Volition

I've had 100% success with 4 CDs using iTunes on Windows XP. I'd be interested in other peoples experiences with iTunes (availble free at http://www.apple.com/itunes ).

Posted by: pippo on January 1, 2004 10:46 PM

I use iTunes for Windows on a computer with Windows 2000 Professional operating system installed.
iTunes is able to make personal copies of music from CDs with Copy Control, although occationally there are small 'tic-tic' sounds like scratches on used analogue Long Playing records.

Posted by: Sir Vince Snetterton-Lewis on January 12, 2004 10:01 PM

Spot on pippo! iTunes has ripped all my cds and it is cool s/w to. take that emi!!!!!

Posted by: Bertie on February 9, 2004 11:09 AM

just bumped into a new CD, That I Bought with BMG COPYCONTROL
"SARA MCCLACHLEN - OVERGLOW
I TRIED MANY RIPPERS, AND NONE WORKED, So I Can't Play It On My PC.

Posted by: shawn on March 9, 2004 01:40 AM

download easy cd-da extractor and you can rip a copy control cd without breaking a sweat :)

Posted by: jeff979 on March 11, 2004 09:44 AM

i'm fuckin piste off at EMI cos i cant listen 2 starsailor on my minidsic player coz i cant copy it onto a disc.

Posted by: Gibby on March 21, 2004 06:41 AM

jeff979! where can I download easy cd-da extractor??

Posted by: Ice on April 1, 2004 08:16 AM

Will all this different copy protections work on a standalone HI-FI cd-player and burner ?

Posted by: Nor on April 2, 2004 04:36 AM

I have full success with WinDAC32 (www.windac.de) version 1.50 under win95B and Plexwriter 12/10/32A

Posted by: crackall on June 17, 2004 09:53 AM

Hi. I just ripped a CD with Copy Control from EMI through CDEX without problems...?

Posted by: hubs on July 8, 2004 05:03 AM

I've just bought Sarah Brightman's album Harem. Wanted to make a copy that I can use in my car but to my disappointment I can't seem to get the first track "Harem" to work properly (all other tracks have been ripped just fine), after 3mins 18 sec the music suddenly starts and the remaining sound fine (whole song 5:45), just wich I could get the fist 3:17 ripped. I've used Zlurp to rip. Any ideas out there that aren't too complicated (I'm not a computer wiz)?

Posted by: Eva on October 1, 2004 01:22 AM

I don't even bother bying CD's because I simply can't afford to do so,accept for discounts sometimes.
However the musicians I like to listen to all seem to share the same thought namely that "Everything is for Everyone" (which includes music ofcourse),therefore condemning the principle of having have and have-not's !
So I download what I want whenever I can as long as I can ! Which selfish multinational will stop me then ? Music is about all the fun I have left and has so far kept me from killing myself or hurting others. Personally I think musicians are glad they can at least reach me which is they're goal anyway ?!!!

Posted by: weedbreather on October 24, 2004 09:56 AM

hey iv been using dbpoweramp it seams to be doing a good job but it wont rip the first track the cds are
ben harper - dimonds on the in side
and
radio head - hail to the theif
any one have any idea why it is doing thei please help

Posted by: jono on October 25, 2004 11:58 AM

To Jono: Seems we have the same problem (see a couple of posts above) with the first track of our CDs, maybe that's where the copy control has been placed?. I was hoping someone could give me a tip of a miracle sw program that could do what none of the three CD-rip programs i have used could, or even send me that first track in a mail. I'm still hoping (for you too, Jono).

Posted by: Eva on October 25, 2004 04:39 PM

Any one know how to get around Sony copy protected discs

Posted by: Pirate on November 12, 2004 10:36 AM

stuff the fat music companies, what does sony think we do with all the burners they sell. you can bet youre life those great people out there who make all the freeware programs are working on it as we speak

Posted by: buddy on December 18, 2004 02:16 PM

Cheers guys. this has been a really useful website

Posted by: Bob on January 7, 2005 06:01 PM

Ya well, haven't read the whole thread, sorry. But yeah the Copy Control doesn't seem to make much sense. Just bought a protected CD, but prefer mp3 to audio, so I ripped it with CD-EX. What's the point of using such protection then? Huh. Looks like it doesn't do much, it's just annoying =)

greetz

Posted by: amouse on January 13, 2005 09:56 PM

Just purchased Melanie C's "Yeh Yeh Yeh" single for the remixes...it is copy controlled! Won't rip (or even play for that matter) with Windows Media Player. I have yet to try it in my iTunes, but I have had absolutely no problem ripping copy controlled discs on iTunes before. Even through I live in the US, I believe the UK and Europe has a much better taste in music than we do. So I do buy CDs from amazon UK and of course, they have copy protection.

Most of the CDs I have seen people list here are ones I have had no problem ripping using iTunes.

Sarah McLachlan's "Afterglow" - No Problem
The CD that comes with the Afterglow Live DVD claims to have copy control on it, so I didn't even try to buy it. The Audio CD is available for sale in iTunes, for $9.99 [American Dollars]. Buy it through iTunes and you can make as many copies as you want.

Michelle Branch - "Are You Happy Now" CD single with b-side "Wanting Out" ripped just fine, but had small scratchy sounds in one place near the beginning. It just sounds like a little electronic effect they placed in the music.

Kylie Minogue - "Ultimate Kylie" - This was released in the UK first, and I bought it, unaware that it would eventually be released in the US. The UK version has copy protection, but it was ripped easily with no problem whatsoever using Windows Media Player. The US version does not have Copy Control.

