So, I decided to buy a couple of albums last week, one of them being Remain in Light by the Talking Heads. Apparently, it won't play on my CD player or my computer. Wondering what was wrong, I did some investigating, and apparently, these craptastic Dual Disc things will not work on some equipment. Of course, if I would have paid any attention, I would have known this BEFORE buying this album

I also noticed a couple of strange things that happened when I put this disc in. The computer wouldn't recognize the disc for about 2-3 minutes--it froze it up. After the three minutes, it would work again and I tried to rip to EAC, which failed miserably. Using burst mode, I could get a semblence of the tracks, but with occasional pops and starts.

So next, I decided to flip it over and see what was on the DVD side. I can only watch DVD's on my computer, and once again that side did not work. I then went into Windows Explorer and tried to open the individual .VOB files (I had done this before with other DVD's I have). The computer then gave me the following message below:



Nowhere on the package or the disc or the liner notes say that there was any type of copy protection.

1) Is it legal for me to try to make a copy of this album since the computer brought that little pop-up window? Does the fact that the album package itself does not mention it not matter?

2) Will I have any luck being able to send it back? If not, is there any way to try to get the music I own off the disc? I have tried to and have flailed miserably


Once again, thanks for any Help!

If a record company exec saw that you'd be in trouble. You certainly don't own the music. In theory you own a (corrupted) copy of it.

In any case, I'd try DVD Decrypter for the DVD side. I'm not a big DVD or Video buff, but I like to rip a DVD with it, even if I'm renting it, just so I can remove the annoying warnings and PUOs that prevent me from fast-forwarding past the ads and crap. Also, I get a lot better performance from my computer's hard drive than the DVD player.

Some of the Sony DualDiscs are also sold as two-disc CD and DVD packages. I don't know if the Talking Heads is one of them though. If it is, you'll probably have luck trying to exchange it for one of those, and then you should be able to rip the normal CD.

I'm just wondering, isn't this topic violating TOS #9 I'm very interested in breaking copy protections (just for fun ), but i'm never sure what actually TOS#9 covers

I don't think so, as Sony is selling normal market products that have both an audio and video layer at stores now.

Kind of like a CD that has a bonus 2nd disc without there being the 2nd disc. (Unless I'm missing something from his questions)
JXL

DualDiscs are not Redbook compliant on the CD layer.



That's a TOS #9 violation ;D

I don't think that's a TOS #9 violation. It's fair use.

Ahh, well appparently I to cause trouble around here ! To tell the truth, I could care less about the DVD side (I just wanted the album, and I thought that 4 bonus tracks would be worth it. Well, apparently not.) I guess I will exchange it for a CD that actually is designed to play music!

P.S. This post was carefully written to avoid any possible TOS violations

If you exchange it, be sure to make a big stink about it.

And what's the point of that, except ruining the day of the store clerk? [sarcasm]Yeah, complaining to a store clerk will change the mind of the RIAA[/sarcasm] This is why the RIAA can get away with all the crap they're doing, because people are only complaining to the store or online in a forum, and yet still buying the same crap the RIAA put out.

You have to start somewhere. Sure, he could write a letter to the RIAA too, if he wants. He could also write letters to the music label and artist in question (as I have done for Sony and Bruce Springsteen).

If it's because of aggressive copy protection, bring it back and demand to get your money back !!!
Don't support an industry, which works against you ! (or at least buy a used one on ebay/amazon and
experiment with it... it's just important, that the industry doesn't get financial support for copy protected discs...)

That's what I would do. It's a loose-loose situation with DualDiscs. They aren't part of the DVD spec. per the DVD forum, designed not to be Redbook compliant and they wouldn't be able to create 5.1 mixes for albums otherwise, seeing that DVD-A is not backwards compatible.