Attention, Covenant fans:

[reddragdiva]

Unlike the European edition of Northern Light on Sony, the US edition on Metropolis is apparently not copy-corrupted and does not feature the Macintosh-wrecking Key2Audio rubbish. Time for a mail order.

Comments

[naughtypixie.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiousity... it's not just iMacs that are affected, we've had 12 desktop G4's so far knackered by this. 9 we reclaimed via fiddling with firmware, 3 we managed to get the disks out (horribly voiding the warrenty) by actually physically removing the disk then flushing it with a fresh version of the firmware that it had scrambled.

fun.

[reddragdiva]

Fixed.

Did you send a bill to Sony?

[naughtypixie.livejournal.com]

Sadly, our in house tech did the dismantling as a favour and I did the firmware diddling, consequently the cost was, in actual monetary exchange on paper terms, nothing (real cost was my time and his, but we both enjoyed it and I considered it a personal challenge from sony).

We did send off a rude letter to sony for each event, and i've managed to convinced 3 of our titles so far to run "why copy protection is pointless and damaging" articles simply because we won't let the whiney bastards play music CD's anymore as they're too stupid to read labels (not to mention staying in touch with the world enough to learn about the unlabled ones).

[reddragdiva]

"i've managed to convinced 3 of our titles so far to run "why copy protection is pointless and damaging" articles"

Heh. Sony picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel :-)

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

There's a fix (http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120166) for SuperDrive Macs, though I haven't had the bad luck to have run into one of these malformed "CDs" so haven't tested it.

(Doesn't let you play, just lets you eject the thing.)

[naughtypixie.livejournal.com]

true, however anyone who still is using macs in publishing will be on os 9 (which is unsupported by that FAQ) as that demon program called quark still does not run to an effective level under OS X. Much as i'd love all my designers to move to indesign and OS X, it's not happening soon.

Out of curiousity though, if you do happen to run across one of the affected CD's in combination with an effected mac, be warned that the other apple technote (which i'm actually too tipsy to be bothered looking up at the moment) which noted how to get effected CD's out of the drive, lies! Sometimes it works... sometimes you are supposed to return said drive to apple (or ask nice favours from tech support companies with apple warranty non voiding contracts).

[nils.livejournal.com]

My copy of Northern Lights (ordered from Germany) plays just fine in my Mac...

[reddragdiva]

Interesting. Any mentions of Key2Audio or similar? Does it actually have a 'Compact Disc Digital Audio' logo on the case, card or disc?

[nils.livejournal.com]

It came in plastic wrapping with a sticker saying "will not play on PC/MAC" (and another sticker with tour dates). Can't find the CDDA logo anywhere. On the disc itself it says, in silver on grey and in letters so tiny you can barely see them, "Auf PC/Mac nicht abspielbar". (That's German for "not playable on PC/Mac".)

I've just tried it again, it does indeed play from my CD drive (well, DVD-writer actually). Took a couple of tries before iTunes picked it up, but that may have been my impatience...

Interesting indeed.

[naughtypixie.livejournal.com]

The drives it won't play on are the ones that are also CD burners (superdrives, and the CD-RW/DVD combo drives). Other drives are usually fine. I'll say "usually" because I had 2 superdrives side by side, one worked with a celene dion (it's my test CD because no one gives a damn if it's destroyed) and one didn't... likewise 2 DVD rom drives (which don't burn CD's) did exactly the same thing.

Basically, it seems to be that if you haven't updated your firmware under OS 9 then it's fine... and if you have updated your firmware under OS X then you're also fine. If you fit neither of those conditions you tend to be screwed (again, not guarenteed).

The logic of this leaves me speechless. The annoyance of this leaves me in a state to use large explosives on Sony (where's hatchet when you need him).

[nils.livejournal.com]

Mine is a superdrive, and I haven't updated any firmware or anything (might worry about that when I get broadband...). Haven't tried all that many copy-protected CDs (heck, I don't own many, and I intend to keep it that way), but this one plays fine.

I suspect the best (only?) way to make the bastards listen is to stop buying their products...

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Attention people:

I've posted this in about a million places and it works, so trust me on this. The Sony copy protection shit is a piece of piss to disable. Simply get a black felt tip and draw around the outer track on the cd. Its obvious from looking at the CD because the outer data track looks nothing like the audio section. Use a permanent marker, just draw over about a 3rd of the circumference. If you balls up you shouldn't have too much trouble removing the marker with nail varnish remover/similar solvent, but take a little care and you shouldn't have a problem. When you put it in your computer it cannot read the data track, therefore it has no problem playing it as an audio cd. I've done it to my copy of Northern Light, works fine in my pc, plays in my normal cd player.

Yes its a pain, but if we spread the "How to get around it" info as widely as possible Sony will drop it soon enough. I'm not advocating piracy here, I just think it is my right to play a cd in whatever device I want to.

[reddragdiva]

If you follow the second link in the post, you will see the marker hack covered :-)

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Difference between reading a hack and doing it and proving it works, there are millions of hacks and just as many old wives tales. This one works and obviously not everyone knows about it as they have trashed their computers. The hack also mentions using sticky tape which I really would not recomend, from unbalancing your cd causing vibration which may end up damaging the cd/drive to the tape coming off inside your cd mechanism.

I know you can get the import version, but often these are a few quid dearer and sometimes have availibility issues. Just pointing out that it shouldn't be an issue as its very easy to sidestep the protection.

[reddragdiva]

"Just pointing out that it shouldn't be an issue as its very easy to sidestep the protection."

My point is that it is an issue as long as the record company still think it's a good idea. Hence a letter to Sony and to Covenant.

Time to go shopping ...

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

There's also the issue that Sony doesn't know how many people are hacking cds with markers, and never will. They *can* see the differences in sales figures, once the differences in the numbers of protected and unprotected discs sold rises about the statistical noise. And, I have little doubt that they *are* watching for it. They know that it won't stop the determined and clever, so the impact of piracy isn't going to change over time, but the question of whether the sales come from one division (or company) or another will.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

If it spreads into common knowledge and is picked up on by the more mainstream media then yes, Sony will know about it. In fact, I would be pretty sure Sony already do know about it. Yes, it is impossible for them to know how many people are using the hack but by the same measure, they never really knew how many people were home copying their cd's or downloading them. The main arguements I can see for using it are to stop the spread of files on the internet and home copying. Well the internet issue isn't one really, because it just doesn't stop it. The only real issue is stopping home cd copying and tbh I think this is a relatively minor issue compared to the download issue. In fact the home copying issue doesn't even wash with me either. I don't see Sony kicking up a fuss that all the music retailers sell cdr's next to their tills.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree entirely, hence my desire to spread the fix as widely as possible. If they know their protection is ineffective maybe they will stop using it.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Not a bad album, either. A little lower-key that previous releases (in kind of a weird way).

I like it so far.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Not a bad album, either. A little lower-key that previous releases (in kind of a weird way).

I like it so far.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

There a list of bad cds at http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/ - afaik it's pretty comprehensive, if a little tricky to find things quickly. I think that both Sony and BMG are using .uk as a testing place to see if they can get away with it before they roll it out in .us - so buying the dodgy cds will encourage them to roll it out further.