SDMI meetings are closed to the public. Sony characterized the letter as an internal document and declined to comment further. SDMI members at odds One of SDMI's problems is that individual members have found themselves at cross-purposes, not only because illegally distributed music has been one of the original drivers of portable player shipments, but also because the screens to prevent playback of illegal songs have no obvious value to customers shopping for players. In other words, if even one portable device that is available to consumers can play illegal songs, consumers will have no reason to buy the ones that can only play legal music. The issue of security, which is not a consumer issue, suddenly becomes a consumer issue.
Authentication is of greater concern to the content creator than the consumer.
Digital music, especially songs recorded in the MP3 format, has skyrocketed in popularity because it makes the process of posting and sharing files online relatively simple. But that simplicity also has led to widespread sharing of illegal copies of copyright-protected content online. Some say the proliferation of music online presents an array of new marketing opportunities to music companies. And in the last few months, record companies have begun to utilize the Web for distribution instead of simply relying on it for marketing and sales of physical CDs. For example, record company EMI earlier this year began encoding its catalog of music to make it available for download.