On Nov 10, 2005, at 10:30 PM, Julian Visch wrote:
Has anyone got these copy protected CDs to actually play on Linux?
Or are they just a waste of money?
As someone else mentioned, most of the copy protection schemes embed
some Windows software in a data track. Many are now incorporating
Mac software as well. As long as you can get your system to ignore
the data track you should be fine. And people said those green pens*
were useless - they were just ahead of their time :)
I just remembered that I have one CD that I couldn't get to rip on
either Win or Mac, no matter what tricks I tried. I've been
intending to try ripping it with Linux. It's pretty much academic
now as my iPod is full :(
- Dave
* Drawing around the outer edge of a CD with a special (=expensive)
green pen was once touted as a way to improve the sound quality by
supposedly absorbing stray IR light which would otherwise reflect
internally. Nowadays, some copy-protection schemes can be broken by
drawing at the outside of the disc (this time on the surface rather
than the edge), which causes the drive to return errors when
attempting to access the data track which is physically located there.
