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News last">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11094/">last week about SafeAudio CD copy protection indicates that while fighting pirates, the major record labels are also attempting to seal off the ability of users to place their own music from CDs onto computers. If they succeed, the only alternative for consumers who want non-pirated music on their desktops will be to buy content directly from the labels themselves, or companies set up to legally supply digital audio.

If you haven't seen much in the mainstream press about the new satellite radio services from XM and Sirius, both poised to launch before the end of the year, you soon will. First out of the chute with the big media bucks, XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Satellite Radio unveiled last week its national advertising campaign called "Radio to the Power of X."

A "digital rights management" (DRM) company has been awarded a patent for its "tickets" to Internet-based entertainment. Bethesda, MD–based ContentGuard">http://www.contentguard.com">ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. announced July 27 that it has been granted a patent for its "digital ticket" system, which allows users access to digital entertainment—music, video, graphics, and e-books—from any Internet-connected device.

Sharp Electronics has announced a new lineup of "one-bit" digital amplifiers that may herald a new generation of audio products.

The year has been a good one so far for New York's Harvey Electronics and for national electronics retailer the Tweeter">http://www.tweeter.com">Tweeter Group. The news isn't so rosy for West Coast chain the Good Guys.

There appears to be nothing more important to the music business today than controlling the distribution and use of digital content on the web and in the home. Proprietary schemes to prevent or control the use of audio files have become hot commodities and valuable assets for many companies. Liquid">http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio recently announced that the US Patent Office has awarded the company a patent (#6,219,634) for its watermark technique used for distributing secure digital music files.

In what is intended to have the biggest impact yet on the thriving "rip, mix, burn" lifestyle, Macrovisionhttp://www.macrovision.com">Macrovision; has revealed that several record labels have been secretly putting its copy protection system onto new CD releases since around March of this year (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10985/">previous report). The process, called SafeAudio, is a Macrovision registered trademark and is intended to prevent the copying of CDs, or tracks from CDs, onto CD-R discs and computer hard drives. The technology was developed jointly by Macrovision and TTR">http://www.ttrtech.com">TTR Technologies.