Sarah Brightman - "Harem" - Rips perfectly with iTunes.

I get the feeling that you people are from Europe, so here's something you might want to try: Purchase through Amazon.com, the scroll to the bottom of the page where it says "visit our international sites". Click on the United States and buy your CDs from there. None of the American CDs will have copy control on them, since there are laws in place in the US protecting citizens from copy controlled music.

I usually use iTunes with about a 99.9% success rate. I think the reason iTunes works so well is because it doesn't rip MP3s (although it can be configured to do so), it rips MP4s, the format required for use on the Apple iPod. Ripping to a different format seems to have a way around the copy control. Hope this can be of help.

-Courtney

Posted by: Courtney on February 8, 2005 03:07 AM

I just tried to rip Rodney Rude CD with Copy Control Protextion but can't do it on CDEX nor MusicMatch, both only sees them as data files.

Posted by: Spied on February 21, 2005 10:12 PM

Just buy a Mac - these can rip absolutely anything with no extra software. I use iTunes and a Mac Mini

Posted by: MacMini on April 2, 2005 05:20 AM

Fun! Windows media player 9 rips flawless.

Posted by: Raejo on April 5, 2005 05:20 AM

Or download and install the simple and easy cd-player from this site:
http://www.sharewareplaza.com/Quintessential-CD-downloads_141.html

Posted by: Raejo on April 5, 2005 05:29 AM

My dad has found a album he's being looking for on CD for 30 years. And it's copyright protected. Damn EMI. I've tried your programs but none work.

I'm gonna try downloading a program that records any sounds that are played on your sound card.

Posted by: Xylaquin on April 14, 2005 11:14 PM

When you say "rip it through iTunes", what do you mean?

When I load Ultimate Kylie, for example, in my cd drive of the winxp laptop, nothing happens. It makes scratching noises for a while and then gives up. If i view the D: drive through windows explorer, i can't even see any songs there.

Above is suggested to rip this cd through Windows Media player... how is this done, and how would i get it into itunes?

Thanks!

Posted by: Kevin on April 18, 2005 08:39 PM

I think it's absolute b*llox, why on earth should I have to settle to inferior sound quality if i'm listening to the CD on my PC, and why should it use up so much CPU usage!?! And why make it difficult to duplicate the CD for use in the car while the original sits in its case back at home.

I've managed to extract all of the tracks from a Copy Controlled CD with the exception of the first track which doesn't seem to get picked up by any software I've found so far... so I can't even listen to the full cd i've legitimately bought on my iPod.

I refuse to buy any further copy controlled CDs ever again.

Posted by: Dan on April 27, 2005 07:26 PM

I concur with MacMini. I have iTunes v.4 on, guess what, an iMac and it's ripping a Kate Ryan Copy Control disc (can't call it a CD) to the hard drive in MP3 format as I type.

Copy Control is relatively rare here in the US, thank goodness.

Posted by: iMac on April 29, 2005 02:52 PM

Relax... analog rippers still work....
http://koyotstar.free.fr/indexEn.html

Posted by: Computertek2002 on May 3, 2005 02:19 PM

Interesting thread. Here's what I did...

Avril Lavinge CD "Under My Skin" is a BMG Copy Control CD (C) 2004. I popped it into my PC using Windows XP Pro and a Song list popped up, kind of like a dedicated media player that enabled me to listen to the songs in Windows.

At this point, I wanted to actually make an exact copy of the CD for the car. I loaded up NERO 6, and then changed my mind and shut it down again so as to avoid a potential coaster.

I run a dual boot system, and so booted into Linux. Upon inserting the CD, Mandrake Linux kindly informed me that the disk had both audio files and data on it - asked me if I'd like to listen to the audio tracks or browse the data files. Clicked on play and the CD played all tracks of the CD fine.

Now, I loaded up "K3B", clicked copy CD, and k3B informed me that the disk is a "CD-Extra" disk, and then continued to copy it. The result was an identical copy of the original - using one drive... but there were some differences...

The reading process slowed right down after track 3, but carried on regardless; K3B informed me there were 14 tracks when in fact there are 13 songs; and the other strange thing was that when the burning was 98 percent complete the disk ejected itself and re-loaded itself quickly - to continue to 100% success (writing the 14th track).

So it appears K3B informed me that this was a CD-Extra, copied it in two parts, copied it slowly (29 minutes!), and produced and identical copy with the protection intact all by it's clever self.

One more thing, my advice to anyone planning to rip a C.P. CD into compressed music - Skip MP3 and get into Ogg Vorbis. Use Jet Audio in Windows or anything in Linux (Amarok maybe?).

So, the answers simple, even if you don't wanna get into Linux, at least install it onto a small (5 gig) partition even if used for nothing else but copying those protected CDs, and get the job done.

You're welcome. ;-)

Posted by: Captkidd on May 17, 2005 07:59 AM

I havent had as much luck as you other guys with macs,

i have an imac, pretty new, with the latest version of itunes and so far i have found two cds, the new gorillaz album and a norah jones album that refuse to be ripped, no matter how hard i try.

I can play them on the computer, it just requires i use this weird program on the cd called "mac player" or something, but i cant rip them, so i cant listen to them on my ipod! goddamn music companies!!!!!!

Im in australia by the way

Posted by: Andrew Forsyth on May 28, 2005 09:51 PM

i tunes rips copy controlled discs perfectly not a scratch just make sure the player that comes with the cd is open while you rip

Posted by: matty on May 29, 2005 03:33 PM

I use Isobuster and it works a treat on all copy protected CDs I've come across. Just ripped the new Gorillaz disc (EMI) so I can play it on my MP3 player.

