How to copy-protect your VCDs/SVCDs

vitualis · Moderator Joined: 01 Oct 2000 Location: Australia

Interesting guide -- questionable utility, however.

As I've mentioned several times in prior posts on this topic, you could just author a still screen that displays for 10 seconds (unless you know a hidden key press -- e.g., "71" or some other arbitrary number) that says "Stolen from ** your name **".

Anyone can copy it as they so wish but they will have to know quite a lot of VCD authoring to get rid of that screen AND keep any menus + goodies you've included on the disc.

Regards.
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j2000 · Member Joined: 19 Aug 2002

How does this software differ from the freelock software? I had great results with freelock and was not even able to copy the .dat file to my hard drive! The SVCD also played fine in my DVD player.

spuddy · Member Joined: 19 Aug 2002

I'm puzzled about this...

Could someone give me one -slightly- logical reason to so-called "copy-protect" a VCD/SVCD?

(I'm mostly talking about a personal basis here, not commercial reproduction)

Generally speaking, I'd have to agree with some posts here that attempts at copy-protection are mostly driven by twisted moral standards attempting to "protect" their efforts in ripping copyrighted material!

I've seen VCD/SVCD rips of copyrighted stuff downloaded from the newsgroups, which seem to embed some sort of "protection", since none of the resulting .MPG files are playable in any form, when extracted from the SVCD image.

But this whole situation is ludicrous! Why on earth would you "copy-protect" pirated material, and then post it to public newsgroups??

The logic fails me here, my guess is that the pirate says, "Hell, I spent a lot of time ripping this, I'm not going to let some punk simply re-work/re-distribute my efforts, I'm going to protect it..."

Huh? What kind asinine twisted logic are we dealing with here? Clearly on only reason to protect something is that you know it's going to be in the public domain, and therefore you want some degree of protection.

But, protection from what? Is the pirate suggesting that his piss-ant amount of work is worth more than the Studio's original time on the project? He deserves "protection" from someone else benefiting (somehow) from his work? What a fucking joke!

As stated before, this entire copy-protection thing is just like those pathetic "trailers", or watermarks, that the pirates tack onto their "productions".

It's sheer, rampant, ego.

If you're going to pirate, then at least do with a little dignity, and leave the production available to -all-, to do with whatever they please. In the past, the act of "piracy" was at small attempt to stick it to the major labels and studios, in an effort to "fight" against ridiculous cost and poor quality of the product. Now, it's just an ego-jack for the juveniles involved...

wewafed · Member Joined: 07 May 2002

I have something to add to this conversation.. I kinda agree with the ones that you all are bashing.. I mean, ok, so you say that most of the people on this site aren't pirates.. Well, I'm not even going to argue that point, because I know that the only reason I came to this site is for DVD ripping.. Plus, why would they have examples and sections based on DVD-Ripping and using "Superman" (a commercial DVD) to explain their methods?

That's why I agree with the people that think copy protecting VCDs is stupid. If you're making something from home videos (i.e. a wedding reception or graduation), then why in the world would you copy protect it? Not very many people are going to know it exists, much less even want it.

Basically, all I believe is that some people want to get away with selling their own pirated material without anyone else doing the dirty work, just like the other two have made clear, and some people want to call other people stupid for recognizing their egoticstical and idiotic ways.

Maybe you just wanted to learn about copy protection, and that woud be cool, but don't put out a front and say that you are innocent of pirating when it's obvious you're not!! lol..

rion · Member Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Location: Thousand Islands

hi, all message takes time to read them all but, just this simple question,

can nero or famous cd burner softwares could copy the protected VCD using these method?

thanks

Dale Cooper · Member Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Location: FRANCE

I've always the same error when i try the CDRWin/Winlock method:

"Error: Invalid CUE SHEET command at line 84 illegal cuesheet command syntax."

Can anybody tell me the good way?

Thanks

acidcrash · Member Joined: 06 Nov 2001 Location: Malaysia

I'm also having the same problems with you but my error msg is

"Error: Invalid CUE SHEET command at line 150 illegal cuesheet command syntax"

Guys, help us out pls, i can;t find an answer to this. Please do let me know. Thanks.
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Stalf Rams · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2002

Someting else than talking about the usefulness off copy-protecting:

Can't you just simulate burning an svcd with VCDeasy, without removing the imagefile.
I think you wil also get an Cue file this way, which you can edit with winlock.

Then you can burn the copy-protected cue-file again with VCDeasy to a disc. (but now no simulating)

This way you save time and disks.

Somebody tried this, is it possible?
Look like it for me

MikeL2x · Member Joined: 21 Feb 2003

I can't get this to work, any help?
I tried both FreeLock and WinLock, neither worked. Each time I have tried and I get the follwoing message.

