Lock And Key For MP3?

I f you rip your music from CDs, the format the resulting file will most likely be in is MP3, and thatis cool. The MP3 file format pretty much paved the way for file swapping, the iPod and other digital music players, and the current upheaval in the music industry over Digital Rights Management (DRM). A report from John Borland published by Silicon.com says that the two companies behind the MP3 format, Thomsom and Fraunhofer, are looking at ways to update the format to include DRM. Hereis a bit of the article MP3 gets anti-piracy tech boost:

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 Computeris 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, Thomsonis 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."

Thereis more information in the complete story at Silicon.com.