Watermarked CD - How to Rip?

I have a watermarked advanced promo disc of an album and I wanted to extract the files to see if by any chance there was any difference compared to the released version - not the wildest thing that could happen.
In my computer, it shows the disc as having some files on it, so it must be mixed session? Also, EAC reports all the audio tracks as data tracks so none of them can be selected for ripping.



Does anyone know of a way to get around this?

 

How was this disc supposed to be played? Instructions?

What is the three-letter extension of the filenames?

Harry

 

There are strict instructions that the disc is to be played in a standard CD player and that it should never be copied - it is watermarked individually for each recipient so that leaks can be traced. Of course the album has been out for over a decade at this point in time.

I'll have to check the file extensions when I get back home. The audio does not appear as files but EAC does recognize the tracks as data.

 

Looks like Peter Gabriel's UP Promo cd, if so, impossible as far as I know, I had to "laser drop" it

 

It's not that disc although I'm sure they use some similar form of copy protection.

I suppose capturing the digital output of a player would be one way to do it. Probably not worth it. Eh. To make the tracks identify as audio in EAC would be super ideal.

 

Hmm, yeah I'm curious also about this topic, I've tried every trick in the book on that PG, When using DBpoweramp it sees it, but then rips it into small kilobyte files, good luck man!

 

Interesting. I wasn't aware that there was any way to prevent copying of a playable CD, as long as you don't have autoplay enabled on your PC.

 

Some will, even depending on the drive being used, my internal pc will not rip some German Warner cd's from the early 2000's, but my external will, weird

 

I'll try disabling autoplay and see what I can make happen. Perhaps the files located on disc won't be read. I do also have a few alternate drives that could be used as well.

 

Ripping in Linux or OS X may work. Some of the protections rely on certain behaviors of Windows. Using a different OS can get around that. There may be a Linux distro that can boot from a thumb drive and also includes the necessary tools for ripping.

I've not had the opportunity to attempt to rip a well protected audio CD yet. I just haven't come across one yet in my collection. I haven't had to delve into the black arts yet to get a rip. I've likely ripped a few protected discs without noticing that they were protected. I wouldn't consider those to be well protected.

 

I'm not sure if that would help. If it was some software setup on autoplay, it'll be installed now. Even if you disable autoplay, it still may not work.

An early version of the type of protection I'm thinking of was the Sony BMG rootkit. Though I believe that was eventually deemed a security threat, so they stopped using it.

It just makes me wonder if there's something similar...

 

I looked a bit more into it and it seems as if the disc is protected with that dreaded XCP copy protection, which was even briefly used in retail discs (although maybe a different implementation?)

There are reported results of people being able to rip in EAC using anydvd (didn't work) and even drawing through the second session on the disc with a marker (also didn't work) so there has to be a clear way to make this doable. I'm even able to play the disc in VLC. If anyone here has had experience defeating this type of copy protection in the past, I would love to know the proper measures to take.


Here's the blurb on the printed insert about the watermarking/copy protection.

 

That being the case, a Linux machine should be able to rip it, and probably a Mac (though variants of XCP can affect Macs). Has the disc installed the dreaded malware on your PC, though?

 

Can't dBpoweramp rip these? Under the options, there are three options at the top for secure ripping and I believe the third one does non-conventional CD's like this. I could be wrong, just thought I'd throw it out there.

 

XCP installs a filter driver in front of the CD. A filter driver is able to see all the data that goes to and/or from the CD. I would assume the XCP filter drivers are looking at all of the data coming from the CD, looking to see if any of that data matches some sort of fingerprint that indicates you're trying to read protected audio data, and either scrambling the data or sending it to the bit bucket if detects that fingerprint.

You can see what filter drivers are present using the busTRACE Filter Driver Load Order utility.

ImgBurn can also tell you what filter drivers are being loaded (Tools >> Filter Driver Load Order...).

Run both the busTRACE utility and ImgBurn and look at what filter drivers you may have. Removing filter drivers can be a bit tricky. If you do it wrong you may end up with your CD drive no longer working. The Sony rootkit also relied on filter drivers. You can read up on the problems or difficulties some people had when incorrectly removing the Sony filter drivers. If you do lose your CD drive, going to Device Manager and deleting the drive and then having Windows redetect your hardware should get the CD drive back.

 

I've used the two utilities to try and see filter drivers although I cannot tell which belong there and which may have been put there by the XCP disc. I've tried a Linux workstation (no dice) and I've tried dbpoweramp (won't even recognize the disc)

I have no idea if my computer has been infected or anything. I loaded it into another pc and held shift to defeat the autoplay but EAC similarly saw the disc as containing 12 data tracks, so none of them can be selected.


I should mention one of the first things I've tried was anydvd which supposedly can crack cd audio protection, but that hasn't worked either. I've tried just about everything with anydvd both on and off. Sigh.

 

Just tried the Gabriel disc with anydvd, no go, going to try IMGburn to see if I can create an image

 

Copy it analog to an audio interface or standalone CD Recorder. End of problem.

 

I already have for the Gabriel, just looking for a different solution if possible

 

Interesting, IMGburn found Gear Software as a drive loader

 

Some CD burning software utilizes filter drivers to do burning. iTunes also makes use of a filter driver for burning (I believe it's by Gear).
Not all filter drivers are evil.

 

Thanks Ham, I did look it up, not the culprit, I give up on this title

 

Try Windows Explorer and see if you can copy the data files to your PC and see if they are wave files.

 

Tried, they see 11 tracks but are empty, played in WMP and it shows the track playing but no sound, Itunes locks up, DBpoweramp spits out 1kb files,EAC shows an error, foobar2000 shows empty

 

You say it plays in VLC. Have you tried ripping it from VLC?