Writnig serial numbers to burnt CD/DVD's

[blueshiftoverwatch]

It's common knowledge that all CD/DVD burners write the serial number of your CD/DVD drive to the blank CD/DVD.

But I also heard somewhere that in addition to that, they burn the serial number of your processor and possibly other computer components as well.

Is that true?

[Dr. C]

Would this not depend on the Operating System and CD/DVD burning application? If so does this happen with with GNU / Linux and a FLOSS CD/DVD burning application or only with a propriety OS and CD/DVD burning application?

[blueshiftoverwatch]

Would this not depend on the Operating System and CD/DVD burning application? If so does this happen with with GNU / Linux and a FLOSS CD/DVD burning application or only with a propriety OS and CD/DVD burning application?
I would assume it is built into the CD/DVD burner's firmware. So it wouldn't matter what OS/burning app combo you were using.

[Dr. C]

I would assume it is built into the CD/DVD burner's firmware. So it wouldn't matter what OS/burning app combo you were using.

But how would the CD/DVD burner firmware find out the serial number of the processor without the operating system getting involved?

[handy]

I would assume it is built into the CD/DVD burner's firmware. So it wouldn't matter what OS/burning app combo you were using.

I flashed my DVD burner with non-proprietary firmware years ago, to obtain some other freedoms. There was never any mention on the firmware sites about the firmware including any ability to burn the source ID onto the media, that I recall.

If there did exist such a system, who keeps track of who bought which burner?

I used to be in IT business, I used to purchase OEM equipment, including optical drives, & then sell them on in a variety of ways. The people that sold to me know nothing about who I sold to, just as the people who sold to them know nothing about me.

I would think that it is far too late to be worrying about this system, if a person is being investigated by any authority with regard to the hardware that created the media in question.

[Spike-X]

It's common knowledge that all CD/DVD burners write the serial number of your CD/DVD drive to the blank CD/DVD.


It is? first I've heard of it.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

If there did exist such a system, who keeps track of who bought which burner?

I used to be in IT business, I used to purchase OEM equipment, including optical drives, & then sell them on in a variety of ways. The people that sold to me no nothing about who I sold to, just as the people who sold to them no nothing about me.
I was under the impression that once you bought something on a credit card your purchase is stored in a database belonging to either the retailer or your credit card company (or both) for the rest of eternity.

[handy]

I was under the impression that once you bought something on a credit card your purchase is stored in a database belonging to either the retailer or your credit card company (or both) for the rest of eternity.

Even so, where is registration process for the serial# of the hardware?

When you purchase a product from a supplier with a credit card, it just says the name of the business you paid via the credit card. Very rarely is there any reference to what was actually bought.

As an example: Say I bought a 10 DVD burners, 4 assorted brand motherboards, a variety of RAM sizes & brands varying, a few assorted PSUs & some CPUs, from a company called "ComputerBits", all I'll see in the Mastercard statement is ComputerBits P/L & the date & price. That's it.

[blueshiftoverwatch]

When you purchase a product from a supplier with a credit card, it just says the name of the business you paid via the credit card. Very rarely is there any reference to what was actually bought.
Even if the credit card company didn't know what you bought the retailer would probaly know everything that you've bought. On Amazon.com you can view every book you've ever purchased. Most companies probably keep the same kinds of lists only they don't allow the users to access it.

[cariboo]

+1 I agree with Handy, when I sell someone a cd/dvd burner the only place the serial number gets recorded is on my computer. When buying something with a credit card, the serial number is never a part of the transaction.

Even if your credit card company offers some sort of extended warranty, it is up to you to keep the receipt, as the only thing the credit card company knows about it is that you purchased something.

Instead of relying on others, have a look at your credit card receipt, not the invoice the next time you purchase any electronics.

[handy]

Even if the credit card company didn't know what you bought the retailer would probaly know everything that you've bought. On Amazon.com you can view every book you've ever purchased. Most companies probably keep the same kinds of lists only they don't allow the users to access it.

Amazon, is probably at the head of the list, of using software to evaluate what its clients have purchased or even looked at whilst logged in, to create lists of items that you will most likely (due to your afore mentioned history) be interested in, & therefore (as far as they are concerned) most likely be interested in buying.

This list has absolutely nothing to do with the manufacturers. It is all to do with Amazon & their quarterly profits (if they are making one yet? lol).

Other companies do similar things, some for their own item/service sales benefit, others to sell the info' to other marketing companies.

None of this has anything to do with tracing individual items for the manufacturer who made them.

Ok?

If this was truly a problem, there would be oodles of talk about it on the forums. I don't remember this topic ever coming up here in 4 years of using this forum.

[Edit:] Something else that just came to mind:

Why should anyone, track stuff for Pioneer, Sony, Matsushita, or whoever? Businesses are in the business of making money, not providing a service for the manufacturer or any one else without being compensated for it.

