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Corporate Media Conglomerate HOWTO
Dave Finton writes "Due to my frustration with not even being able to immediately contribute to the DVD case, I wrote a Humorix article called the Corporate Media Conglomerate HOWTO, detailing how media execs can maintain their iron grip on the keys of communication for tomorrow. Enjoy!"
Ok, well, I've spent the last 2 months trying to figure out how I could buy (or rent) a DVD, and copy it, or somehow pirate it for a profit..
truthfully, I can't even convince any of my friends to download this copy of one of my own DVD's on my hard drive onto their computer..
ok, here's how the conversation went..
ME: I have this brand new DVD - The Matrix
My Friend: Really, I love that movie..
ME: Ok, well, I have the whole file on my hard drive, and you can have a copy, here's my IP address and username and password you can use to get it.
My Friend: Really, I can have the whole thing? Can I put it on a CD, because I only have about 4 Gig free on my hard drive..
ME: no, but you could break up the files, and put it on about 15 CD's, otherwise it takes about 8 gig of drive space, not to mention, if you took the entire bandwith of the network at school, it would take a few hours to transfer it to you over the network..
My Friend: well, forget it, I'll just buy a copy.. it's easier..
Anyone else have any better luck getting anyone to take an 8 Gig file from you?
You have bought a shiny new $ITEM from your local department store, and it comes with a nice, uniformed man who will set it up in your front room for you, and also install another nice, uniformed man whose only function is to unlock the front of $ITEM whenever you want to use it.
However, you don't want to be in your front room; you tend to sit in the kitchen where it is warmer, and there is more access to food and other essentials. unfortunately, the nice uniformed man in the front room refuses to work in the kitchen - you need a kitchen man for that, it's against his union rules.
so, you contact the supplier, and ask them to send you a kitchen-man. unfortunately, they don't think kitchens are important enough places for $ITEM that they are willing to train kitchen man; they say that yes, you have bought $ITEM, but if you don't choose to use it in the front room, then you can't use it.
Enter your local Norwegian kid (what? you don't have one? then get one! they come in handy for all sorts of things) who looks at the key in the front-room guy's hand and makes you a new one. you are now happy - if you use $ITEM in the front room, you can let the uniformed guy do his thing; if you use it in the kitchen, you can use the Norwegian kid's key. The fact you can now use the key in the front room as well doesn't matter, as it's your choice anyhow, yes?
NO. the manufacturers you contacted initially rush to court, and make your key illegal. they scream that the guy in the front room shouldn't have had the key where the norwegian kid could see it - it should have been safely in his pocket when not in use - and therefore you shouldn't be allowed to use the copied key. Moreover, they also say you shouldn't even be able to tell people where they can get a key, and to make sure the norwegian kid doesn't make any more, have him arrested and his key-making kit confiscated - and arrest his father too, just to be on the safe side.
Comments?
--
-=DaveHowe=-
You said that you wrote some humour and we can have a laugh and stuff. :-(
I went there but there wasn't any humour only a precise, factual and descriptive report on the current state of affairs
Kocsonya s.k.
Come on, the whole DeCSS brouhaha is business as usual in the US business world. Of course it's familiar. It sounds a lot like the tactics of any large corporation that feels threatened. I'm not saying their tactics are proper, or that they should be litigating in this case (they probably shouldn't), but the discussions on /. make it sound like corporate America has suddenly become meaner than ever and geeks are the target.
My guess is that wider and deeper equity investment through mutual funds has made executives beholden to a small group of elite fund managers. Perform or deliver! Protect your assets! That's what they are hearing and if they don't listen, they're more likely than ever to be out on their ears. Look what happened at Coca Cola recently - Ivester wasn't seen as protecting the mark and now he's on his way out (although, granted, Warren Buffet rather than a fund manager was probably the one behind his resignation). If execs at the media conglomerates start dropping off the twig, execs at DVDCCA will probably follow. These guys are covering their asses and running scared as much as anything else.
Hello, I must be going. I'm here to say I cannot stay, I must be going.
