Scotch Tape Saves The Day Again, In This Case From Sony Copy Protection

[alexander]

http://informationweek.com/story/sho...leID=174400748

LOL, not kidding, well first of all, according to the DMCA, scotch tape is illegal
but apparently if you put a fingernail-thick piece of an opaque scotch tape on the outer edge of a CD, then the cd is treated as an ordinary single-layer CD which makes it burnable by ordinary programs...

People have way too much free time...

[Turtle]

I recall hearing before you can do the same by using a felt tip marker on the edge. I wonder if the tape has to be 'Scotch' or if any brand will do?

[alexander]

but sharpies are not legal according to DMCA either...

[alexander]

basically its anything to make the edge opaque and make a small error, but not enough to hurt data... (if you draw too much with a pen, you are screwed, but if you are just using the tape (any opaque tape, not brand specific) )

[Turtle]

___Ahhh. I re-read the link & see they do mention the pen. I also missed on my first read the part about them putting sneaky stuff on peoples' machines. Of course, they wouldn't need protection if it weren't for all the thieves. I bet the musicians get the biggest shaft of all. If what goes around, comes around, why not make square disks?

[Tormod]

I prefer my Scotch bottled, not on tape.

[rockytriton]

scotch tape isn't illegal, it's just illegal to use it for an illegal purpose, such as hacking digital copyright protection. It's also illegal to use scotch tape to bind someone to a chair against their will, although duct tape is much better for this purpose... not that I have any experience with this!

[CraigD]

Sony and other’s latest string in a long history of DRM blunders is funny for sure, but let’s not get lured into the false sense that proponents of DRM and the DMCA are too inept to ever succeed, nor forget what their immediate and ultimate goals actually are.

DRM forays into software protection schemes on general-purpose computing and media hardware are marginal efforts – no well-informed people expect them to succeed significantly. The real, immediate focus of DRM is the implementation of expanded “trusted computing” schemes in hardware – monolithic media reading devices that are physically incapable of violating DRM permissions.

Unlike individual users, hardware manufacturers are potentially easy to make comply with legal and contractual requirements honoring even simplistic DRM schemes, such as “digital watermarking”. The replacement of current media reading devices, which are capable of accessing data in raw form, with “locked down” ones, need not involve sinister RIAA raids in the wee hours of the morning to seize offending hardware – it need only wait for existing hardware, with its many non-field-replaceable moving parts, to wear out, and assure that only restricted function replacements are available.

Even that venerable copy protection scheme defeater of last resort – capturing analog output (as a true last resort, one can always mike a speaker) – is not invulnerable. DRM proponents are actively exploring the possibilities of applying DMCA-type legal restriction on such low-level hardware as Analog-to/from-Digital converters, in an effort to sever the analog-digital connection we now take for granted on most available hardware.

In sociological terms, the ultimate goal of DRM proponents is the transformation of society from a “Free culture” to a “Permission culture”. Follow the links to an (appropriately enough) free copy of Lessig’s book “Free Culture” for a fairly scholarly explanation of these terms. Lessig, you may recall, is famous for arguing, and loosing, the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft before the US Supreme Court in 2002.

I don’t mean to sound completely the prophet of doom and gloom – there are plenty of effective opponents of the scary scenarios I paint, from advocacy groups like the EFF to big-money private business niches like pro audio. ADC/DACs can always be cobbled together on a breadboard or a DIY circuit board. However, if DRM defeating comes to require pricey and uncommon pro audio/video equipment or obvious electronic hobbyist gear, “sinister RIAA raids in the wee hours of the morning” begin to look less impractical, and more seriously worrying.

[pgrmdave]

So long as the information is digital and availible, someone, somewhere, will find some way to copy it and make it availible for free. There is no foolproof DRM scheme, and because it doesn't take much to copy digital media, even a small chink in the armor of DRM is easily exploited.

[rockytriton]

in fact, if you can hear music, it can be made into an mp3. Either really poor quality with a microphone, or plug the headphone/aux jack into your computer's line-in and record that way, there is no such thing as copy protection when it comes to music.