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Old 2012.01.12, 06:55 PM   #90
Glathannus
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YesAsia doesn't know the date range for when the record label was protecting anything.

With the Toshiba-EMI CDs I own from a handful of different artists, the protection streak began in Q4 2002 (months after Utaite Myouri - but months before Stem), and ended just before Q4 2004 (when Tokyo Jihen singles were introduced). The Casshern soundtrack seems to have been a protection-free exception during the timeframe (I'm not quite 100% certain about this). Unfortunately the streak of protected releases did include the bonus CD for Baishou Ecstasy, even if they haven't officially declared it as a protected release.

Subsequent CD releases (Gunjou Biyori and onward) were unprotected. However, the record label (even as they became EMI Japan) continued to manufacture protected versions of the 2002-2004 releases, all the way until 2008 when they suddenly reissued most of their 2002-2004 catalog in unprotected versions. (and then they let the 2008 Stem reissue go out-of-print just like the first two pressings)

So in a nutshell, no retail Japanese CDs under the Tokyo Jihen name were ever copy-protected.

As for how to deal with the protection when you come across it:
Trying to rip a pre-2008 KZK CD (one of the first Shiina Ringo purchases I ever made) was what compelled me into finally settling with Exact Audio Copy as my ripper-of-choice. I never had to tell EAC anything about what kind of protection it was ripping, or whether there was any protection at all. In-lieu of Secure ripping (the one-size-fits-all solution more commonly employed with unprotected discs), EAC simply knew what had to be done - even if it meant the ripping might go more slowly than Secure ripping would more-typically be.
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