Security Guides for Internet Music Released

The world’s biggest music companies and their counterparts in the technology industry released a preliminary set of security guidelines for portable devices that play music downloaded from the Internet. A popular technology called MP3 makes it easy to copy and distribute near-CD-quality music over the Internet without regard for copyrights or royalties. The new guidelines set standards that would eventually make a new generation of digital music players such as Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.’s Rio incompatible with music pirated on the World Wide Web. Under the guidelines, the devices will play songs in the unprotected MP3 format and music stored in a host of encryption formats made by companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Liquid Audio Inc. Once a screening technology is developed, however, the players will filter out any new release that has been pirated. The devices will continue to play music already released in the MP3 format or that a consumer copies from purchased CDs for personal use. The Recording Industry Assn. of America, the music industry’s chief trade organization, formed a standards group in December to develop software and hardware specifications for preventing unauthorized copying of digital music. The group, the Secure Digital Music Initiative, is expected to ratify and publish the complete text of its specifications soon.