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.