Download it, chuck a CD in and run the program. The Gorillaz CD showed up as 'session 1' and 'session 2'. Session 1 contained all the tracks and session 2 the data/copy protection.

Select session 1 and then select all tracks. Right click and 'extract all objects' which creates wav files of each track.

I then use Audiograbber (a truly fantastic program that has been around for ages) to convert the wavs to MP3 and normalise them at the same time.

Hope this helps.

BTW, isobuster can be used for heaps of other stuff like data recovery on damaged discs as well as creating 'iso' image files on your hard drive etc. etc. I personally don't know much about the other functions, but they look pretty special and I thought it only fair to Mr Isobuster to mention them.

Oh yeh, for a real simple solution you can simply use audiograbber which will default to rip the copy protected cds to MP3 via analogue. I know that pretty much sux and defeats the purpose of buying a digital disc, as well as the boat load of crap I could mention about our (Oz) pathetic fair-use laws (or total lack thereof), but just thought I'd mention it...

Again, good luck.

Posted by: Vguy on June 7, 2005 10:10 PM

just bought turin brakes, coldplay and an nz outfit called pluto. forget ripping which is no trouble in itunes but i'm finding that when i play the cds in my dvd/cd/blah blah blah philips component they skip . all other non copy cds are fine. feeling a bit robbed actually

Posted by: glen on June 16, 2005 06:24 PM

Yeterday I bought Moby's CD "Hotel" - I was shocked that it had "copy control" on it. The previous posts here have helped me out. I used AudioGrabber 1.83 (freeware) to RIP the CD to the harddisk of my notebook PC (I'm listening to it now and cannot hear the difference). You can configure AudioGrabber to use it with good MP3 encoders and you can also make it use intermediate WAV files. In other words, I'm not sure about the previous poster writing that Audiograbber only works through analog. The default access method the software is using is ASPI.

Posted by: Patrick Merlevede on July 8, 2005 04:14 PM

I think you all should have a mac it works great and is faster and better then Windows and the p4 chipset. Most of these copy protected cd's are made in windows and will only be blocked by windows pc's but remember not alll are but most are and iTunes is the best for anything mp3...

Posted by: Joseph Cahill on July 13, 2005 03:58 AM

I have imported my entire album collection of cd's, yet when i compile a playlist using those songsand attempt to burn it as an mp3 cd, it cannot burn those songs. It seems that it will only burn the songs onto the cd that i have stolen via limewire. Now, howcome i can't use the songs that i have payed for (actual cd albums - not downloaded) but i can use the stolen ones...hmm...answer that stupid music companies. BTW thats using itunes on a mac.

Posted by: Erin Green on July 13, 2005 11:44 AM

Anyone buy ADS Tech's Instant Music USB device to get music from LPs or tapes. I cannot seem to get it to work. I keep getting distortion.

Thanks,

Korky

Posted by: Korky on July 24, 2005 03:44 AM

I was having similar probs with trying to get music off Juliet's new album. iTunes wasn't cutting the mustard so I used easy cd-da extr. and all sorted.

Thanks for the tip!

Posted by: Tim on August 10, 2005 12:00 AM

Just knowing that the Gorillaz CD has this copy protection helped me, I was so frustrated trying to copy it! I don't think it's fair either, I 'm just copying so I can take a copy to work where I don't want to risk messing up my original CD. Rather than a list of labels, because it's not all EPI cd's, it would be more useful to see a list of the artists who have their CDs encoded like this, so I can just avoid buying their CDs. Anyone know of such a list?

Silky Silky9102@aol.com

Posted by: Silky on August 17, 2005 01:09 AM

I don't know why you can't copy copy controled CD. I have no problems at all using good old Audiograbber 1.80 but off course don't copy any :-)
HOWEVER. I'd never buy protected CD! How the fuck e'm I suppose to make a copy for a car which gets fucked up by the sun in few weeks anyway? As a protest I'd rather go and get it of some file sharing system. The protecting crap is back firing on those idiots who inveneted it anyway, I'm not the only one not buying them.

Posted by: Tom on August 26, 2005 06:54 PM

"Under Australian Copyright laws, there is no concession... blah..blah...."
Well I'm an Australian but don't agree with that particular law so here is my own law regarding music copyrights - "If you pay for it, it's yours to do what you please with it including making of any number of copies you like as long as these are for personal use only".
Enjoy and practice this new Australian law as much as you can.

Posted by: Musicman on August 26, 2005 07:10 PM

I purchased Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow Live CD. When the autorun program booted up, I simply exited out. Then I fired up my favorite ripper (CDex) and attempted to rip it. Failed horribly. I read a post here which said letting autorun execute even one time may be enough to replace drivers. With that in mind, I took the CD to my other PC and did the same thing --- this time WITHOUT letting autorun execute (I held down the sift key). Fired up CDex and it ripped perfectly.
There definatly seems to be something that happens behind the scenes when you let the autorun happen.

I hope this helps.

