"Austad, Jay" wrote: > > > how does the CD run, then? are the errors in between > > files, so when > > reading the files themselves, they skip over the 'bad' spots? > > The CD runs just fine. The must insert the errors in empty spots on the > disk or something. I think it's somewhat similar to the copy protection > used for playstation games. The playstation's is somewhat different though > as it makes the cd burner choke. The protection on The Sims and some other > PC games makes the reader choke when trying to grab a bit for bit copy. I think that Playstation CDs have an extra track on them that is not readable by the average CD drive. I forget what Sony calls that extra track, though.. Anyway, there are two reasons why Sony does it. One is because Sony wants to be a gatekeeper for the games that get made for the Playstation. They are the only ones who make the discs (AFAIK), so you can't put your own game for the PS on a burned disc or contact your average stamping facility. The other reason for the extra track is, obviously, copy protection. Both of these are reasons why Sony got really mad when PS emulators started showing up. Since standard PC drives don't know how to read that extra track, the emulators just ignored it (just like a PS with a mod chip does). Suddenly, you could play games that are not blessed by Sony, as well as discs that were copied. -- _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ 668 - Neighbor of the / \/ \(_)| ' // ._\ / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__ Beast \_||_/|_||_|_\\___/ \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __) [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ]