In a way, they’re like the slave owners before the civil war. Just ask musicians who’ve been at the mercy of these "institutions" since the dawn of recorded music. With little control over their music, musicians have been forced to sign unfair contracts and be subject to distasteful exploitation. How bad is it? Turn on the radio, or the music channels on television and listen to what they call "popular" music.

When MP3 arrived, at first they didn’t take it seriously. When unknown musicians first began distributing their music over the Net, the "Industry" figured it was no big deal. But when major artists started to get involved, things got ugly.

First they cried piracy. Then the "industry" went to court to try and stop the sale of MP3 players. That failed. In just over six months, the Diamond Rio MP3 player has sold 150,000 units. Countless others are playing MP3 over their computer systems. It's estimated that nearly 500,000 people worldwide are utilizing MP3 files.

And so the big guys formed the Secure Digital Music Initiative, to develop a file format they could control and that would eliminate piracy.

Last week, the SDMI announced they had completed design specifications for the Walkman-like devices they claim will thwart online piracy. On a yet-to-be determined date, new CDs released by the major record producers will be digitally encrypted to prevent piracy, and the digital players will need to be upgraded to accept the new music, the Secure Digital Music Initiative said.

"SDMI will enable the future of music and today's announcement signals to consumers that this future is coming quickly. This future holds the promise that consumers will have access to vast amounts of exciting new content with a new level of portability," SDMI director Leonardo Chiariglione said in a statement.

Of course that means "exciting new content" that power brokers will control.

Diamond Multimedia, which makes the popular and controversial Rio portable digital music player, said it will comply with the new standards. The original version of the Rio player has served as a focal point for the music piracy debate because it doesn't require copyright protection to play music using MP3 technology.

But here’s one thing you can take to the bank. It will only be a matter of days before computer- savvy hackers will find a way around the security features. Nothing is 100 percent crack-proof.

This is far from the final chapter of this Twisted Tale. The big guys can develop all the technology they want but the reality is that the Net is a decentralized medium. They only way they can control it is turn it off and that isn’t about to happen any time soon.

Stay tuned!

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