News: 100 million copyproof CDs sold?
Copy-resistant CDs may still be scarce in the United States, but signs are growing that the technology is becoming increasingly mainstream elsewhere and may finally break into the American market this year.

Silicon Valley company Macrovision said Wednesday that its anticopying technology had now been applied to more than 100 million CDs worldwide, the bulk of them released in Europe and Japan. Over the last six months, the company has seen shipments of 10 million discs a month distributed across those markets, it said.

"People are getting used to the idea (in those areas,)" Macrovision CEO Bill Krepick said. "I think the sense is that consumers in those countries tend to be a little less vocal than American consumers."

Technology companies touting copy-protection wares--and, to a lesser extent, record labels themselves--have been promising for two years the impending release of CDs shielded against unauthorized computer copying. But the progress of the technology to market, particularly in the United States, has been slow and bumpy, and the technology companies themselves have repeatedly been forced to retrench and rethink their techniques.

Early versions of the technology rendered albums unplayable in many CD players or computers, even breaking some machines. Several versions of copy-protection technology proved to be easily broken, some using tools as low-tech as a felt-tip pen. In addition, record label concerns about universal playability and consumer reaction have helped slow the CDs' pace to market substantially.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-995200.html