Recording Industry's New Copy-Protection Scheme

Related link: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-7320279-0.html?tag=tp_pr

The newest idea in copy protection being bounced around the heads of those in the recording industry will place two versions of an album on a single disc: one in standard CD form, modified so that it can't be transferred to a computer hard drive, and another in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio digital format.

As much as I think copy-protection only aids the supplier and takes away from the consumer, this is as close to a viable compromise as we'll see out of this group. Unfortunately this still takes away our right to make copies for our own private use, and makes our MP3 players rather useless. Funny, it seems I just ranted about fair use.

Microsoft gets to play the role of Violet if she had inherited Willie Wonka's chocolate factory instead of Charlie, as they are basically handed the title of "standard digital format" by this scheme. If consumers can't create MP3's from their CD's, it'll be hard for the format to retain it's grip on the market. RealNetworks will continue to hold onto the streaming market, but any dreams of getting past online formats will dissolve with consumer acceptance of copy-protected CD's.