The lamb they couldn't silence

Just recently I had an email from a Kookosity reader informing me that Clone CD had been discontinued. This isn't actually the case though you'd be forgiven for thinking so judging by the terminal 'game over' message left in place of the section of the Elaborate Bytes web site devoted to the no. 1 CD duplication tool.

Owing to the introduction of new copyright laws in Germany, where Elby are based, Clone CD could no longer be sold and supported within the country of its origin. Therefore to keep the project alive, the rights to continue developing the software were sold to Antiguan-based company, Slysoft Inc, who will not have to operate under the duress of such stringent copyright laws. Two of the three programmers responsible for creating Clone CD have relocated and continue to update it on behalf of the new owners. It doesn't take a genius to join the dots - Ollie, the founder of Elby, likely has a very conveniently placed finger in the Slysoft pie... allegedly. ;)

As a consequence of the legal ping-pong between Elby and The Powers That Be, Clone CD has fallen behind the competition, though loyal fans can rest assured that Slysoft fully intend to make up lost ground to re-capture the no. 1 spot in the CD protection bypassing biz. An updated and re-badged version of Clone CD has already left the starting blocks and the word is that it represents a step in the right direction.

The most significant change in this rendering is that Virtual Clone Drive, the CD emulation software integrated into previous versions of Clone CD, has had to be omitted as the rights to distribute it were not included in the deal agreed upon between Elby and Slysoft. Slysoft, in recognition that this is a popular component of the software, plan to code their own CDless ISO mounting gadget in the not too distant future.