Slashdot Mirror
Felten Will Present SDMI Research At USENIX
iamblades writes: "Edward Felten is scheduled to present his research papers on SDMI on Wednesday at the annual USENIX security conference. Apparently the RIAA backed off their harrassment, which makes sense, as SDMI is almost completely dead already." And a Semi-Anonymous Coward writes: "Despite the RIAA's attempts to silence the Princeton Professor and his students, USENIX will broadcast the SDMI Crack Live via the web. The broadcast will be available for the world here along with a discussion concerning your Freedom."
The lawsuit proceeds. Somewhat by coincidence, our latest set of court papers were finished today, look for them on EFF's site later today or tomorrow.
-J, one of the Felten team lawyers
I run a small, pretty much non-profit record label (See my URL above). Let me tell you, it's about the hardest thing to do in the world.
First, let's start with the basics. Say I want to do a short run of CD's -- in the neighborhood of 500-1000 (Very modest). Any band that is half decent should unload that amount no sweat. That will cost about $1000 - $1700 (Could be cheaper without things like, oh say, cover artwork and tray/shrinkwrap). So fine, let's say you have that kind of cash just laying around and are feeling charitable. You get your 1000 cd's via UPS (Cost you about 300 bucks in shipping -- that many cd's are heavy) and have it at your apartment/home/whatever. How are you getting this to people? Shipping, of course. -- Costing you about $1.25 per CD for 5-7 day snail mail, or $3.00+ for UPS/Fedex. Larger quantities cost less, but very few people order more than 1 CD at a time. So, it cost you about $2 - $3 dollars right there, just basics. This "CD's cost about $0.20 to make" you here is refering to Major Label deals, where they go and press 100,000,000 Madona CD's and get the sweetest deal you can imagine from the plant. Little labels, however, pay WAY more per CD. (Isn't that funny?)
Ok, We didn't even talk about Hosting fee's (For your website -- you do have a website right?) about 10 - 15 bucks a month (Conservative). Tack on Domain Registration ($50 for 2 years??). On top of that, advertising -- People wont buy ANYTHING if they don't know about it -- So you place a couple ads in a few indie zines -- around $500 a month in advertising (This is small fry shit). The cost continues to rise.
Guess what? Only about 5-10 people buy a CD a month! So you figure, you could really rake it in if you had distribution (Ya know, putting your CD's in stores and all that good stuff). You go shopping for Distributor's. First thing you find, is that NOBODY will touch you unless you have a UPC. So you go looking into getting a UPC code for your CD. Anybody wanna take a guess at how much a freakin' UPC number costs? Anyone? Depending on volume and format, it can run you anywhere from $1200 - $100,000!!!!! This is no lie. For one CD, UPC codes cost you as much, if not more than the actual Pressing costs!
So you get a UPC (Because your a sucker), and then go to talk to the distro houses again. Guess what? They STILL won't touch you until you have a catalog of at least 40 LP's!!! So how excatly do you get the capital together to release 40 records, so you can get distribution, and sell more than 5-10 Stinking CD's per month, and EVER hope to cover your costs and not loose $2000 (Low estimate) on each cd you put out?
I think you know the answer. You either charge what the majors charge (What I do -- about $8 - $13 Per CD), or you give up, go home, and stop trying to put out cd's for people (What I consider doing every day).
It's very very very hard to be an independent. Honestly, I don't know how some of the smaller labels with some degree of integrety left (Dischord, Drag City, K, Kill Rock Stars, etc) manage to do it. All you can hope is that you accidently sign the next Sleater-Kinney, Smog, etc.. It's very discouraging.
That, is why nobody has done this idea -- and succeeded.
g00z
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
Yes; the EFF is doing so on his behalf.
This could very well be the biggest slashdotting in all recorded human history.
That's too bad. It was better when the RIAA didn't know how to pick its battles -- they would've lost serious points if this had gone to court.
Is Felten planning a suit for harassment?
First, the RIAA used "us" (I am using that term loosely, as I am not a programmer) to crack SDMI, and will use the work done by "us" to come up with a more secure encryption scheme.
Second, they *were* successful in delaying the release of the SDMI crack long enough where it is no longer relevant.
The only "good thing"(tm) that really happened was we were able to embarrass the RIAA a bit. Mind you, they are embarrassing themselves on a constant basis, and laughing all the way to the bank.
