Re: Secure digital music
The music has a watermark in it, so certain players can refuse to play it. Help me out here, I really don't get this. Why would anyone knowingly buy a device that will do this?
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Now that I think about it some more, some people might. Last year a relative of mine bought a mini-cd discman recorder and a mini-cd portable player. I seem to recall, from having read the manual, that the recording device allows only a single copy of a given song, then refuses to copy again if it is attempted. And I don't think those mini-cds are cheap either. What a colossal waste of money...
I guess I can see some people buying them, but as soon as they start catching on I'm sure the press will put the scare in most people.
IMO...
...(1) If the hardware companies go along with this attempt, they could risk alienating a lot of consumers. Imagine how stupid you'd feel if you paid $250 for something that doesn't allow you to make more than one copy of music you've paid for. You'd feel especially silly when all your friends bought devices without that constraint - and which were cheaper.
...(2) Unless they plan to stop releasing music for the installed cd user base out there (which IMO would be suicidal), I don't see how they're going to stop ripping and swapping. Perhaps they plan to sue all the hardware manufacturers; but that tactic failed them years ago.
...(3) The record industry has a TINY window of opportunity, right now, to embrace digital music and open up a pan-industry site with complete content available for at most $1 a song. If they do not seize the moment and act in unison (single label initiatives IMO are beyond moronic), this mp3 thing is going to explode and crush them.
Does anyone know of a viable technical solution to the ripping and swapping of files?
Either way, as soon as those larger capacity cards get a little cheaper, portable mp3s are going to take over the world.
Andre |
