Music Industry Unveils New Piracy-Proof Format: A Black, Plastic Disc
With Grooves On It
Music bosses have unveiled a revolutionary new recording format that
they hope will help win the war on illegal file sharing which is thought
to be costing the industry millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Nicknamed the 'Record', the new format takes the form of a black, vinyl
disc measuring 12 inches in diameter, which must be played on a
specially designed 'turntable'.
"We can state with absolute certainty that no computer in the world can
access the data on this disc," said spokesman Brett Campbell. "We are
also confident that no-one is going to be able to produce pirate copies
in this format without going to a heck of a lot of trouble. This is
without doubt the best anti-piracy invention the music industry has ever
seen."
As part of the invention's rigorous testing process, the designers gave
some discs to a group of teenage computer experts who regularly use file
swapping software such as Limewire and gnutella and who admit to
pirating music CDs.
Despite several days of trying, none of them were able to hack into the
disc's code or access any of the music files contained within it.
"It's like, really big and stuff," said Doug Flamboise, one of the
testers.
"I couldn't get it into any of my drives. I mean, what format is it? Is
it, like, from France or something?"
Invention: Teenage computer hackers struggled to access the new
disc.
In the new format, raw audio data in the form of music is encoded by
physically etching grooves onto the vinyl disc. The sound is thus
translated into variations on the disc's surface in a process that
industry insiders are describing as 'completely revolutionary' and
'stunningly clever.'
To decode the data stored on the disc, the listener must use a special
player which contains a 'needle' that runs along the grooves on the
record surface,reading the indentations and transforming the movements
back into audio that can be fed through loudspeakers.
Even Shawn Fanning, the man who invented Napster, admits the new format
will make file swapping much more difficult. "I've never seen anything
like this," he told reporters. "How does it work?"
Pirates: Their days are numbered.
As rumours that a Taiwanese company has been secretly developing a
12 inch wide, turntable -driven, needle-based, firewire drive remain
unconfirmed, it would appear that the music industry may, at last, have
found the pirate-proof format it has long been searching for.
(c) urbanreflex.com 2002
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