Questions About Cd Protection

[Mortext]

First i will post this from the EULA which is avalible to anybody that has d2 installed on their computer. The html document is or should be entitled xreadme in the diablo2 directory.

11. Limitations on License. Nothing in this License Agreement shall preclude You from making or authorizing the making of another copy or adaptation of the Program provided, however, that (1) such new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in your utilization of the Program in accordance with the terms of this License Agreement and for NO OTHER PURPOSE; or (2) such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes ONLY and all archival copies are destroyed in the event of your Transfer of the Program, the Termination of this License Agreement, or other circumstances under which your continued use of the Program ceases to be rightful.

NOTE: preclude means to make impossible, archival means archive which is just a fancy word for backup.

So if im reading this correctly im allowed to create (1) copy of any/all of the cd's i own for backup purposes.

2nd off im posting this question in the Statistics forum as it seemed the best place to do so as this forum seems the most technical of them all. With that said heres my problem.
Ive had my diablo 2 lod cd for ages and like all cd's that get used alot its no longer in pristine condition. Sometimes my cd drive takes a while to recognise the cd before it auto plays. I also run into problems when i enable the music to play (as it has to access the cd)
What id like to do is copy my original expansion cd as it gets used the most and as the others are in almost new condition.
Now heres the problem with that. It seems you cannot just plug the expansion cd into a cd drive and a blank cd in the recorder drive. This will net you a coaster in no time flat at all. It seems that the file "game.exe" is protected itself and the cd obviously has some form of protection also. What im looking for is a way to gather the information from the cd and burn a copy that will do more than get thrown away. Coasters will always get the message "please insert diablo2 cd".
Sooo has anybody here managed to make a "working" copy of the expansion cd? And if so please outline the steps which you took to make a working copy. If you have not tried any method that you have posted please say so as im getting tired of making coasters (5 and counting)

Note to mods admins: According to the EULA im allowed to make a copy and the purpose of this post was to figure out how to do so. Ive read nothing in the forum rules about asking questions of this sort. The only possible argument i can foresee is that im looking for a meathod to get around copy protection to make a legal copy as set forth in the above portion of the EULA. To anybody that takes the stance that im trying to or looking for a meathod to reverse engineer or hack the protection set forth by blizzard i ask: why would they (blizzard) explicitly include point 11 in the EULA if for no other reason than to let you know its ok to copy the cd for pourposes like mine?

So if anybody finds this whole thing just to complicated do me a favor and allow the mods to tell me so as im not here for legal debate but rather for a meathod to copy my cd. So please no comments on the legal ramifications the cost of tea in china and ethic diversity of morals from a social political stand point ok?

Mods if you for some reason find this post in violation of something or other please provide a link to that as i must of missed it. Please dont just colse the thread.

[RTB]

The easiest way is to make an image out of the expansion CD and mount it using Deamon Tools or similiar programs.

[Mortext]

The easiest way is to make an image out of the expansion CD and mount it using Deamon Tools or similiar programs.
I use daemon tools for some programs that i have now, what i want is a physical copy of the game though, as id rather not have to keep a 6-7 hundred meg folder somewhere, what would you suggest to make an image?

EDIT:
Created an Image using Ultra-Iso
Burnt Iso to Cd using Nero 7
Ended up with 6th coaster

[RTB]

Burn the .iso to a datadisk, so it can still be used as an image, and keep a copy of it on your hard-disk for daily usage. If the copy protection doesn't allow a direct copy, this is all you can do.

[TheJarulf]

So if im reading this correctly im allowed to create (1) copy of any/all of the cd's i own for backup purposes.


Note that many countries has copyright law that specifically allow you to make, for example, backup copies no matter what else you agree since such provisions to prevent it would be void. No idea how it is in your country though.


It seems that the file "game.exe" is protected itself and the cd obviously has some form of protection also.


Well, the file itself is not "protected", but the check for the CD is part of that file if I remember correctly. The protection itself is a fairly "standard" one that Blizzard have bought, not sure if it is really any easy way to get arround it by just burning copies though.


The only possible argument i can foresee is that im looking for a meathod to get around copy protection to make a legal copy as set forth in the above portion of the EULA.


Well, that would again depend on the country and its law.



why would they (blizzard) explicitly include point 11 in the EULA if for no other reason than to let you know its ok to copy the cd for pourposes like mine?


Probably because the law in many cases says you are allowed anyway. They could be nice too, or simply becayse ittends to exist in most EULA and there seems to be almost a tendancy for the content of such EULA to be copied from each other. There are even examples were they missed to change stuff which made it obvious. DOn't think Blizzard have done that though.



As fpor the solution, the only way I can think oof is the one RTB sugested.

[Mortext]

I neglected to mention what country i lived in which seems a small oversight to me. None the less ill go ahead an say i live in the continental united states. As for the corying the cd, i did a little more reaserch and found that the cd is protected by securom and that the actual file "game.exe" is indeed protected in some form or other.
Once again i think ive covered most legal aspects of the EULA and would appreciate more "do this to get that" type of replies.
Lastly it cannot be impossible to copy the cd, i refuse to even believe such a thing it just requires a greater knowledge of creating copies. I have a legit copy and a ripped version of windows xp which i imagine would have a much better protection scheme than a game which was release in the time of windows Me.

[Myrakh-2]

ILastly it cannot be impossible to copy the cd, i refuse to even believe such a thing it just requires a greater knowledge of creating copies. I have a legit copy and a ripped version of windows xp which i imagine would have a much better protection scheme than a game which was release in the time of windows Me.

XP doesn't have any copy protection at all.

Diablo 2 has a simple one, although I always preferred to use improved starter programs rather than wasting 700MB of diskspace for a useless CD image. Same as with most games I have, actually: I install the game, install the current patch, install the "no-cd" crack if one exists (and it usually does), then start playing.

[Mortext]

After reading through about 42 webpage hits from google i got it to work.

Alcohol 120% with securom emulation along with reading sub formatting enabled.
Boom 10 hours from initial post and amazingly only one additional coaster i have a legal 100% working copy of my original. I even uninstalled expansion and used the copy to re-install, no problems. Thx for the suggestions and legal doodahh peeps.