the absence of notification that the installation happened. However, in contrast to the previous XCP copy protection components used by Sony/BMG, the Windows service that MediaMax installs can be safely and easily stopped, disabled and removed. Users with administrative privileges can accomplish this via Windows' Service Controller ("sc") command line utility (using the "stop" and "delete" arguments), after which MediaMax's driver file (sbcphid.sys) can be deleted from the Windows\System32\Drivers directory and additional files can be deleted from the Program Files\Common Files\SunnComm Shared\ directory. To determine if MediaMax is installed on a Windows PC, one may launch a command prompt, from which the Service Control Manager can be queried. The command to test this is sc query sbcphid. If installed, sc stop sbcphid will halt the service, and sc delete sbcphid will prevent it from automatically starting on subsequent reboots. Once installed, the MediaMax software looks for a watermark inside all raw CD audio to recognize protected content. If the software detects protected audio, it distorts the audio to prevent unauthorized copying. The watermark works by setting a sequence of low order bits to 1. This makes the watermark very brittle, and it will be defeated by most transformations of the audio, including converting it to MP3 and back. When the MediaMax software is functioning as designed, it allows copying to a certain extent. Compressed audio is stored on the disc in Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. The following activities are allowed: Copying tracks to the hard drive for playback without the original CD, burning up to three copies of the CD, and sharing email links to DRM-protected tracks that expire after ten days. Finally, tracks may be downloaded to DRM-enabled portable players. See also List of compact discs sold with MediaMax CD-3 Extended Copy Protection Cactus Data Shield References External links CD DRM: Attacks on Disc Recognition "Lessons from the Sony CD DRM Episode" (PDF format), by J. Alex Halderman and Edward Felten, February 14, 2006 Compact Disc and DVD copy protection Digital rights management for Windows Digital rights management for macOS