Natalie Imbruglia wins CD protection race

So why is it on file-swap sites?

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 9th November 2001 16:51 GMT

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Aussie pop star (and former Neighbours actress) Natalie Imbruglia has won the race to produce the first copyright-protected CD on general release to the UK public.

White Lillies Island, which includes current anti-melody hit single That Day, features Cactus Data Shield protection. This is designed to prevent MP3-ripping by corrupting the table of contents so it won't play on a PC, NTK.net reports today.

Bizarrely, Natalie's album contains a Windows app that will allow the entire album to be played on a WindowsOS PC. It's in an MP3 format, run at 128Kbps. Odd.

Needless to say, it's been ripped and copies are already up on file-swap sites (in fact they were there before the album was officially launched). There have been some reports that it is crashing Windows machines, but it appears to working according to plan by not working on Linux or MacOS - making Windows the operating system of choice for pirates.

Michael Jackson's new album Invincible was widely expected to be the first to impose copyright-protection constraints imposed by the recording industry. ®