Either stop the media leaks or face tighter security.(Viewpoint)

Almost 80% of traced pre-release leaks of EMI's music aver the past year have come from the press, radio and independent PR communities. Our watermarking policy has revealed this unfortunate fact.

Leaking pre-release music onto the internet is not helpful to anyone in the business of bringing music to the consumer. As interdependent industries, the music industry and the music media should be supporting each other.

Advance discs are sent in confidence to the media, sometimes via independent PR agencies, for the purpose of review.

Whether they are watermarked or not, it is always clearly stated on the discs that they have been supplied "on the condition that they may not be sold, altered, transferred or copied in any way including burning or uploading to the internet" Sadly a number of people are ignoring these conditions and we need to address this.

One certain way to prevent illegal access to pre-release music is to improve the protection of advances and promo discs. There are technologies available that provide very high levels of protection, ...