Looks like someone is finally coming to their senses:

"Perhaps in an effort to try to calm down people who have been unable to listen copy-protected CDs on their PCs, Sony's Label Gate CDs will allow customers to decode music from the CD onto their PC. The audio files must be played using Sony's Magiqlip software, which means non-Windows users still won't be able to play the CDs on their computers. The CDs, however, contain an audio track that should allow them to be played in standalone CD players. People will be allowed to decode music from their CD once for free via Internet authentication; after that, if they want to decode the music onto a computer again, it will cost about $1.64 per song, with the requirement that customers must pay for all of the songs on the CD."

More from Arstechnica here

SEE ALSO: Here And here.

Wait just a minute!!! I must be reading this wrong, either that or Sony is out of its mind.

The way I read this is that, Sony will let you decode and play the CD once, after that, you must pay $1.64/song and are required to pay for all songs on the CD. So, they want me to pay them every time I want to play the CD on my PC, after I've already payed for the CD once?

Is that what they are saying? If not someone clear this up.

I think what it means is you can listen to it on your computer with their software, and can rip it to mp3s once, after that you have to pay if you want to rip it again.

I'm not sure if I will like this, but from what I understand you can play it all you want, just decode it once for free, then pay.

Since the CD itseld can't be modified, I wonder though if the ripping info will reside on the HD (extremely hackable), or perhaps the Sony program will need an internet connection so that it can store some sort of CD id # on a database, then again, that would be hackable, too.

Hehehe...Rip once - convert to mp3 with 3rd party hacking app - burn to different CD

I guess you have to tell Sony you're now ripping this music off of this CD, so they save it, before you can rip it, therefore if you try it again it won't work. Like Windows & Office XP.

That confused me Veh.

I don't like these kind of things at all.

I wouldn't like them if I had software to play, either.

Which part SNGX?

The 2nd part was about the internet authentication...

Actually pretty much your whole thing.

I would assume that the software sony has would let you make it an mp3 straight from the disk - not wav (which most users would want to convert to mp3 anyway). Were you suggesting this mp3 would not be able to be copied once its created? What if you were moving it to a different partition/drive?
The whole entire second part was confusing still even after I have just read it the 8+ time. "So they save it" - what are they saving? "Before you can rip it" - is this the same "it" as in the previous statement? If it is then there should probably be a "." somewhere in between them. "Therefore if you try it again it won't work" again the "it" issue, and what do you mean it won't work? Basically what this entire thread was about after StormBringer's first post was that those who posted including myself were only speculating to exactly how or what this anti-copy thing is and how sony's software is going to work.

What I don't understand is how a standalone cd player can play the disk when a cd-rom drive wont.

Maybe one day we just buy licenses to allow us listen to our own CDs

Heh. Sorry SNGX...I think you're going off the assumption that you can rip it to mp3. I think you can't, only a proprietary Sony file format, that only their proprietary media player can play.

I was speculating on how the internet authentication would work. Like Win & Office XP..

a) Start the ripping process within Sony's media player.
b) The media player then sends the information about the CD and who you are to the Sony database.
c) You rip it to your HDD.
d) Sony saved a record that you already ripped it, so if you try to rip the same CD again you have to pay.

Simple enough??