-Kaosynner

Posted by: Kaosynner on September 7, 2005 11:09 PM

Hi,
I don't wanna be rude but everything on this page is a bullshit and useless when it comes to "CDS 200" nowadays widely used "copy control" protection (in Europa).(But beware,not all CDs with a logo of "copy control" are copy protected,sometimes there is no protection at all.)The cactus data shield 200 is the worst crap that I ever found on CD.Using CDEX,Audiograbber,Isobuster,EAC,dbPoweramp et cetera is a nonsense.It is not a problem to copy a CD with "copy control" (e.g. with Alcohol 120,even stupid Nero can do this), the problem is to make a good quality MP3 but with CDS 200 it is impossible on your computer in a standard way.I tried almost everything - doing a circle arround a cd with a felt-tip pen, changing CD drives,programs,operating systems.....and yes I get my MP3s from my legal CDs. But I was truly disapointed with the quality.On all songs I heard a click every first 9th second (not 1 or 2 CDs but 12).Changing parameters did not help.After months I gave up.Cutting out cliks with Adobe Audition (or any other SW) is boring and time consuming.So the only one way how to make MP3s from such a CD is to conect your CD player to line-in of your computer and through the sound card record it to wav,modify and compress to MP3 or Ogg.The best way is to use an optical I/O, but even an analog output on your CD player is good enough.To my knowledge,this is the best and only one way to get good quality MP3s.
On few CDs I Heard the click even on Hi-Fi CD Players!!! So, the CD with a "copy control" is a waster and you can go to shop and want money back! If they refuse, they are violating your customer rights!
Don't buy CDs with "copy control".Kill EMI and other thieves!!!!!!!!

Posted by: eaglestar on September 12, 2005 11:35 PM

http://www.fedge.net/emi/

EMI, Sony/BMG and now Koch. Avoid these labels and their sub-labels.

Posted by: fedge on October 5, 2005 02:51 PM

Eaglestar is right, many people's comments on this page are bogus. You can easily rip a copy controlled cd onto windows/mac. That is not the issue. The problem is the TERRIBLE pop/clicks/distortions that you get when you rip them, as CC actually damages the audio content.

I recommend buying EMI cds from the US.

Posted by: conditionals on October 9, 2005 03:06 PM

My way of ripping: (bought all my CD's in the Netherlands, little country between UK and Germany :P)

Putting CD in drive, while holding "SHIFT".

Open Windows Media Player (I have 10.0, but I think 9.0 works too!), and right click up there, at "RIPPING"

Than (to me, remember) the tracks show up, wait 5 seconds and the CD information will be shown.

(note that at options you should turn of every 'copy controlled ripping' like things off, and turn it to your way!)

Then the only thing you have to do is waiting and having open as few programms as possible.
If you listen tracks WHILE ripping they'll have ticks and scratches in it.
Normally AFTER ripping (and a restart of WMP, don't know if it's necessary, but I always do it. I just do it the way I did the first one, so it stayed working XD)you should be able to listen all the tracks without ticks, scratches, anything. Just clean...

Posted by: agent-_- on November 2, 2005 01:56 AM

I need Help! I have a legally purchased copy of Sleeping with Ghosts, by Placebo, that my computer refuses to recognise as even existing. AudioGrabber refuses to detect it. I can't even listen to it on my machine, let alone rip it to iTunes. Please, email me if you know anything that could help me.

Posted by: Ben on November 8, 2005 09:35 PM

Here's my guide to copying copy-protected CDs. It has worked on all the CDs I have tried so far, most recently Goldfrapp's Supernature. There is also some legal considerations and a record of my (until now, one-way) correspondence with EMI:

http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/~haahrm/copying-protected-cds/

Posted by: Mads Haahr on November 15, 2005 03:05 AM

CD: Ben Harper - Diamonds On The Inside
Track: 4 - Touch From Your Lust

I tried all read modes from CDex and Easy CD-DA Extractor, and I always got very bad quality with a lot of distortion.

I got a good quality ripped MP3 setting option normalize to 75%!

I don´t know if it´s related with copy controlled, probably not, but this solved my problem and the distortion disappeared.

Posted by: Alberto on November 24, 2005 03:34 AM

Lots more has been written about his since this article on the 2nd November. Since, Sony/BMG has gotten itself into a LOT of hot water over this issue and brought itself into disrepute. Virus writers have taken advantage of what Sony have left on customers' PCs and the Texas Attorney General is considering legal action against Sony for them essentially planting malicious software on customers' PCs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110202362.html

The Washington Post
2 November 2005

Study of Sony Anti-Piracy Software Triggers Uproar
File-Hiding Technique Alarms Security Researchers; Developer Offers Patch
By Brian Krebs

Irate music fans who posted to dozens of online blogs vowing to never again buy Sony CDs as long as the company keeps using a suddenly beleaguered anti-piracy software program may find that their outbursts have been partially rewarded today.

On the heels of the Internet uproar over security concerns with its copyright-protection measures, the company that developed the software for recording-industry giant Sony BMG Music Entertainment says it is providing computer users with a "patch file" that will mitigate some of the features that alarmed security researchers when they were discovered earlier this week - especially the program's built-in ability to hide files on the user's system.

Privacy and security experts charged that the technology built into many of Sony's music CDs since March is unnecessarily invasive and exposes users to threats from hackers and virus writers.

"Here you have one of the biggest name-brand corporations on the planet getting into what many people in other circumstances would consider hacking," said Richard Smith, a security and privacy consultant based in Boston. "That's just not acceptable."

Earlier this week, computer security researcher Mark Russinovich published an analysis showing that some new Sony CDs install software that not only limits the copying of music on the discs, but also employs programming techniques normally associated with computer viruses to hide from users and prevent them from removing the software.

Russinovich's findings - posted on the Web site that he runs with another researcher - indicated that the CDs in question use software techniques that behave similarly to "rootkits," software tools that hackers can use to maintain control over a computer system once they have broken in.

