In the thousands of e-mails I've received about Bad CDs since this site launched, one pattern has emerged. Several times I have had relatively expert computer users (engineers, hackers, programmers) both confirm and deny that a given CD was corrupt.
I believe this is being caused by the record industry. When they manufacture, say 500,000 records, I believe they are creating batches of corrupted CDs within these press runs (10,000? 50,000? 100,000? who knows?). Why? Because they may A) know that this will cause some confusion in the public, and B) have wanted to test which of the over dozen "copy-protections" have the highest return rates from customers.
Unfortunately, I believe it's also caused by poorly manufactured CDs that just don't play in certain computers. Also, it's caused by "copy-protected" CDs that aren't so protected when used in certain CD players or copied with certain software (varies from case to case).
Follow-up by Anonymous
On your "limited batches" question, I think there's probably another reason you've not posted:
The Labels don't really know how well these "copy protected" CD's will work, so they want to see how it effects their sales, returns, etc. If they produce two versions, then they can see if there are significantly higher returns (people bringing the CD's back) on the corrupted ones, or if they get more complaints about them. If they see higher returns on the protected ones, then the standard ones, then they may hesitate to corrupt more CDs'
Even more reason to return CD's that don't work and demand a refund. Or, since most stores will only let you exchange opened CD's for the same title, buy it, open it, find that it won't play, and return it, do this several more times before you return it. Each time you return it costs them...
I've received repeated e-mails from different people saying that they can not only play potentially Bad CDs on their Macs, but also rip and copy their music on both OS 9 and OS 10.x.
From CiTay
i read reports about successful copying of CDs with Mac computers.
This is easily explainable. Especially the "Key2Audio"-protection is mainly intended to prevent copying on Windows PCs. MACs and also Linux PCs use a different approach with their CD/DVD drivers, and many drives who can't copy protected CDs in Windows, can do so in those OS's.
From Jeroen
I have not tested this. But I think tyhe reasen why MAC's can rp CD and some pc's can and others can't is that MAC uses SCSI. Linux treats it's CD-Writer as SCSI so in this case you can rip it. I heard that with SCSI you don't rip audio as files on a filesystem but scan for indexes, just like a normal CD-player. just my train of thoughts
From Thorzdad
Just to correct Jeroen on his theory that Macs are immune due to their using SCSI...Macs haven't used SCSI in many, many years. They are all ultra ATA. True, you can get a SCSI card and drive as an option, but few do. I think the Mac "immunity" simply comes down to OS incompatability with the anti-copy software.
Still, we Mac-users aren't totally immune. Case in point...the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" CD always throws up a "This disc is unreadable, do you wish to reformat?" error whenever I insert it into my G4. Simply clicking "Cancel" allows the disc to mount to the desktop, though. Also, track listings in iTunes for the same disc are somewhat messed up. Not big pains, but an indication that there is something about the disc my Mac doesn't like. Still, it rips perfectly at 192Kbps.
Keep it simple. Warn your friends and keep returning defective or corrupt CDs to the stores so that they don't make money of off their negligence.
Courtesy of CiTay
You gotta have two CD drives (for instance, a normal drive and a burner).
Create a 80 minute WAV file of silence (no audio data) with your favorite editor and burn it on CD.
Turn off the auto-notification for both drives.
Start CDex. Put the CD with the silence on it in the first drive. CDex will detect it and show one 80 minute track.
Now select the second drive from the drives list, remove the CD from the first drive and put it into the second drive. Put the copy-protected CD into your first drive, leave the CD with the silence in the second drive.
Select the first drive from the drives list. It should still show one 80-minute track, but the copy protected CD is in the drive. Rip the 80 minute track to one big WAV and cut the tracks with your
favorite WAV editor.
If all goes well, you have just ripped a copy-protected CD.
From Rollo Ver at http://66.189.216.174/index.html
I saw one article at your website that talked about making an 80 minute blank wave file. I can copy any CD-ROM protected or not without going through all that.
