Copy Control (which is the only on-disc copy protection for music CDs that I know existed) should be no problem at all. I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to rip my music CDs, and there you don't even notice whether a disc is protected or not. Everything works just as well as if it isn't. I would have supposed that MediaMonkey would be able to as well. Try ripping with EAC and see if you can get around the problems.

Since you didn't clarify what problems you get, it's not unlikely that it's not the copy protection itself that is giving you trouble, but its side-effects. These schemes always make use of scrambled error correction data, which means that copy-protected CDs are more susceptible to scratches, dust, wear, etc. While a real Audio CD might have enough information to correct read errors, a respective Copy Control disc is always of lower quality, so depending on your drive and the condition of the disc it might be enough to make it unreadable.

I never even had problems with copy-protected CDs when they were still being made. The only indication I have that they ever actually did anything was that I heard about other people who were outraged, leading to audio CD copy protections getting the mercy of being killed off after having been used for just about a year. (Wikipedia says 2001-2006, but I have never seen a Copy Control disc outside the range of 2003-2004, so they must be rare).

Copy Control (the method once used by Sony, EMI and Universal) uses a "helper" program that autoruns on disc insertion and then presents only locked tracks for playback. The regular audio table of contents is usually also slightly corrupted, and errors are also introduced in the blocks of data (these are usually corrected with the CRC codes by dedicated audio players). Vista and Windows 7 usually have autorun for the disc drive disabled, so helper programs won't load. Additionally, DVD burners are generally better at correcting both corrupted TOCs and induced errors in the music blocks. There is a very good chance that you may be able to rip the audio off of one of these discs, assuming that you have a newer DVD burner and Vista or Windows 7. Another option is to use Linux to rip the disc, as the helper programs will not function at all under Linux. I've personally ripped my only CC disc without issue on a Windows 7 machine using a Lite-On DVD burner. I had previously tried a rip under Ubuntu Linux, and it, too, worked.

Cactus Data Shield (EMI and BMG mostly) might also work the same way, though it seemed to introduce quite a few errors into the music stream. There are reports that certain computer drives are better at reconstructing the music stream than others. I'm lucky that I don't have any of these discs.

Hello affablefreddy,

I recommend playing your files and make an analogue recording of your files using for example audacity. Then you can save your musicfiles as flac and import them into Mediamonkey.

No direct ripping but a workaround and i assume it should be legal (depending on the country you live in). It just takes a lot of time. But 30 Songs should be easiliy done in an afternoon.

No, not for MediaMonkey.

hey guys is there a plug in or script to get around drm restrictions, seeing as i paid good money for my albums and just wanna back them up in flac, i have around 30 or so causing problems when ripping, let me know guys cheers!!!