Anti Swap CD Hits the Racks

Post by **Sylvus** » September 24, 2003, 5:43 pm

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... y/11865096

The disc has two sets of music tracks: one set of "encrypted" songs that can be handled by CD players but cannot be ripped on computers, and a duplicate set of tracks in the Windows Media format. These can be downloaded from the CD to a computer and then transferred to portable devices or recorded to home CDs.

It's a noble effort, and the hackers are going to have a few late nights, but my prediction is that it'll take less than 3 days before there's a workaround.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » September 24, 2003, 6:24 pm

In CD players, the disc plays normally. When put into a Macintosh or Windows PC, the disc installs software to keep the music secure, and an interactive menu pops up with several links, including one to copy some or all of the Windows Media tracks to your hard drive.

First, how fucking DARE they ninja-install shit on people's PCs? I thought it was bad with that Gator pop-up shit, this is just unacceptable.

Secondly, how is it going to stop people who don't have auto-run enabled on their CD drives (like me)? Looks like Windows Explorer is all you'll need to "crack" this little monkey.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » September 24, 2003, 6:30 pm

So if you dont have windows your fucked for pc play, i get it...
yup I predict a crack fast, but in a week, not 3 days
people wont like the spyware either

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » September 24, 2003, 6:33 pm

And this is supposed to get people to buy more CDs? When will they learn copy protection only penalizes the legitimate user.

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » September 24, 2003, 6:54 pm

[quote="masteen]
First, how fucking DARE they ninja-install shit on people's PCs? I thought it was bad with that Gator pop-up shit, this is just unacceptable.
[/quote]

No shit on that one!! If ever meet the fucks that created Gator, I am going to hunt em down and kill 'em in there own kitchen!

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » September 24, 2003, 7:06 pm

Aslanna wrote:And this is supposed to get people to buy more CDs? When will they learn copy protection only penalizes the legitimate user.

Copy protection is only actually aimed at preserving the integrity of the first two weeks of sales (in the PC games industry at least, which has more history in this..) Various things have made this not enitrely successful, like generic safedisc crack, but the worst of the lot was Johnny Minimum-wage-earner at the disc duplicators sneaking a copy of the gold master before it even had safedisc applied. I don't really think the protection will stop the new CD's being MP3'd for long...

The most laughable protection scheme so far is the addition of flaws in the CD so they're unreadable in computer CD drives, but also reduce the quality in a 'normal' CD player because they figure most people have cloth ears and wouldn't know good hi-fi kit if it smashed them in the face..

Not being able to play a CD in your older CD player or on your computer (the only CD player I have) won't stop you buying their product! No... not at all...

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » September 24, 2003, 8:38 pm

Rip the files the hard way. Hell I still use one of my old ripper/converters once in a while for some super-high quality (bitrate) songs that I want to preserve just in case I screw something up with the original CD.

Tegellan · Post by **Tegellan** » September 24, 2003, 8:46 pm

Worst idea ever, those shitheads that come up with this shit should be shot and buried in the desert. I don't know if they will ever learn...

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » September 24, 2003, 9:08 pm

As someone who buys CDs, (while also downloading MP3s I admit), I have to say I will never buy a CD that incorporates this.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » September 24, 2003, 11:45 pm

are these new super ninja proof cd's marked? because i sure won't be buying any...and that's coming from me. ><

Vaemas · Post by **Vaemas** » September 25, 2003, 12:14 am

I have to agree. That's pretty damn low. Good concept...extremely poor implementation.

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » September 25, 2003, 1:18 am

Many Net swappers "think it is their God-given right to steal music," Whitmore says. "They don't know any better. We have to teach them."

Go fuck yourself.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » September 25, 2003, 8:27 am

Aslanna wrote:I have to say I will never buy a CD that incorporates this.

I'm fairly sure I've never downloaded any music. There's none on my drives that I don't have a disk for now at any rate.

I'd never knowingly buy a CD that had this "feature". They'd better be marking them, or accept returns.

These folks continue to show that they don't have a clue on how the business they are in has evolved without them.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » September 25, 2003, 10:47 am

I am with the 3 days to crack the encryption and maybe a week to get it distributed to the world. There is only so much encryption that you can do to a music file before it is no longer playable. The only chance they really have of stopping piracy is to invent a complete new type of music format. Even then it will only take a week or two to break it. You just can't expect privacy when you are working with binary bits.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » September 25, 2003, 1:28 pm

This has happened with every median of music ever since record was made, i dont see why they are making such a big deal about it now, they knew it was gonna happen. That tax on recordable media and recorders is still in effect right?

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » September 25, 2003, 2:29 pm

It has already been cracked BTW.

Umm this explains why I have a functioning DOS 6.22 box in the closet. Sounds like it was a smart move still.

Get ready for Palladium, gonna really hear people scream then

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » September 25, 2003, 4:29 pm

Kylere wrote:It has already been cracked BTW.

Umm this explains why I have a functioning DOS 6.22 box in the closet. Sounds like it was a smart move still.

Get ready for Palladium, gonna really hear people scream then

... talk about an obvious grab for another monopoly... So, how many SETI style computers would we need to crack the PKI of Palladium ...

Jugata · Post by **Jugata** » September 27, 2003, 10:34 pm

Lol, if at first you don't succeed....fail fail fail fail fail fail. GL stopping music swapping.

