Protected CD's - unable to play on PC - Tech Support Forums

highfield · April 28th, 2002, 03:40 PM

I bought an album today that had a printed message on the sleeve that it could not be played on a PC. I frequently play my music collection on my PC, and couldn't think how they would protect a CD in this way. I also know people who do not have a hi-fi because they prefer to use their PC.

I'm sorry to say that I've tried to play this CD and not only won't it play, it won't even let me explore the files.

Has anyone heard of this before? More importantly does anyone know a way around it?

DutchMaster · April 28th, 2002, 03:54 PM

Yeah thats a common problem. Its to protect CDs against illegal copying.
There are several protections used for audioCDs:

Cactus Data Shield
Key2Audio
MediaCloQ v1.0
MediaCloQ v2.0
MusicGuard
SAFEAUDIO

So which one is implemented on your disc?

BTW the forum policies and rules wont allow me to post workarounds and I keep me in that.

Quote:

You will not use these forums to violate any international, federal, state, or local law, nor any other law, nor to discuss any illegal activity.

Quote:

You will not use these forums for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, protected registration information, illegal software keys, key generators, cracks, or any other information designed to cause harm, damage, fear, terror, loss of productivity, time or work, or to allow unlawful and illegal access to any computer hardware, software, network, or any other system.

But making a backup off a CD you bought, should be made possible IMO.

You got PM

RayH · April 28th, 2002, 04:19 PM

The recording industry has failed to account for the fact there are many people, mostly young, like yourselves for whom their computer IS their home entertainment unit.

For my college sons, it is so. In fact, one has to get a TV card for his computer because he has no room in his dorm for a separate TV!

PLAY protecting is messing with the customers. My sons download a lot of music from the internet as do a lot of people. But with music that really peaks their interest, they buy the CDs!

samwichse · April 28th, 2002, 04:27 PM

What you got is a defective CD. I would return it and get my money back personally. And not support anyone using this technology by not purchasing their music. I use music CD's once after buying. I rip them to wav files which are encoded as 3 types of MP3 for listening on computer (nice soundsystem), across the network on a friends computer (not copying the file, but streaming across), and for putting on my MP3 player and listening on the road.

I don't think a workaround for this is illegal, as you didn't sign any contract saying you would not make your perfectly legal backup copy. I'll write a mod and ask about that and get back to you...

Sam

strangerstill · April 28th, 2002, 04:31 PM

The common denominator of all these 'play protection' schemes is that they corrupt the data on the CD in such a way that the hardware in some CD players is able to correct the data, but that CD drives, car stereos, game consoles, DVD players and some CD players cannot correct the errors. So, remember, you have as much right to a full cash refund as if you bought the CD and it had a massive scratch across it - the CD is faulty. You might even be entitled to compensation above the cost of the CD - the store fraudulently sold you goods that they knew were faulty!

DutchMaster · April 28th, 2002, 04:33 PM

even caraudio player and some HiFi CD players seem to have problems with playing some of those protected CD.
It was a big problem when they tested a protection on the N'sync CD in Germany last year. Many of the disc were returned by customers.

Gomer · April 28th, 2002, 05:36 PM

Dutchmaster, please post what you know. It would not be violating forum policy as it is not illegal to play a CD on a computer. I would like to know how to deal with this should I ever have to.

Fingers · April 28th, 2002, 05:37 PM

Thank you samwichse for asking for clarification on this issue. Unfortunately, I'm not sure about the legality of this since this is the first I've even heard of this issue. I haven't bought an audio CD in over a year, so I'm not up on current technology in this area.

My inclination is that copying the CD into a format that can be played on a PC is going to be illegal because that appears to be exactly what the manufacturers are trying to prevent. I'll attempt to get some clarification about whether discussing workarounds violates our policy, until then, I ask that workarounds not be discussed.

Thanks
Fingers

BTW, before everyone gets the idea I'm downloading all my music, I'm not an audiophile, and I seldom listen to music except on the radio of my car.

DutchMaster · April 28th, 2002, 05:46 PM

Thanks for the clarification, Fingers.

Well everyone, who knows how to search with www.google.com will find some workarounds, but some only work on specific cd-rom players or some protections aren't cracked yet.

Okay its legal to have a copy of your original CD as backup, but its illegal to use ripping/decoding tools to rip protected CDs. So its a bit in the grey area.

Gomer · April 28th, 2002, 05:50 PM

I am not curious about copying methods, mainly just on a means of playing the damn things in a computer. But I can see how once you do that, the copy part is pretty easy.

There has to be a way to play one of those CD's on a puter without copying it first. The only reason I am concerned is because I do not own a CD player... I use my computer to play CD's I own while in my house.