Blane
1
The new configuration uses a special glass master and pressing media with certain unique characteristics that allows the SecuROM protection to tie itself specifically to the physical structure and characteristics of each disk so that copies are very difficult if not impossible for the average consumer to make. Since copy protection companies were not able to get many CD drive manufacturers to comply with requests to build protection detection into their firmware and other aspects of the drives, the copy protection companies opted to go with one thing they can control - the physical media itself. The media is apparently special ordered and not designed to be made available to the public. If copying is to be able to be done, the thought is that true 1:1 copies will not be possible, since the protection is tied to each specific disk it is implemented on. If a fix is to be made, it will have to be on the software end, it appears. Don't hold your breath, however, as developing software that is specifically designed to thwart such protection is now subject to the DMCA, at least for now. Of course, we all know how that can turn out. We will need to wait and see if CloneCD, BlindWrite, CD-Mate or others can find a way to strip the protection from the original while duping, or perhaps find a way to alter the copy protection as it is transferred so that it recognizes the characteristics of the blank CD in use.