CD Copy Protection technologies (which are often referred to as Digital Rights Management, or DRM) aim to prevent unauthorized copying and unauthorized use of discs. The aim of these technologies is to prevent piracy of CD content using technologies to thwart illegal copying.

The goal of most CD copy protection technologies is to make it difficult to copy a disc. None of these technologies are considered full-proof. If a product is attractive enough to hackers, they almost inevitably find a way to circumvent these technologies. Major entertainment companies are often content with prolonging the inevitable (i.e. even if the copy protection schemes hold up for just a few weeks, a new title with large consumer appeal could benefit from a huge surge in sales from even a modest time period of protection). Subsequently, the primary goal of the publisher is to simply make it more difficult for the hacker and buy more time for the initial sales cycle. For most smaller publishers and developers that have a portfolio of software titles that do not necessarily have mass-market appeal, these technologies are often a good value proposition, increasing overall sales for a title that is protected versus a title that has no protection.

The most common method of protecting CD-ROMs relies primarily on the introduction (purposely) of read errors on the original disc. By introducing read errors to the disc, the user would be required to read and write uncorrectable data to make a backup or copy. Most drives will have a problem with doing this and the disc copying process will fail.

The most common software copy protection scheme (until it was purchased by and subsequently discontinued by Real Networks) was a copy protection method known as SAFEDISC (also SAFECAST). Safedisc was heavily used particularly for high-profile game titles until Real Networks pulled the plug on the technology altogether after purchasing the assets and technology from Macrovision.

SecuROM (a competing technology to Safedisc) is today's market leader in large-scale large-volume copy protection for major release gaming and software titles. In order for SecuROM to be applied to a CD title, there is one MAIN criteriaâ€¦ the CD must contain an executable file(s) for the technology to work effectively. It is not possible, for example, to copy protect a CD containing a single image or document file. The CD must contain a Program file (.exe file) and a minimum of 150MB of data in order to implement SecuROM technology. In addition, the technology must be added to the master by an authorized dealer or developer only and glass mastered (mass produced) with a minimum quantity of at least 300 CDs (see below for Authorized Dealers).

Once implemented, SecuROM's disc-based Digital Rights Management ensures that only authorized users who purchased the disc can play it. The authentication process is completely transparent to legitimate consumers who have an original disc in the local CD-ROM drive. If the inserted disc is verified as an original, the game or software starts seamlessly. If SecuROM determines that the disc is an illegitimate copy, the application terminates the application and displays an information dialog informing the consumer to purchase the product (this message can be fully customizable).

The SecuRom technology is not newâ€¦ it has been used on over 300 million discs on the market since 1997. SecuROM's disc-based Digital Rights Management solution is the proven market leader in this area.

Addendum

It is possible to protect a single document stored on any media. The above explanation deals with protecting data on disk by preventing copy of the files on that disk. This is "file protection" and not "copy protection", which instead deals with the prevention of copy of the files content when opened.

However it is possible to copy protect a single document and also copy protect that document while open by using CopySafe PDF software. Copysafe PDF provides protection of the document's contents while on display, protecting them from all methods of copy including Printscreen and screen capture.

By utilizing the DRM options available with Copysafe PDF it is also possible to prevent unauthorized sharing. Sure a user may be able to send copies of the document to 1,000's of users by email, but if they don't have the authors express permissions to open that document then the file is no good to them, thus providing the most effective method of file protection that can distributed by email, download or on disk.

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