Kudo · Post by **Kudo** » September 29, 2003, 8:40 pm

hah, they just lost a customer~ no more buying CDs for me, i can live with the radio.

Mak · Post by **Mak** » October 8, 2003, 5:45 am

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... ction_dc_6

A Princeton graduate student said on 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.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » October 8, 2003, 9:02 am

WOW, he figured out how to leave auto-run on, and bypass it?

Siji · Post by **Siji** » October 8, 2003, 10:15 pm

Worst case scenario = People record CD to cassette then from Cassette to computer.

Sure, not quite as high quality.. but FREE > $13 - and even if cost isn't the issue, being able to burn your legally purchased songs onto a single CD as MP3's is such a benefit, people will do it.

Don't know about anyone else, but my car stereo plays MP3's. I bought it for that purpose. I like having one CD in there playing 6-7 albums.

The RIAA will never get a penny from me ever again. Made that decision a long time ago.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » October 8, 2003, 11:56 pm

I have been car shopping lately since it's time to retire my towncar...there have been a couple trucks I looked at with built-in MP3 players but the one's I actually looked at had the damned 6-disk in dash changers. Dammit, I don't want that option!

Personally, I see the MP3 situation as similar to the "blank cassette" arguments from years back. It killed the music industry then too, didn't it? Granted with these "cassettes" being available for basically everyone for free, it "could" have a more lasting impact.

Putting out some good music once in a while rather than spending the money the artists could have on legal fees might make me buy more music anyhow.

Jaxomer · Post by **Jaxomer** » October 10, 2003, 6:19 am

Well this didn't take very long:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/978433.asp?0cv=CB20

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » October 10, 2003, 9:22 am

SunnComm Technologies, a developer of CD antipiracy technology, said Thursday that it will likely sue a Princeton student who early this week showed how to evade the company’s copy protection by pushing a computer’s Shift key.

That's a funny sub-headline. Or whatever it's called.

I'd be surprisd if they won.

Vaemas · Post by **Vaemas** » October 10, 2003, 9:33 am

If that lawsuit actually goes to court, we will have hit a new, all-time low. If your company's product's success is primarly based off of Window's auto-run feature, your company deserves to be publicly humiliated. Besides, don't even think about trying to ninja install software on my machine. That's a fast way to get me pissed.

Kguku · Post by **Kguku** » October 10, 2003, 12:50 pm

I wonder if they'll try and sue Microsoft as well for the following information in their help file.

Windows 2000 keyboard shortcuts
Press To
CTRL+C Copy.
CTRL+X Cut.
CTRL+V Paste.
CTRL+Z Undo.
DELETE Delete.
SHIFT+DELETE Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin.
CTRL while dragging an item Copy selected item.
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item Create shortcut to selected item.
F2 Rename selected item.
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word.
CTRL+LEFT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word.
CTRL+DOWN ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph.
CTRL+UP ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph.
CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys Highlight a block of text.
SHIFT with any of the arrow keys Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document.
CTRL+A Select all.
F3 Search for a file or folder.
CTRL+O Open an item.
ALT+ENTER View properties for the selected item.
ALT+F4 Close the active item, or quit the active program.
CTRL+F4 Close the active document in programs that allow you to have multiple documents open simultaneously.
ALT+TAB Switch between open items.
ALT+ESC Cycle through items in the order they were opened.
F6 Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop.
F4 Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
SHIFT+F10 Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.
ALT+SPACEBAR Display the System menu for the active window.
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu.
ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name Display the corresponding menu.
Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu Carry out the corresponding command.
F10 Activate the menu bar in the active program.
RIGHT ARROW Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu.
LEFT ARROW Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu.
F5 Refresh the active window.
BACKSPACE View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
ESC Cancel the current task.
SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive Prevent the CD from automatically playing.

Notes

Some keyboard shortcuts may not work if StickyKeys is turned on in Accessibility Options.
If you are connected to Windows 2000 through Microsoft Terminal Services Client, some shortcuts have changed. For more information, see the online documentation for Terminal Services Client.
Related Topics

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » October 10, 2003, 1:06 pm

wow, its amazing just how low a company will go.
"Our software didnt work because they didnt want it to on thier own personal computer, we must sue!"
just fucking pathetic

Kguku · Post by **Kguku** » October 10, 2003, 1:08 pm

I got bored and emailed the company asking if this article had any base of truth, the response I got made me laugh.

From: "Peter Jacobs" <peterj@sunncomm.com>
Subject: RE: Is this article true?
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:49:51 -0700
To: "Mark VanCamp" <markv@paconline.net>

no, it's not true.

__________________
Peter H. Jacobs
Chief Executive Officer
SunnComm Technologies, Inc,

So I replied asking if there was going to be an ammendment/retraction, as this information was being published by several reputable news sources.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » October 10, 2003, 3:04 pm

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archiv ... 8797.shtml

SunnComm Technologies, Inc. announced yesterday morning it would sue first-year graduate student John Halderman over his recent critique of the company's new CD copy-protection method, but by the end of the day SunnComm president and CEO Peter Jacobs said he changed his mind.

Critique can be found here. Interesting reading.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » October 10, 2003, 5:59 pm

he probably changed his mind after about seeing 250 thousand people foaming at the mouth