Here's the dilemma.... Starting my own company want to know if there is a way to copy-protect my CD's. Very small business, and the customers will have very little knowledge about the actual process. I was originally thinking of putting a disclaimer or telling them that any attempt to duplicate will erase data completely. What do you think about that?? Now I heard about CDS 300, any way to implement that myself? I don't want to run the risk of unreadable CDs to customers. Any help would be great!!
Since you're talking about CDS 300 I assume you want to protect audio CDs (burned CD-Rs or pressed btw?). There's a program that can create TOC manipulated CDs, i.e. PCs drives can't find the audio data under ordinary circumstances. I don't remember the name, but it has been discussed here a few times ~ 1 year ago. You'll probably find it using the search function. IIRC it's free- or shareware. As every other audio CD protection it's not very safe. Using software like EAC or CloneCD CDs can be copied easily with any PC drive. OTH some devices like DVD players, mp3 CD players could have problems with playback of these disks. With CDS it's somewhat different. If the protection is crackable depends on the drive used. There's no way creating something similar by burning CD-Rs, it only works with pressed CDs, so it might be too expensive for what you want. As every auido CD copy protection somewhat violates redbook standards, there's always the risk of unreadable CDs to customers, depending on hardware used. Please give some further details about what you're planning to do (burned CD-Rs / pressed CDs), what content is used, etc. I have some more ideas/information that could be helpful in some scenarios.
ok... they would be burned cd-r's. There isn't enough being produced to get them pressed, and as you stated, probably too expensive for me just starting out. They would just be wav files. I just want to see if there is a way that I can protect myself (like the music industry) because I am not producing a ton of cds. Probably just 15 at most for 1 customer. And if there isn't a way to cover myself, then I need to charge more, which is what I don't want. Now keep in mind here, these are not very computer savvy people. So anything that would deter them from trying, would work as well, I think or hope!
Found it. The software I was talking about is called CCD-Lock. The CDs you create with it might not work with some standalone players as I've said before. Additionally you should be careful about what media you choose. Some have problems with certain players, some die very fast (1/2 - 1 year). Additional security (to some degree) against analog copies and encoding to mp3 (and other lossy formats) you can get by adding high pitched noise (most energy in 16-22kHz range) to your original .wav files. If properly done, this will be inaudible and won't do harm to ears and equipment, but spoil analog copies as well as lossy encoding. Drawback: On some low-end CD players the added noise *might* lead to audible distortion - I haven't noticed such problems myself though.
Thanks--I will try that out and see how it works! But you don't like my idea of putting a disclaimer on the cd somewhere that states "any unauthorized duplication will corrupt this cd and make it unusable" I think that would put the fear in them and they wouldn't try. Is that illegal?? Thanks again!
To me this sounds funny in 1st place as I know this can't work. You might run into problems with ppl claiming that your 'evil' protection has damaged their equipment. Besides this, as a customer I wouldn't like the attitude you show by doing this. I wouldn't want to be your customer if you have the intention to 'put the fear in me' - besides if you sell e.g. horror movies I would rather try to explain your economical situation to some degree, in what areas you have to invest/spend money to run your business and what risks you're taking - to make people understand what illegal copies mean for you. Or - something like "If you like my work and believe that it's worth the money you've paid for it, please don't copy it and give it away for free. Rather tell your friends where they can buy it or buy another copy for them as a present. If you don't like it and you regret that you've bought it, there's no need to copy it anyway."
