New CD Copy-Lock Technology Nears Market

16 Dec, 2004 at 8:54pm ET Article published in Tech

A new kind of copy-protected music CD will likely hit U.S. shelves early next year, as record label SonyBMG experiments with a technology created by British developer First 4 Internet, according to sources familiar with the companies.

Several major music labels have already used a version of the British company’s technology on prerelease compact discs distributed for review and other early-listening purposes, including on recent albums from Eminem and U2.

The releases for the retail market, expected early in 2005, will be the first time the Sony music label issues copy-protected CDs in the U.S. market, although the company’s other divisions have done so in other regions. BMG, Sony’s new corporate sibling, has been more aggressive, with a handful of protected CDs released last year.

A SonyBMG representative declined to comment on the plans. First 4 Internet Chief Executive Officer Mathew Gilliat-Smith confirmed that his company plans to release a consumer version of its technology with one major label in the United States, but he declined to identify the label.

Source: ZDNet

Comments

16 Dec 2004 ~ 11:49pm EMT I don't see how this could possibly work in theory. The article doesn't describe the method of protection well enough.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 12:07am entropy Hmph. Who cares? It'll be cracked within a week of its release. They oughta just give up. :shakehead
17 Dec 2004 ~ 11:55am peupty If someone out there can make it, someone out there can break it.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 2:51pm Pink Pirates will always be able to get an illegal copy somehow. This only hurts honest people who need to make a copy to use and store the original CD.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 4:16pm Linc

entropy wrote:

It'll be cracked within a week of its release.

I think you're being generous on the timeframe. I'd say two days. The person cracking it might need to catch a nap in the middle.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 5:47pm entropy Ah, touche (I'm too lazy to find the accented characters...). Happens all the time. Either that or it'll be cracked before it's even released, which is a good possibility.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 6:19pm Thrax éééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééé
17 Dec 2004 ~ 7:00pm TheSmJ If it could be listened to on standard CD players, it could be copied. It might not be a "digital-to-digital" copy, but it would still be good enough.
17 Dec 2004 ~ 7:07pm entropy

Thrax wrote:

éééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééééé

Awesome. Now I have one for every day of my life that I'd actually need one!
17 Dec 2004 ~ 8:59pm RWB Is it a new encryption, or perhaps some kind of new disk? Kinda like some keys to cars that have the electric signature or whatever, meaning that to break these new CD's you'd need the hardware to be able to read the CD? Of course that's not going to be the case if current CD players can read it.
18 Dec 2004 ~ 9:58am kanezfan i want to learn how to crack these things so i can personally enjoy the satisfaction of sticking my two middle fingers at the screen.
18 Dec 2004 ~ 11:35am mmonnin If it can be read on a computer it CAN BE copied. All the program has to do is sniff out the data and write the data someplace else while being played. Thats all there is to it.
18 Dec 2004 ~ 1:44pm EMT If any old CD player can play it, the digital data is there and it can't be actually encrypted. What we've seen so far is some ridiculous autorun trick. Yes, one could digitize an analog signal of it, but I'm sure one doesn't have to (that defeats the purpose of digital music even though people do it sometimes).