Sony was one of the most paranoid of the music companies when it came to protecting copyright in the digital era. I bought an early Sony digital music player, but it only played its own proprietary format, making all the MP3 files I’d acquired useless. To protect the music it sold on CD, Sony built in restrictions that allowed an owner to copy the CD only once to a personal computer. If you wanted to copy it again, you had to pay.

Now, Sony is introducing digital music players that play MP3 files, which renders its copy-protected CDs useless, so Sony—paranoid no longer, apparently—is dropping copy protection on its CDs. Actually, the company’s official position is that its message against illegal copying of CDs has sunk in, and only a small percentage of population engages in such activity.

The full story is at SiliconValley.com.