I keep wondering what these media moguls are going to do when all the latest audio and video recordings can be freely downloaded from a server that they can't even locate. Think of an IP network composed of encrypted wormholes and anonymous packet routers.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
unfortunately, what all of us little slashdotters are attempting to combat here is an incredibly advanced case of an ages-old disease called "ignorance". this particular case has been the subject of much study by [gang of smarties] in recent years, and they had the following to say about the matter:
[smarties]: we regret to inform the general public that their beloved friend "movies and recordings" will not be with us for very long. it suffers from a case of ignorance unlike any we've ever seen: while normal ignorace is simply the absence of knowledge, movies and recordings seems to have a bizarre, omni-adaptable strain of the disease which makes it actually ignore anything and everything its twisted subconscious chooses to. the ignorance has taken over the brain; consciousness has given way to disregard.
thus, readers of slashdot be warned, nothing we say or do is ever going to make any difference: when you're talking to someone who doesn't want to listen, rarely does shouting at them make them more likely to pay attention. i hate to say it kiddies, but what this calls for is total. utter. destruction. of american mainstream culture.
well. maybe not, but that seems to be the best idea i can come up with (i'm not too impressed with the other solutions i've been presented with)...
grizzo: totally insecure, but very convenient.
Main Office Address:
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
Motion Picture Association (MPA)
15503 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, California 91436
(818) 995-6600
you know what to do
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
A LIE REPEATED ONE HUNDRED TIMES BECOMES THE ULTIMATE TRUTH.
Gobels
Repeat after me: "encrypted DVD cannot be copied" - exempt from the presentation of MPAA for the preliminary injuction in New York. The transcript is at:2600.com - one of the sites hit with injunction. The quote is located in the very beginning. Presenting it here once again for sake of paranoia (who knows what will they try to injunct next time, the truth maybe):
MR. GOLD: Now, before plaintiffs were willing to make DVDs available, they decided that they had to have an encryption technology so that the content and their copyright interest in the content could be protected, something that would scramble the picture and scramble the sound. And that system was created, and it is called CSS, which stands for content scrambling system. And you can't watch a movie unless you have an authorized DVD player, and the authorized DVD player has the computer key to the program. So with a DVD and an authorized player, the authorized player will unscramble the picture and the sound and you can watch your movie. But you can't copy it. The CSS technology prevents that.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
...when the only thing stopping us from having an open source player is a backwards legal battle? Generally when people want to see Starcraft, Illustrator, or whatever ported to Linux it's because it's a mammoth software product that is the fruit of years of development by tens or hundreds of programmers, which we would rather pay $50-$500 for than try to reimplement.
A DVD player isn't in that category. We have free software mpeg2 players (albeit not optimized or hardware-accelerated yet; there's a short window where a commercial player would have a number of customers); we have free software DVD filesystem and lowlevel drivers... why should we be prohibited from using these things for legal, fair purposes just because the same software can also be used for (and isn't even required for) illegal, impractical DVD copying?
Outlawing unlicensed DVD players because they can be used to make copies is like outlawing non-General Motors cars on the excuse that "unsafe, unlicensed cars can kill people", when the reality is that "unlicensed cars have major legal uses, and our existing cars can be used to kill people, but unlicensed cars don't make us as much money."
Now media and other types of entertainment have flourished throughout the years because of clones and competition. Hence why there's more than one TV or NewsPaper. Now Divix tried to come out, but it was a late player in the game and we all saw what happened to that clever device.
Everyone forgets about songs too, remember when DVD audio was supposed to come out? Why are they so worried about it. You could copy DVD movies before DeCSS just now they can blame their losses on some programmer. So I say quit holding back the technology and quit holding back the media.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Are Slashdot readers above the law?
We've seen it repeatedly: Slashdot condoning what are obviously illegal acts (and therefore immoral acts: the Bible clearly says to obey authority), such as Music piracy through "mp3s" and "Napster." Now, Slashdot readers are attempting to pirate DVDs through the "DeCSS" program, written by a young man who was obviously influenced in his evil ways by the culture of immorality and atheism that makes up this "Open Source" community. But when they must face the consequnces of their unlawful acts: watch out! The Slashdot Moral Relativism Squad takes control, and you better not speak out, or you'll be sent down to -1, where the dissidents, many of whom are actively trying to save Slashdot from its own decadence, gather with their posts.
