Celine Dion kills iMacs! (and Black markers and Post-it notes now illegal in the USA)

www.chip.de ^ | chip.de and www.macuser.co.uk

[Grig]

An Apple dealer has 'confirmed' to the Campaign for Digital Rights (CDR) that attempting to play the latest Celine Dion CD in a new iMac will result in the machine having to be sent for repair.

As we reported last month, Celine's latest offering - A New Day Has Come - features copy-protection to prevent it being played and duplicated in a PC, and that same copy-protection was believed to be capable of damaging the PC's firmware. It seems that this is definitely the case, as once the CD is inserted into a new iMac it cannot be removed and the machine cannot be restarted.

This may not be the only CD which could cause the problems. CDR reports that a number of CDs from Sony-owned companies such as Epic and Columbia may also pose a threat. These include the soundtrack for Star Wars Episode II and discs from Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and Destiny's Child. The CDs carry a small warning stating 'Will not work on PC/Mac'.

CDR continues to compile a lengthening list of copy-protected CDs and though not all of them will damage your Mac, some are reported as delivering poor quality sound when played 'legitimately' in hi-fi equipment.

Apple has responded to this problem in a support article listing a number of methods of ejecting a protected CD.

[Grig]

On a PC it won't play, on an iMac, it will corrupt the firmware so that it can't be ejected, and the PC can't be shut down (unless you unplug the thing). In some cases the iMac is so messed up you can't restart it and have to get it serviced at a Apple dealer at your expense.

You can easily disable the copy protection however using either a post-it note, or a black marker (details here ), however the DCMA makes anything that circumvents a copy protection scheme illegal, so it is not illegal to own post-it notes and black markers.

[Grig]

Opps, that should be the iMac won't shut down, not the PC.

[aristotleman]

Anybody who listens to Celine Dion deserves their computer troubles.

BAN POPULIST MUSIC!!

[Grig]

You are about to witness a crime.

Did you see it?

[rintense]

I'd expect a class action lawsuit against the record label. This is complete and utter BS. I feel for the Mac users who have tried this.

[Mr. Peabody]

Can't you get it to eject with a paper clip thingee?

[Norman Conquest]

That's a Apple Macintosh Disk Subsystem Management Tool to you, buddy.

[Grig]

I'm no fan of Celine Dion, but this will spread to all CD's if we let it. I wonder if they did a study to find who's fans had the fewest computer geeks among them and used that artist (Dion) for the trial so that complaints are mimizied making it easier to spread it to all CD's.

[BikerNYC]

This is a great website telling us how to circumvent this. However, mine didn't completely translate (via Google's Beta translater app). Did other people have better results at a complte translation from German?

[3AngelaD]

Oh. I thought he meant her singing....

[VoiceOfBruck]

Would you mind posting the details here? Our internet blocking software here at work prevents me from accessing that page. Must be something prurient on it!

[SolitaryMan]

Record companies get a small royalty (5 cents?) for each CDR/CD-RW that is sold to defray the costs of piracy. This fee, was supposed to put an end to the record companies trying to use any type of copy protection. So if they come up with a new copy protection scheme which protects their material, does anyone really think this CDR royalty will ever go away?

[Grig]

See the picture above first. You can see two tracks on the CD, an inside and an outside one. The inside track is the audio, the outside track is a data track for the copy protection. Take a black marker and draw a tangent that touches the gap between the tracks and goes right to the edge of the CD. Be carefull to not get any marker on the audio track. The CD will now play normaly in a PC or iMac. The data track is invalid and will be ignored. You can also use a post it note to cover a small part of the data track, but if it comes off in the CD drive it could mess things up a lot so it isn't the best way.

[Utopia]

Apple has a TechNote on their web site. This is what you do:

• Shut the computer down.
• Hold the mouse button down
• Turn on power while continuing to turn on power.
• The CD will eject.
• Release the mouse button
• Wonder why someone is posting this stuff here and not going to Apple's site for the answer ...

The copy protection fools the format thinking that there is no disk in the drive, and refuses to eject the disk because there is a disk in the drive ... definitely a strange state.

[Woodman]

That's Apple Logic for you ;^}

[Utopia]

Your post is misleading, hysterical. The disk does not play, IF it is labelled: "Will not play on PC/Mac"

Here's the Technote: (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106882)

[Tis The Time''s Plague]

This is premeditated sabotage of computers AND it is illegal. Contact the National Infrastructure Protection Center (FBI) and have Celine Dion put away. A few years in a federal prison might improve her music.

[russdawg]

here's an idea. I hate to steal, but everyone should just download limewire or other sharing software and just download what you want make a copy of it give it away or use it for your own purposes. don't go to concerts buy t-shirts, posters, etc. it will not take long before they notice the money has dried up. these people are not artists anyway. do you know what it costs to make cd's and the jackets that go with it, when you sell a million cd's it is less than a dollar. where does the other $15 go? when the money dries up the real artists will be the only one's producing music.

[ARA]

This makes me want to go out and buy the Celine Dion CD just to try to get around the problem.... Cooooool...

[DrDavid]

There is a simple answer to this. Don't buy any copy protectd CD's. If they record companies can't sell them they might stop.