When are people going to learn to "line in" to their sound systems and record from there? A number of programs such as dBPwerAMP, and Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge have had such capabilities for years. I put CD's into the boombox and line in to record, save them as mp3 and can then burn them as either data mp3, which I like better cause they hold more music but don't function in the car or home stereo, (although they do work in the home DVD and are then routed through through the Stereo Receiver) or using any number of CD-burning software to do audio CD's that work in most cdplayers. You can record any CD with any form of encryption in this way. It takes a little more time, and you should have a good sound editor like sound forge. Also get a good stereo line from Radio Shack so you can "line in".
This capability has been around since windows 3.1 and the old karaoke programs that installed on the old SoundBlaster cards. It was impractical until MP3 technology hit the scene. So big record companies can do what they want, someone will always be able to get around it.
Some of us have been doing this for years now. I recorded a band that I am no longer in this way. We taped onto an old fisher tape deck. I took the tape and lined in to get the recording. Edited the sound and converted it to mp3 then ripped it onto CD. We took that CD into our local college radio station and it had just as much airplay as some other local bands who spent the high dollar getting their songs onto CD-ROM. It sounds just as good as some "studio" version could have put out. Line in man. You can always line in.
When the record execs see we have figured out that we don't need record execs to get our music out there, there will be even longer lines at the unemployment office. The music industry will never be the same.
Courtesy of a Secret Birdie
You mention in the list of Copy protected CDs that it isn't possible to make a digital recording of the Natalie Imbruglia album to minidisc, because of the Cactus protection. "Five - Greatest Hits" also has Cactus protection in the UK, as you mention, but for this CD, I have found a way of recording digitally to minidisc. I can't say whether it would work on the Natalie Imbruglia album, or even if it's of interet to anyone, but here's how I did it.
The problem I had with recording to minidisc was that as soon as the player tries to update the TOC, instead of adding one track to the disc for each track recorded, the first 20-30 seconds of the first track recorded would
become track 1 on the minidisc, with the majority of the rest of the recording as track 254. Tracks 2-253 contain almost no music each.
The fact that I had managed to record something made me wonder how I could logically defeat the protection system. Here's how.
You will need:
A copy of the offending album
A minidisc recorder without automatic end search. I used a Sony MZ-R90
When you programme the tracks to be recorded, add a dummy track to the beginning. If you want to record tracks 1, 2 and 3, programme your CD player to play tracks 1, 1, 2, 3 for instance. If you want to record the whole CD,
programme all the tracks, making sure you programme the first track in twice.
When the recording is finished, stop the minidisc recorder and let it update the TOC. Check track 254. You should find everything you want there. Move track 254 to the beginning of the minidisc, so it is now track 1.
Now you need to get the recorder to the end of track 1. Forward or reverse search until the recorder is at the very end of track one, and press stop.
Without pressing end search (or whatever function your MD recorder uses to record at the first unused portion of the MD), record another track to the minidisc from a non-copy protected CD. This will overwrite all the nonsense
Cactus left you with.
Finally, split track 1 into multiple tracks.
And there you have it, encryption defeated. I am not, of course, endorsing making copies in the UK, even for home use, of copyrighted materials.
Courtesy of S. Smith
In addition to being the best ripper avaiable anyway, the free cardware program Exact Audio Copy
(http://www/exactaudiocopy.de) has no problem ripping these CDs. It has the obvious solution to CD "copy protection" technology -- just read the sectors a bunch of times and stop when they return the same answer.
Copy protected CDs encourage more CD copying simply for backup because such CDs are more suceptible to damage than "unprotected" CDs. (Editor's Note: If you have a corrupt CD, please try this program and let me know if it makes a good copy. I personally use CDex 1.4, and do not buy Big 5 label music, but I'd be interested in hearing about anyone's experiences at corruptcds @ fatchuck.com.)