New Columbia Legacy Reissues Copy Protected?

[John L]

Interesting. I live most of the time away from my CD collection. Therefore iTunes is extremely important to me. I have been avoiding the purchase of music directly through iTunes because I like having the CDs and full wave files. But this could change my mind.

Hell if I am going to buy any of this crap.

[Big Wheel]

Interesting.  I live most of the time away from my CD collection.  Therefore iTunes is extremely important to me.  I have been avoiding the purchase of music directly through iTunes because I like having the CDs and full wave files.  But this could change my mind. 

Hell if I am going to buy any of this crap.

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Exactly. I currently have no system, only a non-iPod mp3 player. I was planning on picking up the Jamal and Shaw reissues...not gonna happen now.

[Brad]

Big Wheel,

You might not want to cancel those. The Jamal is not copy protected and the Shaw doesn't appear to be either. I picked up the Gordon, the Blakey and the Brookmeyer and those are. Don't ask me to explain the logic.

[WD45]

It seems like this would be akin to shooting themselves in the foot. There are many of us that will not buy these simply because they contain copy protection [myself included]. Then there are those that will return the discs to the store because they will not play properly as the would indicate.

I am almost compelled to buy one and return it, and get a replacement and return that, finally informing them that the whole thing is a scam.

I can almost see the logic in copy-protecting something that will sell at platinum levels, but something that will move 800-1,000 copies? Ridiculous!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I'll be buying a couple of these and just to spite the morons at Sony/BMG, I'll crack the thing and burn the heck out of it. The last disc I was sold as "copy protected", it took a whole 5 minutes to figure out.

As mentioned by Use3D, you should be able to hold down the shift key and prevent any autost program from executing. Once you stop the program, the "data" should be viewable in any Explorer Window. As I said, I'll check it out.

Hey, worse case will be that I make a CD-R in my audio standalone burner. Once I make that burn, I'll be able to make as many copies as I want. However, I've yet to find a CD that's pushed me that far. The challenge is on!

Kevin

[Eric]

Big Wheel,

You might not want to cancel those.  The Jamal is not copy protected and the Shaw doesn't appear to be either.  I picked up the Gordon, the Blakey and the Brookmeyer and those are.  Don't ask me to explain the logic.

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That is good news on the Shaw. The Silver is copy-protected.

[Big Al]

I can almost see the logic in copy-protecting something that will sell at platinum levels, but something that will move 800-1,000 copies?  Ridiculous!

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A-frickin'-men!!!!

[Use3D]

As mentioned by Use3D, you should be able to hold down the shift key and prevent any autost program from executing. Once you stop the program, the "data" should be viewable in any Explorer Window. As I said, I'll check it out.

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Not on the XCP discs, this system is new and a little more tricky. I'll be sure to buy an album using this method and crack it. I'll tell you guys how it's done...just for your own edification.

[Swinging Swede]

The Jamal is not copy protected and the Shaw doesn't appear to be either.  I picked up the Gordon, the Blakey and the Brookmeyer and those are.  Don't ask me to explain the logic.

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How long are the Jamal and Shaw releases? The reason I ask is that the Cactus format that EMI Europe is using has a shorter playing time (about 74 minutes) than CDs (80 minutes). So in the case of the Lee Morgan "Sonic Boom" Connoisseur, to take an example, they had no choice but to release it as a CD (despite all other titles in the same batch being Cactus discs), since it included two original LP albums, and thus was too long for a Cactus disc. XCP discs must have a shorter playing time than CDs too, so that's my guess as to what explains it.

[trane_fanatic]

As mentioned by Use3D, you should be able to hold down the shift key and prevent any autost program from executing. Once you stop the program, the "data" should be viewable in any Explorer Window. As I said, I'll check it out.

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Not on the XCP discs, this system is new and a little more tricky. I'll be sure to buy an album using this method and crack it. I'll tell you guys how it's done...just for your own edification.

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And if y'all don't, some prodigious 12 yr. old whippersnapper in Sweden will find a way.

Edited August 17, 2005 by trane_fanatic

[Claude]

Thanks for the good news about the Woody Shaw CD.

In Germany copyprotected CDs are clearly marked as such in online stores. It would be good if US shops did the same.

Edited August 17, 2005 by Claude

[nmorin]

Great. This has me worried about the upcoming Cellar Door box set. I always burn copies of the individual CDs of the box sets and listen to them, keeping the originals safe. Maybe I won't be buying this one.

[nmorin]

Great.  This has me worried about the upcoming Cellar Door box set.  I always burn copies of the individual CDs of the box sets and listen to them, keeping the originals safe.  Maybe I won't be buying this one.

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Gaaaah, even worse. The computers where I work won't allow the users to add applications, so I couldn't install the little CD player application; I wouldn't be able to listen to the CDs at all.

[sidewinder]

Reading this thread, looks like there's yet another good reason to hang onto those Columbia Dexters in the LP format..

[Eric]

Great.  This has me worried about the upcoming Cellar Door box set.  I always burn copies of the individual CDs of the box sets and listen to them, keeping the originals safe.  Maybe I won't be buying this one.

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Gaaaah, even worse. The computers where I work won't allow the users to add applications, so I couldn't install the little CD player application; I wouldn't be able to listen to the CDs at all.

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I expect a lot of poeple will have similar problems and/or they simply won't want to jack with the hassle of it.

This is such an ill-advised move on their part. The concept of "limited burns" is OK with me ... but it is obvious that the technology has not yet arrived to make this seamless/painless for the consumer.