So what am I saying: that respect for the law is what keeps society together, and when one group feels that it does not apply to them, then the ties of society are severed forever. We will probably see greater piracy now than ever, since it is not only seen as acceptable, but is in fact encouraged as a sort of rebellion, much in the same way as teen smoking or alcohol abuse (two other reprehensible acts). We must end this culture of disrespect, and we must do it together.
Now God tells us to love the sinner, but hate the sin, and as such, I cannot say that I hate you in my heart, but it is also our duty to teach, correct, and bear witness to the Scriptures and the love of Jesus and the doing of His will. So I am asking, pleading even that we may together end these hateful violation of both Earthly and Heavenly law.
May the Peace of Christ be with you all.
Is this a newly created document, or a document recently released from the Microsoft vs DOJ court case?
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
You know what the sad thing about this is? It's very close to the truth. Nowadays, if you threaten an existing mega-corporation's profits, you'd better believe that you'll be in trouble. And nobody will hear of it, as the media, the government, and possibly your friends are all controlled by this mega-corporation. Next thing you know, you're in prison being tortured with rats by a corporation known as BB Industries because you know how to allow people to use BB's products in an environment they can't control! The hierarchal system will never work, as long a humans are human... corruption, power... this is why Linux, OSS and the Independent Media is a Good Thing (tm). Grassroots is the way to go. (Down with BB!)
Remind your pet politicians that small children need to be protected from EEEVILLL pr0n, and so all ISPs have to do lots of filtering, and everybody has to use censorware.
This not only effectively blocks out all those naughty hacker sites like geocities or yahoo, it makes running an ISP more expensive so that your big corporation can control the market. And when you control the ISPs, you can control what people post there.
No worries, mate.
No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.
When you buy a dvd player or a computer with a dvd-player built in you are also almost always given the software needed to run the player. So in reality anyone buying a DVD player has already paid for the software needed to run it.
All that this debate is about, is freedom of choice.
The DVD CCA is just descriminating against linux users. If a Linux user owns a DVD player that person has already payed for the use of DVD software. The Linux user has not been given working software for linux even though he has already paid for the software. So the DVDCCA is just descriminating against a philosophy. The OSS philosophy which is something that scares the DVD-CCA.
If this debate were about race, relegion, or sex then the outcome would be much more predictable. Instead it's about the fundamental freedom of thought.
They are not against the software. They aren't stupid they know that it is impractical to copy DVDs. They are against reverse engeneering because it allows others to gain information outside of their channels of control. They do not want a large group of people using a product that promotes free thought and free products. They want to stop the linux OSS movement while they can.
So how do they do that? They use the formula that this article is making fun of.
Sue! The more the better. Even if you don't win you hurt the person that you are litigating against. And you help keep people from doing anything that you would disaprove of in the future.
Use misinformation. Represent the situation in the most favorable light for your cause. Forget facts if you can sway opinion that will be enough.
Use misrepresentation. Anyone involved must be made to look like a criminal. Even if their intent was not criminal.
Use politics. Politicians are only human you can feed thim misinformation. You can buy them and they have the power to change things in your favor.
Use Law enforcement. Most law enforcment agencies are more then willing to accept the expert help of corperate officials. Back in the day Bell had their own agents that accompanied police to help in the arrest of suspected phreakers.
This article is funny, as it was intended to be, but it's also scary because it's so close to what's been happening. Sorry about the long post.
Environmentalists are their own worst enemy. ~tricklenews.com
Emmet should have read the HOWTO HOWTO before writing this. It cannot be submitted to the LDP as it is. He needs to fix it to meet the recently argued about standards for docbook etc.
Munky_v2
"Warning: you are logged into reality as root..."
Jay
You, my good sir, are posting what appears to be Left Wing Views. Such things are not to be tolerated on Slashdot, where we open our source but not our minds.
Have a nice day.
