Companies Abandon The Sinking Ship That Is SDMI

wiggles writes: "Cryptome is mirroring a federally filed notice which discloses that a small number of companies (9) have joined the SDMI, and a large number of companies (27) 'have been dropped from the [SDMI] venture' i.e. either kicked out, or jumped ship. I put my money on the second possibility. The list of companies 'that have been dropped' is staggering in scope. Some of the more notable names include Encoding.com/Loudeye Technologies (famous infrastructure provider for streaming music), Guillemot (French maker of kickass graphic cards), I2GO.COM (American maker of high-capacity solid state mp3 players), LG Electronics (Korean makers of all kinds of consumer electronics), among others. One wonders how many more defections will follow, as the SDMI group continues to try (and fail) to achieve the impossible. As Bruce Schneier says 'Trying to make bits uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet. The sooner people accept this, and build business models that take this into account, the sooner people will start making money again.'"

Comments

SMDI an Impossible task? I'm afraid not.

[ljavelin]

It only takes a few large and powerful players, along with some crazy legislation to make something like SDMI a potent industry standard.

Sure, I agree: you'll be able to break any copy protections. But the industry can make it ugly and painful to do so. Just wait for a couple generations of consumer-level home electronics, and we'll find more and more protections baked into the hardware.

Yep, the consumer will pay for all this in real dollars and in their personal freedoms. All in the name of protecting the industry's profits and obsolete business models.

Ironic

[Microlith]

In that IBM is joining the venture, while 27 others are leaving.

How does this affect their "most-favored-big-company" status here on Slashdot?

Re:Ironic

[Microlith]

As I look over the list, an even more damning name comes up.

Winbond, makers of chips that appear in just about EVERY PC system on the planet have joined.

Go through your machine, whether self-built or bought. You will likely find a Winbond chip in there.

That worries me a bit...

Lost 27 nobodies, gained 8 nobodies and 1 megacorp

[Argy]

With IBM on board, the announcement seems like an overall win for the consortium. But even without them, the changes are insignificant.

The companies that left are rather trivial players. That's kind of backed up by the fact that you have to explain who they are. Two dot coms whose web sites seem to be down at the moment, a graphics card company I've never heard of, and a consumer electronics company I've never heard of? (LG's probably bigger than I realize, but they don't ring a bell the way Sony, Matushita/Panasonic, Fuji, or Philips do.)

On the other hand, they've gained IBM. You don't need to explain who they are.

Now consider a few of the companies that did stay in the consortium: Aiwa, AT&T, BMG Entertainment, Casio, Compaq, Dolby Labs, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, Intel, Iomega, JVC, Kenwood, Lucent, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Napster, Nokia, Philips Electronics, Pioneer, Real Networks, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Toshiba, and Yamaha.

I'd guess they make about 95% of audio equipment sold worldwide. :-)

I'm not arguing that SDMI is making a good, nice, or viable standard. But if you're trying to make it sound like they're in trouble simply because the quantity of companies dropped is greater than the quantity of companies added, I think you've neglected to consider the significance of those companies.

Out of control...

[ErikTheRed]

Actually, I heard that the RIAA lawyers finally snapped, and started suing their own members for copying their copy protection scheme...

Copy Protection.

[PopeAlien]

I look forward to the days when audio devices have no audio output for 'protection'.

Customer: "I'd like to return this walkman"
Salesperson: "Is it broken?"
Customer: "well, theres nowhere to plug the headphones in"
Salesperson: "oh.. They just clip on the back, like this"
Customer: "yeah.. I tried that, but I couldn't hear anything.. Isn't there supposed to be a headphone jack or something?"
Salesperson: "Oh, No sir.. Pirates use headphone jacks to steal the audio signal.. This walkman is secured against intellectual property theft.."

Oh well, until then there's always FM radio

Re:Lost 27 nobodies, gained 8 nobodies and 1 megac

[Zeinfeld]

LG is a bigger player than Sony. They are the largest actual manufacturer of electronic goods. Sony, Matushita, etc do less actual manufacture these days and outsource the work to companies like LG.

LG does not market much under its own brand. The only place where I know of that happening is the UK where the Dixons/Currys chain replaced their in house 'Matsui' label with an exclusive distribution deal with LG. They did a similar deal with Samsung many years ago when nobody in Europe knew who they were.

I'd guess they make about 95% of audio equipment sold worldwide. :-)

I doubt if those companies make more than 30% combined. They market upwards of 80% - China and India ae huge markets with significant local players.

SDMI is in trouble for reasons that were obvious two years ago when I went to their meetings, the only way SDMI can succeed is if every country in the world passes a law making non-SDMI players illegal. The hardware manufacturers have very little incentive to actually implement SDMI, they have a marginal interest in pretending they might.

I suspect that the list of companies leaving is simply the list of compaines whose subscriptions were not renewed. I can't see anyone going out of their way to declare in public the private contempt they express for SDMI.

In 1999 the group was running arround like headless chickens declaring that they had to solve the problem by Christmas or it was all over.

One of the most ridiculous features of SDMI is that it prohibits absolutely any form of microphone built into the package. So it will be illegal to have a portable dictation machine that also plays SDMI MP3s.

My strong belief is that there will be convergence between video cameras and MP3 players, just as there is already convergence between digital cameras and MP3. The idea of prohibiting a line in or mic in jack to such devices is pure fantasy.

What I want is a device about the size of a cigarete packet that has a CPU, battery and compact flash II socket. It would record 20 mnutes of video onto an IBM (or other manufacturer) minidrive. There would be sockets for headphones, line-out, camera, microphone and line-in, plus USB of course. The base unit would strap to the waist belt with only lightweight peripherals to plug into it - just like modern cell phones.