Sony Abandons Copy - Control Music CDs

[7/4]

October 4, 2004

Sony Abandons Copy - Control Music CDs

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:52 a.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) -- Sony Corp.'s music unit is abandoning its CDs that use built-in technology that limits copying them, after pushing the program for two years.

Such CDs let users copy their music once for free onto a personal computer, but use the Internet to charge a fee for subsequent copying of the same disk.

However, Sony Music Entertainment has announced it will stop publishing them, mainly because its message against illegally copying CDs for uses such as in file-sharing over the Internet has widely sunk in, the company said.

Sony Music has learned that only a small part of the population illegally copy CDs, company spokeswoman Kimiko Ohashi said Monday.

The music giant recently started adapting its strategy due to the proliferation of MP3 computer files, used to store music in audio players such as Apple's iPod, which are rapidly becoming a global music industry phenomenon.

Sony said last month that its portable audio players, which will soon go on sale in Europe, will be able to use any MP3 files.

Previously, Sony's players only handled MP3 files that were converted into the company's own format.

CD sales have plunged in recent years in Japan and elsewhere, as people increasingly use the Internet to download music.

As a company with major electronics and entertainment divisions, Sony has constantly faced the dilemma of wanting to protect the copyright of movies, music and other entertainment assets it owns, while trying to make its electronics gadgets popular with users.

[mikeweil]

As a company with major electronics and entertainment divisions, Sony has constantly faced the dilemma of wanting to protect the copyright of movies, music and other entertainment assets it owns, while trying to make its electronics gadgets popular with users.

That's the core problem!

[neveronfriday]

The Sony of today just sucks, mostly.

[wolff]

Excellent!!

[mikeweil]

The more I think about: The baseline is money. Sounds like they just compromised after recalculating their sales - if they sell enough CDs and copying equipment and music downloads .....

[David Ayers]

Let's hope EMI goes the same route.

[Emberglow]

Let's hope EMI goes the same route.

Yeah! I was shocked to read this warning on the Crazy Jazz site:

"Please be aware that titles on all UK issued EMI labels (EMI, Blue Note, Capitol, Pacific Jazz, Parlophone, Roulette, etc.) now appear to be Copy Control protected. This affects all titles from about 27200 onwards plus any reissues such as the latest Rudy Van Gelder remasters"

Copy Controlled disks suck. All this is doing is encouraging people to import their CDs from anywhere in the world EXCEPT the UK!

[David Ayers]

Copy Controlled disks suck. All this is doing is encouraging people to import their CDs from anywhere in the world EXCEPT the UK!

Except Europe, actually. All new EMI Jazz CDs throughout Europe are Copy Controlled.

[Bluerein]

Can someone please tell me which Sony CD's are copy controlled? I've never seen one from that company CC'ed. But nevertheless good to know they aren't going to make any either......

Cheers,

Reinier

[Claude]

I don't think there are a lot of copyprotected Sony titles in Europe. Maybe some pop albums. Nothing in the jazz or classical field.

The only non-copyable Sony discs I know are their single layer SACDs. But Sony has now moved to hybrid SACDs (currently they are not releasing SACDs anymore).

Sony Electronics took a strange decision in the mid 90's, when they removed CD-R playback support from their CD players, at a time when CD burning became popular. As if one company could prevent copying by having their hardware refuse to play copies. This was quickly known among consumers as an important flaw of Sony players, and not surprisingly one model generation later CD-R support was reintroduced.

It should also be mentioned that - while Sony portable players oddly stuck to the proprietary ATRAC compression format - their DVD players were already capable of playing MP3 CD-Rs some time ago. So MP3 support is not entirely new for Sony.

I'm wondering when Sony DVD players will contain a DivX decoder chip (DivX is a video compression codec, the "mp3 for movies"). All the big hardware companies are now starting to introduce this, it will be a must soon. Like mp3, DivX has legitimate uses (recording TV and converting VHS tapes with the PC), but is currently mainly used to share DVDs over the internet.

Edited October 10, 2004 by Claude

[cannonball-addict]

I just noticed this about a week ago. I was trying to rip David Sanchez' new album Coral to my computer HD from the CD which I bought and it would not rip. Guess I haven't bought anything from Sony in a while.....

Thanks goodness they changed it!

[1ngram]

but does it mean we will have to go back and buy all those Cds again just to get copyable ones?

[Claude]

I was trying to rip David Sanchez' new album Coral to my computer HD from the CD which I bought and it would not rip.

Coral is a hybrid SACD, no?

Sony Music store link

As far as I know, there are no hybrid SACDs yet whose CD layer has copy protection. But there are computer DVD drives that have problems reading hybrid SACDs. My Pioneer DVD drive (4 years old) doesn't accept them. I have to use my DVD burner drive.

So it could be that your issue is not copy protection but compatibility problems with hybrid SACDs.

Edited October 20, 2004 by Claude

[Claude]

I just noticed that the advanced music search function on Amazon Germany now allows to exclude CDs with copyprotection from the search results:

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/stores...-/music/search/

(tick the box "Nur ohne Kopierschutz")

So it looks like not only a few consumer rights activists and wacko audiophiles care about this.

Edited December 1, 2004 by Claude