Alien_X used our newssubmit to tell us about an article on the New Scientist website. It describes some of the technique's used on copy-protected audio CDs and how manufacturers could easily circumvent them with either a hardware or a software modification. We of course already knew this a long time ago (check for instance our Plextor PX-W4824TU review) but it's nice to see other's catching up:
The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, according to a computer scientist who has put today's antipiracy systems under the microscope. He believes the continual software and hardware upgrades issued by the makers of computer CD drives and audio CD players render copy protection systems pointless in the long run. |
John Halderman, a computer scientist from Princeton University in New Jersey, plans to show delegates at a digital copyright conference in Washington DC next week that the idea of CD copy-prevention is "fundamentally misguided".
In 2001, Princeton University scientists debunked the technology the music industry planned to use to inaudibly watermark sound. Halderman is now doing a similar job on copy prevention systems.
Halderman looked at three widely available copy-protected CDs. He found that the three different copy protection formats they used all had one thing in common: they all index the contents of music discs using a system meant only for recording CDs on a computer's CD drive.
The full article can be read here. Audio discs and their protections can of course be discussed in our Audio Forum.
Source: New Scientist
