Gartner: piece of tape defeats any CD DRM

[Renew Deal]

Anti-piracy technologies 'easily defeated', reports analyst

Tom Sanders in California, vnunet.com 21 Nov 2005

The highly controversial XCP digital rights management (DRM) technology bundled by Sony BMG on 52 of its audio CD albums can be defeated by applying a small piece of tape to the discs, according to analyst firm Gartner.

Applying a piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disk renders the data track of the CD unreadable. A computer trying to play the CD will then skip to the music without accessing the bundled DRM technology.

"After more than five years of trying, the recording industry has not yet demonstrated a workable DRM scheme for music CDs," Gartner concluded in a newly published research note.

The use of a piece of tape will defeat any future DRM system on audio CDs designed to be played on a stand-alone CD player, the analyst said.
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http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2146367/garnter-piece-tape-defeats-cd

[FormerDittoHead]

1. Or hold down the shift key when inserting the disk...

...will disable the "autorun" option.

I saw on Callforhelptv.com one caller went to install one of these "enhancements" and not only did they install their software but (ready?) it actually nuked the installation of that CopyDVD and some DVD player which didn't "respect" restricted "zones" and such.

These bastards are out to turn our world into a big-ass jukebox / vending machine and will charge us for each breath we take - just don't get upset! You can't afford the extra oxygen!

[bemildred]

2. Or don't buy any and you don't have to worry about it at all. nt