Thomson, the French company who sells MP3 technology licenses on behalf of German Fraunhofer (who developed the format in 1993), is planning to use the format's widely-recognized name in order to create a copy protected audio format that would carry the same name as the original format, MP3.
The DRM-equipped MP3 format is Thomson's try to gather a chunk of the rapidly-growing legal music download business. But as great as the idea of "legal MP3 store" might sound, the reality is rather different. The new format, despite the same name, wouldn't work with existing MP3 players -- whether they are car stereos, portable audio players or software players.
Its not even clear whether the format actually uses the same compression method as the original MP3 does -- it is actually highly unlikely, as the competing formats, such as AAC (that Apple uses in its iTunes and iPod) and WMA (Microsoft's audio format that virtually all -- apart from iTunes -- legal music stores use), achieve better compression rates than MP3 does (after all, the format is over 10 years old).
Biggest obstacle in Thomson's plans is absolutely the compatibility issue, as it has to persuade hardware vendors to implement support for its format in their devices before it can have even slightest change of gaining any market share in online music biz.
Source: TechNewsWorld
Its not even clear whether the format actually uses the same compression method as the original MP3 does -- it is actually highly unlikely, as the competing formats, such as AAC (that Apple uses in its iTunes and iPod) and WMA (Microsoft's audio format that virtually all -- apart from iTunes -- legal music stores use), achieve better compression rates than MP3 does (after all, the format is over 10 years old).
Biggest obstacle in Thomson's plans is absolutely the compatibility issue, as it has to persuade hardware vendors to implement support for its format in their devices before it can have even slightest change of gaining any market share in online music biz.
Source: TechNewsWorld
