Pruetts.com

I recently bought Dave Matthews latest CD, Stand Up, and was very disappointed to see that it came with a very sinister form of anti-copying protection. When I put the CD in my computer, it popped up a notice about some MediaMax installer. I figured it wanted to install some video player so that I could watch a behind-the-scenes-making-of video on my PC. I respectfully declined, clicking cancel - and the computer ejected my CD! What!! So I put it back in, left the little installer up without clicking cancel, but not clicking “I Agree” and tried to burn a copy.

Now I don’t make copies of CD’s and sell them on the black market, and I rarely copy a CD and give it away. But I do make a habit of copying just about every CD I buy to put in my CD-wallet in my truck. Why? Because invariably, the CD’s in my CD-wallet get beat up as they slide in and out of the slots. I’d hate to ruin an original CD, so I only put copies in my truck.

Additionally, my car insurance company only covers $200 worth of CD’s if my truck is ever broken into. Well, at any given time I’ve got an easy 100 CD’s in my truck at $14 bucks each - it makes sense that I keep the originals at home so they don’t get stolen. Generally, my originals sit in my Media Display rack untouched until the copy in my truck gets scratched. Then I toss the scratched version, pull my shiny original off of the rack, and make a new “play” disc that I can use in the truck.

Okay, so I take my fresh “copy” of a DMB CD to the truck, and drop it in my stereo on the way to an errand. The result? A completely heinous mix of pops, distortions, and a little DMB recognizable in the middle. So somehow this MediaMax thing was preventing me from making a “play” disc, even for what I consider very valid reasons.

Well, today I stumbled on the truth behind MediaMax. It turns out they installed some software on my computer even though I cancelled the install! I was furious. I protect this PC from spyware and everything else because I’m a fanatic for security. And what happens? I cancel an install and stuff still gets installed? Ridiculous!

Apparently there’s a fix for this, and I immediately gave it a try:

Click Start, Run, and type: command
Now type in the following:
net stop sbcphid
del %systemroot%\system32\drivers\sbcphid.sys

Basically, a driver is installed to use the CD - behind your back! I certainly hope the next version of Windows catches this and makes sure that you want the driver installed.

Well, it seems the fix has worked, I’m listening contently to my “play” disc of DMB’s Stand Up, and it’s a pretty good album, really. Now I can put my original back on the shelf, and not be worried if I scratch the “play” disc in my truck.

If you want the full details, they can be found here: Analysis of the MediaMax CD3 Copy-Prevention System