Defeating EMI's "Copy Controlled" CD Nonsense
Before you actually buy a CD from the store (people do still do this
quite a lot in spite of what the RIAA would have you believe, they just
don't buy them from outrageously overpriced ripoff parlours like Sanity
anymore), check the back of it carefully.
If it has the EMI symbol on it and Copy Controlled, its not actually a
valid CD. Its one of these incredibly stupid and lame things that
EMI are doing to keep their shareholders happy.
There is a good chance it wont play on at least one of your CD players
when you get it home, and some chance it wont play on any of them.
If you put the CD into your ShitDOS (Windows) computer system, ShitDOS
will try and mount it like a CDROM, not an audio CD.
DONT
INSTALL THE SOFTWARE ON THE CD ONTO YOUR COMPUTER!!!
EVEN IF IT INSISTS!!! JUST CANCEL IT!!!
It can still
be played (if you are lucky) using Wimpy Player (Windows Media Player)
and some other CD player tools, but its still a pain.
The "Compact Disc" logo is nowhere to be found on these - they can't
legally put it on them because its not actually an audio CD, what it is
is actually a deliberately badly manufactured 2-session CDROM with the
audio data in the second session. This is based on the theory
that most CD players will ignore the first session and catch the second
session. This thinking is woolly, and it simply defeats a good
number of audio CD players.
Basically, and lets get this straight for the record: YOU CANNOT
COPY PROTECT AN AUDIO CD. Period. In fact its nearly
impossible to copy-protect a CDROM - well, it is impossible but sometimes its
easier, if the price is right, to either pay up or borrow.
And that's the core issue - the price
- if these things weren't so utterly ridiculously overpriced there
wouldn't be an issue. 80% of people would rather have a nice
fresh,
manufactured copy of the music that they can rely on, but of course
they also have the right to copy it - an inalieble human right that has
nothing to do with governments and certainly nothing to do with record
companies.
Its just they all cling to the old model, that is now dead deaddy dead,
and wish they were Phil Spector. They wish it was still an
era when record companies and distributors had such an immoral
stranglehold on everything that they could foster a "Star system" in
music (as ridiculous as the one in movies) and create a shitpile that
bands and composers had to climb to be "at the top", whereupon they
were treated like royalty and could behave as coked up spoilt brats
behave. Even then the bands often didn't make a dime.
Well its over guys, that era's gone. Dead. Deady Deady
Deady Deady DEAD. The distribution model is flat now, it will get
flatter, there is nothing you can do legally or technologically to stop
it.
You can no longer charge $25 - $40 for a CD which might be complete
crap (WHY, WHY did people buy that Missy Elliot CD ??? There is
only ONE reasonable song on it and it needs cutting up to work.
The rest is fucking White Hip Hop done by black people with lots of
FX). People won't pay it, and they should never have had to
pay it, its ridiculous.
There is only one solution - lower your prices. $5 a CD is
still a little too high, but you will probably get away with
it. $2 a CD is more like it.
Here's how to get around the madness of EMI "Copy Controlled" CD's.
The Sony ones will be dealt with in another page.
(Gee, there is this opinion going around that even though you have
bought the recording and even though you possibly can't play it, and
even though there might only be one good song on the album amongst 15
pieces of crap done to pad it out, that it is somehow "illegal" to copy
the data onto something else. What a fucking
wank. Its DATA for fucks sake and most of the money goes
into the pockets, up the noses or into the little-boys funds of record
company boards of directors anyway. So the only concession to
wimping out that we are prepared to make here is:
THIS PAGE IS INFORMATION ONLY. GET USED TO IT.).
In Linux
Use K3B and just do a straight copy in RAW mode.
Make sure you have a nice up to date cdrecord and cdrdao installed, in
fact update all your cd tools.
If you are running a late Debian, late Knoppix or Fedora Core 4 (3
might
just cut it for you), then you are already all set.
Basically K3B (using the low level tools above) copies the CD as is,
including the "Copy Protection".
K3B: "What copy protection ? What are you yabbering about ?"
By the way, K3B, linux based, is the best GUI based CD/DVD burning
program around, and is better than anything currently available on any
other OS.
This and a couple of other apps here and there are starting to edge
linux FINALLY into being a serious desktop system, since it already
owns the server market.
In ShitDOS (ie. "Microsoft Windows", that quaint soon-to-be-defunct
desktop TSR system)
Use AudioGrabber,
the latest version.
The author has been kind enough to change it from ShareWare to FreeWare.
This is a brilliant tool for ripping tracks off a CD (its not a
burner), one of the best.
It finds all the tracks on the CD and just seems to treat the
multi-session gimmickery as an error which it compensates for.
Rip all the tracks to your harddrive, then burn back a bullshit-free CD
using your favourite burner (Nero or EZ CD Creator work fine).
When you burn back DON'T forget to set Disk At Once (DAO) mode, so you
don't end up with 2-second gaps between your songs! (bad for segueys).
CDR Win seems to be defeated and EZ CD Creator's CD Copy is defeated,
though if you have super up to date versions they might work.
CDR-Win should work, its a
very powerful tool.
Apple Mac OS X
No idea, sorry.
The only conclusion so far is that Toast wont do it - it spots the multiple
sessions just fine but then wont let you do anything with them.
This may no longer be true with the release of Toast 7, or possibly
there are other tools out there.
Dont forget that OS X is basically BSD unix so if you want to get down
and dirty there is probably a good command line way to do it.
And perhaps a footnote: You may feel that you want to en-torrent any
tracks you find on one of these "CD"'s as a matter of course, to send a
message to EMI. You may feel that.