Consumers in crossfire of labels' war on piracy

When Karen DeLise bought a compact disc by country singer Charley Pride last year, she was unhappy to discover that the CD wouldn't play in the CD drive in her computer.

That meant that the songs on the album couldn't be converted into computer files to listen to on her portable MP3 music player, either.

But the CD Ms. DeLise bought wasn't defective. It didn't play because of high-tech restrictions imposed by the disc's recording label, Music City Records of Nashville.

Using sophisticated encryption technology, record companies like Music City can now manufacture CDs that prevent consumers from making easily transferable computer music files, whether for legal personal use or illegal distribution on the Internet.

And, to make matters worse, the copy-protection techniques can render a disc unplayable in DVD players, car stereos, and other high-end audio equipment.

It's part of a war on piracy that some consumers say puts them in the crossfire.

All of the major record labels are quietly beginning to test several kinds of restricted CDs.

The major impetus: Unit sales of CDs dropped 6.4 percent in 2001, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, at a cost of nearly $13 billion.

Universal Music Group, the biggest record label, released the soundtrack to the movie "The Fast and The Furious" in December with anticopying technology while admitting that the disc might not play in many kinds of CD players.

Windows computer users could play special music files included on the CD - files that can't be copied - but Macintosh and Linux users were left out. The CD had a warning label on the back, and Universal offered a full refund to anyone who wanted to return the disc.

People trading songs on the Internet and burning copies of CDs at home are depriving artists and publishers of their ability to make living, says Universal spokesman Bob Bernstein, echoing a widely held viewpoint.

"This is impacting the entire music business, and unless solutions are found, the incentive to create will diminish," he says.

Not every label is so forthcoming. Midbar, an Israeli company that makes copy-protection software, says more than 10 million albums that use its technology have been sold under a variety of major labels. The company says it recommends that record companies disclose the use of copy protection, but concedes that obviously not all have done so.

Music City's Pride CD had a small warning label. DeLise thought it didn't go far enough. And she was particularly annoyed that computer files of the songs on the album could be downloaded from a special website only if consumers gave their name and e-mail addresses, which could then be sold to marketers.

So she sued Music City and Sunncomm, maker of the copy protection, under California's Unfair Business Practices Act.

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