Sony develops a new kind of copy protection

Sony is right now working on new ways to hinder users from making digital copies of its albums. Today you can bypass pretty much any copy protection and get a digital copy of your new album, I.e. mp3s. The old formats allows you to convert the protected files into unprotected wave-files and then convert them again to mp3s. With the new system a copy of the disc will be DRM-protected via Microsoft’s WMA-format.

Although Sony has not decided whether you should be allowed to make more than oen copy, of you should be allowed to copy the copy at all. It does say however that it is not the copying itself it wants to stop but the spreading of mp3s to users that otherwise would have bought the album.

There are at least a few problem with this. First we have the compatibility. Many have portable or stationairy DVD/CD-players where the copy protection will make the disc unplayable. According to First4Internet CEO Mathew Gilliat-Smith the new discs will follow Sony Philips CD-standard and should work with all players.

A big headache for Mac-users however is that Apple hasn’t licensed its FairPlay-DRM to be used with copy protected discs. I.e. a Mac-user will not be able to transfer tracks from the new album to its iPod.

Source: CDRInfo