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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. music industry will continue to experiment with controversial copy-protected CDs, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
"CD copy protection technology is a measured response to a very serious problem facing the music industry today," RIAA chief Hilary Rosen said in a letter (PDF) last Thursday, referring to online piracy through informal MP3 swapping or more organized file-trading applications.
Rosen was replying to a stiff note from Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Virginia), probably the RIAA's most vocal critic in the House of Representatives. He suggested in January that CD copy-protection schemes were not merely terrible for consumers, but that they potentially violated federal law.
Boucher's letter to the RIAA said the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act could prohibit "any deliberate change to a CD by a content owner that makes one generation of digital recording" impermissible.
It was mostly bluster. The law does not say that copies must be allowed, only that some kinds of lawsuits are prohibited. But Boucher's letter did accomplish two things: It demonstrated to the music industry that copy-protected CDs carry a political price, and it raised, albeit obliquely, the threat of legislation to regulate such technology.
Copy protection works when deliberate errors are burned onto a compact disc. The errors make it harder to burn copies of the music but can render the discs unplayable on many computers -- and a few stereos -- by violating the "Red Book" standard for CD-Audio that Philips and Sony created in 1980.
"If technology can be used to pirate copyrighted content, shouldn't technology likewise be used to protect copyrighted content?" Rosen asked. "Isn't it incumbent on copyright owners to do whatever they can to protect the economic value of their works and the (jobs of those in the industry)?"
Rosen said that while it is "likely" there will be more protected CDs in the future, only two albums have been offered so far: Charley Pride -- A Tribute to Jim Reeves, released by Music City Records and protected by SunnComm's MediaCloQ, and More Fast and Furious, a Universal Music Group soundtrack protected by Midbar's Cactus 200. (Copy protected discs are more widespread in Europe.)
Both discs ship with warning labels and an advisory that they are copy-protected. One industry representative said last month that, despite opposition from Philips, the limited releases so far are just the beginning of a trend.
Because copy-protected discs violate the original CD specification, they can cause problems on some players. "More Fast and Furious" does not work on Macintosh computers, and Amazon has segregated it from other unprotected discs.
Boucher had asked if the recording industry would "support independent testing of the effect on sound quality" the protection mechanisms might have. Rosen shot back with the Washingtonese equivalent of absolutely-not-fat-chance.
"We don't see why technologies to protect copyrighted musical content should be treated any differently than technologies to protect copyrighted movies, video games, software or books, none of which has been subjected to the kind of independent testing you describe," Rosen said.
Boucher said last July that he thought the entertainment industry had gone too far in pressing Congress to enact the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to "circumvent" copy-protection technology. At the time, Boucher said he eventually would introduce legislation to repeal part of the law.
This dispute comes as Hollywood studios, fretting that online piracy of digital content will imperil sales, have asked Congress to require that all PCs and consumer electronics sport technology to prohibit illicit copying. Last Thursday, the Senate Commerce committee convened a hearing where the studios complained that Silicon Valley firms had not moved quickly enough in setting anti-copying standards.
Senate Commerce chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) has drafted, but has not introduced, legislation called the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act. A version of the SSSCA obtained by Wired News would prohibit creating, selling or distributing "any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies."
