I saw this one coming.



Anti-swap CD hits the racks
Tue Sep 23, 6:42 AM ET

By Mike Snider USA TODAY

In his new album, Coming From Where I'm From, Anthony Hamilton reflects on his roots and the directions in which they have led him. His CD, meanwhile, offers a glimpse of the direction the music industry is taking to prevent rampant piracy.


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The soulful singer's Arista debut, which arrives in stores today, may look like a traditional CD. But it's the first of an expected wave of CDs intended to keep listeners from swapping songs on the Net.


The disc has two sets of music tracks: one set of "encrypted" songs that can be handled by CD players but cannot be ripped on computers, and a duplicate set of tracks in the Windows Media format. These can be downloaded from the CD to a computer and then transferred to portable devices or recorded to home CDs.


But these "secure digital" tracks cannot be played on another computer should they be uploaded to the Net. "The whole concept was to create a legally licensed structure" for computer use of recorded music, says William Whitmore of SunnComm, which designed the anti-copy technology.


The company two years ago released the first protected CD, Charley Pride's A Tribute to Jim Reeves.That disc, which simply encrypted the tracks so they couldn't be copied by PCs, and other early efforts met stiff consumer resistance.


Record labels are hoping this CD will prove more acceptable because it lets fans use music with their own devices and share with friends, but not with millions of others, says Nathaniel Brown of BMG, which distributes albums on the Arista label. "This is the first generation that allows the kind of personal use that we have deemed appropriate," he says.


In CD players, the disc plays normally. When put into a Macintosh (news - web sites) or Windows PC, the disc installs software to keep the music secure, and an interactive menu pops up with several links, including one to copy some or all of the Windows Media tracks to your hard drive.


Another link allows you to send e-mail to friends so they can download a copy of the song playable for 10 days. "You're sharing music, but you are not giving it away forever," Whitmore says.


Sunncomm is talking to other music labels, as is competitor Macrovision. BMG plans to release more protected CDs this year, though it's making no further announcements yet, Brown says.


Many Net swappers "think it is their God-given right to steal music," Whitmore says. "They don't know any better. We have to teach them."

Good thing you can buy a stereo component CD burner, make a copy on that instead of using your PC, then upload your "anti-swap" music. That would work, right?

Anxiety said:

Right. Too bad the recording industry thinks they are smarter than the rest of us. If I truly want to download music, I will find a way.

Well, I think the industry has dismissed stereo component CD burners as obsolete, which they largely are, but they do still serve a very good purpose, heh heh heh..