I was under the impression that we had a good thing going with a separate functionality between USB-connected devices and media which you placed in an optical drive. Apparently, I was wrong. American-Israeli company Aladdin has filed a patent for a product which they’re calling the “XCD.” The CD/DVD could still be used in a conventional disk drive, but it also includes a SmartCard that could be used to encrypt the data. Basically, this could be the solution the RIAA has been looking for; a CD that can’t be copied because it wouldn’t work on anybody else’s computer. Because, y’know, hackers have never been able to get around new technology.

Smart-card discs [New Scientest Tech via The Raw Feed