Copy Control

Copy Control è un nome generico che ragguruppa dei sistemi di protezione da copia, usati tra il 2001 e il 2006 in varie opere registrate su CD da EMI e Sony BMG Music Entertainment in varie nazioni (Europa, Canada, Stati Uniti e Australia). Non va confusa con il sistema di protezione per software introdotto dalla Microcosm Ltd nel 1989.

Il logo che identifica questo genere di protezione è raffigurato da un cerchio pieno nero, nella metà del quale è inscritto un triangolo equilatero, circoscritto in una nuova ripetizione di questa figura; il tutto sormontato dal logo di "marchio registrato".

Sono esistiti vari tipi di protezione. Intese essenzialmente come protezioni dalla copia dei compact disc (CD), non è possibile riferirsi propriamente ai dischi con sistemi Copy Control come a dei veri e propri compact disc perchè il sistema introduce dati incompatibili, rendendo i dischi non-aderenti agli standard indicati nel Red Book per i CD audio. Il sistema è pensato allo scopo di prevenire l'estrazione digitale dell'audio ("ripping") dai dischi protetti e la conseguente condivisione con sistemi di p2p filesharing di musica estratta digitalmente. Le tecniche sono:

Inclusione di informazioni multisessione (blue book) che nascondono le tracce audio nei confronti di molti lettori CD-ROM
Codici di correzione audio corrotti, che possono introdurre errori udibili nelle copie estratte digitalmente
La sezione dati del disco normalmente include copie dell'audio in formato digitale protetto da sistemi DRM, che sono incompatibili con diversi sistemi operativi.

Nei Paesi Bassi, le etichette Sony e Universal sperimentarono il copy control fino al 2004. Emi continuò ad utilizzarlo fino al giugno 2006 e quindi lo abbandonarono.

Negli Stati Uniti, Universal Music Group sperimentò Copy Control in un certo numero di colonne sonore tra il 2001 e il 2003, successivamente abbandonandolo; Warner Music Group lo usò in Europaq in alcune uscite come il Greatest Hits dei Red Hot Chili Peppers. Da settembre del 2006, Cactus Data Shield, la tecnologia della Macrovision dietro a Copy Control, non appare più tra i prodotti nel sito web della Macrovision ........... in corso.

Traduzione in corso nella sezione "modifica"

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A December 2006 issue of Billboard magazine announced that EMI had decided to abandon Copy Control worldwide. Until then, it had been unclear whether EMI had completely abandoned it. There was no press release.

Background

The Copy Control protections were devised in response to the file sharing and casual CD copying that has become commonplace in recent years, allegedly causing the music industry significant losses, or "ungained" revenues. Neither issue was particularly relevant when the CD standard was introduced in the early 1980s, and thus, unlike the more recent DVDs, the CD standard specifies no inherent form of copy protection or other digital rights management. Copy Control is one of a number of attempts to apply copy protection on top of the CD standard, but since it is merely a modification of the already unrestricted standard which must still yield usable results in most CD players, the efficiency of the system varies significantly.

The CDDA logo, absent from Copy Control releases

As the Copy Control discs do not conform to the requirements of the CD standard, they are not labeled with the CDDA logo, which is trademarked by Philips. A Copy Control "CD" which would not play in a car CD player was deemed "defective" in a French 2003 lawsuit, and every recent Copy Control released disc carry visible Copy Control notices stating merely compatibility with CDs and the possibility of playback problems "on some equipment, for example car CD players." Nevertheless, the discs are frequently referred to as CDs or "copy-protected CDs" in music stores and in colloquial language.

Circumvention

A Copy Control disc will appear as a mixed-mode disc, with audio and data content. Under Windows, inserting the disc will usually autorun an audio player utility, which plays the DRM-protected audio files provided. (This can be temporarily disabled by holding down the shift key while inserting the disc, or by disabling autorun altogether.)

The ability to extract the CD-Audio tracks is otherwise largely dependent on the disc drive used. The first obstacle is the "fake" Table of Contents (ToC), which is intended to mask the audio tracks from CD-ROM drives. On the other hand, CD-R/RW drives, and similar, can usually access all session data on a disc, and thus can properly read the audio segment. (It has been reported that the fake ToC may also be bypassed by obscuring the outer 2-4 mm of the disc with a temporary felt-tip marker. This method, however, may no longer be effective due to advances in Copy Control technology.)

The other major obstacle is the incompatible (and technically corrupted) error-correction data. Again, the effect of this is dependent on the disc drive; some drives will be able to read the data without problems, but others will produce audio files with loud pops every few seconds. (A related problem is that such discs will probably not be as resistant to scratching.)

Copy Control also does not prevent copying a disc by recording it as audio through a computer's sound card, which only causes a slight degradation in audio quality, or none in the case where a digital link is used. More substantial is the loss in recording speed. This poses a major problem to the music industry, due to the fact that many "pirates" rip protected CD audio in this way.

Usually a CD-R/RW drive will play the disc but with occasional stops (about every 10 seconds) and DVD-R/RW drives will be able to read the data without problems and can be ripped straight to the PC. CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives in a computer will usually refuse to play the data except in the provided player.

Systems other than Windows, however, can easily play Copy Control discs, with the disc appearing as two entities, "Audio CD" and whatever the data portion of the disc was named in manufacture. As the bundled players are usually Windows Proprietary, and, similarly, the auto-launchers are designed for Windows, there is little that can be done to stop a non-Windows user from ripping a Copy Control disc (though, arguably, the process may take longer).

In Linux, Copy Control discs are easily accessed through cdparanoia or KDE "audiocd:/" service.

In Mac OS X, these discs are easily accessed through iTunes and Quicktime (When a CDDA track is dragged to a folder other than the CD, Quicktime automatically converts it to AIFF, which is a lossless PCM format). Though some Copy Control discs do have Mac OS software, this is becoming less common.

This technology is becoming easier to get around as more advances are made in modern technology, today new PCs can rip Copy Control discs simply the same way other non copy protected discs are ripped, further making this technology obsolete.

Content on the CD extra

CDS-100 or CDS-200: A player and a media file database (a copy of the audio contents in Windows Media). The player will only play the audio contents in the media file database.
CDS-300: A player and the anti-copy program only. The player can ignore the anti-copy program to read the audio tracks. The player allow users to play the tracks, rip the audio tracks as DRM-enabled WMA files and burn CD for 3 times (The player will rip the CD as 320 kbit/s WMA files, then burn the audio on a CD-R, notice that the volume is lower and the quality is worse on the burned CD)

References

Link Esterni

EMI
- Copy Control information
- Problemi di riproduzione - Domande e risposte (inglese)
Petizione dei consumatori contro il Copy Control
Press Release della IFPI - IFPI issues labeling guidelines for Copy Control discs
Evaluating New Copy-Prevention Techniques for Audio CDs (PDF format), by J. Alex Halderman
padawan.info: Protected CD judged abusive in France
Guide to Copying Copy-Protected Music discs
EMI Music & Sony/BMG Anti-Copy Control Information