[RickG]

Hmmmm......

http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape...0271_aolns.src

 

[Nezer]

And if it's a green marker it will even make it sound better in a normal CDP!

 

[RobertR]

how can marking the edge of a cd make it sound better?
this was a charlatan tweak espoused by stereophile some years ago along with spraying cd's with armor all. sounds like black magic to me.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Wait... to crack the copy proof CD you need to mark the outer area of the back *surface* of the CD with a marker, while in that audio tweak you mark the outside and inside *rim* of the CD.

The mark-the-rim tweak is supposed to improve CD reading by preventing reflections of the laser from the rims of the CD from interfering.

 

[Nezer]

Once again my sarcasim goes unnoticed...

 

[RobertR]

marking the outer or inner rim of a cd will not have any effect on laser readout. It either reads the data or it doesn't. If it doesn't read you get nothing or error correction. Admittedly there are differences in corr. circuity and digital to analog chips but you cannot change sound by hoping that the laser will read a bit more clearly by tweaking your cd.

 

[aos]

Joe Bloggs is right. The pen modification is done on *DATA* track, to prevent the CD ROM from reading table of content of the second session (or something like that). Supposedly when there are multisessions disks, CD ROMs will use second session as the reference and that one on copy protected CD does not show any audio tracks. CD players on the other hand ignore all sessions other than the first so they play the CD fine. So if you cover the second session's table of content, CD ROM will see only the first TOC and will be able to read/copy/play the disk.

 

[phidauex]

Companies that make these copy protected discs are being attacked by some digital rights protection groups on the grounds that the discs are being falsely played off as CDs. Technically, the discs do NOT meet the standards necessary to be legally called a CD Audio Redbook disc. they are something else that just sort of happens to work in many players (but not all, and certainly not computers). Yet, the discs are being pawned off on the public as though they were CDs, with nothing more than a tiny little logo (and the lack of a very important CD Audio logo) to warn consumers that they aren't buying a real CD. Sounds like false advertising to me!

There is also a group trying to get felt tip markers outlawed because they can be used to violate copyrights. Its an attempt to show how ridiculous companies can be when it comes to protecting their 'intellectual property' (don't even GET me on that topic, i can debate for a long time on the flaws in that little oxymoron.)

Anyway, yay for the intrepid yet untamed horde of internet users!!

peace,
phidauex

 

[CaptBubba]

I think it just makes the cdrom give up on trying to read the data tracks.

When the disk is popped in it tells the computer "there's data here and audio here"

The computer goes "What? Data? Lemme see." because computers are configured to read data first. Undoubtly someone will come up with a hack soon to make it read audio first.

at this point two things can happen, if the track is not blacked out the computer will go: "There's data here, I know, but I can't read it..." and will give a read error.

Or, if it is blacked out: "Dam lying TOC, there isn't data there!, now what's this about audio?" and will then read the audio tracks.

I think copy protection is a dead end anyway, and this just shows it. I bet Sony spent big $$$ on developing this copy protection, and would have come out ahead in the end if they had just dropped the prices of cds to entice people to buy more.

To see how this works, get nero and a black cd-r. Burn a few tracks of audio, then close that session. Then burn some data, and close the disk. You end up with a cd that plays on cdps, but appears as a data cd to a computer

 

[Alexa]

All hail new technology *worships*