SELF-DESTRUCTING digital recordings may be the future of music and movie sales, with files auto-erasing or locking after perhaps just 20 plays or a year on your shelf. But consumer groups are concerned this could signal a future in which rental of recordings may become the only option.
The ability to limit playbacks is buried in the small print of licences for the new MPEG-4 digital recording and transmission format now used in 3G mobile phones. It is also popular with film and music traders.
MPEG-4 is a digital compression system for video recordings developed by Apple, France Telecom, Philips,…
