Report: Sony BMG to do away with DRM
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BusinessWeek.com reports that Sony BMG will offer some of its collection free of copy-protection software in coming weeks.
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Sony BMG will pay $750,000 in  penalties and costs and reimburse California consumers whose  computers were harmed by anti-piracy software on some CDs sold  by the record company, California officials said on Tuesday.
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The Warner Music Groupâs announcement is the recording industryâs latest move away from its reliance on digital locks to reduce piracy.
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The tune seems to be changing ever so slowly at some record labels when it comes to DRM. Both out of consumer demand and to some extent necessity, some have begun to offer digital downloads in the unprotected MP3 format.
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Sony BMG, the world's No. 2 record label, is in early talks with file-sharing network Grokster in what could lead to a legalized Internet music service, its chairman said on Tuesday.
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A report issued last week by JupiterResearch lead analyst Mark Mulligan, just two days after Apple CEO Steve Jobs published an open letter advocating the end of DRM, revealed that in a continental survey of European music industry executives, more than half agree with the statement that DRM measures are "overly restrictive."
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Recording-industry giants EMI and Sony BMG announced an umbrella agreement Monday to address digital rights management (DRM) issues for music on mobile phones, PCs and digital cable systems.
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(InfoWorld) - Yahoo put another music track without DRM (digital rights management) on sale through its Yahoo Music service Tuesday. The Norah Jones single "Thinking About You" sells for $0.99, in MP3 format on Yahoo's music store, and in DRM-encumbered AAC format on Apple Computer's iTunes Store. Both formats will play on PCs, Macs, and the market-leading iPod portable music player, but only the MP3 version will play on other portable music players. DRM technology is used to set limits on how, when, how many times, and on what devices a file may be played. While DRM can be applied to music in AAC, ATRAC, or WMA format, it cannot be introduced into MP3 files. Yahoo first experimented withÂ selling MP3 files without DRMÂ in July, when it offered Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" as an MP3 file for $1.99. While that track was not tied to a particular PC or music player with DRM, the audio track was personalized to contain a first name of the purchaser's choice, picked from a list of hundreds of prerecorded names, limiting its interest to other listeners. Since then, Yahoo has sold an entire album by the artist Jesse McCartney in both MP3 and the DRM-encumbered WMA (Windows Media Audio) format, but has not published sales figures for the two formats. Some see the release of tracks in MP3 format, without DRM, as a big gamble for record labels, as nothing prevents buyers from uploading them to file-sharing networks. In reality, DRM does little to stop such behavior, but makes life harder for legitimate music users, said analyst Mark Mulligan, a vice president at Jupiter Research in the U.K. "Most of the DRM in place is not going to stop piracy. You've got limits on CD-burning, but all of that is cracked immediately if you burn it onto CD and rip it back in again. Anyone with an ounce of tech-savvy is going to know how to get around that," he said. But the fact that there's nothing to stop listeners copying and sharing MP3 files could work to record labels' advantage, said Mulligan. "It's going to be implemented more as marketing than anything else," he said. Blue Note Records, the record label promoting the Jones track, is only releasing the single, not an entire album, in MP3 format for now. If Mulligan is right, it could be just a marketing gimmick to build awareness of the album, which will go on sale in January. Major record labels are starting toÂ look more seriously at MP3 distributionÂ because of the success of eMusic.com, which Mulligan says is the second-largest online music download store in the U.S., after that of Apple. EMusic sells music from independent record labels in MP3 format.
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In the latest proof that the label is at least testing DRM-free music sales, consumers can buy gift cards from physical stores and redeem digital albums online. The bad news is that the music is also "anonymously watermarked."
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission  said on Tuesday that Sony BMG agreed to settle charges that it  secretly embedded potentially damaging anti-piracy software in  some of its CDs.
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It's bad for business Column The DRM walls are crumbling. Earlier this week, Steve Jobs called on the major record labels to allow online music sales unfettered by digital rights management restrictions.â¦
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Nearly a year ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs boldly called for the music industry to abandon its practice of using digital rights management (DRM) software to protect its content.
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Seeks $12m damages Record label Sony BMG is suing the maker of digital rights management (DRM) software which was accused of harming computers in 2005. The company is seeking $12m in damages to compensate for the effects of the software.â¦
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Sony stops making copy-protected CDs, saying music fans have heeded its anti-piracy message.
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DRM software stops digital files from being copied and has already seen heavy investment from Time Warner, Microsoft and Sony. Before the buy-out in April, the majority owner of ContentGuard
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Sony BMG announces a deal with Amazon to put tracks online that are free of copy controls.
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LOS ANGELES -  The music industry is looking ahead to life without copy protection. Major label EMI - home of Coldplay and Norah Jones - is in discussions with online music stores about selling its music without copy protection, or digital rights management (DRM), according to two sources with direct knowledge of the talks who would not speak for attribution because discussions are ongoing.