News

Those who spurn audio discs with built-in restriction technologies should take note: SunnComm Technologies announced last week that its MediaMax CD-3 technology has been utilized to restrict the content on Ike and Tina Turner's new compilation CD entitled The Early Sessions.

SunnComm says the disc will contain two "sessions," noting that the regular CD tracks, restricted with its proprietary system, are called the "Red Book session." The disc will also contain a restricted "multimedia experience," referred to by SunnComm as a "second session," for playback on a PC. The company reports that the second session is built using the Microsoft Windows Media Data Session Toolkit, a component of the Windows Media 9 Series.

As a result, consumers will not be able to easily rip the restricted disc, or others like it, to the popular MP3 format that the vast majority of PC users prefer both on their computers and on their portable devices. Industry analysts expect consumers to resist the two-session approach. Jupiter Research's Michael Gartenberg explains, "It's going to be a very, very uphill battle to get consumers to willingly adopt this, even with the compromises Microsoft has made."

Consumers will also be frustrated in exercising their fair use rights to create uncompressed mix discs and duplicates for portable or car use, prompting the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann to claim, "It's all going to drive people to use alternate means to get a-hold of the music that they legitimately purchased."

Nonetheless, the restricted version of The Early Sessions is scheduled to be released in March 2003 by Sterling Entertainment under a licensing deal that will generate a per-unit royalty payment to SunnComm. EMI Recorded Music and Universal Music Group also claim they will be testing the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit in the coming year as a way to limit disc use.

Ironic side note: An astute Stereophile reader has alerted us to SunnComm's unauthorized use of one of our own articles on its website. Not only did they swipe our text without permission, they even stole the HTML code and all images from the September 2002 news item. Hey guys, all you had to do was link to it—we wouldn't have objected. (Editor's note: after seeing this article, Suncomm removed the swiped page from their web site and apologized.)