> so i now have at least two cd's that i can't encode, because of (i'm assuming) copy protection. these are:

A few weeks ago I had a similar experience ( Merzhin- Adrenaline), and only thing that kept me from returning the CD is that I really wanted to have the music on my player. On the vendors site nowhere mention was made of any copy protection, or any warning on non-standard CDs.
I could not rip the music on my Linux system (programs locks up), though on Windows a special 'media player' program on the CD automatically started once the CD was inserted in de PC ... A nice solution for many users who just want to listen to the CDc on their PC. Not helpful when you are usually running a non-win environment.

> Is there a way to a) tell if it really is copy protection that's keeping me from enjoying the music that i have paid for... and b) how to get around this protection so i can encode and enjoy this music that i have paid for.

In my case, the windows program EAC did a really nice job to this Key2Audio cd, it was able to copy the CD and create the desired MP3s for the empeg..