Copy Protected "CD"s?

I took my copy of The Thrills "CD" round to domfjbrown's this weekend so he could copy it onto minidisc at some point either before or after the school reunion.

However, when he set up the MD player ready to record, IIRC (and I may well not since much :guiness: was consumed) it came up saying there were more tracks than there should be and each one was only a few seconds long. How do they manage to get these discs so you can't copy them onto MD?

Dom, a tape copy will be in the mail later this week.

 

Yep - the JB940 kept announcing "Can't record" every 2 seconds, then would produce another 2 second track followed by the same... On another CD on the same blank MD it was fine, so we ruled out the player, recorder and blank media...

So how's it done? Surely if you're feeding a DAC with this it wouldn't sound right - I'm guessing there's corrupt bits in there or something... Cheers for the tape dude - will sort you out with a :guiness: next time I see ya

 

Why didn't you just copy it via analog?

 

My housemate was watching a DVD - so the main stereo amp was providing L+R audio - and being a hairshirt Rega, it has no seperate record options!

Mind you, he never normally remembers to turn on the main amp when watching DVD so he's used to centre and rear audio only - for a techie geek (and Star Wars geek for that matter - he has LOADS of costumes - - he needs working on!).

 

Not so! The (SPDIF) datastream coming from a digital source component consists of both audio related data AND "control" related data. A DAC will ignore the most of the control data and just decode the audio.

It's the control data for example that your MD, DAT, CD recorder or whatever can look at and determine when a new track has started when you're dubbing a succession of tracks (and notice that track numbers automatically increment without intervention on the recording device). It's also how SCMS copy protection works too, it's encoded in the datastream. So not necessarily corrupt bits. Maybe you need an older recording device which doesn't recognise this copy protection signal?

 

Hmm - the oldest deck I have that I can use is the Sony 530 - I guess I could always try copying onto that...

I don't see why retailers should be allowed to stock non-CD masquaraders anyway - they should be in a section called "Corrupt tight fisted record company cons you out of dosh" section - since the artists receive practically bugger all in royalties from the sale of CDs - it's all fat cat mentality. If the companies are so worried about piracy why don't they ban the sale of recording devices? Or bring back vinyl for ALL releases?

 

Indeed, your last idea has real merit there.

Think I might see if I can get it to copy cleanly onto my portable MD recorder. I'll report back on how I get on... or otherwise.

 

Because they can't. If they could I'm sure they would. But fortunately record companies don't write our laws...

These copy protections are utter lunacy anyway.

They don't tackle the problem, which is the availability of mp3's on the net. They only irritate the people who buy the albams, not the ones who copy from the internet.

 

As you say, it is those of us who buy the albums that get fed up with the copy protection thing. Am I right in thinking that the copyright law entitles us to make one back-up copy of the album? If that is the case, then surely the copy protection thing has to be actually denying us the possibility to do this, unless we own tape recorders? It does suck.

Anyway, I'm going to go now and try and get an MD rip of the Thrills onto my portable MD recorder!

 

... and what a complete waste of time that was. I set it going and walked away, came back and switched the recorder off at the end of the disc. 46:26 on the time used, and 254 tracks! I did attempt to play it, but gave up, was quite amusing though playing a few seconds of music and watching it whizz forward through about 30 tracks in no time at all!

So, my Sony MZR-70 recorder is too new to not know about copy protection. Is there an old MD recorder out there that doesn't understand and consequently ignores it? If so, I get the feeling they could become quite sought after...

And I agree with Dom, they should put these "CD"s in a seperate section in the stores. If they ain't Compact Discs, don't sell 'em as being such. Trade descriptions surely?

 

Ian - can you combine those mini tracks? If so, might be a way round it but I THINK on my deck it was losing audio as well - so would be "jaggedy" sounding...

 

I don't know, but it really isn't worth the hassle mate. There was a couple of dropouts as well so it really would smack of tight fisted-ness to spend the time actually getting it right!

Lets just hope the new Iron Maiden CD won't be copy protected (Out Sept. 8 if anyone's interested).

 

Maybe because a lot of the major recording labels are partly owned by big audio electronics companies, might have something to do with it I strongly suspect e.g. Sony -> CBS/Sony, Philips -> Polydor/Polygram/Universal, etc.

Strangely enough, certain discs with certain copy protection schemes on them (don't know which ones - maybe it was Cactus?) *don't* carry the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo on them. This was by request of Sony/Philips, as the copy protection system meant that such discs would flout the red book specification for audio CDs, hence weren't compliant, and so weren't fit to carry the logo.

 

No they don't, but the damn cases are the same and they are deliberately sold in the same section, and quite often with very VERY small print warnings on them - which I can't read for a start. If a disk won't play in the player I choose to play it in, me being me, I'll probably just boycott the band - which is unfair on them, but hey, if one of their releases is like that than the likelihood is all the newer releases will be too...

Thankfully I've not found a "cd" my Rega Planet won't play as yet.

 

And that is exactly my point, they aren't CDs so shouldn't be sold in amongst all the CDs. They don't carry the compact disc logo, therefore aren't such, and shouldn't be sold there. They should have their own seperate section, like stuff does in supermarkets. You don't often see Nutroasts in the middle of the chicken freezer in the supermarket...

 

jeez, what a bunch of whiners...just copy it analogue

"Am I right in thinking that the copyright law entitles us to make one back-up copy of the album?"

No, thats the yanks. We have no rights to copy anything. This is rip off Britain - remember?

cheers all,

Graham C

 

Well how do the yanks do it then?

Wingnut