Petteri Pyyny
2 Mar 2000 17:58
Semiconductor maker Cirrus Logic Inc. announced that it has developed a chip that is meant to prevent audio piracy - chip was developed in teamwork with Intertrust Inc., a security software maker.
Chip is meant for hardware based audio players that support various kind of formats, including MP3s. When people download media from ecommerce sites, the media file is encrypted for that user's audio player -- chip verifies that the encryption code is correct for the current audio device, if not it doesn't allow user to play the file.
Cirrus says that chip isn't limited for audio encryption, but other content can be encrypted with it as well, including graphics, movies, etc..