Copy Protection: Coming Soon to a CD Near You


As MP3-laden iPods continue to fly off the shelves, Arista Records, a subsidiary of BMG, is quietly planning to 'pilot' its CD copy-protection technology on a range of forthcoming US releases, according to c|net.

A J.P. Morgan analyst in a research note says that the company expects major labels to commence volume shipping in May-June of CDs copy-protected by a scheme devised by Sunncomm Technologies.

However, BMG denied the claim, stating that "We are conducting trials only, and we have not announced any plans to go to market with copy-protected CDs."

After Dawn.com suggests that the Sunncomm-encoded CDs will contain Windows Media (WMA) tracks playable on PC CD/DVD-ROM drives, but uncopiable. The CD tracks themselves will be unrippable and both CD tracks and WMA files will not be transferable to PC hard drives or MP3 players. A number of car and personal MP3 players now also support WMA playback.

Apple has maintained a 'fair use' policy on digital music, arguing that it has incorporated copy protection into its iTunes application and the iPod, making it more difficult for users to transfer files between computers. However, in the case of copy-protected CDs, some earlier versions of which damaged slot-loading iMac CD-ROM drives, Apple has said that use of such audio CDs in Macs voids the warranty.

Analysis: We don't believe for a minute BMG's statement that they are "conducting trials only". Nonsense. Trials of the technology? Or cautiously dipping a toe into the copy-protection waters to see what the consumer backlash is like? As After Dawn.com notes, Europe has been living with copy protection for about a year; but the US consumer market reaction may be altogether different. Should the WMA format be widely implemented for copy-protected CDs, this type of rights management would certainly severely restrict 'fair use'.