secure digital music initiative (copy protection) (SDMI)

Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) is a music and consumer electronics association founded in 1999 to ensure protection against unauthorized copying of music titles and to prevent the downloading of music from the Internet.

SDMI, which has over 150 member companies, develops procedures and standards for copy protection ofMP3 files so that they can no longer change hands without authorization or be offered on file-sharing networks. These standards are implemented in the MP3 file format and realized in software and hardware players, which requires special SDMI players. Among other things, compatibility with existing MP3 players plays an important role in the development.

Technically, the SDMI concept is implemented to protect original tracks by means of encryption and watermarking.