"...but the only thing I have seen came from USA today..."
Collin: alot of those articles have been posted, at least on that 'other MB:'
www.latimes.com/business/...ines-bu...
New York Times:
The New York Times ©
Sony BMG has equipped music CDs such as this one with software that restricts copying by
consumers. The company
has released more than two dozen copy-restricted titles this year.
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New software may sink music pirates
Sony BMG rolls out CDs that restrict copying
By Jeff Leeds, The New York Times
June 20, 2005
The world's second-biggest music corporation is rolling out its latest answer to digital piracy.
The company, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which is owned by Sony and Bertelsmann,
is outfitting a broad selection
of its latest CDs with software that restricts copying.
Advertisement
The company's use of the software, which is designed to limit consumers to making no more
than three copies of a CD,
reflects an effort to alter a format that is two decades old and contains music that can be
readily copied and digitally
distributed.
With the release of more than two dozen copy-restricted titles this year, including albums on
sale last week from the
Backstreet Boys, the Foo Fighters and George Jones, -Sony BMG is placing a bigger bet
on the technology than other
companies have, particularly in the United States, the world's biggest market.
Sony BMG, which is second in size to Vivendi Universal-owned Universal Music Group,
and the two other major record
companies have been releasing CDs with anti-copying software in other countries.
But executives at Sony BMG's rivals have been reluctant to release titles with the restrictive
software in the United States.
They said the software was too easily defeated and that working versions did not allow
consumers to transfer music to
portable devices and music players as freely as the industry would like.
The companies have been pressing Apple Computer to amend its software to make it
compatible with the tools used to
restrict copying.
The restrictive software Sony BMG is using on CDs - like it did earlier this year with Stand
Up by the Dave Matthews
Band - is not compatible with Apple's popular iPod. Owners of Apple computers using
-iPods are able to copy and
transfer music on the restricted CDs freely; the restrictions block PC owners from
transferring music to their -iPods. But
it does work with computers using Microsoft's Windows software.
Thomas Hesse, president for global digital business at Sony BMG, said Apple could "flick a
switch" to amend its
programming to work with the restrictive software.
"It's just a proprietary decision by Apple to decide whether to play along or not," Hesse
said. "I don't know what more
waiting we have to do. We think we need to move this forward. Time is ticking, infringement
of intellectual property is
happening all over, and we've got to put a stop to it I think."
Apple declined to comment.
Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner G2, said the move by Sony BMG "looks to me like a
very interesting public
negotiation."
In fact, consumers requesting help through a Web site set up by Sony BMG to explain the
technology receive an e-mail
message telling how PC users can work around the CD's software to unlock the music files
and make them available for
unlimited copying and transferring.
Music executives say the restricted CDs the music industry has released - most prominently
BMG's sale of Velvet
Revolver's Contraband last year - have resulted in virtually no consumer complaints. But
analysts say that may be
because consumers still have such an easy time breaking the restrictions or acquiring the
music for free on unrestricted
online file-sharing networks.
Still, Hesse said the introduction of limits on CDs would set the stage for record companies
to establish new business
models.
For instance, Hesse said, a record company using restrictive software might be able to
charge a premium for the early
online release of a forthcoming album.
Hesse said the restricted CDs are "a strong educational tool to communicate to consumers
that there is a limit of what
they're really allowed to do with the intellectual property that they have just acquired."
