Universal Music Group, the largest record company in the world, has just announced they plan to begin issuing CDs in October that contain special software to prevent them from being digitally copied or "ripped" into computer files. This means that you’ll no longer be able to make personal backup copies if you own these discs, or create MP3 files to store on your computer. A huge promotional push has been put on by Apple to encourage people to put "rip, mix and burn" music on your computer but it seems the record companies world prefer that you only do so with your own original material and not their copywritten discs.

The audio format war has heated up at the end of the Summer of 2001, the lines being drawn in the sand however industry icons think that the final battle will be waged this holiday season.

Beating Napster and other major labels to the punch, visionary musician and now entrepreneur Peter Gabriel has a new subscription based service for Internet music downloads. The service is called "Womad Digital Channel," and will give users a package of 40 tracks for approximately $7.20 every month beginning in September.

The recently-introduced Macrovision ‘SafeAudio’ system for copy-protecting CDs may have already been broken, according to at least one European cracker site. The new system, which is intended to prevent the copying, or "ripping" of Audio CDs on a computer, allegedly does not affect audio playback on regular CD players, or even on the CD drives of PCs.

The AV industry is buzzing about Dolby’s new Pro Logic II technology which makes legacy content (from CDs, MP3s, VHS etc…) sound like 5.1-channel sources. Pro Logic II is a new matrix decoder developed by Jim Fosgate and licensed by Dolby. It offers stereo, full-bandwidth surrounds, and superior sound quality compared to original Pro Logic decoding.