[willed]

Surely it's possible? I've turned on error-correction in iTunes but with no luck. It's their loss, as I'm never buying another copy-protected CD. Idiots.

[neighwoo]

Let them try and bring out some poxy CD thats protected.

We ( the public) wont buy it.

We cant make back ups of our own music. They insinuate that we are music pirates and give us the kiddie treatment and copy protect it.


I just want to steal music , leave me alone to do it in peace

[Sherwin]

Yeah. Send the CD back to the store saying that it's not actually a CD (Philips agree with this premise) and ask for your money back.

Then go look for the music elsewhere.

[willed]

I think the solution involves a Griffin iMic. If you want to, you'll always be able to copy stuff; why doesn't the record industry realise that dedicated pirates will always find ways round their copy protection, and the only people harmed by intrusive systems such as this are normal consumers? All I want to do is keep the music on my iPod!

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by willed:
Surely it's possible? I've turned on error-correction in iTunes but with no luck. It's their loss, as I'm never buying another copy-protected CD. Idiots.

Unless it was specifically sold as a copy-protected medium, you purchased a faulty product under the assumption that it was a CD (it is NOT).

Bring it back and demand a refund.

It is extremely important that you do this, and that everybody else return these abominations as well.

-s*

[Eriamjh]

Return it.

[wataru]

I've been able to rip copy protected CDs from Asia (specifically, two CDs from the record label Avex Trax) by doing it in a DVD-ROM only drive. CD-RW and combo drives were unable to read them.

[willed]

Originally posted by wataru:
I've been able to rip copy protected CDs from Asia (specifically, two CDs from the record label Avex Trax) by doing it in a DVD-ROM only drive. CD-RW and combo drives were unable to read them.

Nope, that's what I've got - DVD only.

[Diggory Laycock]

Take it back - Demand your money back.

If they ask why - it is not a CD - it doesn't follow the Red Book Standard.

Just in case they get arsey you can print this out and show them:

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128540

Philips, who invented the CD, don't consider them CDs.

[OB1]

Return it mate. Let us know how you get on?

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Originally posted by wataru:
CD-RW and combo drives were unable to read them.

Hmm, my LG DVD-ROM/CD-RW ripped 2 copy protected albums I have just fine. I'll check them out on my Pioneer A06 when I get home.

[t_hah]

Couldn't you use WireTap to record the played songs, then change them into the format you really want them to be in?

WireTap's site

t

[chris v]

I'll add my voice to the chorus. Return it as either defective, or mis-labelled. Let us know how the returning process went.

CV

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Burn yourself a copy if you can, then return it.

[ryju]

Originally posted by wataru:
I've been able to rip copy protected CDs from Asia (specifically, two CDs from the record label Avex Trax) by doing it in a DVD-ROM only drive. CD-RW and combo drives were unable to read them.

Those weren't ..Ayumi Hamasaki CDs were they??

[euchomai]

Originally posted by Immortal K-Mart Employee:
Burn yourself a copy if you can, then return it.

???????

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Originally posted by euchomai:
???????

Normally you can still burn them just not import them as MP3's.

[Eriamjh]

Originally posted by euchomai:
???????

I think he means do a disk image copy.

What about the green marker trick? Or virtual PC? Or another MP3 ripper?

[wataru]

Originally posted by ryju:
Those weren't ..Ayumi Hamasaki CDs were they??

Nope, Do As Infinity.

[olePigeon]

1) Run audio cable form your Line-Out to your Line-In.
2) Play CD.
3) Record.

Welcome to the 80s.

[tooki]

Originally posted by Immortal K-Mart Employee:
Normally you can still burn them just not import them as MP3's.

Uhhh, by what logic is that? To be played, the audio needs to be read from the disc. To be burned, it needs to be read from the disc. To be ripped to MP3 (or any other file format), it needs to be read from the disc. Copy-protected CDs work by making sure the computer cannot read the disc (either not at all, or not satisfactorily). There are some copy-protection schemes that alter the audio itself in an attempt to foil MP3 encoders' perceptual algorithms (causing severe distortion to occur), but they're not widespread.

tooki

[Oneota]

Someone mentioned the magic marker method - do a quick Google search for more info on that. Many copy-protected CDs can be copied with a little Sharpie action.

