SonyBMG CD Copy-Protection Enables iPod Playback, Infringes Open Source

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2005 - 6:49am.
San Francisco - The malicious XCP SonyBMG CD copy-protection technology developed by First 4 Internet, which has forced the recall of millions of CDs, also contained code that allows the copy-protected tracks to play on Apple's iPod, according to a post on Freedom to Tinker, a blog run by computer researchers Alex Halderman and Edward Felten. No other previous CD copy-protection schemes have enabled protected tracks to be transferred to the popular portable player, the result of Apple's refusal to license its FairPlay digital rights management technology. What's more, the code that enables iPod playback of XCP copy-protected CD tracks appears to infringe on the copyrights of several open source software products. Wired News on Wednesday profiled 24-year-old Princeton University researcher John "Alex" Halderman, in a story available from a link below.
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=940
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69763,00.html
http://www.sonybmg.com



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