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Sony Tests New Copy Protection on CDs

By David Worthington, BetaNews

May 31, 2005, 6:58 PM

Sony BMG has begun to wrap a new digital rights management (DRM) scheme onto select CDs. The copy-protection technology, developed by UK-based anti-piracy specialist First4Internet, has shipped with 1 million discs since March.

The solution provided by First4Internet deploys Windows Media Audio (WMA) on discs to allow three primary copies in a process Sony refers to as "sterile burning." Because of the DRM, this "sterile" backup copy cannot be duplicated. Although the perceptive may be that this type of casual copying matters very little, Sony executives have taken issue.

"The casual piracy, the school yard piracy, is a huge issue for us. 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," said Thomas Hesse, President of global digital business for Sony BMG.

In the past year, Sony's use of DRM has been fickle. At the beginning of the year, Sony cast aside its longstanding doggedness against music copying and turned an about-face away from DRM by admitting that a refusal to support MP3 its portable music players may have cost it the market.

Ken Kutaragi, President of Sony Computer Entertainment said that pressure from the company's movie and music units discouraged the company from producing iPod-like devices.

The company also claimed that it would be ditching copy-control CDs by November 2004, stating that increased consumer awareness that copying CDs was illegal was reason enough to scale back its DRM effects.

However, Sony has reaffirmed its support for DRM with special attention being paid to "fair use." Fair use is the balance between the copyright holder's rights and a customer's rights to copy, modify, display or reproduce that content. By using First4Internet technology, Sony's feels that it is closer to its objective of striking a balance that grants customers their rights while protecting its content.

But in doing so, Sony has robbed Peter to pay Paul. The WMA-based solution permits a number of "sterile" copies to be made, but those copies are not compatible with Apple's popular iPod music player.

Sony has also enlisted SunnComm, another DRM vendor, using its MediaMax with over 5.5 million shipped CDs. Before it began shipping CDs with "sterile burning" in March, Sony only used First4Internet DRM for prerelease materials.

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By cousinkix1953

edited Jun 2, 2005 - 5:50 AM

NERO will burn those DRM encoded WMA files if you belong to one of the suscription services such as NAPSTER or YAHOO. I figured out almost immediately how to defeat their copy protection scheme. And they did it for me.

You need only a few CD-RWs and some brains...

Score: 0

By malcolmsuperstar

edited Jun 1, 2005 - 9:02 PM

The way I see it, I have bought cassettes, 8 tracks and those Vinyl 33 & 45 way back when. I have paid for those songs.

The way I look at it. I paid for songs that I have purchase to only see them disintegrated because of the music industries poor quality in Hardware that they came on.

So when I Use Kazaa Resurrection, I download all those songs MP3 that I had purchase long ago.

If they don't like it too bad!

On another hand, one can take a song that’s been copyrighted with a newer encryption, play it using a real-time recorder (software) that works with your audio card and convert it from digital to pure analogue to digital again with no loss in data or distortion.

If that’s the avenue I have to take, I will and I will share it with the world to those who have previously purchase those same songs from cassette/vinyl/8 tracks/older cd.

That’s my 3 cents worth to the RIAA who are reading this at this moment.

Remember American Government and RIAA, you will never over rule the CRTC of Canada.

RIAA, run to the courts and let it ride to the Supreme of Canada. Many teams of attorneys and Auditors say your on deep water in Canada and easy to sink.
Watch how you sail our waters. The world will see how the Canadian Government will sink your ship!

In Precedence, in time, other countries will follow the rules and guidelines of Canadian Radio & Telivision Commission (CRTC) to the movie and music industry of America.

Your money is losing its Value and Power throughout the world.

Score: 0

By streaky

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 6:37 PM

Who said I wanted to copy cd's? In an obvious mis-understanding of the technologies involved sony have done it again..

Firstly isobuster probably rips them with no hassle, secondly they like probably never factored-in linux, and thirdly if it ever comes down to this, it's not hard to make a decent quality analog rip.

save your cash and get on with your life sony.

Score: 0

By aguyinanaheim

edited Jun 1, 2005 - 10:34 AM

I wonder how the artists who have signed with Sony to distribute their music feels about Sony dictating how the (prospective) purchaser of the CD may, or may not use, copy or transfer the music which is contained on the CD will considering that some may decide (like myself) simply not to buy any CD that Sony plans on selling?
While I feel that the artist deserves the royalities due from sales of each CD, I will not tolerate a multi-million dollar company frobidding me to transfer it to a any device I chose to listen to the music I purchased, including my I-Pod, Creative Ultra, Netgear music player, or (because I scratch my CD's on a regular basis) copying the original to another CD, thus keeping the originial in prestine condition.
Having said that, Sony can be assured that if a song is distributed by Sony that I want, I WILL add the song to my collection, which is a shame because I prefer to purchase my CD's and use them at my discretion... it is so much easier
I hope Sony finds itself overstocked with unsold CD's, and understocked on artists, but I am sure managment at Sony will have plenty of food on their table, no matter what the ultimate price may be to their artists.

