A while back we reported about music company BMG releasing a new
copy-protection in the U.S. on a music album called "Comin' From Where
I'm From" by R&B singer Anthony Hamilton. Now, thanks to
GristyMcFisty, we can read some more information
on this new copy-protection over at Yahoo! News:
 When consumers pop Hamilton's CD into their stereos, they should
notice no difference from any other CD. But when they load it into their
computers, an interactive box will appear on the screen that shows
Hamilton's picture, a list of 12 songs and several options for users to
click on.
One option allows the consumer to copy all of
Hamilton's songs from the CD onto the computer and portable devices, such
as MP3 players (but not yet Apple's iPod). Once in the computer, the
software lets the consumer copy the songs on up to three CDs. There is
nothing to prevent those CDs from being recopied, though the next
generation of the software will include such copy
protection.
Another option allows the consumer to copy Hamilton's
songs into an e-mail that can be sent to others via the Internet, where
the music can be downloaded to a hard drive for 10 days before
expiring.
"I think there is a market where the virtual world and
the physical world can peacefully coexist," said Jordan Katz, senior vice
president for sales at Arista, which spent the past two years testing the
new CD format. "As long as there is a physical product, and there will be
for a very long time, I think it's the right thing to make sure we protect
artists' rights and at the same time be very, very conscious of what the
general public and consumers want out of
music." |
Personally I find it rather silly that the article already
mentions, in some way, that the current version of the copy-protection doesn't
work. Since the software allows the disc to be copied the 'back-ups' can be
recopied again and thus the protection is useless. Of course, most protections
will be cracked sooner or later but this is a bit too soon methinks.
On the other hand though, the technology might be
improved in the future to prevent recopying and I personally think
that if we do get copy-protected audio discs, it's a good thing that companies
are trying to make the protections as flexible as possible. Read the complete
article here.
Source: Yahoo! News
