LATEST ADDITIONS

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.InterTrust.com/">InterTrust Technologies</A>, which creates Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, and format developer <A HREF="http://www.dataplay.com">DataPlay</A&gt; announced a partnership intended to create a portable media distribution platform for protected content such as music. Universal Music Group, EMI Recorded Music, and BMG Entertainment have all announced that they are planning to release prerecorded music on the resultant DataPlay digital format for use in a variety of consumer electronic devices.

The Music Online Competition Act (MOCA) has won the imprimatur of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), according to an announcement made August 8. The recently-introduced <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11107/">bipartisan bill</A> crafted by Congressmen Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) intends to insure competition in the delivery of online music&mdash;and to preserve music lovers' rights to copy their own recordings for private use.

While Napster was thriving a few short months ago, the music business was noisily seething and quietly plotting. How could they put the digital audio genie back into the content-control bottle? Although Napster has since been gutted, the labels have identified the unprotected CD as the source of their woes, and now it's payback time.

<B>JANE MONHEIT: <I>Come Dream With Me</I></B><BR>N-Coded Music NC-4219-2 (CD) 2001. Joel Dorn, prod.; Carl Griffin exec. prod.; Todd Parker, eng.; Steve Mazur, asst. eng.; Gene Paul, sonic supervision. AAD? TT: 52:49<BR>Performance<B>****</B><BR>Sonics<B>*****</B>

Toljus.

As often happens with labels, the word "audiophile" has different meanings for different folks. How would you explain what it means to a friend?

Like the proverbial camel who took over the tent after getting just his nose in, it appears that once copy protection is given an inch, it will inevitably try to get in all the way. At least that's how it appears with an increasing variety of CD copy protection systems now currently being tested <I>en masse</I> by the major record labels. Latest to announce a new "evaluation agreement" is BMG Entertainment, which will use and evaluate SunnComm's MediaCloQ "digital content cloaking technology", first put to the test earlier in the year on a Charley Pride CD (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11004/">see previous</A>).