Mysteries Of The CDRW and Back Ups Revealed

Phantasm66 · Aug 8, 2002

Great article here at Tom's Hardware on the perils of breaking copy protection - erm, I mean, making a legitimate backup of your own CDs... hm... hmm.... [clear throat].....

Mysteries Of The CDRW and Back Ups Revealed
http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/02q2/020617/index.html

What continues to amaze us is the extent to which each side will go to find new ways to defeat the other. One unintended result of these more advanced protection schemes is that they sometimes create compatibility problems for CD-ROM/ DVD-ROM drives that don't strictly adhere to the industry standards. In some cases, if your CD-ROM/ DVD-ROM drive is having difficulty reading a certain copy-protected title, you may have to go to the extreme of "flashing" the firmware in your reader to get that title to function correctly. (Provided, of course, that your drive manufacturer is aware of the compatibility problem and has addressed it through an available firmware upgrade, which isn't always the case.) Don't look for the software publishers to lend a sympathetic ear, either, as most of them believe that they have done as much as they can to make their title compatible with the widest variety of CD-ROM/ DVD-ROM drives.

With the discovery of Napster and Napster-like "peer-to-peer" file transferring programs, now even the audio CD companies are getting into the copy-protection act with the introduction of schemes that are making it more difficult to back up audio CDs. Again, these protection schemes have created compatibility problems for audio CD players that don't strictly adhere to the established standards. This has caused headaches for users wanting to make "mix" discs of their favorite songs, or back up copies of audio CDs they already own, to listen to in their car or portable player, for example. It is understandable that recording companies want to control audio CD copying to prevent illegal redistribution, but users are accustomed to fairly broad fair use rights for music that they have purchased. Many record companies felt "safe" when they only had to deal with copying to analog tapes, but the new technology which provides the ability to create perfect, bit-for-bit digital copies has frightened the bejeesus out of the recording companies. Recently released industry statistics indicate that the purchase of CD recordings has dramatically declined, while sales of blank CDRs and accompanying equipment have mushroomed.

It seems that drives by Lite On, which I mentioned in another post as having great potential to be "overclocked", for want of a better word ( http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2169&highlight=hot rod ) also comes across as great drives (for the ones tested) for hmm.... hmm.. "making backups" as well.....

Lite On has been racking up the awards as of late, and with the performance of the LTR-24102B, we can understand why. This drive does pretty much everything right. It is reliable and worked well in our testing......Lite On has produced a winning drive with excellent performance. The drive was solid, and performed above what we could have expected. It is available for a reasonable price, but, of course, you might be able to get some of the LTR-24102B's faster cousins that can do the same thing for just a tad more money. Again, you will want to keep your eye on these guys, as they are definetely on the right track in the customer satisfaction department.

Read on for a really good article!
http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/02q2/020617/index.html

Phantasm66 · Aug 8, 2002

The Clony XXL v2.0.0.6 tool mentioned in the article (to identify the copy protection method of a CD) can be downloaded here:

http://home.arcor.de/bejot/downloads.html

Note that there is an English language and Deutsch language versions.

Clone CD, of course, has its own site here:

http://www.clonecd.net/

With a download page for the tool here:

http://www.clonecd.net/download.htm

Of course, like Tom says:

- This article was not written to advocate or endorse unlawful copying of proprietary software data and audio CDs, but was intended to examine a licensed user's ability (or inability) to use various CDRW drives to create a back up copy of licensed software. Prior to attempting to make any back up copies of your licensed software, we suggest locating and reading the end user license agreement that is usually included in the packaging with the licensed software. The laws regarding the ability to back up licensed, proprietary software vary from country to country. If you are unsure of the laws that are applicable in the country where you live, we suggest obtaining appropriate legal advice prior to attempting to make any back up copies of your licensed software. Where not specifically prohibited by the end user license agreement, legitimate interests do exist to maintain a back up copy of licensed software for personal use and for archival purposes. It is illegal, and not a legitimate use, to share the licensed software or copies of it with others who are not licensed end users.

An attitude and perspective shared by techspot as well.

Phantasm66 · Aug 8, 2002

Anyone got a Lite On IDE cd writer? I am interested in getting one of these soon and would like some opinions. Tomshardware identifies certain models as very good for making copies.... erm I mean backups.....

SNGX1275 · Aug 8, 2002

I bought my parents one, they love it, hasn't mucked up a cd yet and they've burned quite a few.
/me remembers a while back when he suggested to someone on here to get a Lite-On and people more or less laughed at him.

LNCPapa · Aug 8, 2002

Lite-On drives weren't always good - but they're definitely performers now, IMO. I doubt it was me who said not to get it - unless you were deciding between that and a Plextor (I am a PlexNut.)

LNCPapa

Phantasm66 · Aug 8, 2002

I currently have a Plextor SCSI drive but since creating the IDE RAID array I have spare IDE opportunities and SCSI is getting more expensive and harder to source in comparison. I can pick up a 40x Lite-On IDE writer for £50 which is like nothing but a new Plextor SCSI writer is over £200.

Anyone else any opinions??

TechSpot

Mysteries Of The CDRW and Back Ups Revealed

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