I have not really been paying attention to mentions of watermarks and such on CD's and DVD's. My wife and I went to a local radio station promotion where they were giving away promotional CD's, those representing the radio station had no idea where they came from. Anyway, my wife picked one out and I looked at it and it said that it was watermarked. This got me thinking, is it a true copy protection in that just doing a straight CD copy (i.e. using something other than those programs that are meant to circumvent copy protections) would not copy it or doing a straight rip/convert to another format won't work or is it more of a copy prevention in that the music has a unique encrypted id so that if you were to upload it, in theory the RIAA could come and hunt you down, but otherwise its not a real copy protection because you can still copy/rip/convert using conventional tools. Since it is a single CD and not a full blown album, I have no reason to back it up, I'm asking mainly for my own curiosity.

Thanks,

You're right - it doesn't prevent copying; it's just a deterrent. It identifies that exact pressing so they know who to go after if it gets copied.

In your case, they'd go after the radio station because that's who they gave/sold it to.