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Set Digital Music Free
The latest issue of EFF's newsletter covers the HackSDMI challenge. Probably not surprisingly, they're urging the same thing as Don Marti, who Salon interviewed.Update: 09/19 3:33 PM by michael : The RIAA, EFF, and 2600.com debated SDMI on Pacifica radio today.
Why do we need "secure digital music"?
CDs and MP3 files seem to do just a fine job of handling my music needs, there seems to be nothing missing.
Would this initiative secure funding for the artists, or offer new capabilities for the listeners that don't currently exist?
Would this allow me to secure my music by getting access to it if the media it came on was damaged?
How does this guarantee my right to fair use under existing copyright laws?
--Mike--
Lately I've been thinking that we're drawing the lines for battle in the wrong places. Perhaps there SHOULD be a secure format that can be used for things like limited listening. I know we all cringe about self-destroying CDs and the like, but really it could be a great method of exposure -- 2 listens, and the disc is done, and then you can buy a PERMANENT CD. That might be an agreeable setup, material waste aside. A limited download might be used to accomplish the same thing. You can play it n times, but then you have to buy. Sort of like the trial period/limited number of times kind of shareware (which has a place, even if it's non-free).
Now, I think most of us fear that if secure initiatives come out:
1) they WON'T be used wisely. We might be forced to pay per every viewing/listening/reading.
2) that it will somehow be made illegal and/or very difficult to freely view/distribute stuff you actually have the rights to.
It seems to me that #1 is possible, but that if we start fighting the battle from the other end (#2),
we might be able to make a lot more headway with conservative policy makers AND preserve the freedoms that are truly important. Remember, the GPL doesn't stop Intellectual Property from existing under the law, and make everything free. It (and other free licences) just makes Free Software possible.
We are fighting the battle for #2 in a number of places (DeCSS I think falls in this category), but we're also wasting a lot of time on #1. Given a chance, I think secure initiatives might find a fair place next to free alternatives.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
If there's one thing I learned from reading Secrets and Lies, it's that there is ALWAYS a hole in the system somewhere.
The players for this format will always be unsecure, because we'll have physical access to them, and can take them apart and tweak as much as we want. In order to be playable on an infinite number of players, there has to be a global secret, locked up in the hardware (just like the DVD keys), that secret WILL be reveiled, and probably in a shockingly short amount of time.
It's not possible to lock things up the way the RIAA wants to, they should devote their energies to their original mission, assuming it had something to do with promoting music, and let this issue drop!
--Mike--
It took almost two years to crack CSS, and that was only because Xing didn't encrypt their keys (BTW, did Xing ever get in trouble for this?)
If the "crack SDMI" goes on for 3, 6, 9 months, even a year, without being cracked, it doesn't prove anything. There is no such thing as an uncrackable algorithm. The Germans thought Enigma was uncrackable, they were wrong. The MPAA thought CSS was uncrackable, and they were wrong. Now the RIAA is trying to build anther "uncrackable" code. And they're going to find out in a year, two years, 5 years, whatever, that they're dead wrong as well. The best that the RIAA can hope for is making the encryption such that it can't be cracked brute-force by today's computers. How long have CDs been around? 20 years or so? How far has computing technology gone in that time? Will computers sometime during the life of SDMI be enough to do a brute-force attack against SDMI? I'd wager yes.
They aughta go read "Applied Cryptography" and just give up. SDMI is irrelevant, CD-Audio will take years to catch on. MP3 is here, working, popular, and sufficient for most users.
PS, I just proved that SDMI can (and will) be cracked. Send me my $10k.
-- Ever notice that fast-burning fuse looks exactly the same as slow-burning fuse? I didn't... (Edgar Montrose)
Here's what you say:
Here's what the articl e that you link to says:
and, later:
This might suggest some unfortunate waffling on Marti's part. But it's not exactly the strongest evidence for your statement. Do you have any other source?
--J. Bruce Fields
As Courtney Love points out in detail, artists aren't eating under the current system. Artists may well do better giving away MP3s and asking for tips and making money from concert tours than under the current system. As she says: