[no subject]

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate 
disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling 
around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past 
week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for using 
"high-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a 
stationery store.

"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on 
alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."



Sony did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Major music labels, including Sony and Universal Music, have begun selling 
the "copy-proof" discs as a means of tackling the rampant spread of music 
piracy, which they claim is eating into sales.

The new technology aims to prevent consumers from copying, or "burning," 
music onto recordable CDs or onto their computer hard drives, which can then 
be shared with other users over file-sharing Internet services such as Kazaa 
or Morpheus MusicCity.

Anti-piracy push
On Monday, Reuters obtained an ordinary copy of Celine Dion's newest 
release, "A New Day Has Come," which comes embedded with Sony's Key2Audio 
technology.

After an initial attempt to play the disc on a PC resulted in failure, the 
edge of the shiny side of the disc was blackened out with a felt-tip marker. 
The second attempt with the marked-up CD played and copied to the hard drive 
without a hitch.

Internet postings claim that tape or even a sticky note can also be used to 
cover the security track, typically located on the outer rim of the disc. 
And there are suggestions that copy-protection schemes used by other music 
labels can also be circumvented in a similar way.

Sony's proprietary technology, deployed on many recent releases, works by 
adding a track to the copy-protected disc that contains bogus data.

Because computer hard drives are programmed to read data files first, the 
computer will continuously try to play the bogus track first. It never gets 
to play the music tracks located elsewhere on the compact disc.

The effect is that the copy-protected disc will play on standard CD players 
but not on computer CD-ROM drives, some portable devices, and even some car 
stereo systems.

Some users of Apple Computer's Macintosh have reported that playing the disc 
in the computer's CD drive causes the computer to crash. The cover of the 
copy-protected discs contain a warning that the album will not play on 
Macintoshes or other personal computers. Apple has since posted a warning on 
its Web site.

Sony Music Europe has taken the most aggressive anti-piracy stance in the 
business. Since last fall, the label has shipped more than 11 million 
copy-protected discs in Europe, with the largest proportion going to 
Germany, a market label executives claim is rife with illegal CD-burning.

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