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French company Thomson in the guise of www.mp3licensing.com is hoping to regain ground lost to alternative formats as the paid-for music downloads market has burgeoned in the past 12 months. While MP3 remains the favourite compression format of the P2P file sharer, its lack of DRM controls means that AAC (as used by Apple's iTunes Music Store) and WMA (favoured by Napster, amongst others) are leading the race to become the de facto standard. Add to this Real Networks' and Sony's own codecs and the potential for confusion is considerable.

All Thomson's efforts, therefore, could be in vain. There is no guarantee that device manufacturers or software developers will be prepared to buy licenses for the new format. Apple, for instance, is not likely to be keen to pay $1 per iPod to support a format that is a direct rival to AAC.

Rocky Caldwell, director of technology marketing, patents and licensing for Thomson told the LA Times that ,'MP3 is a brand the average consumer would expect to find on an audio service.' But it is also a brand that the consumer expects to provide free access, not constrained rights.