THE MUSIC industry鈥檚 masterplan to deter home CD copying is in tatters this
week, following the discovery of a technical flaw in CD recorders which allows
copyright material on CDs to be copied onto cheap blank CD-ROMs.
To deter home CD copying, the major record companies persuaded Philips and
Sony to ensure that consumer CD recorders could only record on 拢5 blank
CDs, rather than on what initially were identical CD-ROM blanks costing
拢1. So a technical difference was deliberately introduced in the
manufacturing process to ensure that CDs and CD-ROMs are not identical.
Blank music CDs are coated with a chemical dye that deforms into spots when
irradiated by the laser in a CD recorder. The blank disc is also embossed with a
spiral groove which acts as an optical guide for the laser as it makes the
recording. The groove wobbles from side to side, for use as a reference when
calculating the running time of recordings.
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When Philips and Sony set the standard for recordable CDs they introduced a
small difference between the wobble on music CD blanks and CD-ROM blanks. When
a disc is loaded into a consumer recorder, the laser scans the disc and checks
the wobble type. If the disc is a blank CD, the audio recorder is ready to copy
a pre-recorded CD. If the wobble signature tells the recorder that the disc is a
CD-ROM it will be ejected.
At least, that was the theory. The strategy has now backfired: copyright
music can now be recorded on cheap blank CD-ROMs, making home copying a far
more economic proposition.
The flaw in the system was discovered by a reviewer at Home Cinema
Choice magazine, which publishes details in its July issue. The reviewer,
testing CD recorders from market leader Philips, has found a way of tricking
them into recording onto CD-ROM blanks.
The trick involves a simple manual manipulation of the CD recorder, which
fools the device鈥檚 wobble-reading mechanism into authorising recording on a
cheap blank CD-ROM. The simplicity of the copying trick has shocked the music
industry鈥檚 trade bodies.
A spokesperson for The International Federation of the Phonographic
Industries
says: 鈥淭his reinforces our argument that music producers need good
protection鈥� If this is a design flaw in the recorder, we are sure Philips will
put it right.鈥�
But Philips says: 鈥淲e are aware of this issue. It has now been picked up in
other countries where the players are sold. We have yet to decide how to tackle
颈迟.鈥�
But Philips鈥� options are limited as the mass-produced 拢400 CD recorders
have been on sale around the world for many months. Demand is now increasing as
consumers discover how cheap it is to record onto blank CD-ROMs.
The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society says the new-found ease of CD
copying is now an issue of 鈥渕ajor concern鈥� to its members. But the British
Phonographic Industry, trade body for the record companies, warns that home
recording of any copyright material remains an illegal act in Britain.