The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the body representing US record labels, plans to meet Samsung, the South Korean electronics group, to discuss its plans to introduce the Yepp, a portable MPeg3 player.
Last week, Samsung became the first mass-market electronics manufacturer to confirm its intention of producing an MPeg3 player, a controversial new device that can download music from the Internet.
Mr Cary Sherman, senior executive vice-president and general counsel of the RIAA, said the association planned to start a dialogue with Samsung and any other makers of MPeg3 players in an attempt to ensure that they would not be used to breach copyright by recording pirated music from unauthorised Internet sites.
The recent escalation of Internet piracy is a serious threat to the music industry's financial stability. The RIAA and other industry bodies fear that the availability of inexpensive MPeg3 recording devices will aggravate the problem by making it easier and quicker for consumers to find pirated music on the Internet, and then to store and play it.
The first MPeg3 players, named after the computer files on which music is stored on the Internet and other digital systems, went on sale earlier this year.
The RIAA sought an injunction from a US federal district court two weeks ago to stop Diamond Multimedia, a Californian company, from selling The Rio, a Sony Walkman-sized MPeg3 player, for $199 at mainstream US retailers. The RIAA lost its case and is now appealing.
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