Sony Remove Copy Protection from CDs

[andygrif]

This from Music Week...

Sony is set to remove its copy-protection technology from all releases as of this November, reports today suggest.

Sony CDs currently allow the listener to copy tracks onto a hardrive once, with subsequent uploads charged via the internet. From November onwards, Sony believes there is little need for copy-protection since consumers have come to understand that piracy is illegal.

Similarly, Sony announced last week that its portable audio players, which will go on sale in Europe before Christmas, will handle any format of MP3, rather than the company's own format.

Very interesting, and somewhat unexpected in my opinion - and by far the most sensible thing the music industry has done in the last 5 years.

.....and in other news....

OD2 parent Loudeye launches its Overpeer anti-piracy software in Europe today, promising 99% effectiveness in preventing the illegal distribution of copyrighted material on peer-to-peer services.

[kronas]

i read this and applauded sony, its more of they cant win and compatability issues rather then them actually stopping people from copying/sharing music.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3712662.stm

also to note:

Last month Sony announced that its own portable audio players, which will soon go on sale in Europe, will be able to use any MP3 files. Previously, Sony's players only handled MP3 files that were converted into the company's own format.

*double standards are seen.

btw cd sales continue to rise.....

[andygrif]

I'd agree with you about the compatability issues. The music industry shot itself in the foot with that one, and began alienating legitimate music loving and buying folk.

I wouldn't bet too much on the can't win argument though. Don't underestimate the Loudeye software, it is very powerful. The record companies are very likely to invest huge sums of money in this and other forthcoming 'p2p blockers'.

With regards to Sony hardware playing MP3 files - I think in reality they had little choice. Sony as an electronics manufacturer is having a really bad time right now - they keep missing some very important boats, such as portable music players (stop flogging the MD horse, it's dead!) and when everyone was opening flat screen factories, Sony ploughed more into CRT's.

They know that to compete with Apple and Microsoft and the raft of other portable music devices, they have to open it right out to other file formats. As long as they keep ATRAC as an option (it is one of the best audio compression formats available) in the same way as Apple has with AAC, then they are on to a winner, but they are in real danger of missing this boat too if they hang round much longer.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by andygrif

stop flogging the MD horse, it's dead

I'd not say so, I love my MD player, and I'd not swap it for a "juke box" style recorder no matter how much storage it had. Saying that I cant wait until I can afford to buy a new Hi-MD, it'll be great to be able to upload recorded tracks to the computer digitally

Originally Posted by dellwear

I cant wait until I can afford to buy a new Hi-MD, it'll be great to be able to upload recorded tracks to the computer digitally

Have you looked at the new "mini HDD" music players?

1" hard drives that can hold 40GB of storage or more are going to blow *disc players out of the water in very short order.

[Shaun]

See I like the flexibility of MD, I can take it out, lend it to a friend, put it in my Hifi, use it to record tutorials etc.

I don't think I'd swap unless there was a way I could get this flexibility

[zoombini]

Originally Posted by Graham

Have you looked at the new "mini HDD" music players?

1" hard drives that can hold 40GB of storage or more are going to blow *disc players out of the water in very short order.

Until they get dropped & the heads crash..

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by dellwear

I'd not say so, I love my MD player, and I'd not swap it for a "juke box" style recorder no matter how much storage it had. Saying that I cant wait until I can afford to buy a new Hi-MD, it'll be great to be able to upload recorded tracks to the computer digitally

Oh don't get me wrong, I love MD as a format. I bought my first one about 12 years ago, and loved it! But it's just not that relevant anymore. Most people don't own enough music to fill 40gb hard drives, so hot-swapping little 40gb drives is not really an issue.

With removable storage (such as SD etc) gaining extra space all the time, there really doesn't need to be another format.

This is a big shift for Sony - let's face it, in the past they've shown astonishing bloody-mindedness when it comes to pushing their own proprietory format in the face of global opposition. Now we just need them to stop fitting thier consumer electronics with those blasted useless MemoryStick slots and put in decent flash memory support instead (preferably SD).

Originally Posted by zoombini

Until they get dropped & the heads crash..

I don't tend to make a habit of dropping expensive bits of kit...!

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Chris T

This is a big shift for Sony - let's face it, in the past they've shown astonishing bloody-mindedness when it comes to pushing their own proprietory format in the face of global opposition. Now we just need them to stop fitting thier consumer electronics with those blasted useless MemoryStick slots and put in decent flash memory support instead (preferably SD).

I quite like Memory Sticks - I don't know if they're technically inferior to SD or not and I don't even know why I like them. The only thing that was annoying was that unless you shelled out for the expensive MagicGate ones you couldn't store music on them - which was the main reason I bought an iPod instead of one of their Memory Stick Network Walkman units.

I guess they make sense for me, I have a Sony digital camera and a Vaio laptop, so it works well. Completely baseless preference I know!

Originally Posted by andygrif

I quite like Memory Sticks - I don't know if they're technically inferior to SD or not and I don't even know why I like them. The only thing that was annoying was that unless you shelled out for the expensive MagicGate ones you couldn't store music on them - which was the main reason I bought an iPod instead of one of their Memory Stick Network Walkman units.

I guess they make sense for me, I have a Sony digital camera and a Vaio laptop, so it works well. Completely baseless preference I know!

I don't have any gripe with the format per se - it's all just flash memory after all (more or less) - I just don't understand why, with so many formats in the marketplace already, they thought there was room for another that adds absolutely nothing, while at the same time takes away a lot (namely portability, seeing as you can't use them anywhere else). It shows either endless confidence in your brand, or endless arrogance, to think that someone is going to buy a shed load of Sony products just so he can transfer his memory sticks between them.

For example, you can now buy a Sony widescreen telly that accepts a memory stick and allows you to play back photos stored on it. Great idea - what a pity that it only works if you have a Sony camera. Sorry guys, I'm just not buying it... (literally).

[altis]

It's called locking you into a brand and has been used for years by all the camera makers with all their different lens mounts.

I agree with Chris. Now all we need to do is educate a few billion other consumers and we'll all be happy

Edit
Bit of background here:
http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/compu...889409,00.html

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Graham

I don't tend to make a habit of dropping expensive bits of kit...!

I've had 3 MD players and the first two have both died because they got dropped and the focus mechanism for the laser never recovered.
I've dropped my iPod regularly from chair level and a couple of times from my hand (in the Apple supplied Case) and it has survived so far.

Sonys decision not to push MD as a PC floppy disc format was also a bit silly IMHO, could have been very versatile.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Sonys decision not to push MD as a PC floppy disc format was also a bit silly IMHO, could have been very versatile.

Saying that the new Hi-MD can be used in this way.