savannah used our newssubmit to tell us that Sony and Philips have announced new portable players which the music companies are afraid will increase the piracy.
Sony's system is based on a portable CD player which handles the ATRAC format (the same as used in MiniDiscs) and makes it possible to store 30 hours of music on a CD-R according to Sony.
Philips will release a portable DVD player which handles MP3 files and makes it possible to store 100 hours of music on one disc.
The music industry this week condemned the launch of two recording systems that will let people copy between 30 and 100 hours of music onto a single disc. The launches, from electronics giants Sony and Philips, are being seen as a potential pirates' charter. |
"It's a no-brainer. Anything which lets people pirate more music like this has to be very bad news for the music industry," says a spokesman for Britain's record industry trade association, the BPI.
The launches come as the global music industry suffers its worst downturn since the CD format was introduced. Free online downloading and disc copying have been widely blamed for the slump in sales.
Now the question is what method Sony recommends you to use for copying your CD from Sony Music protected with Sony DADCs Key2Audio to your Sony Consumer Electronics portable player?
You can read the whole story here.
Source: NewScientist
