British company C-Dilla plans to stop people playing music CDs on their home
computers so that they won’t be able to copy them, and in WO 00/74053 it reveals
how. All CDs start with a lead-in track, which contains an electronic “table of
contents” (TOC) listing the music, and a lead-out track at the end. CD-ROM
drives in computers only play what’s listed in the TOC, but normal CD players
usually go on playing until the disc ends. If deliberate errors are put in the
TOC, for example the lead-out is listed as coming immediately after the lead-in,
normal players still work. But CD-ROM drives are stopped dead in their tracks.
Even if the TOC describes music as “computer data”, the CD-ROM drive gets
confused and won’t play it.
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