you an email on the isssue I have discovered regarding “Phone home” functions and disc coping. Have you had a chance to try this? Any comments?
We may as well accept the fact that sony has screwed our computers. It is time to get the Windows install disc out and create a new computer from the ashes.
I encourage all to visit the boycott sony page and sign the petition.
Annoy your friends with a copy-protected CD for Christmas!
Why not annoy your friends by giving them a home-made copy-protected CD for Christmas! Freedom to Tinker have an excellent (and relatively easy to follow) article on how to add “industry strength” copy-protection to your o…
unbelievable, besides violating a few patents, this on it’s own does not work.. period. why do you think there is also active protection too?
I don’t get it. We have been asking you to analyse Macrovision’s TotalPlay for the past few weeks. Is this the result. Was your analysis based on TotalPlay (CDS-300) or a previous version.
If TotalPlay, did you find:
a) a Rootkit
b) Spyware
c) Adware
d) EULA loaded against the user
e) Driver installed when EULA declined
f) anything else we can gloat about
These are what we are waiting on. What’s the verdict in respect to these?
Consider the gauntlet officially thrown down.
And you even tossed in Macrovision! Bravo!