Why should any business track information for whatever organisation you may be concerned about = the FBI, the RIAA, the MPAA, nobody likes them, they are all like the tax man!

[gletob]

I was under the impression that once you bought something on a credit card your purchase is stored in a database belonging to either the retailer or your credit card company (or both) for the rest of eternity.

Data is nearly Infinite. If every scrap of it was saved, the world would not have enough computer space to hold it. Something must be thrown away eventually.


Why should anyone, track stuff for Pioneer, Sony, Matsushita, or whoever? Businesses are in the business of making money, not providing a service for the manufacturer or any one else without being compensated for it.

Why should any business track information for whatever organisation you may be concerned about = the FBI, the RIAA, the MPAA, nobody likes them, they are all like the tax man!

As for your first why, there is no reasoning. And for the second, there are some that like them, like the obviously biased Music & Movie Industry. While I for one somewhat appreciate the FBI keeping our country a little more in line. But to restate your point, If I were a Drive manufacturer then I would have no reason to assist these organizations. So why would I waste my resources on something frivolous like this?

[blueshiftoverwatch]

Data is nearly Infinite. If every scrap of it was saved, the world would not have enough computer space to hold it. Something must be thrown away eventually.
The price of storage has gone down dramatically in recent years. You could probably store every IM and SMS message sent and received in the US for the price of a 1TB hard drive and still have room left over at the end of the year. I'm pulling those statistics out of thin air, but it wouldn't take as much storage as you'd think to store all that information in text format.

If I were a Drive manufacturer then I would have no reason to assist these organizations. So why would I waste my resources on something frivolous like this?
A lot of printer companies complied with the government's request that they adopt the yellow dot tracking system (http://www.eff.org/issues/printers). Even though since it wasn't made into law they didn't have to comply with it. From an economic perspective the printer manufacturers would have no aparent reason to care what their customers were using their printers for.

[Bavo]

The price of storage has gone down dramatically in recent years. You could probably store every IM and SMS message sent and received in the US for the price of a 1TB hard drive and still have room left over at the end of the year. I'm pulling those statistics out of thin air, but it wouldn't take as much storage as you'd think to store all that information in text format.

I think that you underestimate the amount of data that goes around. To use your examples:
IM: If i say for example "hey", the data that needs to be logged is:
2009-11-03 12:55:45 CET hey FROM:192.168.20.1 TO:192.168.20.15
so message, timestamp, source and destination ip

SMS: for every send message you need to track not only the message but also the phonenumber, carrier, status messages and timestamps.

So for every piece of data you get to see, you'll need mutiply several times to have an idea of the amount of data that has to be logged.

So i'll guess your 1TB drive might maybe be just big enough for a small town.

[samjh]

Even if the credit card company didn't know what you bought the retailer would probaly know everything that you've bought. On Amazon.com you can view every book you've ever purchased. Most companies probably keep the same kinds of lists only they don't allow the users to access it.

While the retailer would know what product you bought, they're not likely to be able to identify the item itself.

For example, if I purchased a printer from a store using a credit card, the store would be able to see the first 15 or so digits of my card number and the type of product I purchased (eg. Canon Pixma MP640) but not exactly which item. If there was a lineup of several identical Canon Pixma MP640 printers including the one I purchased, the store won't be able to tell which one was purchased by me, even though they know I had purchased a printer of that type.

[hobo14]

Even if the credit card company didn't know what you bought the retailer would probaly know everything that you've bought. On Amazon.com you can view every book you've ever purchased. Most companies probably keep the same kinds of lists only they don't allow the users to access it.

This is all starting to sound a little bit "tin foil hatty".



The price of storage has gone down dramatically in recent years. You could probably store every IM and SMS message sent and received in the US for the price of a 1TB hard drive and still have room left over at the end of the year. I'm pulling those statistics out of thin air, but it wouldn't take as much storage as you'd think to store all that information in text format.


I doubt it...
Without IM, just look at sms: assume average message is 100 bytes ( (160 / 2) + extra because none are 0 + extra overhead)
By disk manufacturer specs, 1TB is 1000,000,000,000 bytes, or 10 billion messages, assume 30% (?) of Americans send sms, they need to send 100 each to fill 1 TB - seems pretty easy to do in a year.
Then you've got IM on top of that.

SMS + IM is only a tiny, tiny fraction of the data he was referring to.

EDIT: and I didn't allow nearly enough for all this:

SMS: for every send message you need to track not only the message but also the phonenumber, carrier, status messages and timestamps.

EDIT 2: Have a look at this (http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/57781) ;) Americans send over 4 billion sms per day.
Even assuming my very slim 100 bytes per msg (including the metadata, it might be more accurate to double this figure) you need
150 TB per year for sms alone....