Copy Protection - getting around

Shouldn't think there's anything wrong in just asking this. But just say someone wanted to copy a copy protected cd. Is there an easy way or doing it?

This person might just say have Nero if that's any help...

 

Purely theoretical of course, I think it would be possible to download exact audio copy (get it here) , or something similar.
Use that to rip the protected cd to hard disc, then reconstruct the cd in nero by creating a new music cd project.

Just speculation of course...

 

Yes, EAC works, not that I've done it myself of course.

Oh no sirree.

-- Ian

 

I believe it's possible to record an image onto your hard drive and then to burn that image when you use Nero. This is in theory of course I've never tried it

 

i didnt inhale!

 

EAC does work...but it can depend on the CD/DVD drive you use. With my NEC drives (a DVD-ROM and a DVD-RW) I've never had a problem. They appear to read audio CDs in the way a CD player does, rendering the copy protection null & void. iTunes works with those drives too (for ripping protected CDs).

...all allegedly, of course

Michael.

 

i've had mixed success with EAC, but there's been a few CDs that it's choked on. never met a disk that iTunes hasn't been able to rip though


obviously i'm talking about disks i've burned or pressed myself *cough*

 

it depends on the drive

 

The only copy protected CD I've had to deal with was the new Dido one. Had no problems burning a copy to an audio CD recorder and that copy ripped fine into my itunes on mac. don't know why I bothered though, got bored of the disc after 3 listens.

 

Try CloneCD - this makes a perfect CD copy..haven't used it for a fair bit, but used to work!

 

so......... erm.........

what if someone tried to download eac but everytime they tried to use it, it said something about missing language files, and therefore, in use, there's no labels on any of the tabs or options?

Any idea where else to try?

I've had a look at one of my copy protected CDs. Just out of interest of course. And notice that though no tracks are listed on the disc, there's several files and folders. And one file called :-

"yucca.cds
CDS File
819,200 KB"

I assume this must be all the audio?

 

Never had any problems like that before, you could try Isobuster instead, but that sometimes leaves a few clicks and pops behind.

Isobuster here.

 

If the person in question was really desperate for a copy and couldn't find anything to do it on his or her PC, he or she could always send the CD to somebody (let's call him, for the sake of argument, "sideshowbob"), who might be able to take a closer look.

-- Ian

 

sideshowbob?


You cant trust that character.

He was put in jail for the attempted murder of crusty the clown.

He is just the kind of criminal mastermind that would try and obtain your CD from you through deception, and keep it

 

That file is the one that contains the horribly compressed (48kbps if you're lucky) version of the CD that the "player" software that also comes on the disc plays so that they can claim the CD will play on computers. It's a Cactus Data Shield thing (hence the CDS extension).

Michael.

 

Cactus Data Shield

Depending on the CD drive, as pointed out above, they can be copied easily.

In many cases EAC will see the audio tracks fine and extract them, but occasionally it won't.

To 'see' the audio you need a Session Selector utility to select the first session on the CD, which will get you access to the proper audio tracks, which will then play and extract fine on a PC, in most cases.

The intentional glitches placed into the data seem to be dealt with amicably by the drive and EAC, the resulting copy then playing fine, even in players that have problems with such discs (e.g. Naim).

Andy.

 

Heard lots of good things about eac. Worth tyring indeed.

The drive does matter. Plextor is excellent, a bit pricey, but worth it.

Nero software copies the cd image. Hasn't put a foot wrong.
Well that's what me m8s tell me

 

Yes I also have "heard" that CloneCD works very well too, even has a "Protected CD" profile!

 

Windows media player 8 or above works a treat )> to get past the protection.

 

I think it has a lot more to do with the CD drive than the software used. If the drive plays the CD as an audio CD then, just like a CD player it will get around all the copy protection bullshit and the software you're using will be none the wiser.

Software like EAC and, to a lesser extent, iTunes do however have software error correction algorithms which will be able to recover almost all the deliberate glitches that are there on protected CDs if the drive isn't able to do it. It's extremely slow though.

The whole proection attempt is just so short sighted. Quite apart from all the other reasons it's a load of BS, CD/DVD drive manufacturers will soon all make them be able to read copy protected CDs. Therein lies the fundamental flaw of trying to retro-fit a copy protection scheme. If you've got to make it backwards compatible with existing audio CD players then it's never going to work.

Systems like that in SACD which were designed into the specs and hardware from the start are much harder to crack but to some extent suffer the same problem. As was shown with DVD encryption. Once the system (CSS in DVDs) has been broken then that's it. You can't go around forcing everyone to update their DVD players with a new system so you're back to the same backwards compatability issues you have with CDs.

AFAIK the only system that hasn't been cracked yet is the SACD one but that's probably just because no one has tried to do it as there isn't really a demand for SACD pirating/home copying...yet.

Michael.