| Universal Music Group and Sony Music Put Copy Protection Software on Music CDs |
|
|
| Home Theater News Music - Technology News | |
| Written by Bryan Dailey | |
| Monday, 01 October 2001 | |
|
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.
This new technology will begin on a select number of as yet unnamed CD titles in the U.S. and the company plans on implementing copy protection on several international releases in by the fourth quarter of 2001. Universal hopes to have the protection software on all of their CDs by the end of the first quarter of 2002. To prevent the software from being hacked, Universal has not stated whom they have partnered with to create this technology and has not given any information about how it actually works. With the DVD-Audio watermark code already broken, it will surely be just a matter of time until hackers find a way around this latest anti-piracy measure. In related news, Sony Music Entertainment has announced that the CD version of Michael Jackson's new single "You Rock My World" was distributed to European radio stations with protection software after the song started showing up on the Internet. Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
|
