Anti-Piracy Group Scores MP3 Partner

21-Apr-00

An international group established to protect intellectual property rights in the digital realm has entered into an agreement with Blacksound.com, a distributor of world music MP3s. Blacksound.com joins about a dozen companies that have signed with the InterDeposit Digital Number (IDDN), a copyright management system akin to the unfinished Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Under this agreement, Blacksound Ltd. becomes a member of the InterDeposit network and will be able to identify all its music files by the IDDN system, said IDDN in a recent announcement. While membership is free, partners must pay to submit content to the system. Nyon, Switzerland-based Blacksound.com (www.blacksound.com) sells MP3s of African, South American and Caribbean music. Also included in the IDDN group is Net4music.com (www.net4music.com), which sells digitally-downloadable sheet music. According to a report published by Wired, the IDDN international identifier was recognized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center's International Copyright Treaty of December 20,1996, and provides for legal remedies against any removal or alteration of electronic rights management information and identification. The WIPO mediates any ownership disputes involving content that has been protected with the IDDN, added the report. As a specification for encoding copyright-protected music files, SDMI has garnered wide support but remains incomplete. It is coordinated by the Recording Industry Association of America and supported by over 160 companies and organizations. Source: Pro Sound News