Method and apparatus for distributing multimedia programs

A method of distributing a program, comprising:

• generating a first data portion including a digital file corresponding to said program, said first data portion being readable by a standard player device but unreadable on a general purpose computer;
• generating a second data portion, said second data portion including a digital file containing a compressed version of the program;
• and
• distributing said first and second data portions to consumers;
• wherein the consumers can play said program from said first portion only through said standard player device, and wherein said digital file from said second data portion can be processed through a general purpose computer using a software player in accordance with a predetermined set of rules.

A method of distributing multimedia programs comprising:

• generating a first data portion and a second data for said program, said first data portion being arranged to make it playable only by an audio player device, said second data portion including a digital compressed version of the same program, said compressed program being playable by a software program on a general computer in accordance with a set of predetermined rules;
• and
• distributing said data portions to consumers;
• wherein said consumers can play said first data portion only on a standard player device and said second data portion on a general purpose computer.