Corrupt CD Reports

From the News
'N Sync fight the CD pirates (and law abiding fans) (10.3.2001)
N'Sync CD is copy protection "experiment" (10.2.2001)
N'Sync Copy Protected CD (10.2.2001)

From Christ
I recently bought NSync's Celebrity *because* it has the label "This CD is not playable on computers" on it. I wanted to find out what was and wasn't true of the claims.
When I returned to work, it played perfectly in my CD-ROM drive at the first try. It also played fine on a co-workers machine.
I then started up a ripping program, which was able to fault-lessly rip the tracks off the disc. I then converted these to MP3 format (which also gave no problems, ofcourse).
I further tested the following equipment:
- CD-interactive player at work. It doesn't play on every try, also half-crashes the machine (hard to explain, but screen output was weird to say the least.
- CD-interactive player at home. It tries reading the disc and tells me 'Err' in the screen after half a minute.
- DVD player at home. IT says 'No disc' after a few seconds.
Figures: I am able to play it where I shouldn't be able, and I am not able to play it in the home stereo. Guess I'll take it back for a refund...
Or, I might keep it. It says 'Compact Disc Digital Audio' on the disc itself. Someone I know has a Philips CD100 (the very first CD player Philips built, over 15 years back). According the the CD-DA logo on the disc, it should play in there. If it doesn't, I hear that that may be called a trademark infringement. Also, CD-i players should have no problems at all with CD-DA discs. Perhaps someone could interrest Philips and/or Sony into persuing a trademark infringement lawsuit. That would prove to be interesting, I guess :-).

PART II
I brought it back to the store two days ago. They exchanged it for another disc. The CD-players in the shop were totally able to read the CD's, by the way... They told me that if I'd be back with the disc again, I'd get my money back. I think I'll do just that, today...
I did a little bit more testing. A co-workers Macintosh also played the CD without a hitch. My Linux-box at home told me cdrom: no media inserted.
I also have my MP3-compatible CD-player with me. Just a sec... Hmm, it doesn't seem to have any problems with it! I *think* a portable MP3 player should be in the 'Computer' area, but I'm not sure.
Uhm, I guess I've tested most of the slots I could put it into :-)
For reference, here's the information on the package 9222032/ (7)9222032 / LC 07925 / PC 44 / PM 538
...and on the CD: 9222062ACP / (7) 9222062

From Anonymous
NSync - Pop (cd single) - upc: 638592522824 "This CD is not playable on computers"

From Valerie Kocher
Playing: States "No computer play" In very TINY print on the CD itself. Ok I run a Win 98 pltform, when loaded it continuously loads and the computer has to be shut off as it won't do anything else. Will not play in DVD or Car stereo
Copying: No, the computer wouldn't even read it

From Tom Spring of Massachussetts, batch # 9222062ACP/(7) 92220662
Copying: CD is unreadable in both my PC and DVD player and portable CD player........ RRRrrrr.

OK CD Reports

From Timopthy Dehring, batch # L38874640124117582D10620-07M
Well its been reported that this CD is one of the few from BMG that were being tested with this new scheme. While its been reported that PC's with Windows on them can't rip them, my Mac running OS 10.1 can do this just fine. Hell, I never knew that it was a corrupt CD til I read about it after a week since I ripped it.

From Ryan Demski of Chino Hills, California, batch # 01241417582 AB854-02
Copying: This disc plays in every player I throw at it as well as every ripping/copying software I try. Strangely, my CD does not have any copy protection warning either, like they do now.

from Anonymous in Roanoke Virginia, batch # unknown
Copying: I've had no problem ripping this cd with MusicMatch 7.0 Plus and Windows XP, or ANY CD listed here on the site that I have, and I have copied alot of them with no problem, maybe they don't put out protected CD's where I live? Plays fine in my portable MP3 Player, In Dash MP3 Player and my DVD player.

From Stacee in Kansas, batch # 1R 01241417582 IFPIL433
Copying: I was able to copy this CD using my philips CDR775 digital audio recorder. I had no problems copying it to CDR.

From Olivia in New York, New York, batch # *1R* 01241417582 IFPIL433
Copying: I bought the CD back in July and no longer have the overwrap, so I'm not sure if my copy had a sticker saying it was unplayable in computers. The disc itself reads: "WARNING: Must launch Media Player to access music. Do not attempt to launch the MSN Explorer software from this CD while music is playing." The CD contains software for joining the MSN network. When I put it in my CD-ROM drive (Yamaha, burner), the disc doesn't automatically play - I get a folder with the MSN software. I can play the music on my computer, but I have to open my MS Media Player first (most of my audio CDs automatically launch Media Player when I put them in my computer, but I thought the reason why "Celebrity" didn't do it was because of its trying to get you to sign up for MSN). I also successfully converted a track from audio to MP3 using CDex. I run a PC with Windows 98. This is the first time I ever tried playing this CD on my computer, and it certainly didn't seem corrupt to me. Maybe I'm lucky.

From Laure, Allen, Texas
Copying: I did copy my CD, burned it and can play it in my DVD player, copmuter and CD players (car and homE). I do think it's ridiculous, though what they're doing. Once you buy a product you should be able to treat it how you like. What are they going to do the same to VHS tapes now?

From Mindy, Chicago, Illinois
Copying: I bought this CD the week it came out, and it says nothing about not being able to play in a computer, and in fact I have ripped this cd several times using Easy CD Creator on a PC running Windows 98 with no problems.