"...Free copies of songs from country music singer Charley Pride's latest album appeared on the Internet this week, just shortly before a version of the CD incorporating new anti-copying technology was released in U.S. stores Tuesday. The CD, released by Nashville, Tenn.-based Music City Records, features Pride's new album, "A Tribute to Jim Reeves." Eight of the 15 songs on the CD were posted Monday on a private Web page hosted by Yahoo. The appearance of MP3s from the album muddies the debate over the effectiveness of CD encryption schemes in one of the first such commercial releases.

Phoenix-based SunnComm, which provided the copy-protection technology for the CD, said the leaked songs did not come from a cracked CD but were likely copied from an unprotected set of 2,000 CDs released in Australia. "It's not a breach of our technology. We have a way of looking at what the content is and telling if someone has legitimately circumvented what we do, and this does not have those elements in it." said SunnComm Chairman John Aquilino.

Aquilino added that Pride did everything he could to make sure his content in the United States was protected but was unable to do anything for the Australian market. Regardless of whether the copy-protected CD was hacked, the leak underscores the need for all CDs to be protected for such measures to be effective, analysts said..."