CD Read Limits?

[+++Bobby \O\+++]

I'd like to make a CD - but want to limit how many times it can be read. Is
there a utility that will do this? Thanks........

 

[Bob Gruett]

I've never heard of a read limit before, but write-limits are usually
determined and advertised by the disc manufactuer, so it would follow that
they could probably provide read limitation information as well...

As for a utility to do that, are you asking if there is a program out there
that will tell you how many times a given disc can be read by loading the
disc and running the app? If so, I've never heard of anything like that
before...

 

[Mike Williams]

I'd like to make a CD - but want to limit how many times it can be read. Is
there a utility that will do this? Thanks........

The CD would have to write back some sort of count (to itself, or have a
unique ID that it checks against an online counter). Probably easy to
hack around even if you got all that sorted out.

 

[Bob I]

You would have to ask Sony how to do that. Oh, and by the way, there are
a few people suing them over the method they used.

 

[+++Bobby \O\+++]

What I want to do is dictate some verbiage to be read (listened to) twice -
but no more.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

What I want to do is dictate some verbiage to be read (listened to) twice -
but no more.

I expect you'd have to do something with physical disc coatings to break
down *very* rapidly. But then, you'll need to be aware of consequences
to the drive used - if you physically damage the drive, your recipient won't
be happy with you.

Otherwise, your utility could be bypassed by simply taking the disc to
another system. Or, by simply capturing the data stream as it is read the
first time. There are many ways, most of them simple, to defeat these
kinds of protections.

If you need this to be that secure, say it face to face.

HTH
-pk

 

[Yves Leclerc]

What I want to do is dictate some verbiage to be read (listened to) twice -
but no more.

There were mentions in the media that some type of Disc media exists that when
exposed to the air, the media will destroy itself after a couple of days.
Never seen these yet!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I'd like to make a CD - but want to limit how many times it can be
read. Is there a utility that will do this? Thanks........

The short answer - no. Nothing you could do (other than put some sort of
physically destroying substance) on the CD to prevent its use or even limit
the individual use of any component of that CD more than a given amount of
times.

Why?

Simple. It's Read-Only media. You cannot tell how many times it has been
used.

Oh sure - you could write a script on it so that if they use a certain
method for opening a file off the CD - it writes data on their local machine
noting this and after a given number of times opening in your prescribed
manner - your manner no longer works.. But that can be gotten around by
exploring the CD and opeing the file manually or finding the method you used
and reverse engineering it.

For the un-initiated (most computer users) - you could likely get away with
the "click here to open this file" method and use that to run a script that
writes to their registry a count of the number of times they have done this
and if that number is greater than say, two, do not open the file. For
anyone with half-a-clue about the situation - you have handed them the
rights to open whatever files are on that CD as many times as they like.