[Wonder Warthog]

How much would anyone care to wager that some bright geek will develop software to automatically detect and delete the "clicks and pops" and generate a clean signal that CAN be converted and re-recorded?

[Tennessee_Bob]

Already been done. The Fast And The Furious soundtrack was supposed to be one of the first CDs released with the anti-copy technology in place. It was available for download a couple weeks ago - no clicks, no pops, nothing. Don't know what they did to get past it, and I didn't download it to listen to it, but apparently, whatever they did worked.

[balrog666]

How much would anyone care to wager that some bright geek will develop software to automatically detect and delete the "clicks and pops" and generate a clean signal that CAN be converted and re-recorded?

Already done several times over and, most interestingly, with wavelets.

[Grig]

How much would anyone care to wager that some bright geek will develop software to automatically detect and delete the "clicks and pops" and generate a clean signal that CAN be converted and re-recorded?

Already done. This particular type of copy protection relies on the error correction audio CD players to to compensate for small scratches etc on the CD. You can easily avoid the problem by ripping it in analog mode instead of making a digital rip. Even those with the best of ears would have trouble telling the difference, and once it's done, it can be copied digitaly with no loss of quality. Bottom line, if you can play it on ANYTHING, you can rip it. Heck, the soundtrack for Episode II is already out there and the CD isn't going to be in stores for a month! How can you copy protect a product that isn't even being sold?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"How much would anyone care to wager that some bright geek will develop software to automatically detect and delete the "clicks and pops" and generate a clean signal that CAN be converted and re-recorded? "

I'll wager my copies of WinMX and Winamp!