The record labels are in pursuit of a new class of music pirates — not the millions who download bootlegged songs over the Internet but those who copy music CDs for their friends. The music industry considers the seemingly innocuous act of duplicating a music CD for someone else “casual piracy,” a practice that surpasses Internet file-sharing as the single largest source of unauthorized music distribution.
After fits and starts, the industry’s largest players are taking measures to place curbs on copying. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, home to some of the music industry’s biggest acts, including Bruce Springsteen, System of a Down and Shakira, plans to copy-protect all music CDs sold in the United States by the end of the year.
Another major label, EMI, whose artist roster includes Coldplay and Norah Jones, will introduce copy-protected CDs in its two largest markets — the United States and the United Kingdom — in the coming weeks. For consumers, it signals an abrupt change to the rip, mix, burn mania embodied by the 2001 Apple Computer ad campaign promoting the first iMac computer with a CD burner and software for creating custom music CDs.
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