~~~~~~~~~
auntfloyd
"And this just in: David Finton, an author for the internet humour site "Humorix" is being sued by the MPAA for patent infringment
'The "Corporate Media Conglomerate HOWTO" that he wrote is clearly in violation with our business plan, to which we hold at leat eight patents, even to the extent that many tracts seem to have just been copyed and pasted' said Jack Valentii, president of the MPAA
David Finton was unavailable for comment, as he had been immediatly imprisioned and held with out bail at the MPAA's request.
The case is planned to go to court in 8 months."
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
Also, is there no European Law to provide safety from American capitalism? Maybe a European Court hearing is in order? Ooops, that costs money, er, another way to stop independant people from fighting back?
Does anyone actually know of a site that is actively (lawfully) doing anything about this? If there isn't maybe it is worth considering making a group to actively attack the association. I am willing to do my part, are you? E-mail me with suggestions at c0rarc@hotmail.com. c0rarc
As I've said in a previous post that was moderated down, the companies that own the MPAA are vulnerable.
Look at http://www.cjr.org/owners/ to see a list of who owns what. You will be surprised at who owns the studios and can be targeted.
MODERATE UP THIS TIME, PLEASE!
Below are the comments from the people of the Internet:
"Get the constitution written. I am interested in what the government will do with such a document. If enough U.S. citizens will sign the Internet Constitution, the government will have no choice but to hear the voices of the people. "
"The information age is about freedom of the mind and of sharing what we have learned. This concept has made the internet what it is today, DeCSS is just one more product from that."
"Your democracy is deterorating under the weight of the corprate structures. Fight back and reclaim your consitutional rights, and then for gods sake use them."
"this is a clear violation of human rights. the web is for the people and they are the ones who should decide what should be censored"
"All creative efforts and products are affected by histories which are greater in scope than the history of any individual or corporate body; thus, a creator is but a single contributer to the history of a particular creation. All restrictions upon information, through institutions based on the notion of individual ownership are hereby invalid. Creation is a collective cultural cooperation; it is not an isolated, ownable achievement. "
"I cant belive any compeny would do this! I mean we are people trying to entertain ourselves. I was thinking of passing a petition throughout linuxworld expo."
"I am concerned at the harmful attempts of powerful media organizations to restrict reasonable access to digital technology by individuals. I support your efforts to gather grass roots support for personal freedom on the Internet."
"I really appreciate the support. Keep up the good work! -jlj "
"It has always troubled when judges who had no grasp of the matter and failed to realize their own incompetence in the field came to dubious verdicts innocent of any understanding of what its consequences might be. I think now in the new millenium, as computertechnology in general and the internet in particular have become a part of daily life for normal people and have acquired enormous economic and social influence, there can be less and less understanding for such incompetence. The idea that decisions that may have the potential to change our future world are made by such people rooted in the past and inclined to listen to whoever has more status and financial and political power is deeply worring to me. The judicial systems in many western countries should take more care that such trials are dealt with by people who have a clue what they're deciding about, unless we all have to live with the results of their ignorance."
"I believe that the government was wrong in entering the house of Jon Johansen. I believe in the rights of free speech on the internet, and hope that with the support of it's constituents, this country can make the right choice and allow the DeCSS code to be distributed for the purpose of creating a Linux based DVD player. It is only with the combined effort of all of the worlds greatest minds working together on open source projects that we can ever truly reach our potential as an electronic society. i encourage all those who have similair feelings to express come forward and show their support. without quantity we will never be heard. "
"Not everything is intellectual property, if ingenuity is not allowed to flourish we as a society of freethinkers will perish."
"This trial is a ridicule of the justice system and also (should be) a great embarassment to those suing this 16 year old boy. Not only for their laughable excuse of an case, but also for trying to incriminate a boy who cracked their obviously simple code."
"It's time that we demand changes to the terribly out-dated copyright and patent laws that have allowed the MPAA and so many others to deny the average citizen the right to use their mind. It's time that people realized you can't patent or copyright common sense. An inventor is entitled to some credit, but the actions of the MPAA and its allies (the US and Norwegian governments) have crossed the line between protecting intellectual property rights and discouraging intellectual progress. Not only should we demand justice in the DeCSS proceedings, but we should demand that the existing laws be thoroughly examined to determine the extent of their inadequacy in a digital age and hopefully, correct their shortcomings."
