Microsoft announces antipiracy programs

By Dina Bass
Bloomberg News Service

CANNES, France — Microsoft Corp. said EMI Group Plc and Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group will use a new set of software tools that can prevent customers from copying compact discs to computers and sharing music.

The programs also let consumers get additional content from a CD on a personal computer, such as artist interviews and liner notes, the world's largest software maker said in a statement.

Sales of recorded music fell 9 percent in 2002, partly because of piracy, music companies have said. Microsoft is trying to hedge by selling software both to record companies that want to restrict where customers can play and store songs and to consumers who want to use computers and portable devices to listen to their music collections, analysts said.

"They want to get their software out there in as many different places as possible," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a market research firm based in Kirkland, Wash.

Record labels are looking for software that prevents copying of CDs to PCs and portable devices such as MP3 players without keeping customers from playing music on a PC.

Last year, some companies angered consumers by releasing discs that couldn't be played on computers to ensure customers didn't distribute songs over the Internet. Sony Corp. released discs with copy protection that crashed some computers. A black marker pen disabled the security feature.

The new Microsoft software would let companies limit what a buyer can do with music on a CD, including prohibiting copying to a PC, or sharing that music with other Internet users.

Microsoft has vied with RealNetworks Inc. for several years to control the market for PC and device software that plays music and video from CDs and the Internet. The company also has made programs that let music and video publishers limit what users can do with files copied off the Internet.

Versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system and its music player software have a feature that limits copying and trading of music files after they have been transferred from CDs. It has been up to users to turn that feature on or off.

Microsoft also is trying to capitalize on the growing market for portable music and video players. The company is working with Intel Corp. to develop devices that plug into PCs to retrieve music, video and digital pictures that can be played on the go.