key2audio is a copy restriction system for Audio CDs, developed by Sony DADC. The system gained notoriety after it was discovered that one can effectively disable the system by tracing the outer edge of a CD with a felt-tip marker.[1]
The system works by applying a bogus data track onto the disc during glass master manufacturing. Since computers are designed to read data before music, this prevents playback on a PC and thereby prevents ripping as well as ordinary listening using a computer. CD players ignore any non-audio tracks on a disc, and can therefore play the CD unimpeded - Enhanced CDs also take advantage of this factor.
Currently there are two major versions of the key2Audio protection: the original key2Audio, and key2AudioXS.
key2Audio
key2audio products are highly compatible because the audio session is not modified. Since additional data sessions are used, the CD is not Red Book compliant and should not use the "Compact Disc" logo. As with any passive DRM technology some players are unable to play the non-standard disc.
Since optical computer CD/DVD drives are also capable of reading Red Book audio CDs, a lot of player manufacturers[citation needed] use these same CD/DVD ROM drives instead of specialized Audio CD/Video DVD only drives in order to reduce costs.
DVD players and car stereo systems seem to have most problems[citation needed] with incompatibilities of key2Audio protected CDs.
A protected CD still achieves a maximum recording time of 77 minutes and supports full ISRC, UPC and CD-Text capabilities.
Early versions of this copy protection were infamous for being easily circumvented with a marker pen, by drawing a circle on the rim of the visible edge of audio data.[2]
Technical background
It appears that key2Audio protected disc TOC contains three sessions written on the disc[citation needed]. Two of them contain small data tracks, and one contains the audio tracks. The regular CD players pick the audio tracks outright, while the computer CD and DVD players get confused by the corrupted TOC information. CD players and drives that do not support multisession discs are immune to this confusion[citation needed].
key2audioXS combines a PC playback and a clone-proof Multimedia session for CD-Extra and Web Links.
The new version of this protection allows the listener the right to play the CD on a PC, and allows controlled burning the audio to CD. This solution allows consumers a limited amount of private copies. The record labels can individually define the burn count. These copies are then also fully protected and offer the same efficiency and compatibility as the original disc.
The audio sessions are being encoded to Windows Media AudioDRM-protected files, so that some portable devices are supported and online distribution prevented.
Furthermore, with key2audioXS the user can now pick and send audio tracks via email. With a usability period defined by the record label, users can share music, facilitating promotion activities for labels. Additionally, some discs feature "n-CD", which lets the user access bonus features such as videos, ringtones, lotteries and the like. The original n-CD is a unique key reserved for just their owners.
For this purpose, the user interface for key2Audio on PC allows for navigation and includes a copying and burning tool, as well as additional content such as bonus pictures and lyrics.
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It uses the Compact Disc Digital Audio format which typically provides 74 minutes of audio on a disc. In later years, the compact disc was adapted for non-audio computer data storage purposes as CD-ROM and its derivatives. First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc technology to be invented, after the much larger LaserDisc (LD). By 2007, 200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide.
Compact Disc Digital Audio, also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the Red Book technical specifications, which is why the format is also dubbed "Redbook audio" in some contexts. CDDA utilizes pulse-code modulation (PCM) and uses a 44,100 Hz sampling frequency and 16-bit resolution, and was originally specified to store up to 74 minutes of stereo audio per disc.
Video CD is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia and West Asia, superseding the VHS and Betamax systems in the regions until DVD-Video finally became affordable in the first decade of the 21st century.
MiniDisc (MD) is an erasable magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 60, 74, and later, 80 minutes of digitized audio.
A CD ripper, CD grabber, or CD extractor is software that rips raw digital audio in Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) format tracks on a compact disc to standard computer sound files, such as WAV or MP3.
A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audiobooks. CD players may be part of home stereo systems, car audio systems, personal computers, or portable CD players such as CD boomboxes. Most CD players produce an output signal via a headphone jack or RCA jacks. To use a CD player in a home stereo system, the user connects an RCA cable from the RCA jacks to a hi-fi and loudspeakers for listening to music. To listen to music using a CD player with a headphone output jack, the user plugs headphones or earphones into the headphone jack.
Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) is a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita Electric in late 1992 and marketed as the successor to the standard analog Compact Cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc (MD), but neither format toppled the then-ubiquitous analog cassette despite their technical superiority, and DCC was discontinued in October 1996. Another competing format, the Digital Audio Tape (DAT), had by 1992 also failed to sell in large quantities to consumers, although it was popular as a professional digital audio storage format.
Optical disc authoring, including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc. This act is sometimes done illegally, by pirating copyrighted material without permission from the original artists.
Ripping is the extraction of digital content from a container, such as a CD, onto a new digital location. Originally, the term meant to rip music from Commodore 64 games. Later, the term was applied to ripping WAV or MP3 files from digital audio CDs, and after that to the extraction of contents from any storage media, including DVD and Blu-ray discs, as well as the extraction of video game sprites.
Copy Control was the generic name of a copy prevention system, used from 2001 until 2006 on several digital audio disc releases by EMI Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment in several regions. It should not be confused with the CopyControl computer software copy protection system introduced by Microcosm Ltd in 1989.
MediaMax CD-3 is a software package created by SunnComm which was sold as a form of copy protection for compact discs. It was used by the record label RCA Records/BMG, and targets both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Elected officials and computer security experts regard the software as a form of malware since its purpose is to intercept and inhibit normal computer operation without the user's authorization. MediaMax received media attention in late 2005 in fallout from the Sony XCP copy protection scandal.
CD/DVD copy protection is a blanket term for various methods of copy protection for CDs and DVDs. Such methods include DRM, CD-checks, Dummy Files, illegal tables of contents, over-sizing or over-burning the CD, physical errors and bad sectors. Many protection schemes rely on breaking compliance with CD and DVD standards, leading to playback problems on some devices.
Extended Copy Protection (XCP) is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management (DRM) scheme for Compact Discs. It was used on some CDs distributed by Sony BMG and sparked the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal; in that context it is also known as the Sony rootkit.
On an optical disc, a track (CD) or title (DVD) is a subdivision of its content. Specifically, it is a consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data. One session may contain one or more tracks of the same or different types. There are several kinds of tracks, and there is also a sub-track index for finding points within a track.
Cactus Data Shield (CDS) is a form of CD/DVD copy protection for audio compact discs developed by Israeli company Midbar Technologies. It has been used extensively by EMI, BMG and their subsidiaries. CDS relies on two components: Erroneous Disc Navigation and Data Corruption.
CD-RW is a digital optical disc storage format introduced in 1997. A CD-RW compact disc (CD-RWs) can be written, read, erased, and re-written.
CDRWIN was a CD/DVD burning software for Microsoft Windows developed by Golden Hawk Technology company.
It progressed from lone wolf Jeff Arnold's hobby to a full-blown recording software that equals the power, performance, and features of many of the programs from the big boys.
The Protected Media Path is a set of technologies creating a "Protected Environment," first included in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, that is used to enforce digital rights management (DRM) protections on content. Its subsets are Protected Video Path (PVP) and Protected User Mode Audio (PUMA). Any application that uses Protected Media Path in Windows uses Media Foundation.
A CD-ROM is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both computer data and audio with the latter capable of being played on a CD player, while data is only usable on a computer.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
