CD Copy Protection? Bust It Wide Open!

A new Music Video CD was recently released and I got myself a copy through friends in New Delhi. I was told that the CD is encrypted and the video inside cannot be viewed and copied into a computer. Now, that doesn't go very fine with me. I don't have a VCD/DVD player. However, I wasn't all that troubled with thoughts such as "Should I buy or not buy the VCD?", "What's the point in buying a new Music Video CD that you cannot watch?" which could have become a factor for majority of others who doesn't have a VCD/DVD player NOT to buy. Informing the volunteered CD Sellers that it can be made to be viewable and copiable, I help them with their CD selling. :-D

I went home. Switched On the computer. Insert the newly bought Music Video CD into the DVD-RW drive, clicked it and tried to watch what's inside. And oops! there is nothing inside!







The Used Space is zer0; Free space is also zer0. Which obviously means and proved that the CD is not empty. And that there are files inside, which obviously points it out again that it is being encrypted and protected from being visible.

Amazing work by those who worked their ass out trying to protect the contents of the CD inside. Well, almost.

On second opinion, their work was a waste of time, resource and money? After all, it doesn't take more than a minute for IsoBuster, which was located at my Files/Software drive/folder, to bust the supposedly encrypted and protected contents wide open to be copiable from a computer to another computer, to pendrives, cds, dvds and other storage media. The encrypters must have used one of those cheapo, simplo and outdated protectors. No offense though. :-D

Look at this. What was invisible before is now very much visible with IsoBuster.



What I do next is right click on the Session 1, and extract the contents (Tracks *) as *.mpg files to a specified folder/drive. And that's it. Mission accomplished. However sorry, I will not be sharing the ripped music videos. Buy it and bust it wide open yourself and save it in your comp for personal viewing only. :-P

[If you want to convert the mpg files to avi, download eRightSoft's SUPER. Its free and a great conversion tool. If you find any difficulty opening or watching a video file, try VLC Media Player. It's also free and a recommended media player.]

Okay, here is an simple advise to our artists, producers and whomsoever concerned. Don't be taken by the "your CD can be protected from being copied to a computer and shared with/to another computer/user" thingies. That's nonsense unless proven otherwise with multiple test-driving with all those decrypters, busters and rippers available in the open internet. If you were charged for this "cd copy protection" service, you are really fckd up. Moreover, many of us now use a computer to watch movies and other videos rather than with a TV and VCD/DVD. What if, they can't watch your CD/DVD in their more favorable box? What happens when words (they spreads like spitfire, believe me!) gets out that it is that so. That can have affects (though not serious) on your popularity and also most importantly, on the business.

If I am not mistaken, one of a leading Mizoram-based artist Mimi Renthlei's first (?) Music Video/Audio (?) Album CD was also supposedly copy-protected too. And there was quite a number of criticisms on the topic of piracy and the buyers' legal rights to copy it into their system without the intention to be shared with others. How much I wanted to deprove the "cannot be copied" theory during those times. But I didn't have access to her CD physically; otherwise I could have done it. I am weird. I am curious. I am still a kid, I think. But I am a fair kiddie. If there was anybody who ripped it and shared it with others, it’s not me. :-D

If you really want to protect your music audio/video CD, you got to get in touch with an expert like me, ha ha, just kidding. I am not into this kind of business. I am yet to learn the technique of protecting a VCD CD from being able to be copied (but visible and playable directly through a CD/DVD drive) to a storage connected to a computer. What I succeeded so far is that, I am able to create a CD playable with VCD/DVD player but invisible and unrippable/unextracable to a computer. The good thing as of now is that the project CD is not bustable with IsoBuster. I haven't tried it out with other related softwares such as Alcohol 120%, Clone CD, Nero, Cdrwin, MagicISO, etc.

I hope the knowledge for the next step is not too difficult to be accomplished.