Microsoft Signs Two-Year Deal to Put SafeDisc Copy Protection on Its CD-ROMs

Microsoft will wrap a wide range of its CD-ROM software in Macrovision’s SafeDisc copy protection under a two-year agreement announced today. The deal covers games, educational titles, and personal finance software distributed worldwide.

SafeDisc is a software-only scheme, no changes to your PC or CD-ROM drive required. Each original disc gets a digital signature added during mastering, plus a multilayered encrypted wrapper around the content. Drop a legitimate disc in the drive and the authentication software finds the signature, decrypts the program, and runs it normally; a burned copy has no signature, so it simply refuses to start. Macrovision licenses the technology directly to publishers and to disc plants, and 28 replicators worldwide already have it.

The pitch is that CD recorders cannot duplicate the signature. Pirates tend to treat that kind of claim as a challenge, and history says the people most likely to feel copy protection are the ones who paid for the disc. Here’s hoping SafeDisc wears its welcome better than most.