Vivendi Universal said on Tuesday its Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, plans to start issuing CDs in October with software that prevents music from being digitally copied into computer files. Universal, whose artists include U2, Eminem and Sheryl Crow, is aiming to have the protection software on all CDs toward the end of the first quarter of 2002, Bronfman said.

Vivendi's Bronfman declined to comment on how the software would work or who Universal Music's technology partner was. The protected CDs can be played on conventional CD players and CD-ROM's, Bronfman said, but safeguards will be in place to prevent copying the music onto computers or ``burning'' them onto recordable CDs.