SCMS on EMI Copy Controlled CDs

[zerodB]

To be honest I am getting quite sick and tired of CD companies trying to prohibit their users making legal copies of their discs. Especially with EMI, who seem unsure themselves on the best way to achieve this.

Most of their discs will play fine on my computer, using their own software to play an extremley-compressed, encrypted Lo-Fi Windows Media Audio version of the music on from the data section on the disc. More often than not, Nero (and other software too) seems to recognise the audio portion of the disc - thus rendering the copy-protection useless- so much for the TOC encryption.

One of my discs, however, is so badly encrypted, that my computer will refuse to recognise either data or audio on the disc.

But SCMS is going way to far - I've only encountered this on a disc once before.

I chucked a new CD into my 333NT to copy to MD, and my unit duly informs me that I can't copy the disc due to SCMS. This is ridiculous, since the MD adds SCMS to the disc anyway to prevent further digital copies. No mention of SCMS was made on the CD.

Fortunatley, I used Nero to re-burn the CD without all the SCMS and copy-control garbage - I've lost a CDR in the process though. I think this is an absolute infringement on users rights. I can understand why CD manufacturers would be keen to limit the use of their CDs with PCs, but to disallow me from making a copy on to MD using my own bookshelf unit (ie NOT MY PC) is just ridiculous.

And to top it off, some of their CDs have SCMS, some don't. I wish they would wake up and stick with something consistent.

I think I should complain to EMI. This is not fair.

[A440]

You should get their software player off your computer.

It could screw up your soundcard driver or make you vulnerable to viruses. Sony got caught for its rootkit XCP software and Sunncomm Mediamax software, but somehow EMI continues to use copy-protection (probably Mediamax) unnoticed.

You never want CDs to Autorun because they can saddle your computer with all kinds of garbage. Disable Autorun, with these instructions from Annoyances.org

* Right-click on the drive icon for your CD drive, CD recorder, or DVD drive, and select Properties.

* Choose the AutoPlay tab, and choose the desired action for each type of CD. For example, choose Music CD, then click Select an action to perform, then select Take no action.

Complain to EMI and tell them you want every trace of their software player removed from your computer. If you get anything but a full uninstaller tell them you will take legal action if necessary under consumer protection and anti-hacking laws. Sunncomm MediaMax, at least in its Sony version, installed part of itself on Autorun without user consent.

Also take a look at www.sonybmg.com (center bottom of the front page) for information on XCP and Sunncomm (MediaMax).

Without Autorun activated, put the CD in your player and run Exact Audio Copy (free at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) to extract audio from most copy-protected discs.

[zerodB]

I always hold down the SHIFT key when inserting CCCDs. In any case, EMI gives you the option of whether to install their components, and an uninstaller is included on the disc. I don't think there is really any fancy technology here, just an encrypted TOC, and a DRM-locked lo-fi WMA version of the music on the data sector of the disc. All it is really doing, is installing a small front-end player application.

But to be honest I don't really care about playing my music on my PC - what I want is to be able to copy from CD to MD without any hassles. SCMS is just plain silly.

[dex Otaku]

But to be honest I don't really care about playing my music on my PC - what I want is to be able to copy from CD to MD without any hassles. SCMS is just plain silly.

SCMS may be silly, but when properly implemented it works. It allows for fair use rights, while limiting the propagation of copies, assuming that a "stripper" isn't inserted in the duplicating chain somewhere.

Point being: SCMS isn't at fault here. BMI's abuse of it by breaking the rules clearly is.

Er.. EMI, not BMI. Heh.

[sickassmonkey]

I've got three EMI Copy Controlled discs and I've noticed that when the content is transferred to SonicStage the playback is slightly corrupted. It's just a tiny skip every now and then, but it's definitely noticeable.

On the first two I assumed that the discs themselves were corrupt, but I noticed the logo on the newest disc last week and assumed that was the problem.

I'll try the steps suggested in this thread to re-record the tracks to SonicStage so that I can actually listen to these CD's in my van.

It's a pain in the arse that I have to do this though.