The Red Book Isn't Commonly Referenced Anymore (Score 1)

CD producers have, to a large degree, abandoned the use of the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" ("Red Book") logos after about 2002. Interhack did fairly extensive testing of various CD copy protection systems a while back and found that, among other things, many of the newer copy-protected discs did not carry any of the logos that go along with the Phillips specifications, but instead carry an "Enhanced CD" logo that is licensed not by the producers of playback devices, but by none other than RIAA, the producers of the content.

It's a subtle but very important shift in the business of creating logos that consumers use to determine what it is that they're buying. Where the logo used to be something that would ensure high compatibility among playback devices, the logo can mean whatever the producers want it to mean -- and maximum playback device compatibility takes a back seat to enforcement of certain restrictions.

We made quite a few other discoveries of interest as well, including the error rates introduced by unplayable frames on discs as part of some copy protection schemes by comparison to what happens when a disc is scratched with a metal key. Our testing has been a bit different from that done by others in that we used some special hardware to look at things like the use of wonky pit/land geometry that is "beyond-spec" and how that affects playback in various devices like audio CD players vs CD-ROM readers.