"We need an Internet constitution right away! "
"Dumbing down the world's population is insanely dangerous. Did the inventors of the microwave start suing and arresting people for understanding that technology. I think not. We all have a right, a responsibility, to understand the world around us. Big corporations want to prevent that because it prevents them from having to think smart."
"When the framers of the Constitution of America set out to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they took intellectual freedom for granted." Prob'ly irrelevant 'cause it's the US Constitution and this is Norway, but oh well "
"What is frightening to me is that a program can draw such incredible heat simply because it has the *potential* to be misused. It does not even require proof of *intent* -- merely the *potential*. "
"A judge who can't pronounce "Linux" correctly is makeing mockery of justice. Source code is simply speech, it does not take one penny away from the MPAA. "
"Dumbing down the world's population is insanely dangerous. Did the inventors of the microwave start suing and arresting people for understanding that technology. I think not. We all have a right, a responsibility, to understand the world around us. Big corporations want to prevent that because it prevents them from having to think smart. "
"It is an unfortunate fact that I have been losing my faith in our judicial system for quite some time now. The recent rulings against the open source community and the abuse incurred by Jon Johnsansen and those who have posted his code have only strengthened my belief that the people who we have placed our trust in are corruptible beyond measure and do not deserve their positions. The two most recent rulings regarding the DeCSS source code are prime examples of the injustices to which I refer:
1) Judge Louis A. Kaplan of New York not only misunderstood the material over which he was presiding, but made it obvious that he had no interest in having the material explained to him. His biased views were evident in the quote that he is now infamous for. It doesn't take a "moron" to realize his decision was made before the trial even took place. Now tell me that is fair.
2) Then Judge William Elfving changed his mind and went back on his earlier ruling that the injunction was unbiased in California. Obviously, something outside of the realm of a fair trial influenced him after the trial took place. Gee, I wonder how that happened. Seems like an awful lot is going on outside the courtroom.
I find it sorely disappointing that these rulings have shown that in today's world money and power still have strongholds over justice in our justice system. "Might over right" has again failed the people of the United States and the "power of the people" has again been rewritten as "power to the people with the money."
Fair is fair, and this is not fair. This is not a case in which simply disagree with a ruling. This is a case where I will go to my grave knowing that freedoms have truely been violated. "
"The misinformation that is being spread by the plaintiffs in this case discusts me. The idea that the de-css software is required to pirate movies is so flawed, I'm amazed people haven't jumped all over it. This suit isn't about piracy, it is about control of how we play our licensed software. We could bytestrip dvd's until the next millenium w/out ever decoding them. de-css is about allowing software players to exist -- that these players are beyond the control of the motion picture industry is the bee in their bonet. The raid on Jon's home is a misappropriation of justice -- the mpaa should be tried for perjury. "
"DVD encryption was always a crime against the free market. It is dumb to fight the new intellectual realities of the interent with a copyright system that belongs in another era."
"Something must be done to stop the plunder of our individual rights and the corruption of our democratic system by large, greedy, multi-national corporations!"
"I believe that the law is being twisted in an unconstitional way. The way the judges are acting, and the way the plaintiffs are responding is childlike, uncalled for, and their suit has no legal standing. "
"Copying DVDs are not cost effective. I would rather buy originals for the quality of picture and sound. But I also have a Linux box and do not appreciate the DIVX-like pressure to use "corporate sanctioned products" to view my DVD. Untill the MPAA get into the game and start writing software/players for all platforms, the open source community will continue to do what it does for the best of the community, legally. Not all of us are hackers. But 98% of us like using Linux and are tired of being treated as second class cyber citizens. This lawsuit and the harrasment of Jon Johansen only raises the fact of a high powered, rich yet greedy corporation trying to protect their "monopoly" over technology. I would rather live in peace and harmony with all parties but if you start pushing hard like this, the entire community can provide one hell of a backlash. Pity you guys don't have one stock we can focus on.. remember what happened to E-Toys' stock after the E-Toy fiasco. Treat us as customers instead of as criminals. There is only so much that you (the MPAA) or Microsoft can do in restricting our freedoms."