This is not a victory. Far from it.....
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
Ok, I was thinking about this the other nite a bit.
Why hasn't someone started a Non-profit record label. Could that work ? Or what about a "minimum profit" record label ?
I mean, if the end users, and the artists, and everyone is getting screwed over.. there seems like there's not only an ethical reason to do so, but a good solid _market_ to get into... if you reverse the business and set it up such that the artist owns all the rights to everything, and the record company is just that - someone that makes records (and does other things like putting up money for recording studio time perhaps) then it seems like everyone involved could come out ahead.
Honestly, if a CD can be mass produced for $1, and its costing $16, and the artists aren't getting any, there has to be room for someone to cut away a _lot_ of fat in that operation.. enough to give the artists enough to make them consider switching.
Yeah, record companies take a risk when they sign someone and they spend 1m in studio time and the album flops.. but its hard to get signed to record labels now... its not like they price things as an insurance measure as opposed to a profit motive..
Someone that knows a lot more about this stuff than me should think it through. Maybe initially its only feasiable to do small-volume recordings... i.e. CDR's as opposed to pressed cds ? or maybe simultanous low bit-rate mp3/ogg distribution with all releases. Maybe just a "musical venture capital" front end for mp3.com or something.
In any case, i dont konw the economics of the music business, just what i've read. It seems like there's an incredible opportuniy for someone who loves music and has plenty of money to back it, to try and make a reasonable record label that deals with artists in a reasonable fashion. I know musicians can be crummy people, especailly with agents, lawyers, and money issues, but there doesn't seem to be the need for awful contracts and outright company ownership of artists works.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
"Why hasn't someone started a Non-profit record label. Could that work ? Or what about a "minimum profit" record label ? " Check out Dischord Records and more specifically Fugazi (Ian owns Dischord). All tapes and records $6 all CD's $9, postage paid. In many cities Fugazi can fill 5-10K shows and only charge $7 even with your ticket master surcharge (Fugazi is the main revenue stream for Dischord and they reinvest the money to the label so others can have their music heard).
Burn Hollywood Burn
Felton is a professor at one of the most distinguished universities in the country. Skylarov is a "Russian hacker". Which do you think would be arrested 9 out of 10 times? It's disgusting. It shows the true colors of the society once again. Everything in our powre should be done to see that something's done to change it and get Dimitri back to his family as soon as possible. However, it's not surprising in the least that the distinction was made. "Equal protection" also doesn't necessarly apply to non-citizens, which leaves Dimitri out in the cold.
This whole situation ought to be a lesson to security researchers outside the US. The US government as it stands will arrest you because they don't like you. I'd recommend you don't attend any conventions or other meetings in the US, because if you've done anything close to what Dimitri did, you run the serious and real risk of being arrested until we natives can find some way to get the law changed to something sane.
So, how does this affect the lawsuit? Can Felton still sue to prevent the RIAA from deciding to go after him down the road, or does it simply become a matter of principle?
Buy Hex-Rated Stuff, fight the DMCA!
Its not actually "owing allegence". This is a common public misconception.
People in congress work *hard*. They have virtually no free time, incredible amounts of stress, incredibly boring/tiring work on many things, and emotionally straining issues on others. They usually end up with severe health problems. Every action they do is watched and criticized. They have to give up a tremendous amount usually just to make it into office (my uncle had to sell his retirement home, to go live in a tiny apartment in DC). Then, he had to leave after one term because of stress-induced health problems.
With that said, the only reason a person would *ever* get involved in national politics is because they want to make a difference. The people in congress actually do believe in what they're doing. They feel the nation really needs them to fight for it, they want to make a difference.
The problem is, while things like the ability to raise money and get votes and having a strong motivation are requirements for getting in office, intelligence and common sense aren't. You'll find a very wide range of intellects there. Far too many aren't that bright. Then, who do they spend time with? Lobbyists. Who are lobbyists? Professional manipulators.
I think you can take it from there, what happens.
-= rei =-
*Kid Rock runs for Senate* Democrats: We must run Kid Scissors.
This guy is such an interesting person. Did other people also notice he was a key element in the DOJ vs Microsoft case? You know, this guy may be, in his own inconspicuous style, one of the best things happening to us as of late. Let's not lose trace of him.
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.