Slashback: Decade, Fragmentation, RDRAM

Slashback brings you updates and amplifications on the SSSCA, the future of RAMBUS and Intel, fragmentation of filesystems, a book reviewer who's been publishing online longer than some slashdot readers have walked erect, and more. Read on for the details.

A screenplay written by Jack Valenti? cc_pirate writes: "Apparently Sen. Fritz Hollings (D - Disney, er - SC) completed his hearings today on how the media needs to have content protection included in computers. Intel and other high tech companies resist and are chastized by Hollings."

Penguins are the new Turtles. Gerein writes "After many months of extreme lobbying, personal attacks, public petitions and surveys, the war over the future OS of the Bundestag (German parliament) is finally over (previous /. stories). As heise reports (in german, use the fish) Linux won't make it to the desktops (they're going with XP) but will take over the 150 servers. The last critical question over the directory service has finally been decided in favor to OpenLDAP instead of Active Directory. It's not the complete victory for Linux, many had hoped for, but it's a start for more Open Source in the German government."

Full disclosure seems like a nice idea. Merlynnus writes: "Yahoo! is running a story, Copy-protected CD makers lose battle, in which Music City Records, Fahrenheit Entertainment and digital rights management company Sunncomm have 'agreed' to stop collecting personal info, and to label copy-protected CDs as defective, er, play-challenged in certain devices. The agreement came as the result of court action by a Cali resident, Karen DeLise, over the Charlie Pride CD, 'Charley Pride: A Tribute to Jim Reeves.' Did that CD really need copy-protecting?"

This should have been transparent. Metrollica writes: "It turns out the transparent aluminium article at Spiegel was misunderstood. Sci-fighter published a correction. The transparent substance was not aluminium but alumina, shorthand for aluminium oxide. Slashdot reported on transparent aluminium here."

Odds are, somebody's written a thesis on it ... and here one is. Whether in response to this Ask Slashdot question or just a lucky guesser, Cine writes: "The standard filesystem benchmarking tools such as Bonnie++, Postmark , Mongo and others all test the optimum case for the block layouting algorithm. But in practice one also is interested to know how a filesystem performs when it is or was heavily used over a longer period (e.g. months and years).So Constantin Loizides has written a Master Thesis about the performance of filesystems under the influence of fragmentation."

Intel-Rambus break not as simple as portrayed. Controlio writes: "Tom's Hardware Guide has posted a clarification regarding the EBN story with the sensational headline, 'Intel to drop support of Rambus in new CPU products'. The article was also posted on Slashdot. Tom reports:

EBN had the sensational headline Intel to drop support of Rambus in new CPU products, but the story goes on to say, "Intel will continue using Direct Rambus memory with its network processors. Also, although not new products, the next iterations of its 850 and 860 chipsets, supporting a 533MHz front-side, will support RDRAM when they arrive, probably in the second half of this year." A little misleading, wouldn't you say? Hard to tell, but you read it for yourself, and make your own call.

Great. More sensational journalism. Maybe someone should submit Jack Robertson's resume to Fox News."

Finally, some congratulations are in order. danny writes (does he ever): "February 28th marks the 10th anniversary of my first book review; there are now over six hundred. I have written an account of ten years writing book reviews, which illustrates something of how online publication has changed over the years."

Comments

The little dog?

[DCram]

"The content community ... has historically feared technology," Vadasz said. Yet every technological breakthrough -- from Thomas Edison's little dog to the invention of home taping and digital devices -- "has proven to be a major growth catalyst for the studios."

THOMAS EDISON INVENTED THE DOG!!!
OH MY GOD!

I am at the moment trying to invent something as cool as the dog. I was going to go for a rabit/antelope combo but saw one for sale in the cabellas catalog. Now I think ill just strive for something like a human without any genetic defects. I think I could get a post on /. about it.

WOW .. the dog!!! damn that man was good

Re:The little dog?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know how many times I have seen this misconception in print. Thomas Edison did NOT invent the dog. He did, however, invent the LITTLE DOG. Think of it as the transistor of the dog world.

For those of you wondering how this fits into the music industry, some of the earliest recordings made for Edison's phonograph are the little dog barking, and these are generally thought to be the early influences of such artists as Britteny Spears, Christina Arugula, and N'Sync.

The Precedent

[Rob Riggs]

"'Charley Pride: A Tribute to Jim Reeves.' Did that CD really need copy-protecting?"

Well, the idea here, as in many unsavory endeavors, is to establish a precedent. Go after something nobody should notice and then claim "but we've been doing it for so long and the consumers accepted it."

Enough is enough

[Silver222]

It's time to go tell the content cartels to go fuck themselves. Fritz Hollings can go to hell as well. If the technology industy can't agree on standards blah blah blah. Shut the fuck up Fritz. You want an example of what my life would be like if the content cartels go their way all the time? Here we go....