He found that traditional methods of uninstalling the program would not work, and that attempts at removing it corrupted the files needed to operate his computer's CD player, rendering it useless.

Sony spokesman John McKay said the technology has been deployed on just 20 titles so far, but that the company may include it on additional titles in the months ahead.

The music industry is aggressively defending its works from Internet and other forms of piracy, going so far as to sue individuals alleged to be trading large numbers of song titles online. The industry loses roughly $4.2 billion worldwide to piracy each year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Russinovich discovered that the techniques employed by the Sony program to conceal its files from the user and to make them harder to remove could also be used by virus writers and hackers to hide malicious files on any computer running the anti-piracy program.

In response to criticisms that intruders could take such advantage, First4Internet Ltd. - the British company that developed the software - will make available on its Web site a software patch that should remove its ability to hide files, chief executive Mathew Gilliat-Smith said.

Russinovich called the offer of a patch "backpedaling and damage control in the face of a public-relations nightmare" and emphasized that users who try to remove the files manually after applying the fix will still ruin their CD-Rom drives.

Sony's move is the latest effort by the entertainment companies to rely on controversial "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies to reverse a steady drop in sales that the industry attributes in large part to piracy facilitated by online music and movie file-sharing networks like Kazaa and Limewire.

DRM technologies by their very nature need to be secretive, according to Peter Ullman, a partner with Woodcock Washburn, a Philadelphia law firm that specializes in intellectual property matters.

"If the software is put there to protect valuable content from being misused, then the software has to be able to protect itself from being subverted, so the companies that produce this security technology tend not to want to publicize how their technology works," Ullman said.

At issue is whether Sony has provided customers with adequate notice about what they can expect when installing the software, said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

"Sony needs to be more transparent in how and what they're installing so that consumers can make informed decisions," Schwartz said.

Windows users cannot listen to tracks on the CD without agreeing to install the anti-piracy program, which merely advises that "it will install a small proprietary software program" that will remain there "until removed or deleted."

But according to Mikko Hypponen, director of research for Finnish antivirus company F-Secure Corp., users who want to remove the program may not do so directly, but must fill out a form on Sony's Web site, download additional software, wait for a phone call from a technical support specialist, and then download and install yet another program that removes the files.

Hypponen agreed that Sony's software could help hackers circumvent most antivirus products on the market today. He added that installing the Sony program on a machine running Windows Vista -- the beta version of the next iteration of Microsoft Windows -- "breaks the operating system spectacularly."

While the anti-piracy software allows consumers to make a limited number of additional copy-protected discs, it also imposes compatibility and portability constraints. Users of Apple Inc.'s iPod -- the dominant portable media player on the market -- have no way of transferring tracks from protected Sony CDs to their device, since Apple has not yet licensed its own DRM technology for use with copy-protected discs.

"We're still in this new digital era where the entertainment industry wants to protect ... their content, without due consideration of the consumer's right to use that content in a fair way," Russinovich said. "We need to have an open discussion as to where we should draw the line."

David Eisner, a blogger and software developer at the University of Maryland's Computer Aided Life Cycle Engineering Center, believes the record label's actions will ultimately backfire and drive otherwise legitimate customers to download pirated music from the online file-sharing networks.

"The people they're trying to stop from stealing their music are always going to find a way around these types of technologies," Eisner said. "Sony is just hurting people who obtain their products legally, and many of these same people are now going to think twice about doing so."

------------------------------------------------

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051102.gtrootkitnov2/BNStory/Technology/

Globe and Mail
2 November 2005

Sony takes heat over rootkits
By Jack Kapica

The on-line community is buzzing about a cloaking device favoured by hackers being put to use by a company everyone knows: Sony-BMG Corp.

The Japanese giant is being accused of surreptitiously planting "rootkits" on people's computers to enforce digital rights management policies on music CDs.

According to Mark Russinovich, a Windows expert at a U.S. company called Sysinternals, which does deep-level software analysis, some of Sony-BMG's music CDs install antipiracy software that uses methods typically used by hackers and virus writers to hide malicious programs and prevent users from uninstalling them.

These tools are called by the generic name of "rootkits,' which hackers commonly use to cover their tracks after breaking into someone' computer. Typically, they are designed to make sure common PC tools cannot see whatever has been planted on the victim's machine. Properly written rootkits can be extremely difficult to remove, and it is often easier to erase and reformat an entire drive than to attempt to remove one.

When Mr. Russinovich ran a new Sysinternal diagnostic program called RootKitRevealer, he discovered one on his own system, which he had believed to be a clean system. And when he tried to remove the rootkit, he also inadvertently erased the system files that run his CD-ROM drive.

The Sony program drivers load in Safe Mode, which makes fixing the system extremely difficult. It's possible that the simple act of removing the rootkit would sabotage the entire operating system.

Sony is not installing these rootkits secretly; its anti-piracy program installer pops up if you try to play one of their content-protected CDs. Users must agree to install it, or it won't allow the CD to be played; and once it is installed, users find there is no "uninstall" feature.

There is a tortuous way to uninstall the software, Mr. Russinovich said, but it involves contacting Sony-BMG directly via a Web form to request it be removed. Sony-BMG then interviews the user about the reasons for wanting the software removed, and, if Sony is satisfied with the answer, the user is directed to a website that installs an ActiveX program into Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which in turn reports the version of the installed rootkit back to First4Internet. Then First4Internet sends an e-mail containing a link to another site, which installs something else yet again on the user's computer that uninstalls the Sony program.

