Sony Music Testing New Copy Protection

RandyOo writes "According to this Reuters article, Sony Music is about to start testing a new type of 'copy protection' in Germany. It looks like they'll be releasing multi-sessioned discs with normal audio in the first session, and compressed, DRM'ed music files in the second session, as well added 'extras', including access to exclusive online content. The article explains that the disc's audio can still be copied, and there's a hilarious quote at the end by a BMG spokesman: "All copy-protections can be hacked, but if (we) give people what they are asking for in terms of value, they won't go out and steal it. It's called trusting the consumer." "

Comments

Re: Hilarious?

[Black Parrot]

> Trust has to be earned.

> Judging by the vast amount of MP3's available on Kazaa, I see no reason why they shouldn't trust people who have shown time and time again that they'll happily make copyrighted material available to everyone for free.

You missed the other half of the formula, "if (we) give people what they are asking for in terms of value".

Your cynicism may be justified, but the full formula hasn't been tested for about a generation now. (I refer not just to the subjective quality of the music, but also to the price of the media. CDs' steep pricing was originally justified on the basis that they were retooling the industry and the output was limited, but curiously the prices never did come down. Except of course among counterfeiters, who can sell them for $1/disc and still make a killing.)