American Green Inc (ERBB)

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http://www.musicbymailcanada.com/article4.html


Copy Protection & Canadians (Part Deux)
It appears the labels have been listening to consumer complaints about copy
protection. Both Sony and BMG are now experimenting with consumer
friendly copy protection schemes that allow limited private copying from their
discs and links that consumers can give to their friends to download material
they can play for a limited time.

The Sony Situation

"ConnecteD" discs have been introduced in Germany by Sony to test
consumer reaction to this new "second session" technology. It will feature
several incentives including compressed digital files that people can transfer
to their computers and Sony licensed portable digital music players and links
to bonus material and offers that are only made available to people who have
purchased the disc.

Sony believes that discs protected with this new technology will play on
conventional CD players so the major limitations at the moment are the
incompatibilities a person might encounter when they attempt to play the
compressed material they've copied from the discs to their computer or non
Sony licensed media players. The company is currently working on several
software plugins and expect to make them available to the public in the new
years. They also believe they will be able to fix the digital music player
incompatibilities shortly.

The first German release to feature this new technology is Naturally 7's
"What Is It". Sony expects to label all future "ConnecteD" releases in
Germany.

The BMG Situation

BMG subsidiary Arista Records have released their own copy managed
discs in the United States using Phoenix Arizona based SunnComm
Technologies' "MediaMax CD-3" and "Promoplay" technologies. These
discs also feature pre-ripped files in a "second session" but these files are
Windows Media Player compatible, include limited burning to CD and
copying to portable digital media players that are Windows Media
compatible.

Like Sony's "ConnecteD" technology, these discs will also feature bonus
material or links to bonus material. But SunnComm Technologies'
"Promoplay" software will allow individuals to email links to time and copy
limited material to their friends and this company's "License Management
Technology" also limits copying of CDs and DVDs produced with the
technology by reading physical markings found on individual CDs and
DVDs.

The first American release to feature this new technology is Anthony
Hamilton's "Comin' From Where I'm From". Whether this release or future
releases will be labelled as copy protected is unknown.

Overview

Overall i'd say BMG's solution is preferable and more consumer friendly.
But like Sony, the label and SunnComm claim the discs can be played on
"conventional" players. This may or may not include some computerized CD
or DVD players.

This is the major limitation to copy protection. - Many consumers will not
know their player is computerized until they attempt to play an incompatible
disc, though SunnComm Technologies assures it's consumers that CDs
created with their License Management Technology are "100% compatible
with standard audio CDs" and that "playability on any regular CD or DVD
device is assured" And whether these discs will or will not qualify for
certification as "Compact Discs" by Phillips is unknown so this article will be
updated as the new technology and the BMG/Sony merger talks progress.

I believe the industry will co-operate with their consumers in this matter so it
is important to inform them of your concerns regarding these new copy
management technologies and any complications arising from the use of discs
protected by this technology. You may contact them using the contact
information provided on the discs.



UPDATE (May 15th, 2005) : Sony BMG Music Canada has adopted
Sunncomm's "Mediamax" as copy protection on Sloan's "A Sides Win"
compilation. This PC and MAC compatible software program allows
consumers to make copies of individual tracks to their hard drive and some
"compliant devices". The Ipod is unfortunately not yet compatible but a
possible bypass is available according to the program's Official FAQ.

The software also enables people to send time limited tracks to their friends
via email. These TuneShare tracks can be downloaded once from
Sunncomm and played for ten days on an individual PC equiped with the
latest versions of Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. But
software firewall users should note that they should configure their firewall to
allow LaunchCD.exe access to the net ; This program runs from the disc
itself.