Sony Music is ceasing the manufacturing of copy-protected CD’s which stop consumers from burning multiple copies of the music they buy.

The official line from Sony is that the expensive to produce software that stops CD’s from playing in half the players on the market are being pulled because “anti-duplication message has sunk in” and “only a small part of the population illegally copy CDs”. It’s nothing to do with the fact that hackers have found a way around it either.

Copy-protection software has been controversial since it’s introduction with claims that it can damage computer hardware and calls for music fans to be compensated for CD’s that will not function across all systems.