By John Borland, 2 March 2004 09:55
NEWS The venerable MP3 music format, the technology most widely associated with unrestricted file swapping, is getting a makeover aimed at blocking unauthorised copying.
Thomson and Fraunhofer, the companies that license and own the patents behind the MP3 digital music technology, are in the midst of creating a new digital rights management add-on for the popular format, a Thomson executive said on Tuesday.
The move is aimed at pushing more deeply into the world of authorised music distribution through services such as Apple Computer's iTunes or the new Napster. All those new services sell music wrapped in digital locks - most in incompatible proprietary technologies by companies such as Apple, Microsoft or RealNetworks - while MP3 songs today are typically distributed free of copy controls.
"Eventually, digital distribution will be a significant mass market," said Rocky Caldwell, Thomson's director of technology marketing. "We think it will be served well by [digital rights management] that is based on standards. No one else seems to be proposing that."
The move is recognition of a dawning new era in digital music, in which pay-per-song services are beginning to gain ground on the anarchic file-swapping networks and in which CDs themselves may ultimately be overtaken by digital downloads.
The first era in internet audio belonged undeniably to MP3, an audio standard codified by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) a dozen years ago. Thomson and Fraunhofer, the German companies that hold patents in the MP3 technology, have long been collecting royalties from software and hardware companies that use the format.
But the same features that made MP3 attractive to tens of millions of ordinary computer users made the big record labels deeply suspicious of the format. For years, they've been looking for a digital song format that would include tools to prevent people from making unauthorised copies or swapping tunes on networks such as Kazaa.
Microsoft, with its Windows Media and associated digital rights management technology, has been one big beneficiary of that, with its format used in Napster, Musicmatch and other song stores and bundled on physical CDs. Apple's own Fairplay copy-protection tools have also won the big record labels' approval and form the heart of the company's iTunes Music Store.
Thomson and Fraunhofer's rights management technology will be based in large part on open standards the MPEG group and the Open Mobile Alliance are adopting, Caldwell said. The companies will provide free use of the copy protection technology to anyone who licenses the MP3 format, he said.
As with any other digital rights management format, the technology will have to be supported by software players and chipmakers before devices are able to play songs protected by it. The companies are in talks with chip manufacturers and music distribution services now, Caldwell said.
Caldwell said he expected to see devices and services supporting the protected MP3 format by the end of 2004. The plans were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
John Borland writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Makhno718
Hmmmmmm, indeed; I think we've heard this all before: "uncrackable" anti-piracy encoders; "uncrackable" new algorithm that will make it "impossible" to patch our once thought incredibly difficult to pirate operating system;
warpconduitsupercalifragilisticplasmaelectrificution keyboards(that would fry your balls once you tried to open the offending MP3 by pressing "enter"); and last but not least, pieces of silicon(Microsoft have already tried to tell us what we can and can't do with our software) that essentially tell you what you can and can't do with your computer.(because this would be the thin end of the wedge. If it worked for MP3's, why not for everything else(remember Intel's attempt to introduce "palladium"? Back door surveillance in short)) The issue of course is never as simple as those from the anti-piracy lobby wish us to believe. I myself do not pirate a damn thing, but efforts like these will help me decide otherwise. It's more about the price, not necessarily about how easily it can be pirated. There is always a way around the latter issue, but more to the point, un-restricted MP3's have brought to a huge audience music they wouldn't otherwise listen to. A case in point is a friend of mine who acquired nearly an entire album of pirated tracks from a particular artist, but he still went out to buy the album. Not only did he wish to own the original CD, but he also looked through the back catalogue of the artist in question(and to my knowledge, bought at least one other album). In this particular case, this friend of mine didn't mind paying what I would call a very extortionate price, but at least he found out that the original pirated album didn't consist of 2 decent tracks and a load of filler.(the digital downloaded "pay per listen" concept may very well do away with the album as we know it, but I'm not sure this concept will be as hegemonic as is currently touted)
There are benefits to piracy, one of them being that the pirate indirectly helps the consumer, that is, he creates a completely substitutional alternative. In the future, the media corporation will not be as free and easy in relation to pricing, marketing and everything else that goes with a 30 pence piece of plastic being marked up at 15 quid. Granted, CD sales have not been hit(Indeed, overall CD sales have increased, which of course would offer a defence against those who believe MP3 pirates take the bread from the music corporations mouths),but that doesn't mean Media corporations will be not sensitive to pricing pressures brought on by the digital age.
Believe me, making an "uncrackable chip" will not solve a damn thing; there will be a load of ways(remember the so called Athlon CPU'S locked multipler??? And also, I'm pretty sure a software antidote will be worked on as soon as the specs are released)to circumvent it(or disable the software security coding in the MP3 and chip). In any event, I will not be buying on a "pay per listen" basis, simply because this can applied to anything u could care to mention. Indeed, why not have "uncrackable" termination counters built into our computers, TVs and every single product you can name, then we will have to buy a new product/appliance/software, when our 2 years are up.(which of course, will be reduced to 1 year when they find out it has been cracked, or more to the point, they can't screw enough out of us). I rest my case.
2. Charles Wood
Why don't thompson take a different view of copy protection and let an mp3 register a "hit" in a main database somewhere. Even better let that hit have a unique security code for that copy, and allow the user to log on somewhere and pay for that code. That way the uniqeness remains anonamous but some idea of what is happening in practice would emerge. Those of us who want to pay artists and own the MP3 legally could do so without jumping through hoops.
This would also let little companies like mine compete on a flat playing feild. I cannot using existing rights managment technologies because the big boys do not want my wares, or business.
3. Krebbin
MP3 to get antipiracy feature? So then the pirates will stop using MP3 as their preferred file format, wont they?
4. Carl Maycock
Remember analogue anyone ? What use is digital copyright management if you record a CD using an analogue output ? Give it up and concentrate on producing decent music/artisits that people will want to pay money for.
5. anonymous
Are they planning to buy me a new car stereo for my legitimate MP3s of my bought music then?
6. anonymous
I bought a mp3 player (MPIO) that claimed to support the windows and realplayer formats. However, it did not. I purchased numerous songs only to find they were incompatable with my player. I asked other people who own these players and they told me to go to the free (pirate) sites to download mp3 files. I do not think the music industry intended to force these people into that decision, but they have.
7. Goten Xiao
To the (Anonymous) Arizona Consultant: If you're willing to pay for a converter, there are various applications that enable you to take WMA inputs and output them to MP3 or WAV (or whatever)... RealPlayer is a little harder to find, I think, due to the insanely proprietary nature of RM.
To Krebbin: Mp3 is technically out-of-date anyway. AAC is, as far as I can tell, a far more efficient codec anyway... Still, until *everyone* supports AAC, I'll still rip CDs into MP3 (plus the ID3 tagging is great in MP3).
To Carl: That's perfectly true. Unless, of course, they intend to add in an encrypted (i.e. frequency-swapped) feed which has to be hardware decoded... Which is highly unlikely, given the number of "old" CD players around.
I think a possible solution has been hit on the head by a few bands who have cottoned on to the fact that letting people listen to a few of your songs online, for free, without any signup, may actually increase sales. Two examples of this: www.lodger.tv (a Finnish band, if I recall correctly, also got some funny videos on their site :P) and www.thefups.com (The F-Ups, who recently featured on the Burnout 3:Takedown soundtrack ^.^). Each has at least 4 tracks available to listen to, which gives the end user/possible consumer an idea of what their music sounds like and whether or not they enjoy it.
And if you know how, you can nab the audio feed... Is that piracy, given that the file is *put* on your computer?