COPY COPY MOVIES & MUSIC
Because the CD-ROM was designed more than 20 years ago, when encrypting the contents of a 700MB disc was
impractical, the contents of music CDs must remain unencrypted and unencumbered by DRM, if the music industry
expects new CDs to work in the billions of CD players sold in the last 20 years. That makes ripping “protected” CDs
much easier than even ripping a DVD.Rip Copy-Protected CDs
Autorun is the Enemy
This might sound ridiculous, but the easiest
way to make sure you can rip any CD is to
disable autorun on your optical drive. Most
commercial CD protection software relies
on driver tricks or a resident application to
confuzzle your music ripping app, but that
software has to be installed somehow, right?
Right. It’s installed automatically—you insert
a disc and the autorun fi le tells your PC to
run the installer.
Disabling autorun is simple, but it will
disable the functionality for all users of your
machine, and for all discs. It means that no
software installers will automatically start
anymore. If that’s not an acceptable option,
then you can temporarily disable autorun
anytime you insert a disc, by holding down
the Shift key until the drive is fully spun up.
To permanently disable autorun,
you need to edit the Registry. The usual
warnings apply: Failure to properly follow
our instructions could result in a broken
Windows install, computer instability.
Open regedit by going to Start, then
Run, and typing regedit. Press Enter.Then browse down to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/
SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/
Services/Cdrom. Open the
AutoRun value, and change
it from 1 to 0. The next time
you restart your computer,
autorun will be disabled, and
you’ll be able to rip nearly
anything you like.If Disabling Autorun Doesn’t Work
If you disable autorun, and you still can’t rip
a CD, or your ripped MP3s sound garbled
or unclear, then you might have stumbled
onto one of the newer protection schemes
that won’t work on a PC. If that’s the case,
you have three options. The easiest way
to make a copy of the disc is to capture
the analog output and encode that to MP
yourself. The resultant sound quality should
be pretty good, but you’ll probably have to
manually input the artist, album, and track
info yourself. You can use an app like Replay
Music (see next page) to accomplish this.
The other thing you can do is hit theInternet. Odds are that someone else has
tried to copy this disc before you, and you
should be able to fi nd a solution. You may
still end up having to rip the CD using the
analog trick, but there may be an easy
workaround. (One of our favorites required
you to mark up the inside edge of the disc
with a Sharpie.)
The third option is to try ripping it when
AnyDVD is running. AnyDVD includes a
feature that automatically corrects table of
contents errors (one of the more common
protection techniques) and prevents access
to any data sessions on the disc, which
should prevent the disc from loading any
kind of nasty software.32 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC APRIL 2006
The easiest way to tell if you’re buying a
bona fi de CD that you’ll be able to rip at will
is to check the label closely before you buy.
If a CD’s protection scheme means that its
contents no longer follow the Red Book
audio CD standard, the CD won’t have the
standard CD Audio label on it. It may be
labeled with something similar, though.
Don’t buy CDs that include copy-
protection schemes. If you buy one that’s
protected, but unlabeled, return it, and tell
the store you’re returning it because you
can’t make it work with your MP3 player.
If you’d like to buy an artist’s album, but
their discs are encumbered with copy-
protection software, send the artist an
email, or post to their online message
board. Remember to be civil! Explain that
you’d like to purchase their music, but
you want to use it on your MP3 player,
which their label doesn’t allow. Finally,don’t forget the retailer. Use the online
complaints form or phone number to
request copyable versions of a protected
discs. The record labels might not listen to
individual consumers, but they’ll sure as
hell listen to Best Buy.WHO ARE THEY ‘PROTECTING’ THE MUSIC FROM, ANYWAY?
Disabling Autorun is the easiest way to ensure that
you’ll be able to convert your purchased CDs to MP3s.When you’re shopping for CDs, check
closely for the Enhanced, DualDisc, or Pro-
tected labels. These discs include technol-
ogy to prevent you from ripping.