Sony's use of the rootkit technology came to light recently when the Finnish anti-virus company F-Secure examined suspicious files a customer found on his computer when using F-Secure's Blacklight anti-rootkit software.

F-Secure found text strings buried in the hidden files that pointed to a company called First4Internet, a company that makes software used to protect Sony's CDs and is controlled by former Sony executives.

F-Secure director of antivirus research Mikko Hypponen hit the alarm switch when he said that hackers could take advantage of Sony's software to hide their own files, even from antivirus software.

"While I believe in the media industry's right to use copy protection mechanisms to prevent illegal copying, I don't think that we've found the right balance of fair use and copy protection yet," Mr. Russinovich said in his website reporting on his attempts to rid a machine of the rootkit. "This is a clear case of Sony taking [digital rights management] too far."

No sooner had the news of Sony's use of rootkits to protect its digital rights hit, when on-line news site Computerworld reported that links leading to a worm that eventually implants a "nasty" rootkit on a user's computer are popping up on America On-line Inc.'s Instant Messenger network, passed through instant messages on a person's Buddy List and in AOL chat rooms.

Clicking on the link starts a worm called Sdbot-ADD, which then installs the rootkit. The code allows an attacker to monitor the computer and upload or download files, and attempts to shut down antivirus programs. The rootkit connects to an Internet relay chat server and waits for remote commands.

But there is nothing malicious about the Sony cloaking software, First4Internet told a reporter at CNET News. The rootkit is not a risk, the company said, adding that it had worked closely with Symantec and other antivirus companies to ensure it was not malicious. First4Internet admitted the cloaking function was designed to be difficult to hack the rights protection.

The company dismissed the prospect of hackers exploiting its rootkits for their own purposes as an "academic" concern.

But F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen is doubtful. "Right now if you have this on your system, there is no real-world risk just because of this," he said, "but it would not be too far-fetched that some virus writer would try to take advantage of this."

It is not yet known how First4Internet's rootkit will respond to a newer generation of anti-spyware products designed to root out rootkits. One of these will be released soon by Microsoft Corp., which announced less than a month ago that its new enterprise-class anti-spyware product not only evicts viruses and worms, but also rootkits.

The new offering, dubbed Microsoft Client Protection, will go into limited beta before year end with a full rollout expected in 2006.

The Microsoft anti-rootkit initiative was made a centrepiece of the company's Strider project, part of its response to vociferous criticism of being vulnerable to hacker attacks. The company's emphasis on destroying rootkits is a measure of how seriously Microsoft takes the threat.

--------------------------------------------

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Sony_Copy_Protection.html

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
2 November 2005

Sony unit to distribute software patch
By Matthew Fordahl

SAN JOSE, Calif. - After a chorus of criticism, Sony Corp.'s music division said Wednesday it is distributing a free software patch to reveal hidden files that automatically installed to hard drives when some of its music CDs were played on personal computers.

The offending technology was designed to thwart music piracy.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment and its partner, UK-based First 4 Internet, said they decided to offer the patch as a precaution, not because of any security vulnerability, which some critics had alleged.

"What we decided to do is take extra precautionary steps to allay any fears," said Mathew Gilliat-Smith, First 4 Internet's CEO. "There should be no concern here."

The controversy started Monday after Windows expert Mark Russinovich posted a Web log report on how he found hidden files on his PC after playing a Van Zant CD. He also said it disabled his CD drive after he tried to manually remove it.

Russinovich made the discovery while running a program he had written for uncovering file-cloaking "RootKits." In this case, the Sony program hid the antipiracy software from view. Similar technology also has been used by virus and worm writers to conceal their code.

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A firestorm quickly erupted over what appeared to be an attempt by the music company to retain control over its intellectual property by secretly installing hidden software on the PCs of unsuspecting customers.

Making matters worse, Sony did not disclose exactly what it was doing in its license agreement, Russinovich said. It only mentions that proprietary software to enable copy protection would be installed. The software affects only PCs running the Windows operating system.

"The (license) makes no mention that it's going to install something that's going to be hidden from view, that will constantly consume CPU resources even if I'm not listening to music and it will have no uninstall capability," he said.

Because the technology looks for a specific prefix in the filename, it also could be used by malware authors to mask their programs, Russinovich said. There's also the question of how a PC user is supposed to maintain a system that runs hidden programs.

"If you've got software on your computer that you can't see, there's no way for you to manage it from a security point of view," he said. "You don't know if you need updates for it. You don't know if you should uninstall it because you don't know it's even there."

Though there are no known problems with software, that could change and leave millions of unsuspecting PC users at risk of having their machines taken over by malware, said Ero Carrera, a researcher at F-Secure, a computer security firm.

"The code of the application is not exactly well done," he said. "I would tend to believe there are people already working on finding exploits."

The copy protection technology, which limits how many times a CD can be copied, was included on about 20 titles, including discs from The Bad Plus and Vivian Green, among others.

Gilliat-Smith and Sony BMG spokesman John McKay said the technology had been on the market for about eight months and there had been no major complaints prior to Russinovich's blog post. Still, a newer, similar technology was in the process of rolling out before the latest controversy erupted.

The patches that reveal the hidden files are being made available to antivirus companies as well as customers who visit the Sony BMG site. They do not remove the copy protection software, however.

McKay said customers can request a program to safely uninstall everything by visiting the Sony BMG Web site at http://cp.sonybmg.com. That site, however, requires a form to be filled out and submitted.

