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

[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.