While poking around on CNet late tonight, I found this, looks like we're in for another dose of protected Audio CD's, but this time with a twist, available in three flavors!
An Israeli security company Midbar said Tuesday that it has inked a deal with a Bertelsmann-owned CD manufacturer to provide copy protection for albums.
Under the agreement, Bertelsmann's Sonopress will use Midbar's technology, dubbed Cactus Data Shield, to thwart potential pirates attempting to illegally reproduce music.
The technology comes in three versions :- Albums containing...
- - CDS-100, can only be listened to via traditional CD players
- CDS-200, can be played on CD players and PCs.
- CDS-300, can be played on both types of devices; it also lets people download music stored on the CD to a computer hard drive.
This type of protection is bound to be in it's infancy. "Everybody is going to have a bad time experimenting with this stuff because every hacker out there is going to target these guys--(Midbar) or any company that does this stuff," says PJ McNealy a media analyst for Garner. "So they're going to hit some pitfalls along the way."
Last year, Midbar worked with BMG Germany to test secure CDs. After shipping 130,000 copy-protected discs, the label abandoned the project as complaints piled up from customers, with 2-3% failures.
A Midbar representative said the company used the episode "as a learning experience" and that it has since corrected the problem. The company added that it has since released copy-protected CDs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia without any problems.
News source: CNet News
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