SAN FRANCISCO -- Hoping to crack down on music piracy, five major record labels have quietly begun selling CDs containing technology that foils attempts by customers to copy the songs onto blank discs ...

For the last several months, consumers in ordinary record stores around the world have unwittingly been buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage them from making copies on their PCs.

Copy-protection technology on music CDs may be headed for the U.S. market in bulk this year for the first time, according to one Wall Street analyst. In a research note published Friday, J.P. Morgan ...