Freedom of Purchasing Choice With Sony & SNOCAP

Today Sony BMG and SNOCAP announced that they will work together to exploit Sony BMG's music catalogue online. SNOCAP will provide the identification and copyright management technologies, as well as database services so that Sony will be able to "curb copyright infringement, and will facilitate the creation of legitimate, authorized P2P services [, while] consumers will have expanded authorized options in the digital arena."

This is the second time this week that Sony BMG searches the new to outline its vision of future music distribution. Earlier Sony BMG's Jordan Katz mused that US consumers are ready for DRMed CDs and that his company would start to implement content protection measures. Now Sony BMG is said to offer "expanded authorized options" with the SNOCAP model. This right on the spot: expanded authorized options. Expanded refers to "authorized options" as whole, not to options. With DRM in place, on CDs and online, users are more likely to loose options than gain new ones that are not woven into the "set business rules for each track, on a global basis". Options dependent on business models may provide more freedom of choice in purchasing, but less freedom of choice in how you actually want to use that purchased content.

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A Techdirt rant on Sony