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In seeming proof that the high-tech solutions aren't always the best, newsgroups have been buzzing with the way of defeating the copyright tyrants. Developed by Sony, the current way it works is by adding a track that contains bogus data onto the CD as the first track; and because computers are programmed to read data files first, the computer will continuously try to play the bogus track; causing it to lock, and in doing so, it never gets to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc. So while your standard CD player will play it, CD-ROM drives will not. In fact its so deadly to Mac's that it will cause the computer to lock up irretrievably - meaning you can't even eject the bloody CD and have to return it to the shop...
With the most high profile releases to date being middle of the road established artists such as Celine Dion or Roger Waters, it might not have had a great impact yet on DiS readers; though Sony have shipped 11 million of the copy-protected CD's to date. However, as the technology is there, it'll surely be introduced to more and more artists such as Eminem, a man so concerned with his intellectual property rights he said about bootleggers .. "I want to meet that motherf***er and beat the shit out of him, because I picture this scrawny little dickhead going ‘I got Eminem's new CD! I got Eminem's new CD!", threatening physical violence against anyone who pirates his new album. I don't know how that defense will stand up in court, but he better head down to New York City then, because pirate copies of the new CD, not out for a month, can be found on street corners for $5. But i digress, anyway...
Anyway, hackers have discovered that the easiest way of defeating this new copy-protection technology is with... a visit of your local stationers and picking up a Black marker pen. Apparently scribbling around the rim of a disc with a felt-tip marker will defeat this copy-protection: by making the bogus data track unreadable, the CD-ROM drive will simply skip to the next track - the music. And hey presto, millions of dollars of investment by Sony's copyright department is defeated.
I dunno about you, but surely one way of getting more CD's sold is simply to reduce the current exorbitant price of them, investing millions in reducing exorbitant and extravagant overheads rather than investing millions in this new 'chocolate fireguard'-like technology...
