Sony had a copy protection scheme that was easily defeated by marking part of the CD with a Sharpie. I don’t remember anything with a space bar, or similar.
I remember they tried a copy protection with video. It drove many players and/or TV’s crazy and rendered many movies unwatchable.
Earth Wind and Fire Greatest Hits can’t be copied
Freeware “Audiograbber” always worked well for me. It would pull any audio tracks from any CD and also access the online database to set titles and track names. But that was ages ago.
It was called MediaMax and put out by a OTC Sham company called SunnComm, operated by a Peter H. Jacobs, who has a long history of operating shady companies.
There’s a ton of schemes they tried, to be sure. Could you possibly be remembering “Copy Control”? That one you could by-pass by holding down the shift key.
Sony copyright software that was basically a virus.
A dumb idea, like the stupid law that mandated that cars wouldn’t start if you didn’t sit, buckle the f^%#(*$*&@ belt, and try to start the car, in that order. Sometime in the late 70’s.
Try Cactus Data Shield
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_Data_Shield
Had a second track that messed with some car CD players. Could be circumvented by marking out the track.
It messed up the disc so bad they were not allowed to use the Compact Disc logo.