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[FYI] Microsoft Introduces CD Copy-Protection 'Fix'



Microsoft Introduces CD Copy-Protection 'Fix'
Sat January 18, 2003 09:29 AM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O announced on Saturday
the introduction of new digital rights software aimed at helping music
labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in
the ailing industry's side.

Stung by the common practice of consumers copying, or "burning," new
versions of a store-bought CD onto recordable CDs, music companies have
invested heavily in copy-protection technologies that have mainly
backfired or annoyed customers.

For example, most copy-proof CDs are designed so that they cannot be
played on a PC, but often this prevents playback on portable devices and
car stereos too.

Last year, some resourceful software enthusiasts cracked Sony Music's
6758.T proprietary technology simply by scribbling a magic marker pen
around the edges of the disc, thus enabling playback on any device.

Microsoft believes it may have come up with a solution. The new software
is called the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit.

It enables music labels to lay songs onto a copy-controlled CD in
multiple layers, one that would permit normal playback on a stereo and a
PC.

$500 MILLION INVESTMENT

The PC layer, laid digitally on the same disc, can be modified by the
content provider, so that they could prevent, for example, burning songs
onto another CD, said David Fester, general manager, digital media
entertainment for Microsoft.

Universal Music EAUG.PA and EMI EMI.L , two of the biggest record labels
in the world, "are very excited about this because it enables the
industry to build a CD with their own protections built in," he said,
speaking at the Midem music conference in southern France.

Microsoft has invested $500 million in digital rights management, or
DRM, for music, Fester said. The Toolkit was co-developed with
technology partners Phoenix-based SunnComm Technologies and France's MPO
International Group, he added.

Microsoft is making a concerted push into DRM, a hotly contested new
field.

Technology and media companies, such as Microsoft, Sony, Philips PHG.AS
and Real Networks RNWK.O , are looking to build a business out of
securing copyright protections across the Internet and other digital
media.

Microsoft has discussed plans for an upcoming operating system,
code-named "Palladium," that will seek to put user controls on all bits
of information they store on a computer document, from medical records
to billing information.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=2068044


Ciao
Kai

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