When I run, I really like my mp3 player. It doesn't skip like compact discs do, and it fits into my pocket. Oh wait, those aren't allowed. Ok...how about cassette tapes? Hmm...this is not as good, it's bigger and I don't have random access to songs. What's that Fritz? These aren't any good either? I can pirate stuff with these? Well, I guess I'm going to run without any of the shit that Hollywood pumps out then. It's not like Vivendi Universal is stepping in with an innovative new technology any time soon.

And of course, I would like to tape that show that is on while I'm running. Can't do that now, can I? God forbid using a PVR too, those things are brutal for Hollywood. Ok...I just won't watch it then....

I'm sure everyone on Slashdot knows where I'm going with this. If it becomes too cumbersome to access entertainment, people are going to look for something else. Lest our good friend, Fritz Hollings, the Senator from Disney forget, politicians are the same way. Too cumbersome, and before you know it, elected right out of office!

Copy protection in hardware???

[jasno]

Did I miss something? Aren't these guys a little late?

Computers already exist that can easily handle the compression, storage and manipulation of copyrighted content. Are they going to require me to turn in my home system? If not, then what on earth is going to stop me from hooking up my video capture card to the line out (which is going to have to be there to remain compatible with all of the billions of dollars of consumer equipment out there) and divx'ing their latest and greatest?

Its too late!

Creativity vs. Theft

[StaticEngine]

"The underlying issue is not old media versus new technology. It is creativity versus theft," said Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

Yeah, because The Little Mermaid, Atlantis, and Aladdin were very original ideas all thought up by the geniuses at Disney...

Re:Creativity vs. Theft

[Alsee]

That whizzing noise you hear is the point you missed flying by.

He wasn't saying Disney is wrong for remaking all these storys. As a matter of fact he is defending Disney's right to do so.

The point is that if *I* make a MickyMouse story I will be sued to bankruptcy. You see, the copyright on Micky Mouse fell into the public domain decades ago - No, way, it didn't - they rewrote the copyright laws. But then Micky Mouse fell into the public domain again, no wait a minute, they extended the copyright another 20 years. But it's ok, I'll be able to publish my Micky Mouse story RealSoonNow, the copyright has almost expired again.

The point is that they are free to use everything in the public domain. Everything they produce is protected for life+70 years, plus an extra 20 year extension every few years.

They benefit from the public domain, but never contribute to it. That is a violation of the original principles of copyright. The constitution requires limited duration for copyright protection. Unfortunately 10,000 years is "limited".

-

man...what ever happened to Promoting Progress?

[Dr. Awktagon]

Throughout history, technology has been key to opening up new markets. It only represents a problem if it is allowed to undermine existing markets by facilitating [unauthorized copying].

Wow! New technology is okay, as long as it doesn't undermine existing markets?? That's a great quote.

Welcome to New Capitalism: from each corporation according to their ability, to each corporation according to their need.

Dr. Fun (daily comic) has been on the 'net 9yrs

[Hobart]

Doctor Fun has been published on the Internet since 19930924. For that matter Where The Buffalo Roam has been on the 'net via USENET since 1991, but Dr. Fun was Internet-only. ;)

Driving Growth?

[ansible]

I don't know how accurate the article is, but it states that the reason we need mandatory copy-prevention is to encourage the major content distributors to put their wares in digital form. This, therefore, will drive the adoption of high speed Internet access and HDTV.

This is a completely circular argument, that doesn't make any sense to me. The media companies want to take away my ability to own a PC that does what I want, in return for services I also don't want.

So basically, the media companies basically want to own everything, and we should just turn over control of our networks and computers to them so that they can more easily make money from us.

If you want to go after the illegal distribution of your wares, fine, go ahead, I won't stop you. But just because you want to make money doesn't mean that you now have the right to take away our freedoms.

Walking erect

[quark2universe]

I've been walking erect since I first saw that Farrah Fawcett poster in the '70s. Perhaps I've been around longer than the online book publisher.

A proposal on the SSSCA:

[Anonynnous Coward]

We give the industry their SSSCA, lock up all the hardware, and outlaw all operating systems except DRM-OS.

Since this will now result in the total demise of copyright infringement, the movie, recording, and video game industries then immediately pay taxes on the hojillions of dollars they claim to be losing per year, at the prevailing highest corporate tax rate, with no writeoffs on this amount. These additional taxes should be a small price for industry to pay for the increased profits that would result from all that sudden demand now that their material isn't available for copying in digital form, now that general purpose computers would be outlawed.

Oh--you mean they aren't going to sell all that, because the people they claimed as having been costing them money wouldn't have bought the product anyway? That's OK--we can just sell the assets of the companies benefiting from the SSSCA to take care of the taxes, then.