[lawgeek]

I've had no problems ripping a copy-protected CD from Europe using iTunes on Panther and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive.

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by Oneota:
Someone mentioned the magic marker method - do a quick Google search for more info on that. Many copy-protected CDs can be copied with a little Sharpie action.

This isn't such a good idea if you are planning to return the disc.

"I'm returning this So-Called CD"

Assistant: "Sure - Hang on! What's all this Marker pen on it?"

[voodoo]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
1) Run audio cable form your Line-Out to your Line-In.
2) Play CD.
3) Record.

Welcome to the 80s.

Ah this I like

[suprz's ghost]

all you need to do is put the cd in a home cd player, plug that into the griffin imic and then into your mac....done! (oh and then return that thing)

[Eriamjh]

Actually, if you can play it on your Mac, but just not rip it, then use AudioHijack and avoid the Digital to Analog to Digital conversion step. Just capture it on the fly.

[iNub]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
1) Run audio cable form your Line-Out to your Line-In.
2) Play CD.
3) Record.

Welcome to the 80s.

Welcome back to poor sound quality. Assuming you have a standard-issue sound card, there is a special line that goes from the CD drive to your sound card. That's one digital-analog conversion. It then has to be processed back into digital form for the sound card to understand it. Analog-digital. If you don't have that cable, you've still got an uncorrupted signal. Next, the sound has to go out of the card. If you have digital audio in/out on our computer, bully for you. For the other 99% of us, that's one conversion from digital to analog, another from analog to digital.

"So what?"

D/A conversion works a lot like ... a digital camera. The conversion is only approximate. Digital signals are switches. Either on or off. Analog is a wave form. The conversion between the 2 is lossy, and the loss multiplies with each conversion.

However, even if your equipment is all digital, you're still likely to get what's called "clock jitter" ... that one's not to hard for a bunch of propellor-heads to figure out, I hope.

The end result is warbly high end and less punchy bass. Aside from the fact that your 2 GHz processor won't do dick for you now because you're recording at 1x. That's 74 minutes per CD. Yuck.

However, if you're gonna rip them all to MP3 or AAC or ogg, I guess my point is moot because they're all lossy formats.

[iNub]

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
This isn't such a good idea if you are planning to return the disc.

"I'm returning this So-Called CD"

Assistant: "Sure - Hang on! What's all this Marker pen on it?"

Masking tape works just as good, if you balance it properly.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by iNub:
Welcome back to poor sound quality. Assuming you have a standard-issue sound card, there is a special line that goes from the CD drive to your sound card. That's one digital-analog conversion. It then has to be processed back into digital form for the sound card to understand it. Analog-digital. If you don't have that cable, you've still got an uncorrupted signal. Next, the sound has to go out of the card. If you have digital audio in/out on our computer, bully for you. For the other 99% of us, that's one conversion from digital to analog, another from analog to digital.

Apple has been using an all-digital audio path for all Macs since 1998 (or at least since the slot-loading iMacs, 99 - it was part of the advertising).

AFAIK, the analog line from the CD drive has not even been hooked up since then.

The point about extra DA/AD stages deteriorating audio quality is, of course, still spot-on.

AudioHijack or WireTap will not have that problem, though, as they grab the audio and re-route it to a file on the hard disk before it ever becomes an analog signal.

-s*

[biscuit]

Using the sticky part from Post-It notes works well in place of a marker/masking tape. The glue isn't very strong so it's easier to get off. However, I read somewhere that there are some Copy-Protected CDs out now without the visible extra track (which is what you cover up).

At the end of the day, these workarounds are only temporary fixes. The only real solution is to somehow convince the labels to reverse their policy. This is why we've got to take back the corrupt CDs and make a fuss over it. Who knows if it'll really make a difference though...

biscuit

[IEEE1394]

The method of cracking the copy protection depends on how it is protected. The "Copy-Controlled" discs (e.g Radiohead's Hail To The Thief) I have found rip fine in a Samsung 52x24x52 CD-RW drive using iTunes. The same discs don't rip in an iMac DV with 4x DVD drive.

