FBI Anti-Piracy Warnings on CDs

[vashti1999]

I guess this is a new mandatory thing, I was checking out a bunch of cds at Target on my lunch break and noticed a bunch of them had sort of an imprint seal and the message "FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: Unauthorized Copying Is Punishable Under Federal Law" and the little FBI logo seal is part of the back cover, it's not like a sticker you can peel off. How tacky is that? I guess it's their way of saying we can't say "I didn't know it's illegal" as a defense. What really pisses me off is that the cd I bought is one of those copy-protected discs. I didn't even realize it until I got back to work and saw that sticker. I basically just want to upload the songs to my ipod. I'll be able to get around the copy-protection, but still it's a hassle having to go through extra steps. The day when record labels are no longer needed to get people's music to the public will be a great day. I hope it comes sooner than later.

[Kay Scarpetta]

Originally posted by vashti1999
I basically just want to upload the songs to my ipod. I'll be able to get around the copy-protection, but still it's a hassle having to go through extra steps.

I'll keep downloading songs until they haul my ass off to jail.

anyway, that's what I want, is to be able to get around the copy-protection to copy CD's. Do you know a way to do that?

[vashti1999]

Originally posted by Kaffeine Kay
anyway, that's what I want, is to be able to get around the copy-protection to copy CD's. Do you know a way to do that?

Here's an article from last year. I don't know if the company made any changes to their software since then, but this explains one way to do it.

A Princeton graduate student said Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer — simply by pressing the Shift-key.
In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically launches the encryption software on the disc.

Halderman said the protection could also be disabled by stopping the driver the CD installs when it is first inserted into a computer's drive.

Computers running Linux and older versions of the Mac operating system are unable to run the software and are able to copy the disc freely, he said.

The CD in question, Anthony Hamilton's Comin' From Where I'm From, was released by BMG's Arista label in late September. Music retailers praised the release, which BMG touted as a breakthrough in the industry's efforts to prevent music piracy.

"SunnComm's claims of robust protection collapse, when subjected to scrutiny, and their system's weaknesses are not only academic," Halderman said in the report.

A spokesman for SunnComm was not immediately available to comment on the report. A spokesman for BMG, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, said the company viewed the software as a "speed bump" to prevent mass piracy of the disc.

"We were fully aware that if someone held down the Shift key the first and every subsequent time (they played the disc) that the technology could be circumvented," BMG spokesman Nathaniel Brown told Reuters, adding the company "erred on the side of playability and flexibility."

Halderman, who has previously done research on CD copy-protection techniques and their effects on consumer sentiment, called the latest protection attempts into question.

"CD copy-prevention schemes that (depend) solely on software, as SunnComm's does, will be trivial to disable, and alternative strategies that modify the CD data format will invariably cause public outcry over incompatibility with legitimate playback devices," Halderman said.

The music industry has blamed piracy and online file sharing services for a prolonged slump in CD sales. Software like that from SunnComm has been seen as a way to slow down the tide of CDs being ripped into digital format and uploaded to the file sharing platforms.

[AllIWantIsYourClutch]

Yep there's one of those on Diana Degarmo's single. Pretty stupid of you ask me. People are going to do it whether there's a warning there or not.

[Kay Scarpetta]

Originally posted by vashti1999
Here's an article from last year. I don't know if the company made any changes to their software since then, but this explains one way to do it.

A Princeton graduate student said Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer — simply by pressing the Shift-key.
In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically launches the encryption software on the disc.

Wow- just hold the Shift Key down? Hmm. I'll try it and see what happens.. thanks!

[vashti1999]

Originally posted by Kaffeine Kay
Wow- just hold the Shift Key down? Hmm. I'll try it and see what happens.. thanks!

Something tells me they did something to improve (from their standpoint) the software. Once I got home, I tried this with the cd I bought today and copied the tracks to my hard drive as mp3 files, but as I played them back, the songs sound choppy.