[Eric]

Great.  This has me worried about the upcoming Cellar Door box set.  I always burn copies of the individual CDs of the box sets and listen to them, keeping the originals safe.  Maybe I won't be buying this one.

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The only "advantage" I can see if this were to happen would be increased publicity of what a pain in the ass this is. Everyone and their dog (at least in the jazz community) will publish reviews on Cellar Door and doubtless many reviewers will plop it into their computers and try to load it into iTunes.

For that matter, I wonder what pop titles Sony has subjected to this BS?

[Guest]

Just picked up Dexter Gordon's "Manhattan Symphonie" and it is completely locked down. This really stinks because I buy all my music on CD, rip it and then play on my computer or portable music player. Unfortunately, the software that starts up with this CD is not working, it keeps crashing whenever I try to either "burn" or rip the music. So even Sony's method they are providing is not working....what morons. I'm certainly not buying anymore Columbia/Legacy CD's that have this copy protection on them!

As soon as someone out there figures out how to crack this copy protection, let us all know (Use3D: I'm sure you can do it!). I can't seem to get around it, nothing is working, and I feel I have the right to copy for my own personal uses, the music that I paid for.

[Guy Berger]

Just picked up Dexter Gordon's "Manhattan Symphonie" and it is completely locked down.  This really stinks because I buy all my music on CD, rip it and then play on my computer or portable music player.  Unfortunately, the software that starts up with this CD is not working, it keeps crashing whenever I try to either "burn" or rip the music.  So even Sony's method they are providing is not working....what morons.  I'm certainly not buying anymore Columbia/Legacy CD's that have this copy protection on them!

As soon as someone out there figures out how to crack this copy protection, let us all know (Use3D:  I'm sure you can do it!).  I can't seem to get around it, nothing is working, and I feel I have the right to copy for my own personal uses, the music that I paid for.

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People who buy these CDs and experience difficulties with them should send an angry email to Sony's reissue program -- they don't want to alienate their market for obscure reissues.

Guy

[RDK]

That, and definitely return any unplayable CDs to the store...

[Swinging Swede]

Are these discs actually CD's anymore?

No, they aren't. As Philips (which controls the CD standard) has stated:

"Any changes that put a disc outside the CD standard result in a disc that should no longer be described or marketed as a CD."

I do not think they should have the CD logo on them,  as they do conform to the Redbook standard.

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And they don't either, at least not nowadays. In the early days of copy protection, the discs sometimes had the CD logo, and the record labels pretended that the discs were in accordance with the Red Book standard (of course they knew that they were lying). Philips reacted and forbade this:

"...We've made sure they would put a very clear warning that you're not buying a compact disc, but something different. We've been warning some labels to begin with, and they've adjusted their behaviour. That means labels would also be barred from using the familiar "compact disc" logo that has been stamped on every CD since Philips and Sony jointly developed the technology in 1978."

[Use3D]

Well there's good news for Linux users, XCP doesn't work at all.

I also found this tidbit on cdfreaks.com:

There may be an easier way but this is how I cracked XCP.


First, insert the disc (I used: A Static Lullaby) and hold the SHIFT key down for several seconds while closing the tray. I wait till drive activity stops before letting go of the SHIFT key. This bypasses the AUTORUN file.


At this point you can read the disc but can not see the audio files (only the data files). I was the able to use SONIC to easily make an "exact copy" of the disc. I did not try, but I assume this copy and any additional copies will work on all regular CD players.


The computer will not read the audio tracks on this disc either even when the SHIFT key is held when inserting. The copied disc does however have a gap on the outer part of the disc whereas the original does not.


I then took a Sharpie Pen and filled in the gap as well as a slight amount of the outer edge of the burned region. When I inserted the disc again (I did hold down the SHIFT key but I'm not sure it is needed at this point) the drive went spastic trying to read the data in the shaded in area but when the noise stopped, the data files were gone and I could read the Audio tracks. I ripped a copy to Windows Media player without difficulty. It sounds great and the player was even able to access the album info from the online source.


The great thing is I did not destroy my original. I may have been lucky to shade in just the right amount of area but it worked pretty well. My thought would be to shade a hair more of the outer edge of the burned area if the data files continued to appear. I definitely shaded the entire gap.


I know this is not very technical but it works. Look forward to seeing if this works for others.

This method sounds a bit trial and error, so it may not work with everyone. You will also need a beefed up drive and decent duping software to make a clone of an XCP disc. My buddy has a Foo Fighters which I hear uses XCP. I'll be sure to stay on this for everyone. My idea is different, I plan on making an image of the disc on my computer, removing the data bullshit from the ISO, and rewriting the TOC so it becomes a Redbook CD, then reburning it. Just like when duping old Dreamcast games...

Edit: Also, like with any hybrid CD-ROM, I may be able to use a simple hexadecimal editor to removes the extra bit encoded into the audio which encapsulates it into the XCP system, this bit prevents the audio from being ripped or played without the software. Without this bit, an XCP disc is esssentially neutered.

[RDK]

Good hack, but we shouldn't have to do any of that in the first place!

If I want inconvenience, I'll spin an LP...

[Claude]

Use3D's post is a violation of the DCMA -_-

[TomNYC]

Good point Use3D, i was going to suggest that those who have access to Linux rip the CDs there. All these copy protection schemes don't work there.

[Brad]

Good hack, but we shouldn't have to do any of that in the first place! 

If I want inconvenience, I'll spin an LP... 

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Exactly!