Sony DRM (and others) Can be Defeated With a Piece of Tape Says Gartner

The controversial XCP digital rights management technology that Sony BMG bundled in its audio CDs can easily be defeated by applying a small piece of tape to the discs claimed Gartner.

Applying a piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disk renders the data track of the CD unreadable. A computer trying to play the CD will then skip to the music session without accessing the bundled digital rights management technology.

“After more than five years of trying, the recording industry has not yet demonstrated a workable DRM scheme for music CDs,” Gartner concluded in a newly published research note.

The tape methodology will help users defeat any future digital rights management system on audio CDs that are designed to be played on stand-alone CD player.

Gartner called the DRM scheme both a “public relations and technology failure “.

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