Quote from previous question:

"Stripping off copy protection may be illegal. Softweare that does that has been banned."


New Question: I thought (from reading discussions on this topic) that it was legal to make copies of your own personal software for back up use. My son is always melting and scrathcing his CDs in his car. Is this not true? I do not wish to do anything illegal.

Well this does present a connundrum. Yes it is legal for someone to make a copy of copyrighted material for backup or personal use purposes. However it is illegal to create and use software to defeat Digital Rights Management.

My question to you is rather than copy the CD, can you "rip" the tracks to MP3s? That gives you a backup.

There is a difference between making copies of audio/data CDs for backup (completely legal) and trying to make copies that permanently delete the original copy protection (completely illegal, regardless of your stated reasoning).

There is no need to remove the legal safeguards to make your single backup. The need to make MULTIPLE backups is most often because the copies are being given away, which is also not legal.

Talk to your son about this. Integrity can't be bought, but it can be completely forfeited for $10 and a CD burner. Not worth it. Good character is worth way more and shouldn't be so easily tossed aside. I'm glad you care about the morality of this to have that talk with your son.

First of all, thank you both for underscoring the importance of itegrity and ethical behavior. I couldn't agree more, and as a parent, have spent my adult life trying to instill this in my kids. So far, so good.

That said, as a "novice" computer user, I am not completely familiar with the difference between copying, and ripping. Don't really understand what you mean by using MP3.

All I know is my son's car has a CD player and he, as young people tend to be, is not so careful with this CDs. He (and I) puchase them legally in stores, and my only goal here is to make a copy of the CD so he can use it in his CD player if he ruins his original. I have no problem if the "copy" is still copy protected.

As long as this is legal, this is my goal. JB states that there is no need to remove the copy protection to make a single copy. Can you explain how I do this? I have no idea.

Thanks...

Personal Comment: Thank you both for all the previous help you have given me over the months. I have learned a lot. When I was working over the last 30 years, I only had but to call IT when something was needed, so I never learned that much about computers. I am retired now, and don't have extra cash to lay out for the Geek Squad, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can. It's overwhelming, and I have a great deal of respect for those of you with this amazing knowledge. Sometimes it is even fun!

The term "ripping" refers to taking tracks off a CD (or DVD) and creating an electronic file for them. The preferred format for these files are MP3 or WMA (Windows Media Audio). Many CD players can play CDs with files in one or both formats. Even if the CD player can't play those formats, you can still create a standard audio CD from MP3 or WMA files.

There are several advantages to ripping the track to electronic format,
1) You can make your own mixes. So you don't have to exactly copy a CD, but can make one of individual tracks
2) If your CD player can play MP3 or WMA files, you can fit a lot more (more than 10x as many) tracks onto a CD
3) you can copy the tracks to an MP3 player which can also hold many more songs and that can also be played through a auto player.
4) you can store the tracks an a computer hard drive and play them that way.

Simplest method, use the CD burning software you already have on your computer to create an Audio CD. Every program I've ever used has the ability to just COPY a CD, you need only indicate that it is an audio CD before starting.

See the pic below, I have 3 simple modules in my Sonic folder, one to create a custom AUDIO CD, one to create a custom DATA CD, and the one you would have used... one to simply COPY a CD.

I have to believe once you dig into your programs, the way to do a simple copy will be quickly found.
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Scott is right that MP3 format is much smaller meaning a CD created with MP3s would have a LOT more music on it, but that's more work initially. Up to you. If you're not dealing with MP3s yet, may not be worth the learning curve right now. But keep the option in mind, OK?
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If you look at car CD players available now, they have a new plug-in port that allows you to connect your portable MP3 player to your car and play music through it. This is awesome, so if your son ends up getting an iPod or something similar to rip his songs on to, a car radio with this port would be a must-have as well.

JB,

I'm sure this is very simple, but... I need some clarification please.

You say I can use the software I already have. All I can find is Windows Media Player. Can I copy a CD with that? I have a CD RW and a CD/DVD reader.

Should I have other CD software somewhere? If so how do I find it? I looked through all my programs and nothing stands out except my sound card.

If the audio CD is copy protected, can I still copy it as you described above?

Thanks...

Hey, I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but I have NEVER gotten a computer with a CD-burner drive that didn't come with some software specifically to make CDs. Never, not once.

Windows Media Player? Sure. But with that it's a two step process.
1) Rip CD to your computer
2) Burn the music back to another CD

First open WMP, insert a CD, and clip on RIP. RIP means "copy some/all of the CD to my computer's Music Library". That's all RIP means.

When the CD has been copied onto your computer (Click on Library to browse through what you have there so far... ), put in a blank CD and click on BURN.

Now here's where you can make some unique choices. The music in your library is in the middle, the Burn List is on the right. You can grab one whole CD and drop it on the right and be done.

Or... you can edit your list, only putting the songs on the right you really want. You can create your own "mix" with select songs from various CDs... anything you want.

Where it says "Burn List" you can rename the playlist for the CD you're creating, you can save the playlist to your computer to pull up again quickly in the future.

Anyway, be sure not to put more music in Burn List than will fit on your CD. I suppose it would warn you. Click START BURN when you're ready to burn your disc.

This is all pretty straightforward stuff. I don't even use WMP and I figured all that out in about 30 seconds of looking at WMP. You can do it.

Hey, Thanks JB for the detailed instructions! That really helps me a lot.

I'm sure I can follow that.

You've definitely got me wondering now. How would I go about finding the CD burning software that came with the (factory) CD drives? Would it be in my "Programs" list? How would I know what it was called? Maybe I wouldn't need to rip, and could just do a CD to CD copy.

Finally, can these programs (WMP, etc) burn "copy protected" CDs?

Thanks again...