When Trying FreeLock

In CDRWin:
Error: 'START DAO RECORDING' command failed on device 2:1:0
Cuesheet was rejected by the CDROM recorder.

In Nero:
Invaild field in parameter
Could not perform start of Disk-At-Once
Burn Process Failed

When Trying Winlock

In CDRWin:
Error: Invalid CUE SHEET command at line 5
INDEX time is beyond the end-of-file

In Nero - When Opening CUE File:
An Error occurrred while loading the cue sheet file
'C:\image.cue'.
( Line 8 ).

Any Help Please.

My CD-RW drive is:
SONY CD-RW CRX100E

If you can help PM me or click here instead of posting a message here.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=61479

susie · Member Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Location: USA

I am wondering if FreeLock can be used to protect Application CDs like WinXP or Office XP etc ?

After adding protection to an application CD, will the burned CD function as a normal CD ?

Thanks

DaveRVP · Member Joined: 16 Apr 2003 Location: Norfolk

I have a problem!
I copy protected my VCD using CDRWin and winlock and sent it to my friend, only to discover he has copied the file to his desktop. I have tried this, and with Nero can recopy the file without the copy protection on it. Is there anyway of preventing this??

txpharoah · Gone Fer Good! Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Location: Texas USA

Well, 1, the legailty of copy protection is still suspect, as it hasn't hit the Supreme Court yet, and it is a violation of fair use and other allowances. The DMCA still has a long way to go. Lots of trials ahead. Big legal headache. I never want to deal with that. Ever. But I'll continue to watch it unfold as I have for years.

And 2, there is no such thing as fool-proof copy protection. Most people that know how to copy know how to do it well. I can copy anything that's given it me right now, analog, digital, etc. (although I usually don't care to).

Programs like this may seem cool and all, but generally not too useful. You must remember that there are EXPONENTIALLY MORE pirates and hackers than there are people working on the payroll for places that invent and use copy protection. That's why the information and IP community has so much trouble.

But thanks for trying! I'm not a fan of pirates and copiers myself. They take what others worked hard on.
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duet · Member Joined: 19 Jan 2002

Hi all and Masticore, hope someone can help me on this. I've a burnt SVCD before reading this 'copy-protect' guide. The cue file which I created using VCDEasy has been deleted after burning the SVCD using Nero. The SVCD contains menus and chapters.

Must I use CDRWin to extract the cue file from the SVCD and then use Freelock? Will the menus and chapters be intact? Can I use VCDEasy to extract the cue file instead of CDRWin?

I've been reading the various posts in this guide and I am still confused. Hope someone can help answer.

Thanks,
From: Halley, Singapore
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Software:
Adobe Premiere Pro - capture stills & motion, edit, render
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - edit stills
TMPGenc Plus 2.5 - encoding, splitting mpeg
VCDEasy 1.1.5 - stills to mpeg, interactive menu, SVCD cue/bin
MOTV 2.10
Nero 5.5.8.2 - burn image

scobido · Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

the cdrwin can't work with my cd writer (LG 52x24x52) please help??

better life · Member Joined: 13 Aug 2002 Location: usa

Well, I have some thing to say. If you lock your VCD because you don't want others to copy your work, does this mean you lock yourself as well if you want to have another copy?
Actually, I think my question is how do you unlock your job?

The_Hermit1971 · Member Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Is there a program similar to this that work with DVD's?

xXx Trader · Member Joined: 24 Aug 2004

I have tried everything possible ive even overburned like this guide stated.I have tried all that and have done it years and years ago maybe back in 1999.of course it works , casual pc users dont know what the hell to do and cant copy it..BUT
some of the people who got the vcds from me say they coudlnt get it to work on their player, some also say it only plays to a certain point.
like some players will only allow 5 seconds of play at the end of the disc, while others get to see 10 because of the fact the disc was overburnt.
This was when I was trying to fit an 85 min film on a 700mb cdr.
I wanted it to be one disc.Very clever thought though for 2-disc to put a black blank video file at the end of the original so veiwing content cannot be altered so you cannot veiw because of a freeze.
I just started to try and anti copy cds again so far ive strayed from other progs because of the disc fail method ( WHICH CAUSES SOME DVD PLAYERS TO READ THE DISC AS UNREADABLE AND WILL NOT PLAY) and tried using "wtm cd-protect" but doesnt work.

Sooooo...How to go about this, well ive used nero and clone to overburn which causes the dvd player wont read disc problem.
am not questioning that this method with winlock will work or not.
QUESTION IS: WILL IT BE ABLE TO PLAY IN ANY HOME DVD PLAYER THAT IS SVCD/VCD COMPATIBLE AFTER BASICALLY STOPPING THE BURN PROCESS AT THE END USING THIS CDRWIN & WINLOCK METHOD?)