Intel and Panasonic out to break cyberpirates' tunes

NEWS Intel and Panasonic - the electronics giant owned by Matsushita - have released software which will prevent cyberpirates from illegally downloading music onto portable music players. The two products - based on Intel's Tamper Resistant Software - only allow downloads to machines that carry an authorised card-enabled playback device. They incorporate a secure music transfer agent, a secure music manager, and an electronic music distribution (EMD) integration toolkit. The music agent enables the transfer of music to memory cards which work with the music manager to ensure the validity of the content using watermark screening. It also checks for content protection marks. Sakon Nagasaki, director of Matsushita's AC media card and electronic distribution business development office, claimed the software will help content providers make music available to consumers from a variety of online and offline sources. There are already two intitiatives underway to develop standards designed to protect music copyright - the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) and the 4C Entity, which comprises IBM, Intel, Matsushita Electric and Toshiba Corp. But an Intel spokeswoman confirmed the software exceeded current SDMI requirements. She said: "We want to help the transfer of music to portable players and help content providers give complete access to music while protecting the rights of the music distributor." Panasonic has already started selling two audio players in Japan which include the latest software. It said it would also sell secure digital audio players and mini DV camcorders.