Cybersleuth: New system to foil bootleggers

Some of the world's biggest computer firms have come up with a new system that may make the copying of movies and music on computers virtually impossible, according to a report in the tech-savvy San Jose Mercury News.

The system, developed jointly by IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Matsushita, envisages building a copy-prevention scheme into every hard disk and memory card in what the companies claim is a revolutionary bid to beat the rash of bootlegged material on the internet.

Millions of people already swap bootlegged music files over music-sharing sites like Napster. The entertainment industry fears that as broadband internet becomes more widespread, digitised movies will also be copied on a huge scale.

But in an initiative that is being backed by music and movie companies, the new anti-piracy technology will use a combination of encryption and scrambling to prevent unauthorised copying.

Dubbed "Content Protection for Recordable Media," the technology is being reviewed by an American standards board that sets the rules on new features to be built into standard computer components.

The technology uses the serial number given to every piece of blank media — like a hard drive or memory chip — to make a special key that has to be accessed in order to make a copy.

But while Hollywood has enthusiastically embraced the new system, it has been roundly condemned by free speech and consumer advocates, the paper reported.

"We've been keeping an eye on technologies that remove capabilities from the people who buy the machines for the benefit of some third party," said John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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Britney Spears and George Michael may become even bigger household names if a new language being developed on a British music website takes off.

The language, fashioned along the lines of the cockney rhyming slang used over centuries by market traders in the East End of London, uses pop stars' names to communicate.

Sample sentences in the new tongue — dubbed "popney rhyming slang" by its developers — could be:

"I'm going to George Michael [cycle] down to the Fat Boy Slim [gym]."

"Do you fancy a Britney Spears [a few beers]?"

"I love this wool sweater, but it's a bit Lionel Richie [itchy]."

"For my holiday this year I'm going for a Noel Gallagher [week in Malaga]."

Paul Elliot, editor of Music365 website, is sure the language will soon take off.

"Cockney rhyming slang is famous the world over," he said. "We've just updated it."

* Peter Sinclair is on leave.

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