I’ve tried looking in the archives, but not knowing the correct key words I couldn’t find what I’m looking for.
My question is 2-part;
I’ve heard that some newer cd’s (specifically music cds) can contain some kind of program or formatting that will screw up your PC (for lack of a better term) if you try to copy the songs from it to your computer - just playing them is fine. Is this true and how does it work?
Part 2 assumes it is… would this sort of thing be legal? I can see why the manufacturers would do this (copyrights/stealing… all that stuff) but would doing it not be similar in intent to the threads on boobytrapping your house or property I’ve read? The consensus there is that it’s illegal to install a device or system that is specifically meant to do harm to someone/thing without your being there to pull the trigger at the time so to speak, regardless of your reasoning.
I’ve talked to a guy who says you can recognize when a cd has this formatting… but then again I don’t really know much about this - so does anyone else know if it’s real and if it is (or would be) legal?
(or give me a link if this has been asked before)
I think what you are thinking of is the newest form of “copy protection” which the RIAA thinks will somehow stop piracy.
In this case, the CD data is purposefully “damaged”, such that the audio correction code in a music CD player will be able to play it, but (the theory is) that a computer CD player will hunt and skip like crazy, and eventually not be able to read anything on it.
There are many claims out there that these bad CDs can somehow damage iMacs. Apple has this technical note on the issue, but does not mention “damage”, just that somehow Mac users will have to send their Macs in for service to remove the disks (some models of Mac being deficient in not having a pinhole to remove a stuck CD, just like some models of PC).
There were early claims that these disks somehow “damaged” the CD drives by the excessive hunting and skipping. I highly doubt that any player which was not already teetering on the edge of destruction would be bothered by this.
The issue is…the CDs now no longer adhere to the ISO Red Book standard by which they are supposed to adhere to, and there is no note about this on the packaging. In fact, I believe the issue now is that even though the CDs are not in compliance, the RIAA is purposefully and knowingly putting the compliance sticker on the packages, which, if they do so, constitutes deliberate fraud. Even the defenders of the RIAA which frequent this Forum can’t defend that sort of criminally deceptive act, although I’m certain they will be popping along any minute now…
And, of course, if you are a person who does not own a single music-only CD player except in their car (like me), you are SOL. You are now reduced to these ludicrous steps:
Purchase the legit CD from the store.
Go to Kazaa and download the songs on the CD you just purchased so you can listen to them.
Yup…everybody loses.
Plus - just try to take an opened CD back for a refund. Most stores will laugh in your face. Wal-Mart might, but most stores (which are fully behind any bullshit the RIAA trots out) won’t.
The RIAA truely are idiots, I mean that. Only a complete fool would use a technique like that. It will have a dual effect:
Those that choose to backup/copy their songs will continue to do so while their other customers will face inconviencences. If I can hear it, I can copy it.
Who wins by doing this? Nobody, not even the RIAA who most hate with a passion because of this kind of behavior.
In addition to the problems listed by Anthracite, one of the many schemes being rolled out puts small bits of strangely encoded data in the music stream. A standard CD decoder views these as invalid and outputs a tiny bit of “nothing” but CD-ROM drives can instead output something that ends interpreted as a loud bit of noise. (Oversimplifying here.) So ripping the CD into mp3s results in noisy songs. (Supposedly.) Now, that bit of noise might be bad enough to damage various audio components, esp. speakers. Also, some audio CD systems are based on computer CD components and your home/car stereo might output that noise (making the CD unlistenable) as well as possibly causing damage to your system. See the CD-R FAQ for more info.
All such systems can be quite easily circumvented anyway. The RIAA is a bunch of clueless jerks in this (and many other) regards.
Only the RIAA thinks that systems that make CDs unplayable, cause damage but are still easily ripped to mp3s a good idea.