IBM, record industry testing pirate-free online music technology
NEW YORK (AP) IBM and the record industry's top companies plan to test new technology that would let people take music off the Internet while protecting the music industry from bootleggers.
IBM scheduled a news conference Monday with BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to demonstrate a secure digital music system that would be delivered through cable modems.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the IBM technology would allow people to order entire albums over the Internet and copy them onto compact discs. Using high-speed cable modems, someone could download a 60-minute disc in less than 10 minutes, the Journal said.
IBM was among several high-technology companies that pledged in December to help the music industry develop ways to distribute music over the Internet while preventing illegal copying.
The record industry's effort to create secure methods for offering digital music comes as a technology called MP3 is gaining popularity as a way to more easily compress, store and distribute audio files on the Internet. While some MP3 songs being distributed on the Internet are legal and endorsed by record labels, the amount of bootlegged material online has grown rapidly.