eConsultant

Sony BMG tests technology to limit CD burning

Sony - the company that lost the MP3 Player race to iPod because it insisted on using bad music management software (you had to check-in and check-out songs from your own player!) - just misses the whole point.

1. If you let people burn once, they'll rip it back and you are back to square one.

2. Dumbing down the word "piracy" to include casual school yard CD exchange between the best potential music customers for life is a symptom of a company in fundamental denial of the way people listen and exchange music.

Reuters News Article

Sony BMG tests technology to limit CD burning

Sun May 29, 2005 10:11 PM ET
NEW YORK (Billboard) - As part of its mounting U.S. rollout of content-enhanced and copy-protected CDs, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is testing technology solutions that bar consumers from making additional copies of burned CD-R discs."

Since March the company has released at least 10 commercial titles -- more than 1 million discs in total -- featuring technology from U.K. anti-piracy specialist First4Internet that allows consumers to make limited copies of protected discs, but blocks users from making copies of the copies.

The concept is known as "sterile burning." And in the eyes of Sony BMG executives, the initiative is central to the industry"s efforts to curb casual CD burning.

"The casual piracy, the school yard piracy, is a huge issue for us," says Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG. "Two-thirds of all piracy comes from ripping and burning CDs, which is why making the CD a secure format is of the utmost importance."

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