Heritage Motor Centre CDs

[jdubois]

Anybody else have trouble with the copy protection on their technical publication CDs? It drives me bonkers. Both my 2/3/3A and my Spitfire discs constantly tell me, "Please Insert Original Disc." It *is* the original disc, you pain in rear. Some times they work on one computer, some times on the other, other times I have to keep taking the disc out and putting it back in until it works.

I see on the Heritage Motor Centre website that they are no longer selling the CDs due to 'technical difficulties'. Wonder if these are them...

I did actually figure out how to cheat and dump the files off the CD to unprotected PDFs, so the ones I use most often are not a problem anymore. But it's slow to convert them, so I occasionally have to go back to the discs to get something I haven't 'freed' yet. (and no, I won't tell you how to do it. I don't want to be seen as promoting piracy, I'm just trying to use the stupid documents I bought fair and square.)

 

[PeterK]

Mine hasn't worked since XP - now on Win7. I'll have to check out dumping to PDFs as well.

 

[dklawson]

I have my old laptop (in part) because it runs XP and allows me to open the Heritage CDs. There was some talk on another board I frequent that even with XP if you update Adobe you can run into the protection errors you mentioned. Their advice was to uninstall the later version of Adobe and let the Heritage CD install the version packaged with it. Frankly I thought it was most annoying that Heritage continued to sell the CDs when after Vista was introduced they knew the CDs were no longer functional... unless you still ran XP or Win98.

For those who will surely post after me about "Compatibility Mode" and such, it doesn't address this issue. BTDT.

 

[jdubois]

Frankly I thought it was most annoying that Heritage continued to sell the CDs when after Vista was introduced they knew the CDs were no longer functional... unless you still ran XP or Win98.

I am still running XP on these machines that the CDs don't really work on, and frankly I think it's most annoying that they shipped these CDs with this crappy DRM <span style="font-style: italic">from the start</span>. As I've demonstrated by 'cracking' the discs, they didn't do anything to stop people who really wanted to steal the information. All they did was annoy people who purchased their product.

Ok, rant over, I gotta go get this TR3 prepped for the engine pull.

 

[Don_R]

Guess I'm the lucky one.

I have the Heritage CDs for my Spitfire and never had a problem running them.

My laptop is a VISTA ULTIMATE machine.

 

[dklawson]

Don, you truly are lucky or some kind of unique exception. I wish you could figure out how you can run your copy of the CD under Vista and publish what the settings need to be!

 

[Don_R]

Doug,

All I can say is I bought the CD, didn't know about the issues with Vista at the time.

CD arrived and put in drive, CD opened and I haven't had a problem with it. It was later that I heard all the Vista war stories.

I must be a thing with Vista Ultimate. Seems like other Vista packages have the problem.

 

[PeterK]

I just need the ability to disassemble the pdfs from each section, convert, then reassemble in a format that can be read on Windows XP or later. We paid for the information, not the format.

 

[PatGalvin]

Hello All

does anyone know where I can obtain one of these CDs, given that they are not currently being sold by Heritage Motor Centre?

Thanks

Pat

 

[jdubois]

I believe VB still sells them, probably some of the others do too.

https://www.victoriabritish.com/icatalog/tc/full.aspx?Page=134

 

[PeterK]

Pat,

If you read the post, you'll see that these CD won't work on later (current) Windows. My CD says it's for Win98 but works on 2 XP systems I tested.

PK

 

[Mark Jones]

Jeremy,

I too have been having constant problems with both of my CDs. It's frustrating having these CDs and not be able to use them.

 

[jdubois]

Sorry, Mark. I'd like to help, but you'll have to figure it out on your own...

 

[dklawson]

I am not a software guy at all so forgive the following comments if they sound naive and uninformed.

What I have never understood is why when this problem surfaced, Heritage did not go back to the developer and ask them to create a stand-alone executable front end program that would allow Vista users to access the data on the disks.

Surely something like this could be made available as a downloadable file on their web site so we could "unlock" our useless CDs without pestering them continuously for updated information and questions. I don't care for a fancy user interface, I just want to be able to access what I paid for.

 

[jdubois]

I think they did. Here's the statement on the HMC website:

"Due to ongoing technical issues with the CDROMS which our supplier has been unable to remedy, we have now withdrawn them from sale at the Heritage Motor Centre. We do apologise for this inconvenience which, regrettably is beyond our control."

The copy protection software never even worked reliably on the original system it was developed for, so putting out a 'Vista update' that didn't really work either wouldn't help much. I wish they'd just forget the stupid copy protection and realize that those of us who work on these cars fully appreciate what the HMC is and does, and have no desire to take money away from them.

 

[TR3driver]

Surely something like this could be made available as a downloadable file on their web site

The problem, I believe, is that that would defeat the copy protection, probably for any CD using that protection software. And this is not a Heritage Center issue, but the vendor of the copy protection scheme.

Reading between the lines, I would guess that the copy protection company has seen their business model go down the drain. Without the prospect of any future sales, they have no incentive to remedy the problem, short of their former customers suing them. And I'm not sure what law they have broken. Software (including copy protection software) is generally provided with a disclaimer to the effect that you are lucky if it works at all; and have no legal recourse (beyond replacement of the physical media) even if it sets fire to your computer. Whether such disclaimers are binding, is a matter that the courts have been deciding on a case-by-case basis. (At least US courts, I don't know what has happened in the UK.)

And no doubt Heritage Center is (rightfully) reluctant to pursue such a case against a vendor that is very likely to already be bankrupt.

Here's a brief write-up of a similar flap, involving a lot more money and people. AFAIK, Sony never did admit guilt, but did replace the CDs and pay some settlement money:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal

 

[jdubois]

a vendor that is very likely to already be bankrupt.

As happy as that would make me, Hexalock (the people who wrote the copy protection software) is still very much in business and convincing people to put this nonsense on new discs.

Mark Greer Associates, who packaged the CDs, are also still in business, though they're primarily a publisher, and I don't know if they're still producing CDs.

 

[PeterK]

Sorry, Mark. I'd like to help, but you'll have to figure it out on your own...

Why not help us? We help you on your TR, don't we?

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

I think there would be legal reason why he doesn't want to post the "fix".

 

[dklawson]

The problem, I believe, is that that would defeat the copy protection, probably for any CD using that protection software.

Well there's the rub for me.

My first Heritage CD was for the Mini and it can easily be read on a Win98 machine. Not only read, I can browse the CD with Windows Explorer, copy the PDF files to a floppy and/or hard drive, and open the copies with Adobe. It's as if there were no copy protection at all. However, take those same files on a floppy disk or otherwise move them to a Vista machine and the PDF files cannot be opened.

What I was suggesting was NOT that they provide a key for us to defeat their copy protection. I am suggesting that they write for us a new, stand alone user interface program that can read the files off the CDs we already paid for. Frankly, the file structure and huge number of PDFs (without useful names) would make simply defeating their copy protection pointless. We need a program that can read the CD's index file, create a new index file of its own, then use that file to read the contents of the CD. They don't have to explain to us how they do that and I'm sure there are enough "secret bits" on their CDs that they could write the code in a manner that only works on the Heritage CDs.