In a test of the form late Wednesday, an e-mail confirming receipt was quickly returned by Sony BMG customer service, but it included no instructions on how to remove the software. The message promised another reply "shortly."

The process is unlike the vast majority of Windows software, which can be easily uninstalled - by the user, without permission - through the "Add or Remove Programs" tool in the operating system's control panel.

The controversy highlights the need for rules as to what content providers can and can't install on PCs to protect their property, said Russinovich, who is co-founder and chief software architect at Winternals Software, which specializes in advanced systems software for Microsoft Windows.

"We need to get some formality about what's legal, what's ethical and what's fair - and what level of disclosure there needs to be," he said. "It's fine for Sony to say we're not going to do that now. What kind of guarantee do we have they're not going to do it at a future date or that other companies are not going to do this?"

Posted by: Tom Knoll on November 26, 2005 09:46 AM

http://blogs.theage.com.au/razor/archives/video_and_music/001428.html

Should Sony call it Digital Rorts Management?
Friday, November 18, 2005

Sony BMG's bungling executives might have been hoping that the nightmare unleashed when their novel solution to Digital Rights Management - installing a dangerous rootkit http://www.bleedingedge.com.au/blog/archives/2005/11/the_consumer_so.html on 4.7 million CDs - might have been fading. After all, what else could go wrong?

They'd been caught issuing a bogus denial http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27416 ; released a "software update" http://blogs.smh.com.au/razor/archives/online_music_and_video/002875.html that replaced the offending files with new offending files; inspired a new wave of trojans to exploit the security holes they'd gratuitously installed on their customers' PCs; shipped an "uninstaller" http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/11/sony_uninstall_.html that opened more security holes; got themselves sued, several times; and sparked several calls for customer boycotts.

In two weeks of hell, they'd publicly identified themselves as negligent, incompetent, and staggeringly ignorant - can there be any other interpretation of this uncommon debacle? - and destroyed whatever reputation Sony had for technological know-how. Nothing more could surely follow? Could it?

Could it ever! It now emerges that the software code appears to have been ripped off http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/20051117.html from several sources ... including from the doyen of DRM-busters, "DVD Jon" Johansen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Johansen .

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people, could it?

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http://blogs.theage.com.au/razor/archives/video_and_music/001433.html

Sony's EP version of "Suicide is Painless"
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

We've got to admit that we like reporting this stuff. Ever since Sony BMG decided that (a) its customers were all, of course, potential copyright thieves and (b) the fact that they'd bought a CD gave Sony the right to install dangerous software http://www.bleedingedge.com.au/blog/archives/2005/11/the_consumer_so.html on their PCs to protect its digital rights, we've enjoyed chronicling the spectacle of a company tirelessly digging its own grave.

Overnight we had the news that the Texas Attorney General has filed a civil lawsuit http://tinyurl.com/8aoz9 against the company under the State's anti-spyware legislation, describing Sony's actions installing the XCP software - which includes a so-called "rootkit" - as "a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers".

It seems, however, that the deceit didn't end there. For instance, Sony claims to have withdrawn the offending CDs, but as recently as last Sunday, US time, Texas investigators were able to purchase several of the CDs at Austin retailers.

And just exactly how many dangerous CDs have been released on the market? According to Sony, they've sold only 2.1 million of 4.7 million CDs released with the XCP software. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation - which is also suing Sony BMG http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1891843,00.asp - claims that a second variation of the software, labeled as SunnComm MediaMax, has not been addressed and affects 20 million CDs.

The EFF claims the MediaMax software installs itself on computers even when users choose not to run the application. It says that software allows the company to track customers' listening habits despite denials the company collects such data, and it lacks any feature for deleting the program entirely.

Meanwhile, the fact that the software Sony deployed to protect itself from copyright violation contained software that violated the copyright of others, seems to expose it to more legal action http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=933 - particularly ironic action, given the company has been suing college students and their parents over much less serious copyright infringements.

So far, it seems, Sony hasn't been experiencing much of a consumer backlash http://tinyurl.com/ay5c9 . But we expect it's only a matter of time.

We can only wonder whether Sony might begin to wonder, as it watches its reputation being shredded, whether it's really a good idea to try to stop its customers making a copy of the music they've paid for. Given that CDs seem to be rapidly becoming obsolescent technology, what with iTunes Music Store sales beginning to overtake http://news.com.com/iTunes+outsells+traditional+music+stores/2100-1027_3-5965314.html the business being done in bricks and mortar stores.

* Posted by Charles Wright / Comments (9)

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http://blogs.theage.com.au/razor/archives/video_and_music/001437.html

Cash registers play silent tune for Sony

In the last exciting episode of our serial, "Suing Sony", we linked to a story which reported that according to music market tracker Nielsen SoundScan, Sony's CD sales had not suffered from the by now notorious rootkit debacle.

You'll no doubt be pleased to learn, however, that Business Week is telling a different story. Take Van Zant's Get Right with the Man CD for instance. It ranked No. 887 on the Amazon.com sales list on November 2, a day after news of the ham-fisted copy protection scheme started breaking. Overnight, Get Right with the Man dropped to No. 1,392. By Nov. 22, with Sony scoring a perfect 10 in Olympic-level foot-shooting, it had plummeted to No. 25,802.

As sales of other albums identified as vehicles for Sony's secret PC meddling also headed south, and music fans started messaging their favourite artists to either get shot of Sony or get lost, Business Week reports that singers and songwriters are "increasingly expressing frustration at devices used by record companies to protect digital content".

