Seraf,
AT&T ready for regulation that favors commercial artists by maintaining copyright regulations using new technology by certain companies we just may know a little bit about here on the ACTV thread. Think about this idea, ACTV helps in preventing piracy saving companies billions!
Excuse typo's this was textbridged and I fixed it the best I could.
Steve, now this is reading between the lines.
Bruce
SCG
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Interactive Week Vol.6 #22 May 31, 1999
AT&T, Partners Work On Secure Music Delivery
By Karen J. Bannan
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, was
The battle cry that AT&T, BMG Enter-
nt, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Universal Music Group let
out last week when they announced a
plan to collaborate on a new secure
music and media distribution system.
The delivery system cements
AT&T's commitment to using its
broadband pipe for delivery of
advanced services. AT&T is due to
expand on its plan later this year when
it announces a technology that will link
personal digital assistants with the tele-
vision set, turning PDAs into super
remote controls, said Tony Werner,
executive vice president of engineering
and technical operations at AT&T.
Using the technology; which will be
embedded in TV set-top boxes,
AT&T (www.att.com) will help users
send and receive e-mail, files and other
media - including music - to and
from their PDAs using infrared tech-
nology; Werner said. It also could
include the new proposed technology;
Electronic Media Distribution (EMD).
EMD, expected to be the basis for a
product that may be available in the
1999 holiday season, is an open plat
form standard that will let content
providers send music files that will be
flilly integrated with video, graphics
and Web hyperlinks, officials said. The
biggest difference between EMD and
current music file technologies, includ-
ing MP3, is that artists and content
providers will be able to charge for the
download and delivery of their files.
Current technologies do little to thwart
illegal copy and distribution of copy-
righted materials.
The new format is expected to be
compatible with dial-up Digital Sub-
scriber line technology and cable dis-
tribution. "The intention is to have a
platform that is fully agnostic to the
underlying delivery transport," an
AT&T spokesman said.
It's not just a broadband pipe that
AT&T brings to the mix. The compa-
ny also offers technology development
tools, including its music format, a2b
music, and its compression technolo-
gy; Advanced Audio Coding. Mat-
sushita's Panasonic (www.panasonic.
com) also will lend its compression and
encoding technology to the effort.
Meanwhile, Matsushita, which
makes consumer electronics products
under the Panasonic brand, is expected
to produce the actual devices that will
receive and store the digital content.
One such version will feed into
AT&T's super remote product line.
"This could be something like a
remote that acts as a walkman-type of
device. Each of my daughters could be
sitting in 'the same room, listening to
two different Abums," said Richard
Doherty, director at the Envisioneer-
ing Group, a technology consultancy.
AT&T has not decided on specific
media formats that will work with the
new initiative, but it has not ruled out
MP3 files, one of the most popular file
types for Web music delivery. Howev-
er, as a member of the Secure Digital
Music Initiative, AT&T is more likely
to choose a format that can be better
regulated to help maintain the copy-
rights of commercial artists and con-
tent creators, analysts said. |