"The ability to learn , interperet and pro-actively contribute to the creation of a new format of distributing information and knowledge , should never be prosecuted , but only encouraged.Those who forge ahead into this realm are the ones who inspire great thinking.Those who condemn it , have slave-holder mentalities. "
"Who do you guys think you work for?? We want our freedom, and are willing to fight for it, especially if that means knocking you out of office! "
"Keep fighting.. "
"I'm thinking it isn't right to charge someone for information they obtain, and how they decide to spread it! "
"I do not think an Internet Constitution to "supersede" the existing Constitution is a good way to get the most amount of support for your cause. Anything that poses to supercede the current Constitution in the name of this cause has more potential to alienate potential supporters who agree with our Constitution. The current Constitution is not the problem, and making a new one will not protect us from legislative, administrative, and legal abuses of our rights!!! "
"This case confuses the need for personal privacy (deserving of security) with the need to lock out non-Microsoft consumers (greed and monopolism). I personally do not give a crap about DVDs, but I do care very much about state-supported monopoly power. Had the creators of this system made it available to all operating systems, it is likely that no one would have found the subject so intriguing. "
"This is capitalism at it's very worse. It's a very sad state of affairs when a conglomerate of corporations can gather and influence the law and state of numerous countries to comply with their will. Jon Johansen was merely investigating and trying to learn and educate, this is an outrage. "
"Free the code! "
"If Linux users have no right to play DVD, then suit the MPAA. Its the totally race-discrimination. Fight them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
"Eat the MPAA! "
"DVD on Linux!!! Make it real!!! "
"viva la internet"
"Jon Johansen is innocent! "
"Everyone has the right to play the DVDs that they legally bought on whichever platform they want. What Jon Johansen did was reverse engineering, which is legal in both the USA and Norway. And his motivation for doing this WAS NOT piracy, but a wish to play his DVDs on his Linux box. "
"If Jon Johansen can reserve engineer the code to open DVD, why is he being sued? Can we say "GREED"? "
"B smart... "
"If the same thing was done in the computer field, where would PCs be today??? "
"I have a DVD I can't play without buying a hideously expensive external unit or a cheap linux box... Duh! "
"This attack on our freedom as American citizens can not go unopposed. I will fight this with non-violent protests, and literature until a reasonable solution is reached. "
"This is total bullshit... I stand behind this site !!! "
"wake up, stand up , stand up for your rights, dont give up the fight"
"We cant just let this sort of thing happen...what will be next? "
"The government cannot control the natural will of humankind, it cannot contol the natural will that cries for freedom. Humanity will not and never will stand for any sort of injustice that limits the rights of the people of the world. Let freedom of information be the core of the internet, not the tyranny of government watch dogs."
"It is absolutely unfair that someone who has exposed a flaw should be punished or degraded in such a manner. I hope he sues down and out here there is a lot of support for him. And what about the people or company which messed up in encryting their key? "
"Vote to support intellectual freedom and Open Source. "
"The internet belongs to the world.
"This is wrong, as I've been told this is definately not illegal in Norway and probably not in the US either. Intellectual freedom. That's it. "
"IF they couldn't do the crypto better than this they shouldn't make a deal of. It was better that the group (netherlands, germany and norway)decrypted the DVD now than befor it had grown to BIG. "
"This is absurd! "
"I think this is very very important "
"open source, open minds, open future NOTHING else "
Sometimes maybe it's useful to get companies together when their services can complement each other. Can anybody name one real reason why Time/Warner and AOL shouldn't merge if their stockholders want them too? Isn't this a free country?
If you're a corporation, a CEO, or a majority stockholder? Yes, this is a free country. Not only free, but a country willing to bend over backwards to do your bidding.
If you're a person, and not worth seven figures, then no, this is not a free country.
Anyway, if they don't like being conglomerated, or if it doesn't work out, they can just separate again, and we'll be back to where we are now.
What if they don't like it? What if we don't like it? What do we do? Boycott them? How do we boycott a corporation that has their hands in hundreds of different markets?
There's more to this world, and to living life, than money and the "free market." Just because corporations feel that they should be able to do anything unfettered by morality or the needs of people, doesn't mean we should support them.
Michael Chisari