Subject: The Pen is Mightier than the Copy Protection...
Another one of those hard to believe stories:
Major music labels, including Sony and Universal Music, have begun selling the "copy-proof" discs as a means of tackling the rampant spread of music piracy, which they claim is eating into sales.
The new technology aims to prevent consumers from copying, or "burning," music onto recordable CDs or onto their computer hard drives, which can then be shared with other users over file-sharing Internet services such as Kazaa or Morpheus MusicCity.
Sony's proprietary technology, deployed on many recent releases, works by adding a track to the copy-protected disc that contains bogus data.
Because computer hard drives are programmed to read data files first, the computer will continuously try to play the bogus track first. It never gets to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc.
The effect is that the copy-protected disc will play on standard CD players but not on computer CD-ROM drives, some portable devices, and even some car stereo systems.
Technology buffs immediately cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.
Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for using "high-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.
"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."
Sony did not immediately return calls seeking comment on whether they will take steps against the marker industry.
