One of the easiest ways to rectify the problem is to import the data on the onto your computer's hard drive and simply burn it onto another CD.

I remember downloading a stereolab album and most of the tracks on it had this underlying "tch-tch-tch-tch-tch" noise. It bugged the hell out of me, but I looked around for another copy and it never had that problem. Well anyway, the point I was trying to make is if a disk is damaged I would rather just get a new copy as you can still hear the skipping even if you import the data to your HD and burn it to another CD.

I know. There's so much truth and untruth in audio.
I just don't care what others say, when I hear the difference, it's there.
Fortunately others hear the difference too, so I don't seem like a total idiot amongst people who know what they're talking about :D.
There will always be people who will say that it's non-sense, but there's also people who claim mp3 sounds better than vinyl. And there's also people who claim there's no audible difference between loudspeaker cables. I've given up trying to convince them.
I did put the bit about the Windows CD in for a reason. This proves the CD becomes more readable from painting it green. It works with other colours too, by the way. I've just been told green works best, I've never tried how big the difference is. First time I tried it it was a CD-R and a red marker. Still audible difference :).

I'm not sure why this works. I do understand that, the less "autocorrection" a CD player uses, the better it sounds. That's a fact. And it's also a fact that the CD becomes more readable with the green line.
The only thing I can't prove is the audible difference. I know what I hear. The first time I tested it I was sceptical, so I took a CD-R and started doing the dishes :D. Even then I could hear the difference. It's actually pretty big.
Doesn't mean I colour all my CD's green. CD's are just there for me as a 'backup' or when I can't get the vinyl. I usually don't play CD's that much :)

On issues like this, I don't really believe in people's subjective experiences. I'm sure you've had the experience that painting a CD with a green marker made the sound quality better, but I don't believe that what you experienced was objective truth. I think you imagined the better quality, perhaps because of a want/willingness to believe. You had already read or heard that it worked and so a suggestion was already implanted in you, swaying your experience when you listened to the marked CD.

Appearantly, people have checked to see if it makes a difference and found out that it didn't.

I myself can't think of any reason why green markers should help, but I do believe in people fooling themselves and so that's my preferred explanation.

That doesn't sound like it has scientific merit. Colour is not an object, it's a perception in our brain of frequencies of light. A laser is not a human eye. A laser is not going to perceive colour the same as a person, cow, dog, owl, what have you. "Colour" is a product of our brain.

Haha, feel free to believe that. If you don't mind I believe what I heard, allright? I know I'm not wrong. But there's no way of proving that to you. As a matter of fact, if the above is the way you think about it, you'll probably hear no difference whatsoever simply because you don't want to. Same theory, other way around. I know what I heard and I know it's a big difference. Hard to ignore.
But whichever is true, the only thing that matters for the topic starter is the fact that it does indeed make cd's more readable. So it might help

Yeah, could be. Our senses get fooled all the time. That's why one shouldn't always trust anecdotal evidence (which forms the basis of your opinion) and rely on other things, like what can be tested. If you read my post up there, you'll see marking CDs have been tested for data errors and with oscilloscopes and those tests found no differences.

Here's some more stuff I found with a simple google search. The first here is a link to another guy who did various tests with marked vs. unmarked CDs without finding anything.

Black magic marker around the edge of a disk - Club MyCE

Here's an archived post by someone who tried to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The Green Pen Tweak - High-End-Audio - Audio

Here's a snippet :

Finally, here's another appeal to your common sense (if you have any). If it's that simple to significantly improve on a technology which cost millions and millions of dollahs to develop, don't you think the CD people would've caught on and sold CDs with the edges coloured?

Tore, It's useless mate.
The only thing I trust are my ears. I've heard the differences, I was able to describe them and others describe them the same way without knowing what I've heard.
It's a fact to me. I don't need numbers to explain to me I'm wrong because I know I'm not.

All I know is that the people who I know that are serious about audio, all hear the difference and have no problem hearing the difference.
And all that matters in this case is that it will make the CD (unless the data is completely gone, of course) more readable.

I'm an Audiophile, and as I've mentioned before I work for an AV retailer. I need to know as part of my job why equipment sounds better or worse so that I can advise customers effectively. I'm also a musician and I've recorded and mixed using some excellent equipment over time.

Green marker on CDs is bull****, plain and simple. I don't give a **** about any other possible rationale for it. It does not do anything.

Most AV retailers here sell Bose and mid-end B&W. So I'm not sure if that's a reference ;).
I obviously disagree with the quality of your ears :D