Fraunhofer is attempting to add DMR to Mp3.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1573041,00.asp

Yeah this was mentioned before. I don't see what the big deal about DRM protection is. If you don't want to use it, don't use it. DRM protection support is good to get MP3 used in online music stores which I'm sure is what Fraunhofer wants. Surround sound support is a questionable upgrade because AAC is out now and supports multi-channel. Even Vorbis supports multichannel, so if someday we need a codec that does surround sound those would do it. Fraunhofer must want to keep MP3 the defacto standard for audio compression so they are developing it further.

thats a little bit naive
i am sure frauenhofer didnt add drm to mp3 because the normal users, like us, were asking for it


hm they want to cash in as long as possible with old formats. if they can earn money 2 more years with mp3 and only after that push aac (on which fhg also has its fingers) it means 2 more years of income which they wouldnt have if aac would get widely used now

of course the competitors arent sleeping

This is old news as someone has already pointed out. Don't forget they are also adding 5.1 surround to the .mp3 format as well. We may soon see a single release that has 5.1 and DRM and retains compatability with the old format.

I think someone mentioned that they are really just a plain .mp3 with DRM and 5.1 added in, so that you could play it on an old player still - you just won't get the 5.1. I wonder how they will handle an .mp3 with DRM since the whole point of DRM is NOT to be playable except on "authorized" hardware.

The whole point of DRM is to manage digital rights.
It could mean only playing authorized content, but it could also mean beeing able to track content (eg: watermark) or beeing able to properly define rights (eg: mpeg-21, ODRL, XrML)

Soooooo...?

It makes no difference if the RIAA or the Pope was asking for it. Teqnilogik's point stands that if you don't want to use DRM, don't use it.

well my point is that the guys which drm was introduced for will not ask you if you want to use it or not...

I think your missing Teqnilogik's point. The guys who want drm for mp3 ain't going to go with mp3 for whatever distribution plan they have in mind unless there is drm support. They'll just simply opt for aac instead which already has drm. So in effect it doesn't really make a difference if they attach drm support to mp3 or not your still going to be able to create mp3's with lame without drm, your still going to be able to download music from your favourite p2p program. But it's your choice whether you want to choose that companies DRMed content. It's the same as saying, will i download my music with iTunes or with kazaa.

Well there is also mp3pro and it doesn't seem so widely used either.

They are just appealing to the big guys. In the end, the people rule. After all, FHG didn't meant their format to be used outside of the video cd realm. It was the people who used it massively that way, and they are just late reacting, tryin to milk a little more.

Or maybe Thomson just needs it to appeal the RIAA execs?

Why are you so sure?

I actually believe it'll work like WMA DRM - you can opt if you want protection or not when you are encoding.

seems you misunderstood me
i meant if companies/music stores, which imho this drm was introduced for, will make use of this drm for mp3 they will not care about if users want it or not

i dont think that there are that much "small customers" which will find drm usefull for their purpose

And still, it's your choice not to use DRM. Just don't buy music from online stores and buy CDs instead

lets wait and see how much choice we will have left in some years

Bleh, the labels themselves are bombing the online music stores - no lossless allowed, demanding enormous fees that leave no income to the store... I don't think the physical market will be wiped so soon.

It's called LWDRM (light weight digital rights management) and not supposed to be like WMA DRM. You may want to check the LWDRM Homepage

Edit: According to this site LWDRM is not intended for MP3.

bye,
SebastianG