EMI abandons CD DRM

EMI has announced that it will no longer infect its CDs with DRM. I remember just a few years ago when an EMI customer-service rep sent an email to an irate customer promising that every CD in Europe would have DRM within a decade.

William sends us this rough translation of a Dutch article from NVPI:

EMI Music Group has ceased the implementation of copy protection on new cd-releases. This means that at the moment, not a single record company releases CDs that are protected against making digital copies, says the international industry-magazine 'Billboard'. At the same time, Macrovision has stopped the development and sales of her TotalPlay-system (previously CDS).

Record companies use copy protection to counteract the illegal distribution of the recordings - in particular on the internet. According to 'Billboard', it has now become clear that the cost of using this technology does not add up against the results. Aditionally there seems to be, says 'Billboard', a fear for compatibilty/playback problems with new computer-software.

Copy protection on CDs should not be confused with the protection-systems applied to music-files which are distributed via the internet. Those 'Technological Protection Measures' are for counteracting unlicenced use and form with the licence and payment-system the Digital Rights Management (DRM)."

Nice of NVPI to adopt EMI's volcabulary -- "protected against making copies!" Since when do you protect data by NOT backing it up?! Link (Thanks, William!)

See also:
EMI releases Brazilian DRM CDs that totally hose their customers
Coldplay's new CD has rules: No MP3s, no DVD players, no car stereos