The ill-fated Secure Digital Music Initiative [SDMI] has published its first specification, a voluntary, open standard that manufacturers can use to develop new portable devices, expected for the 1999 holiday season.

SDMI has been having a tough time getting through the piles of legal distractions and trying to coordinate all their 110 members.However, this new “spec” will be used for all new SDMI-compliant  devices consumers will be able to play all “legacy” content, including copies of existing CDs and digital music files, as well as electronically distributed music in protected and unprotected formats.In the future, these devices will also play new music released in   emerging, SDMI-compliant formats.  The specification, adopted in draft by SDMI at its June 23-25 meeting, underwent a final technical review and was adopted at a meeting in Los Angeles earlier this month.