MP3 Company Revises Its Rio Player

In a partial concession to the recording industry, the developer of a portable device that can play bootlegged music downloaded from the Internet has decided to make new devices that will play copyright-protected music. Diamond Multimedia’s new Rio music players will still be able to play the un-copyrighted music files created in the MP3 format now proliferating on the Web, however. San Jose-based Diamond Multimedia is expected to announce its plans Monday. The technology used by Diamond for the new players would allow copyrighted audio files to be downloaded for a fee and listened to for a week or month before they become unplayable. Or they could pay a higher price to buy them permanently. The Recording Industry Assn. of America, which went to court last year in an unsuccessful attempt to halt sales of Rio players, declined to comment on Diamond’s plans. To develop the copyright protection method, Diamond is working with InterTrust Technologies. Kansas City, Mo.-based InterTrust markets digital rights management technology, which can track the use of the audio content from providers to listeners.