It's a distinct change of tune from the recording artists, who until now have been "the most vocal [sic] backers of DRM schemes", despite stark evidence that they should be using their brains, rather than their wallets to think with, and that there could be many other ways to pluck the canary.

Our advice, in the circumstances, is to continue to blackban Sony hardware and Sony BMG music, and convince others to do the same. We think we have established that the music industry is incapable of grasping subtleties, and responds only to blunt force.

Posted by: Tom Knoll on November 26, 2005 12:09 PM

Use Creative Mediasource Organiser. Press left shift key before loading CD, wait till list of songs is loaded, release shift. Then rip at will, good quality, no clicks. Works on 95% of CC CD's.

Posted by: Peace on January 8, 2006 04:29 AM

Ok, so I have read this entire page, and did not feel it necessary to download questionable programs just to rip my cd, so I found an alternative route. When I bought the most Recent Gorillaz CD "Demon Days" it would make my computer freeze because of the copy control, All I did was restart my comp with the CD in the drive, then rip to my comp with WMP, no downloads necessary, extremely easy, email me if you have any questions.

Posted by: Tim on January 17, 2006 02:37 AM

Why should the consumer have to learn how to fix a CD that should not have been sold broken in the first place?

I got stung for the first time yesterday. I posted a photo of the broken CD to Flickr. I hope other people do the same -- and stop buying broken products at full price.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/brokencopy/

Posted by: Jose on January 18, 2006 10:59 PM

Managed to bypass Gorillaz copy protection using Isobuster. Strangely, it wouldn't work on a laptop, but then worked fine on a desktop.

Posted by: The Prawn on January 21, 2006 02:05 PM

I couldn't rip with Widows Media Player, but since I have a Media Center PC running Microsoft XP Media Center Edition 2005, I was happy to see the MCE interface which uses Windows Media Player to handle music ripping and storage under the hood of the MCE GUI, SUCCESSFULLY started AUTOPLAYING & RIPPED an EMI COPY PROTECTED/COPY CONTROLLED CD (Gorillaz DEMON DAYS)!!!!

I then made a successful burned copy in Media Center of the WMA Lossless Rip I had added to my music Library.

FUCK EMI

I WIN

I LOVE MEDIA CENTER!!!!

Posted by: Joey on March 1, 2006 08:02 PM

EMI Bites mega donkey cock.
I can't rip Lazy Sunday 3 to my comp, so i can't stick it on my ipod. Media player won't rip it, I tunes thinks it's a blank disk, Nero won't rip it either but at least it plays it.
Most of the copy controls are bollocks and i can just import them without doing anything.
Korn - See you on the other side was tricky, but i just ripped it from my dvd drive and that worked fine, no such luck with lazy sunday however.

In Summary: Fuck EMI, you lot are a sadistic bunch of money hungrey Bastards and should all be shot, in the Head. I suggest that someone posts the contents of there albums on the net so they can be downloaded for free, just to piss them off.

Posted by: Gordon on March 8, 2006 01:18 PM

Hi guys,

I need help. I tried to play on my computer a copy protected cd. it haven't functioned. ok. but since that moment my cd and dvd player aren't working. I can't use them. my computer even doesn't find them. what can I do now?

thank's for help!!

Posted by: Mary on March 14, 2006 10:02 PM

csdfuck

Posted by: fucker on April 10, 2006 03:07 PM

I've tried all of this and nothing worked, not audiograbber or any other software (forget about itunes) So as a final test i used my external DVD-RW and worked out just fine iTunes recognized it as a normal audio cd, downloaded track names and ripped into mp3. Cool.

Posted by: Bart Simpson on April 13, 2006 05:11 AM

Ha! Just like Joey, I've successfully ripped CC CD's using Media Centre (the greatest ever invention for a home theatre room)! Thanks, but no thanks EMI, you bunch of turds!

Posted by: I Win Too!!! on April 22, 2006 05:32 PM

Can somebody give me step by step instructions how to copy my EMI copy controlled CD's of the Tamworth Golden Guitar Awards. I would really appreciate that.

Posted by: Anita on May 14, 2006 08:26 AM

CD Copy Control means the restoration of quality; retain the product’s importance, it locks against theft, preserving the confidential data. I think they have taken the right step.

Posted by: Document Security on May 27, 2006 08:59 PM

For the Sony/EMI protection, try this...
Use the copy to iPod option. When it's done, find the iPod in My Computer. Make sure "Show Hidden Files" is selected. Browse to -
\iPod_Control\Music
In there you'll see some folders full of .mp3s. In the detailed view.
Go to each folder and sort by "Date Modified" and copy the ones with todays date (that'll be them)(NB- You can hold your mouse over them and a song/artist name should appear) and paste them on your PCs hard drive where you keep your music. Rename the files and your done.

Posted by: Lee on June 17, 2006 04:16 PM

Hi,this is my second visit and as before I havta laugh.
The most important thing in making MP3 from protected CDs is to have a NEW and GOOD cd drive.Forget shits like iTunes,Media center,buying CDs in other countries...if you dont have a good CD drive it can work sometimes,but its NOT general.As I wrote before I tried almost everything (see above).Now I have a new cd drive and no more using bullshits written above.
Stop sending your guaranteed instructions and tips.It usually doesnt work and many of you are then disapointed.

BUY A NEW AND GOOD CD DRIVE!!!

p.s.:in central Europe you can now hardly buy a new CD with copy control,so I guess consumers won

Posted by: Eaglestar on June 27, 2006 12:11 AM