Sony Unveils Memory Stick Copyright Protection Details:
nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com
As you can see, Sony's copyright protection in their proprietary Memory Stick goes WAY beyond a simple serial number on a disk. It actually has an entire single chip inside the Memory Stick dedicated just to copyright -- that must match with the player device's chip codes. This would be a tought one to crack. This is an advantage Memory Stick has over CompactFlash, Smartmedia, or Iomega Flop!-- tight security that is record industry-profit-friendly.
The article also describes a new data compression scheme for use on Audio files, called ATRAC3.
I believe that Sony is going to beat the rest of the industry to the punch by allowing download of their own Sony Records songs (HUGE label- Titanic Soundtrack, Mariah Carey, etc.) via their new proprietary ATRAC3 data compression format-- for use with secure and reliable solid-state Memory Stick ONLY. Sony players and stereos may be the ONLY devices that can play ATRAC3 compressed files. So Sony would see ALL of the $$$ from the record sales, the "catcher's mitt" media (Memory Stick), and the audio players/stereos.
Sony is slick, that's for sure. There are pictures of various portable devices at the above link that Memory Stick is designed for. Very slick indeed.
**BTW, Sony, Panasonic, and others have already unveiled (at PMA) DV-digital Camcorders that also have a Memory Stick slot for either using it as a digital camera, or for capturing single frames of video straight off the DV tape.-very cool. Memory Stick may be much bigger than what we intially gave it credit for. |
