"Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare.
But if you seek safety, it is on the shore."

Copying Copy Protected CD's
Original by Zota, translatation by OpioN.

The turnover losses with which the manufactories from the audio, video and software industry have to deal, is according to them the blame of crackers who make illegal copies of their products. The cure against this could be the mass use of copy protection. But can manufacturers feel safe knowing that their piece of software/audio/video is protected by such a utility. I went on a quest to find out what copy protection could really do, and how it could be fooled.

The software industry is complaining about turnover losses because of illegal copies since the introduction of the Commodore 64. This is about the time when they began their campaign against crackers and the numerous illegal copies. But since even though it is a long time ago, they don’t seem to have won any territory from the crackers, because the only thing you need these days is a cd-writer and a good burning program to make usable copies.

Not long ago even the music industry started using copy protection to stop the illegal copied audio cd’s. But because the compact disc does not have an intrinsic copy protection, there are serious side effects attached. The last great revolution in audio cd copy protection was by Sony DADC, which developed the pc-playback protection Key2Audio. Key2Audio made sure that the audio cd could not be read by most cd-rom’s, it was not recognized by most drives. Unfortunately this was also the case for most dvd-players and portable cd-players, which caused a lot of irritation among the consumers.

With SafeAudio, until now only used in the US, the manufacturer Macrovision didn’t even care about obvious audio quality losses. The SafeAudio method is one of scattering errors through the audio data, which cd-rom drives can’t filter out, but the error correction of most cd-players can.

The video-dvd was equipped with CSS and Macrovision to render digital and analogue copies useless, but over the years both methods showed to be easily overcome. Currently there is even commercial software available for a private backup in DivX- or VCD-format. And if you are not happy with that quality you can even make 1:1 copies.

But the dvd-producers in contrast to the software and music manufacturers do not notice any turnover loss. On the contrary, the turnover in this segment grew explosively in comparison to other consumer electronics divisions. That doesn’t mean that the dvd-industry won’t have to come up with new barriers for a future format, which will work with a much higher data speed, to protect their income.

Opposition

Because the software games industry doesn’t want to make it a heaven for (illegal) copiers they will invent new, and develop further copy protection software. Most manufacturers know that they are fighting for a lost cause, because no copy protection has proven to be ‘uncrackable’ against the dissasemblers of the crackers society.

That’s why most of the copy protection is aimed at incidental copiers; people who pass on copies of new game- or audio-cd’s to their friends or acquaintances, and rip off the manufacturers in this way. The manufacturers try to create a big a barrier as possible, so that at least in the first few weeks of sale there will be no illegal copies of their product available on the black market (mostly schools). And although this might seem fair, this also stops most legal users who want to make a backup-copy, which is allowed.

A lot of high quality cd burning programs like Nero Burning ROM, WinOnCD or DiscJuggler crash on some of the more advanced copy protection. But luckily there are programs that have proven to be real copy specialists. Especially Blindwrite Suite, CloneCD and the latest CD Mate have very good credentials, with both the legal and illegal copying scene. Using these tools almost all cd’s can be copied, or distributed as an ISO-image, without further tools.

But the creators of copy protection for software are very creative: they use the weak spots in the cd-rom-specification of cd-writers or weak spots of the Operating System. Although most copy protection is in violation with the cd-rom-specifications, they have to be 99 percent compatible with all the available cd-rom-drives and dvd-rom-drives. Because of this they usually can be copied. This article also includes a table where you can find a list of most common used copy protection, their recognition methods and the solution for making a successful backup-cd. This table is widely available all over the internet, I only updated it a bit.

Copy Protection Table

Copy-/Play-protection (manufacturer)
Symptoms/Recognition methods
Bypassing Methods
Used how often
Examples

Audio-cd

Cactus Data Shield 100
(Midbar Tech)
This cd will run in only very few pc-drives, because wrong registration of the lead-out and the TOC confuse the pc-drive, there are also sound interruptions
Every burning program that ignores illegal TOC's and writes/reads in RAW mode.
-
Him- Razorblade Romance, LoveParade Compilation 2001

Cactus Data Shield 200
(Midbar Teck)
The pc will only recognize this cd as a data session. Because there is a Windows program 'CactusPJ.exe and an archive file 'Yucca.cds' which contain all numbers in mp3 format. With Mac OS X and Linux this cd appears to be a normal compact disc, but there can be troubles when reading or playing the first track.
Every burning program that ignores illegal TOC's and writes/reads in RAW mode.
+
Right said Fred - Freadhead, Die Prinzen - D, Bild - Mallorca Hits

Duolizer
(Bayview Systems)
This player-application only loads the missing parts, from some server, when playing the music. As you probably expect, this isn't very useful for a normal audio cd.
The music can be digital recorded with a virtual sound card (TotalRecorder).
--
none known

Enhanced CD/CD-Extra
Enhanced-cd's only look copy protected. On the cd there is behind the audio tracks a hybrid track with multimedia content for Windows and Mac. In Explorer you can only see the data part of the cd, while cd players only play the audio part. There is usually the 'Enhanced CD' logo on the back of the cd.
Every burning program that supports multisession cd's. Linux and Mac OS (X) show both the audio tracks and the data track separate, so this is also a work around.
+
Live - V, Bush - Golden State, Kylie Minogue - Can't get you...

MediaCloq
(SunnComm)
This cd can only be played on a stand-alone cd player. The pc consumer will be redirected to the web page with the label of that cd. MediaCloQ marks all audio tracks as data tracks, and fools most pc drives. MediaCloQ 2.0 protected cd's can be played from a pc-drive.
Until now only readable with Plextor PX40 and CloneCD. Various drives can burn it.
--
Heather Nova - South, NSync - Celebrity

SafeAudio
(Macrovision)
No visible clues. When playing these cd's in a pc-drive the copy protection generates errors, the same when grabbing it for a mp3.
The 'Burst Copy Mode' of different cd-grabbers. The alternative cd driver CDFS.vxd by 'Cyber7' bypasses the copy protection.
-
none known

SCMS
(Sony)
Prevents any further reproduction of DAT- and MiniDisc-recordings by setting a copy-bit.
An extern copy-bit-killer is required, or a sound card which generates a SCMS-signal.
0
Heather Nova - South, commercial minidisks.