Tech giants out to ambush MP3
MP3, a popular format for downloading music from the Web, is encountering competitive pressure as leading technology companies such as Microsoft Corp. work to subtly wean consumers away from the technology.
These companies, which have the music industry's blessing, are encouraging those who download music to use new proprietary software formats that make the audio sound significantly better but also make it harder to share copyright-protected songs.
Microsoft, for example, plans to severely limit the quality of music that can be recorded as an MP3 file using software built into the next version of its personal-computer operating system, Windows XP. But music recorded in the Redmond, Wash., software company's own format, called Windows Media Audio, will sound clearer and require far less storage space on a computer.
*cough* Anti-Trust *cough*
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