One of the most recent controversial plans has come from a group dubbed the 4C Entity, which includes IBM, Intel, Matsushita Electric and Toshiba. The group has created a technology called CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media) that would block certain types of files from being transferred to portable devices such as Zip drives, or microdrives, or the flash memory cards used in MP3 players. A similar specification is designed for prerecorded media such as audio DVDs. The 4C group sparked intense protest by taking their proposal to an industry standards group last year, asking that support for copyright protection be added directly into the rules dictating how data storage drives -- including PC hard drives -- talk to each other. Although the 4C proposal was ultimately withdrawn, another proposal that seeks much the same guards is being put to a vote by mail, with ballots to be tallied 2 April. Whatever the outcome, the 4C group is pressing forward with the licensing process for its technology, and portable devices with the copy protections built in could emerge as soon as this summer. "I think that in the grand scheme of things, the only way to make copy protections work is to invoke the hardware in a very integrated way," said Eric Scheirer, an analyst at Forrester Research. Although Intel has made other moves toward providing anticopying technology, it has made no effort to put the technology on its core computer chips, a shift that would vastly increase the profile and probability of success for digital rights management. Other chipmakers are pursuing this course but have yet to announce any products. Cirrus Logic has begun producing chips that include copy-protection technology from InterTrust. Texas Instruments and chip designer ARM Holdings have licensed the same technology. InterTrust also creates its own chip, dubbed the RightsChip, which can be used to lay the foundation of antipiracy technology deep into digital music devices or even desktop computers. Although it would not disclose details, InterTrust says it has already manufactured and shipped more than 200,000 of these chips to a customer that will use them for personal computers. "This kind of architecture makes it possible to build applications where it's not feasible to modify or hack the software," said Olin Sibert, InterTrust's vice president of strategic technology. The company's rights management technology is already being built into such high-profile products as Creative Labs' Nomad II MP3 player, but not at the hardware level. More recently, Nokia took a 5 percent stake in InterTrust with an eye toward adding content protection to MP3-playing cellular phones. Having the content protection built into players and computers can go a long way toward making piracy more difficult. But a critical step is still missing: For these devices to have a significant effect, the record companies or studios must release their music, CDs or movies in the formats that take advantage of the devices' protections. The entertainment industry could conceivably act quickly if a hardware solution were to become available, but unanimous agreement remains an elusive goal. Competing versions of digital rights management software that allow copyright holders to control who can use their works -- and how -- are still being tested by most of the record labels. Microsoft and InterTrust each have won considerable support, but no company has settled on a single format. Many analysts expect this chaos to continue well into the future, a prospect that bodes ill for successful, widespread antipiracy locks unless some universal standard can be mandated. Although it's unlikely Congress will step in to impose rules, sceptics say this might be what it will take. "There are so many interests that have to be on the same page," Forrester's Scheirer said. "I think the only way this would work is through legislation." Take me back to Pt I/ More Napster fallout Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Click on the TalkBack button and go to the ZDNet News forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. And read what others have said.