Hello, Maarten de Boer wrote: > Almost a year ago, I wrote a message to the list on how I managed > to play a Cactus Data Shield copy protected (mutilated) 'CD' with > linux. See below. The link to the original thread: Thanks. Question: what did the copy-protected CD sound like when played on CD-ROM? I'm just starting to think that what I have is after all a problematic recording, not copy protection. At least, no data track seems to be there (at least Linux does not mount it). Yours, Mikhail Ramendik > http://www.music.columbia.edu/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2003-July/005211.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Hello, > > A collegue of mine just bought the new Radio Head CD, Hail To The Thief. > As the box says, this CD is "Copy Controlled". Some searching on the web > revealed that it's using so called Cactus Data Shield 200 protection, which > means deliberate errors on the cd, that most (not all!) CD players deal > with correctly, but cd-rom readers don't. So, what if you want to play > your "CD" on a computer? Well, the CD also includes a data track, with a > MS Windows (yeah..) application. However! This application does not play > the CD audio but a compressed format also included on the CD! Another > interesting issue is that the fake errors might actually cause problems > when some real errors occur on the CD, that normally would have been > corrected, but not anymore in combination with the fake errors. > > Obviously, all this is completely unacceptable, so I advice you to never > buy a Copy Controlled CD. If you have bought one, bring it back to the > store. They have absolutely no reason not to give you your money back. > > (From the web: 'Philips controls the CD standard and their spokesman > says: "Any changes that put a disc outside the CD standard result in a > disc that should no longer be described or marketed as a CD." Philips, > because of conformity issues, has warned the record labels that the > discs are actually not compact discs at all, and must bear warning > labels to inform consumers.'). I'd add that stores should then not be > allowed to sell these CD's in a part of the store that says "Compact > Discs" > > Note that I did manage to play the CD with Linux. My very old (>6 years) > SCSI cd writer has been able to read the copy protected CD with > cdparanoia. but... in the left channel, every 5.8 sec some values are > distorted: about 10 groups of 1 to 3 samples in a row get an extreme > value (not always the same, but near maximum). I wrote a small > application that corrects those distorted values (linear interpolation > with the surrounding samples). I assume this information is legal, > because it is only to play the cd, not to copy it. > > Maarten > >