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by biscuit:
At the end of the day, these workarounds are only temporary fixes. The only real solution is to somehow convince the labels to reverse their policy. This is why we've got to take back the corrupt CDs and make a fuss over it. Who knows if it'll really make a difference though...

Hmmm... If Philips say that a copy protected CD is *not* a CD and it's wearing a "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo, I'm guessing that the label, manufacturer and retailer are in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act (1968). So it should be possible to have them prosecuted.

I'd kinda like to see what would happen if a bunch of determined people with a bit of spare wad got together and did the following...

1) Compare notes as to which CDs are copy-protected and have the CD-DA logo.
2) All go out and buy those CDs on purpose.
3) Report the purchases to the authorities, insisting on prosecution.

If it works, I'm willing to bet that the labels won't be too happy with a couple of hundred Trades Descriptions prosecutions every month.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
Hmmm... If Philips say that a copy protected CD is *not* a CD and it's wearing a "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo, I'm guessing that the label, manufacturer and retailer are in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act (1968). So it should be possible to have them prosecuted.

Copy-protected disks don't have the CD logo on them.

However, the argument is that until they are placed seperately from CDs, you buy it under the ASSUMPTION that it is a CD - which it is not. If it was in the CD bin and not pointed out as a copy-protected disk, it is defective by law in most countries.

So AFAIK, technically, it's the record stores' problem when these things are returned, since they technically need to clarify that these are not CDs. The most obvious way of doing this is to put them on a separate rack - which of course guarantees ZERO sales. And usually, record stores have contractual agreements to return unsold CDs to the manufacturer after a certain time.

Which is the point of returning them to the store.

-s*

[willed]

Originally posted by IEEE1394:
The method of cracking the copy protection depends on how it is protected. The "Copy-Controlled" discs (e.g Radiohead's Hail To The Thief) I have found rip fine in a Samsung 52x24x52 CD-RW drive using iTunes. The same discs don't rip in an iMac DV with 4x DVD drive.

Hail to the Thief is copy protected? I just bought that and it's imported fine I think. It doesn't say 'copy protected' anywhere, but then neither does it say 'compact disc digital audio' I guess...

Unfortunately I bought the CD in question in Birmingham some time ago. I haven't got the receipt any more and I don't plan on going back there anyway. I'm going to iMic the track onto my computer using SoundStudio, then try and return it to HMV here in Oxford (sans receipt - probably won't work, but what have I got to lose?). Will give you an update when I get round to it.

Cheers everyone

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Copy-protected disks don't have the CD logo on them.

I didn't know that. You can tell how often I buy CDs.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
I didn't know that. You can tell how often I buy CDs.

same here. I read that somewhere, and I've had a few for ripping (vinyl doesn't convert to mp3 so well, and that's what I actually spend money on...)

[blackbird_1.0]

Originally posted by wataru:
Nope, Do As Infinity.

Cool, You listen to DAI, too? Will a Superdrive rip a copy-protected cd as well?

[wataru]

Originally posted by blackbird_1.0:
Cool, You listen to DAI, too? Will a Superdrive rip a copy-protected cd as well?

Yep, I've got all their albums. It's a quality band.

Since Superdrives contain CD-RW functionality, I'd assume they can't.

[Mac Write]

I don't buy CD's to to digital to analog to digital. The problem up here is that once you break the seal on a CD, then you can't return it since the store declares you a pirate who copied the CD and is now returning it. I did successfully return one CD, Why? I liked the Music (Organ and bells christmas CD), but it sounded like a crappy record, and since they refuse to let you listen to the CD in store. THey have this listening station, but it's web based and they need to get the ****ing rights to put the CD on it.

If I am duped into a copy protected CD, and they refuse to take it back I will be on the six O'clock news. I will coup my hands and say "Attention everyone in this store, DO not buy from this store they lie about products and refuse to have them returned once you discover the truth" or something along those lines. I rip all my Music to my Mac in Lossless (ID3 tag support is very useful) since CD players suck.

[Ω]

I had a problem with a CD not loading, so I took it back and asked for a replacement.

When I got the new CD I whacked my PB on the counter and the CD loaded fine, and then proceeded to rip the CD in front of them.

Moral of the story: sometimes it is the CD itself that can cause issues.