Score: 0

By PhoenixPath

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 12:49 PM

How they (the artists) feel doesn't even enter into it. They have no rights to their own music under Sony's contract. They are simply their to fulfill ocntractual obligations and no more.

Then again, who needs rights when you get paid ungodly sums of money in perpetuity for a few days work? I don't, and won't ever feel sorry for them.

Score: 0

By PhoenixPath

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 9:24 AM

What you ALL fail to realize, is that this is not intended to stop YOU from being a pirate-a$$ cheap-skate. It's to stop the casual pirates, the one's who don't really know they're pirating.

Those who know it, will always find ways to do it. Duh. Everyone knows it, Sony does as well. Hell, even the Big Evil(tm) knows it.

They CAN, howeevr, put a stop to Grandma, and little timmy. That's what the article is about. Try reading it.

Score: 0

By ArabianNight

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 8:57 AM

Its only a matter of time b4 this one gets cracked too. I dunno y they dont just realize that. Maybe there buying for time?? who knows.

Score: 0

By M0f0

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 7:08 AM

Sony's previous CP could be overridden using a 99-cent marker. Although this won't be as easy to bypass, I'm sure that it'll be cracked in a month at most.

Score: 0

By ogman

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 7:06 AM

Ha! I wonder how long it will take to crack this one, and if it will take more than a felt marker to do so. Personally, I buy all my music "pre-cracked." I download it from my music service (Rhapsody), burn it to a disk and then tranfer it to any device I want to. Why anyone still buys CDs is a mystery to me.

Score: 0

By roj

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 6:24 AM

Sony:

here are some facts of life.

1) All copy protection can and will be broken - period.

2) Users have a right to backup their property in any unlimited fashion they see fit - period.

3) The entertainment industry will be forced to realize this eventually, at least in part by the waste of the massive amounts of resources they plow into fruitless efforts such as this (see point 1 for why they're fruitless).

Period.

I'm no kid and *I* won't buy a CD that I can only rip three times, especially with WMA filth involved.

Score: 0

By Portal3

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 10:03 AM

"2) Users have a right to backup their property in any unlimited fashion they see fit - period"
In Australia we don't have a "fair-use clause" to allow us to backup any copyrighted material. The only exception is for "scientfic" and maybe "educational" purposes, but even then, the average user isn't allowed to backup what they buy.
Copyright Law is going under review this year, with "backing up" being considered as a part of an alleged "fair-use clause", BUT in 2007 when the FTA-US-AU takes affect, we'll be prohibited from removing "copy protection" via means of "decrypting". So even if we were allowed to backup, we wouldn't be allowed to decrypt material we buy then back it up. (this might clash with Sony's process of distributing DRM-WMA since decryption would be a part of it's 3 time backup method).
For the moment copying is *pretty much* illegal.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 8:50 AM

Really? I was under the impression you were only entitled to ONE hard-copy backup, not 'in any unlimited fashion'...

Score: 0

By ogman

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 7:07 AM

Amen, brother! Well said!

Score: 0

By Portal3

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 2:24 AM

Great Idea. Although implementing it on an unsecure computer (not TCPA certified) would render this useless as far as ripping is conserned. If these CDs even work in standard CD players then simply connecting your HiFi to a computer, recording the album and time-splitting the tracks via CUEs would prove to be a viable way around this DRM.

This may result in "less" sales as what kid would want to buy a CD they can only copy three times? Bad habits have become tradition. It'd just mean this DRM would be bringing children closer together in "piracy" by using such a method I mentioned and distributing copies of those.

If you can't use them in old cd players (which I'd find hard to believe since you may as well use miniCDs and distribute WMA-DRM for $5 a piece) and only on computers then the easiest way would be to hook one PC up to another and rip the CDs via the audio channel.

I don't endorse or condone "piracy" in any way or form. If somethings going to be done, do it properly.

Score: 0

By Ramhound

posted May 31, 2005 - 11:51 PM

I am not an active buyer of music cds for the simple reason I don't listen today's music. I am not into anything produced today except for a few people, which I still even if I like them, don't support or even listen to ( radio is enough ).

Anways the purpose of this comment, is well, to say something I believe in. The industry that has such tight controls on digital rights, will have to change or it will just go away. I believe the people that create the songs should get paid, and awhile the producers will always want a part in the money, they are going to have to figure a middle ground to these issues.

The internet today is not what people thought it would be 10 years ago. But the same thing happen when it was small word of mouth type connections to questionable acts.

