Macrovision and SunnComm tempts Apple to work with them

July 20, 2004

Both Macrovision and SunnComm are aiming to get Apple to work with them on their upcoming CD copy protection system due next year. This protection system allows a limited number of copies to be made of the original audio disc, but each copy is protected to prevent further copying or ripping into unprotected audio files. What both companies wish to do is also allow music to be extracted from the CD in a protected AAC format suitable for playback on an iPod. If Apple joins, it would mean a new source of
income for them from royalties made on producing each copy protected
CD worldwide.

One problem both face is that if they replace their existing WMA DRM 2nd session system with DRM protected AAC tracks, it would make iPod fans happy, but upset WMA player fans. What Macrovision is working on now is eliminate the 2nd DRM protected audio track session and develop a software converter that will encode the original audio from the CD into either one of three DRM formats (AAC, WMA or Sony's Atrack3), but prevent users from ripping tracks into an unprotected format that could be leaked on to the web.

The two big US copy protection specialists, Macrovision and SunnComm are both touting the idea that they need to become Apple iPod compliant and they might need the help of the big record labels to twist Apple's arm into helping them.

Macrovision CEO Bill Krepnick when interviewed by Faultline two weeks ago hinted heavily at this, and now CNET this week has talked to both companies, each saying they are actively working on including iPod compatibility in their next generation of CD copy protection systems.

Macrovision made it clear to us that its next generation technology, due early next year, would also transfer its protection to any burned CDs so that those CDs could not be used as a source to copy onto file sharing networks. At present CD copy protection exists only on the original CD.

It is clear that both companies were deliberately leaking to the press in order to get their message across to Apple that they need to work together. Apple clearly isn't so sure and has not yet responded to the overtures from the two companies.

Once Apple realizes that it may have a new revenue stream, based on a royalty payment from the cutting of every CD in the world, it may become more interested in co-operating with the CD protection specialists. The CNET piece cited SunnComm saying that 80 per cent of its complaints are now asking about why consumers can't copy their CDs to their iPods, a subject of considerable frustration.

But the problems won't go away if the record labels switch allegiance to Apple AAC format from the Microsoft WMA formats that they currently use to offer PC copies of music on protected PCs.

At the moment an unprotected audio-formated CD, when copied onto a PC, will end up in MPEG4's audio format, which is the Appleinspired AAC.

Read the full article here.

If Apple does join in with Macrovision and SunnComm, it would likely mean the end of the loop hole where consumers can record iTunes music to CD and rip the recorded tracks back into MP3 format.

One thing that both SunnComm and Macrovision need to consider is adding Macintosh support to their copy protection system as iTunes originally started off as a very successful Macintosh-only music download service and Mac fans would certainly expect their recorded CDs to playback in their Mac. It will also be interesting to see if their protection will overcome the shift-key loophole on PCs.

Source: The Register - eCommerce