Why SafeDisc 2 is Flawed...
Using standard SafeDisc protection, you have an area of about 10,000 sectors where there are always unreadable sectors followed by readable sectors; repeat. This grouping of sectors changes from CD to CD and is the standard SafeDisc fingerprint that is checked by the protection code inside of the game/application's executable.
Macrovision knows however, that SafeDisc can be easily copied, so they got the brilliant (or less than) idea to implement SafeDisc 2. However, in doing so, they basically screwed most legitimate people out of the software they just purchased. Here is how SafeDisc 2 (SD2)works and why it's flawed:
SD2 uses the same area of unreadable sectors, however it also implements something called 'weak' sectors. Why are they 'weak'? Well, it seems that these sectors can be read from the original gold master CD with no problem, however, when they go to the manufacturing plant to be replicated, these sectors get damaged and can sometimes only be read on the 2nd or 3rd attempt at starting an application protected by SD2. Most of the times however, the CD just sits in the drive and spins endlessly as the executable tries to decode the SD2 fingerprint, only to find that these weak sectors have been damaged during reproduction.
How does this happen? Well, you must understand that all the data is scrambled before it's written to the CD. This means that every byte of data is transferred with a certain value that changes from byte to byte. This is done to prevent uniform bit patterns. It's when these 'weak' sectors are scrambled however, that problems arise, as what is supposed to be prevented is exactly what happens. When the weak sectors are scrambled, you get a uniform pattern such as:
0x12, 0x13, 0x12, 0x13....
Why is this a problem? Well, it seems that all bytes are encoded into 14-bit right before they are sent through the laser and burned to the CD. These encoders usually have problems with uniform bit patterns and usually result in damaged data. It seems that the writers of certain manufacturers have big-time problems with this. These burned 'weak' sectors can only be read in the original burner itself or not at all. So, now that I've explained what actually happens, you can go and thank Macrovision for implementing such a flawed software protection scheme, the numerous software pirates for even having to have software protection, and the manufacturing plants for their substandard writers.
Hope this has been enlightening.
Using standard SafeDisc protection, you have an area of about 10,000 sectors where there are always unreadable sectors followed by readable sectors; repeat. This grouping of sectors changes from CD to CD and is the standard SafeDisc fingerprint that is checked by the protection code inside of the game/application's executable.
Macrovision knows however, that SafeDisc can be easily copied, so they got the brilliant (or less than) idea to implement SafeDisc 2. However, in doing so, they basically screwed most legitimate people out of the software they just purchased. Here is how SafeDisc 2 (SD2)works and why it's flawed:
SD2 uses the same area of unreadable sectors, however it also implements something called 'weak' sectors. Why are they 'weak'? Well, it seems that these sectors can be read from the original gold master CD with no problem, however, when they go to the manufacturing plant to be replicated, these sectors get damaged and can sometimes only be read on the 2nd or 3rd attempt at starting an application protected by SD2. Most of the times however, the CD just sits in the drive and spins endlessly as the executable tries to decode the SD2 fingerprint, only to find that these weak sectors have been damaged during reproduction.
How does this happen? Well, you must understand that all the data is scrambled before it's written to the CD. This means that every byte of data is transferred with a certain value that changes from byte to byte. This is done to prevent uniform bit patterns. It's when these 'weak' sectors are scrambled however, that problems arise, as what is supposed to be prevented is exactly what happens. When the weak sectors are scrambled, you get a uniform pattern such as:
0x12, 0x13, 0x12, 0x13....
Why is this a problem? Well, it seems that all bytes are encoded into 14-bit right before they are sent through the laser and burned to the CD. These encoders usually have problems with uniform bit patterns and usually result in damaged data. It seems that the writers of certain manufacturers have big-time problems with this. These burned 'weak' sectors can only be read in the original burner itself or not at all. So, now that I've explained what actually happens, you can go and thank Macrovision for implementing such a flawed software protection scheme, the numerous software pirates for even having to have software protection, and the manufacturing plants for their substandard writers.
Hope this has been enlightening.
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