What Is Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)?

In 1998, the music industry was reeling from the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing. Sites like Napster and Morpheus were distributing MP3 songs via peer-to-peer networks, which meant that anyone with an internet connection could download any song they wanted for free. There is something that the music industry figured out that they should do to stop it. The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) emerged in response to this threat. The group comprised more than 200 companies and organizations interested in developing secure digital music distribution specifications. They sought to stamp out Internet music piracy and protect artists' copyrights by creating a standard system for protecting digital files from unauthorized copying. Unfortunately, SDMI hit a wall when they needed to agree on technologies to preserve music from digital copying. They went on hiatus in 2001 due to their inability to reach a consensus about how best to protect artists' copyrights from illegal copying. The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) consortium of music and technology companies prevented unlawful copying, distribution, and digital music sales. The group disbanded in 2001 after a rocky few years; its members disagreed about the use of several technologies for DRM, including watermarking, encryption, and copy protection schemes. The music industry wanted electronics producers to shoulder the cost of implementing these technologies. Still, many electronics companies argued that there needed to be more proof that such measures would effectively prevent piracy. They also pointed out that consumers were already accustomed to purchasing their music online without these protections and were unlikely to pay higher prices for more expensive products just because they had added security features. When SDMI released some examples of music with new digital watermarks in September 2000, hackers at Princeton University successfully removed them and planned to publish their findings.