Either that or possibly try another machine to rip it with. Now that iTunes is PC as well your options are huge

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by iNub:
However, if you're gonna rip them all to MP3 or AAC or ogg, I guess my point is moot because they're all lossy formats.

Unless he wanted to rip them into Apple Lossless.

What about recording through the Optical In port on the G5?

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by Mac Write:
I don't buy CD's to to digital to analog to digital. The problem up here is that once you break the seal on a CD, then you can't return it since the store declares you a pirate who copied the CD and is now returning it.

I'm pretty sure that that's illegal for them to do. Consult your local Trading Standards office or equivalent. If it's a copy-protected CD, the faulty merchandise argument probably applies too.

[baw]

My wife just got me the new Amici Forever CD for my birthday. As soon as I open the present I see this;
[removed oversize image --tooki]

I was like WTF is this! I had never seen a copy protected CD before (I haven't bought a CD in about 3 years).

So I open the CD jewel case and what do I see?
[removed oversize image --tooki]

The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo. How can they get by putting that logo onto their CDs, even though they do not conform to the CD audio standard?

Anyway, I popped the CD in. The CD shows up twice on the desktop. One is the actual audio CD and the other is all of Sony's DRM crap. I fired up iTunes. Click Import. Import finished with no problems. Listened to the now copied CD via AAC compressed files, no problems playing. So basically, Sony is wasting their time and money because the millions they have spent on the copy protection scheme implemented on this CD had no affect on my ability to copy the cd. Lame.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by willed

Surely it's possible? I've turned on error-correction in iTunes but with no luck. It's their loss, as I'm never buying another copy-protected CD. Idiots.

Download a ripping program that wont adhere to copy protections.

[Y3a]

Audio Hijack Pro.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by baw

The "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo. How can they get by putting that logo onto their CDs, even though they do not conform to the CD audio standard?

They can't.

the way that content protection works is that you have a regular CD audio session on the CD, and another which auto-loads on Windows, and which contains DRM-protected audio.

I'm not entirely certain, though, that the CD Audio standard allows multiple sessions (though adding video or data tracks to CDs has been commonplace for years, so...).

I would (seriously) suggest firing off a short e-mail to Philips and asking them. If the CD logo is being used wihtout proper format and authorization, then BMG have a lawsuit cut out for them.

If not, Philips will be glad to explain why not, I'm sure.

[wataru]

Note to everyone: This thread was resurrected from over a year ago. The only stuff worth replying to at this point is baw's post and down.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by analogika

They can't.

the way that content protection works is that you have a regular CD audio session on the CD, and another which auto-loads on Windows, and which contains DRM-protected audio.

I'm not entirely certain, though, that the CD Audio standard allows multiple sessions (though adding video or data tracks to CDs has been commonplace for years, so...).

I would (seriously) suggest firing off a short e-mail to Philips and asking them. If the CD logo is being used wihtout proper format and authorization, then BMG have a lawsuit cut out for them.

If not, Philips will be glad to explain why not, I'm sure.

You really think that Philips doesn't know about these CDs ? They propably won't sue anybody thanks to all kinds of obscure politics. And they are, like you say, probably just multi session CDs which are indeed accepted in the CDDA standard AFAIK.
I don't mind them since they work perfectly on my mac and any CD player. I've never had a protected CD that didn't work.

[Footy]

Originally Posted by wataru

Note to everyone: This thread was resurrected from over a year ago. The only stuff worth replying to at this point is baw's post and down.

Your kidding right? As if people can't read the post dates! I know your only trying to be helpful but if they can't read the dates themselves they have bigger issues.

Just to sort of stay on topic. I really hate these copy protected CDs because I really feel like they've taken away some of my rights as far as what I do with the music I buy for here around the house. I should be able to rip a song to iTunes so I can drop it on my iPod for the gym or a run or a bike ride. And really what's the point because someone is going to figure out a way around it and post it up somewhere anyway. Have I downloaded music? Well I won't admit quilt but when I buy a CD (and I do buy CDs) and it's copy protected what's to stop me from looking for that same music I can use the way I'd like. I feel like by them copy protecting a CD it's actually increasing the odds of said music being available and/or found in another way, at least in my case. Guess I should look at that Audio Hijack Pro for those instances so I'm not tempted.