The pits and lands themselves do not directly represent the zeros and ones of

binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a change

from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a
series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten zeros
between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is
decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the
disc, and then reversing the cross-interleaved ReedSolomon coding, finally
revealing the raw data stored on the disc. These encoding techniques
(defined in the Red Book) were originally designed for CD Digital Audio, but
they later became a standard for almost all CD formats (such as CD-ROM).