Record Industry Promises to Sink Online Pirates

Leaders of the $40-billion global record industry promised Tuesday to deliver a new technology platform by next fall that will thwart online music pirates while allowing digital delivery of music.

The Secure Digital Music Initiative aims to create a platform that rivals MP3, the high-quality format now used to compress and store--and often illegally distribute--audio files.

Computer experts, noting the difficulty in establishing digital standards, doubt the initiative will meet its autumn deadline.

“To ship products to the consumer by October, you have to have your [technical] designs nailed down by March,” said Ken Wirt, spokesman for Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., a maker of portable digital music players. “But they’re talking about just holding their first initiative meeting in January. There’s too much to decide in too little time.”

BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group will participate in the effort. Technology companies including America Online, AT&T;, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Sony and Toshiba say they support it.

“There is a [music piracy] issue out there, and we are handling it,” said Hilary Rosen, president and chief executive of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, which works to protect artists’ rights and royalties. “This is about creating opportunities, not crying about lawsuits.”

In the last year, the RIAA has initiated legal action against online music pirates, as well as against hardware manufacturers such as Diamond Multimedia that make MP3 players. Record companies have also fought to stop artists from independently posting their albums online using MP3.

This month, Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy said he was ordered by his record label, Def Jam, to remove MP3 clips from his Internet site promoting the group’s upcoming album, “Bring the Noise 2000.” The rapper accused the industry of being afraid of the MP3 technology because it gives artists the ability to circumvent the record companies.