NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Major labels Sony BMG and EMI are releasing more and more new CDs that block fans from dragging their tunes to iPods.
Now, in the most bizarre turn yet in the record industry's piracy struggles, stars Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters and Switchfoot -- and even Sony BMG, when the label gets complaints -- are telling fans how they can beat the system.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment now regularly releases its new U.S. titles on CDs protected with digital rights management (DRM) that dictates which file formats consumers can use to digitally copy the music. MP3 is not one of those formats. The DRM also limits how many copies of the files consumers can make.
EMI Music is testing a similar initiative for wide-scale use by 2006.
But these decisions are not sitting well with some of the artists whose CDs have been secured. A number of leading acts are using their Web sites to instruct fans on how to work around the technology. (Others, including Jermaine Dupri, have expressed support for anti-copying efforts.)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/10/0 ... index.html
