CloneCD

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CloneCD

Logo from CloneCD
Basic data

developer SlySoft / RedFox
Current  version 5.3.4.0
(May 16, 2016)
operating system Windows
(from Windows 98 )
category CD copy program ( burning program )
License proprietary ( shareware )
German speaking Yes
Manufacturer's product page

CloneCD is a computer program , originally from Elaborate Bytes was designed and now by the company SlySoft of Antigua and Barbuda will be developed and distributed. With CloneCD it was previously possible to copy almost every CD-ROM on the market (from version 5 also DVD-ROM ) despite copy protection . However, due to very slow and often stagnating further development, most of the copy protection methods commonly used today for software are no longer supported. With Game Jackal , the company SlySoft has been offering an actively supported product since June 2007 , which admittedly pursues a different approach (namely data carrier-free use), but aims at protecting copy-protected original data carriers.

more details

The reproduction and “copying” of the copy protection is made possible by the so-called raw mode (for raw data , see also raw data format ) of CD burners , in which not only the (useful) data but the raw data are copied. The raw data contain, for example, information about the logical structure of a CD or DVD, in particular also about the beginning and end of tracks .

As of version 5, CloneCD also copies DVDs as long as they are not encrypted with the content scramble system (CSS) that is common with video DVDs . DVDs encrypted with CSS can only be copied after using a special driver such as AnyDVD or DVD43, the distribution and commercial use of which is not permitted in most EU countries. Is it in the template to a double-layer DVD (as with most video DVDs), you have to copy a double layer - blank are used. In order to copy a two-layer video DVD onto a single-layer blank DVD, special copy programs such as CloneDVD or Nero Recode are required that transcode the film data . H. read out, decompress, compress more and burn to the blank.

CloneCD was developed by the Antigua and Barbuda based company SlySoft until February 2016. On February 24, 2016, Slysoft announced that it would stop developing and distributing the program for legal reasons. The company has been in litigation with license administrator AACS LA for many years. Furthermore, at the beginning of February 2016, he had submitted an application to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to put Antigua and Barbuda, the headquarters of Slysoft, on the Copyright Priority Watch List. However, Slysoft did not provide precise reasons for the cessation of activities.

The Belize- based company RedFox (named after the AnyDVD program logo) then took over the further development of the software. Since March 2016, the program has been available again in various successor versions on the RedFox page.

Legal

The German music industry - represented by RA Waldorf in Munich - has repeatedly warned operators of websites over the past few years that had a link to the CloneCD homepage on their site. Even PC-Welt editions offered on eBay with the CloneCD on the magazine CD were warned. Most of the warned people always signed the cease and desist declaration right away. Those admonished who refused to sign were never brought to justice by the music industry. The manufacturer SlySoft is convinced that CloneCD does not violate German copyright law at all, because it cannot circumvent any copy protection for music CDs and had also commissioned a legal opinion on this subject.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Blu-ray cracker AnyDVD: Slysoft domain is offline - Heise , on February 24, 2016; u. a. with ' this is final. SlySoft is gone '
  2. ↑ Legal opinion ( Memento from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 46 kB)