So the companies have to connect to this change, and they have to adapt and allow the customers to buy the product for a smaller price. Thirty years ago, issues like this were still a problem, the difference is the music industry was a different animal.

So how I see it, we the people have to offer us the change. We have to make the difference with our own companies that do something different. The make better products, with more content, and better support. We have to offer better way to get our product, but still make a profit and of course protect the rights of everyone involved in our product. Only then will the entire industry change, and allow the future generation of customers have what they want, content they can afford and enjoy at the sametime.

Score: 0

By kmashraf

edited May 31, 2005 - 10:30 PM

With the digital revolution, remember it ? There are some fundamental changes that have taken place in the supply and demand scenario. Most people around the globe are still effectively living in the 20th Century. Specially the mega corps. What this means is that they have to sell their stuff cheap. This was true of the audio cassettes, remember that ! Once the companies started selling original audio cassettes cheap, the piracy of it vanished. So long as they keep ripping people off they are gonna have to deal with copying. If it is possible for a so called pirate to make copies dirt cheap the same should be possible for these sicko companies. So people don't let these dinosaurs con you into all this crap about copyright and DRM. We are in the middle of a revolution and a lot of these dinosaurs are gonna fall. That is inevitable

Score: 0

By Leviathan Deep

edited May 31, 2005 - 9:32 PM

I don't think copyrights should be taken lightly but it's vital we remember their original purpose. That original purpose was not to make massive distribution companies capable of bilking the supplier and consumer of their goods. Yet that is what they've done since their inception. They will use all loopholes and all they can acheive to maximize profits and minimize expenses, this is not inherently bad unless you do it at the exploitation of others. The music industry has had the capacity to manhandle artists with their monopolistic powers and then give an album to the market that has one or two hit songs on it and the rest of it filled with crap. They were likely the ones that taught ol' Gates about the concept of bundling. They excuse asking 15-25 dollars for one or two good songs simply because they are nestled in a bundle of other filler songs. I don't agree with the outright dismisal of copyright protection but the industry set themselves up for this long ago "what goes up must come down". When the virtuous folks in Hollyweird can manage to give us dvd's for less than ten bucks and the soundtracks still cost in excess of $15 someone has some serious problems in logic. If the music industry attempted to be ethical in more matters than just their stringent self righteous litigatory rampage they might have more of my sympathy.

Score: 0

By jdvarney

edited May 31, 2005 - 9:03 PM

I consider my CDs to be an archival medium. I rip them for my iPod and store them. If I buy a CD and can't burn it, it will be the last one I buy from that studio. What's the next step? A drive to prevent more than one person from listening to the same CD?

Score: 0

By kishfy

edited Jun 1, 2005 - 12:43 AM

I also buy the CD for archival purposes and listen to the ripped format on my iPod, which is connected to my car stereo. I will never buy a CD with copy protection that does not allow me to rip it to my iPod. Furthurmore, CD's contain, uncompressed WAV files. Why would I want to pay for compressed WMA's on a disk when I could just download better sounding AAC files from the iTunes music store. Bad move Sony! You will loose my business and I buy lot's of CD's

Score: 0

By matttttty

edited May 31, 2005 - 9:04 PM

If it's easier to get music via p2p download than it is buy and rip to my ipod, you have just lost more money than you will gain via copy protection.

Make music more accessible, not less, and you might just survive in this brave new world.

Score: 1

By nate

posted May 31, 2005 - 9:52 PM

Great point. This is the same problem the RIAA faced before the advent of music stores such as iTunes. If they make it hard for consumers to do what they want with their music, they will go back to using P2P applications. Plus, restricting CDs is just going to train consumers that DRM is a "bad thing" and not help to encourage growth of legal services. Bad move all around.

Score: 0

By BklynKid

posted May 31, 2005 - 7:37 PM

Sure. Don't let little Tod from the 6th grade make copies of his new 50 Cent CD. I don't care. As a matter of fact, let everyone of these "schoolyard pirates" pay the price for my "real" piracy (the word "real" to be used very losely).

Score: 0

By sjc001

posted May 31, 2005 - 7:35 PM

If you can hear it you can copy it. It may not be as high a quality, but it'll be good enough.... Copy protection is a joke.

Score: 0

By cwk

edited May 31, 2005 - 9:09 PM

I guarantee this new protection will be cracked, and available in cd-ripping app within a month or two...no real set back :)

Score: 0

By jbaltz69

posted Jun 1, 2005 - 12:02 AM

It's probably already cracked...

Score: 0

By broomop

edited Jun 2, 2005 - 10:53 AM

they are just wasting money theres nothing you can do to stop piracy period.. spend your money on somthing better Sony.. like your PS3 :P

Score: 0

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