[linux-audio-user] Cactus Data Shield copy controlled cd's

[Mark Knecht]

>
> I recently bought the Live NIN CD and was disappointed to find that it
> might be copy protected as well.  It's not on the list of copy protected
> CDs and it bears no warning, but it also doesn't have the "Compact Disc
> Digital Audio" logo anywhere on it.  On top of all that, ripping
> applications have been weird when pulling audio off of it.  cdparanoia
> managed to start getting the tracks this morning, but it was going very
> slow with lots of errors being noted.  I'll be interested in hearing if
> it works or not...
>

Newspaper articles I saw here in the US indicated that some manufacturers
were making a large number of non-protected disks, and then a smaller number
of protected disks, and then mixing them together for shipment. None of the
disks were externally marked in any way to identify which ones were which.

The strategy, apparently, was to let people return the protected disks them
as bad disks, if they found them, and then let the retail stores return them
to the manufacturer. The manufacturer would then take statistics about how
many of the protected disks were returned, and would then use this info to
make a decision about how many more disks they could afford to make
protected. their goal was to get the number of protected disks way up over
time.

As always, I'm the rat in the maze. I now attempt to rip EVERY CD I buy,
even though I do not usually play CDs on my computer and don't even keep the
ripped track. Such a waste of time.

Unlike many, I don't understand the attraction of downloaded music, really,
other than it's theft. I completely disagree with both copy protecting CD as
I should be able to make a personal copy, but I completely disagree with
Kazaa, et all, as it's just theft.

I guess I'm just disagreeable... ;-)

- Mark