What's the problem here?
"A high-powered new generation of digital music players is heading for Christmas stockings. Almost simultaneously, the major record labels are releasing their catalogs online after years of stalling."
"Unfortunately, the two campaigns might as well be happening on different planets. People using hot new music devices such as Apple Computer's iPod or Compaq Computer's iPaq will not be able to play music from the Pressplay and MusicNet subscription services, which for the first time will make songs legally available online."
Companie(s) that develop anti piracy are not on the same page
"The disconnect speaks volumes about the fragmented state of the so-called digital rights management industry, which provides anti-piracy technology."
"The different companies "haven't gotten on the same page to reconcile their business models," said P.J. McNealy, a research analyst for GartnerG2, a division of Gartner. "This market won't take off until there is a standard" way of protecting content against copying, he said."
Again the question is "Will It Work"?
""Why (pay for music) when I can get it free?" asked Rochell Lopez, a 28-year-old San Francisco resident interviewed at a local Circuit City store. She said she currently listens to MP3s downloaded from Morpheus, a post-Napster file-swapping service. "The reason why I liked Napster was because there was a lot of bootleg stuff that you can't find, like live shows that I know the record companies are not going to put out."
Do this bother you?
"These companies are talking consistently to hardware device manufacturers and chipmakers. Many hardware makers actually have support for Microsoft's or InterTrust's anti-piracy technology built into their players."
"But the major label-backed subscription services still won't let music be transferred to those devices. The reason is technical: While MP3 players can decode audio files, most aren't sophisticated enough to keep track of times and dates. This means that the players have no way to support the expiration dates for songs distributed through subscription services."
I guess these companie(s) that produce the digital music players will learn the hard way that what was secure in the morning may not be so secure by noontime.
That is a given.
Source: cnet.news..com