Something I'm Confused About

[iPaul]

Let's say the entire technology industry agrees that intel and motorola have a DRM package and it's what they're going to roll out. For the sake of argument, let's say Motorola and Intel will make the chipsets and open driver information so the DRM can be easily integrated into any OS.

• Who gets to say the protection is good enough?
  • Would the require a connection to the internet while you're using the media?
  • How much device to computer or computer to device copying would be allowed?
  • Would the studio have the ability to step in and say it's not strong enough?
• What if it requires HDTV, CD's and DVD's to be encoded differently? Thereby making 'protected' CD's/DVD's useless in existing players?
• • Would all the studios, HDTV broadcasters, and other content producers switch? Would they replace serveral million dollars worth of broadcasting, encoding and production equipment?
  • What if it made the process of creating the protected media more expensive? Would media companies still want it?
• Would Sony really buy in and make DVD players and television sets that supported the intel/motorola chipset? Would they really adopt it into their product line?
• What if Intel charges a stiff license for the encoding technology but free decoding technology? Would the studios fork up the dough?
• What if, after spending millions of dollars on the whole thing some pesky mathemetician figures out how to break the encryption in a matter of a few hours?
  • Would Sony be allowed to sue intel and motorola?
  • Would we have to start again, making the 'protected' DVD's I bought useless?
• Who's to blame when a pesky consumer advocate raises a law suit and shows the device/technology violates their fair use rights?

• I just don't see the upside for the computer manufacturers to figure this one out. If the do it they'll be blamed for creating poor protection, or blamed for raising the cost of movies, or blamed for making your new home theater useless.

  It's the studio's content -they should figure out how to lock it up. After all, I don't make my neighbors wear GPS tracking devices just because I refuse to lock my door.

Just say no

[Pinball Wizard]

I would rather not have movies at all than to be forced to use copy prevention on my PC. If the lack of copy prevention is what is keeping the MPAA from joining the internet age, well, they can just stay where they are as far as I'm concerned.

I will buy neither digital products that cannot be backed up, converted into other formats, or otherwise copied. I still use VHS for this reason. I'll buy a DVD player when I can finally make backups with DVD's. Nor will I buy disabled computers. Somehow I doubt the Pacific Rim manufacturers I buy computer parts from are going to bend over backwards for this.

The technologies that I can backup, copy and preserve? Sure, I download MP3's, but usually just to check out a band or to find something thats not available on CD. If its something I like I buy the CD, because MP3 takes away too much for me to fully enjoy the sound. I spend at least $100 a month on music, and another $50 or so buying movies. But I will spend $0 on products I can't back up or copy, or computers that are bastardized with copy protection.

Re:Just say no

[tkrotchko]

"I would rather not have movies at all than to be forced to use copy prevention on my PC. If the lack of copy prevention is what is keeping the MPAA from joining the internet age, well, they can just stay where they are as far as I'm concerned."

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment.

I have yet to see content compelling enough to give up a single right, much less giving Hollywood the ability to gut the humble PC.

I can watch a DVD now. I can watch TV now.

Will the programming get better if I give up control of my PC? Will Hollywood look out for my best interest once I give up control?

Write your congressmen and senators with pen and paper. Be civil, but show some courteous passion that tells them that you won't vote for them if they vote for any more DMCA nonsense. Let them know, again very politely, that you'll let other people know about this nonsense. Don't just say "I'm very concerned", say "I believe this is not in my best interest and I would no longer support you in any future elections if you vote for such proposals". Hollywood isn't pulling any punches, and neither should you.

I've been told by someone who knows that if a represenative or senator gets 15 letters on a topic, they get extremely concerned.

Between us, do you think we could produce perhaps 1,000 letters?

Paraphrasing from another time

[FreeUser]

In an alternate history near you:

Throughout history, technology has been key to opening up new markets. It only represents a problem if it is allowed to undermine existing markets

said Buggy whip manufacturers, demanding that a one hundred year old law banning horseless carriages within the United States be renewed for another century. In other news, hundreds of eye witnesses reported a mysterious flying object high above the skies of Los Angeles. Subversive elements claim it is was an Aeroplane, the rumored heavier-than-air flying device said to have been in use in much of the rest of the world for the last seventy years or so ... almost as long as Europeans are alleged by radicals to have had widespread use of the horseless carriage.

"Nonesense," said Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C. (chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee), "the United States remains the leader in world technology, and will continue to do so, without endangering the hard earned profits of buggy whip manufacturers and liveries everywhere. Anyone alleging the existence of horseless carriages or mysterious flying Aeroplanes is Unamerican and a traitor to the republic."

Thankfully, our leadership in the early part of the twentieth century was nowhere near as pathetic as it has become today.

my first defective CD

[maxpublic]

Tonight I ran into my first defective CD. It was the newly-released Alanis Morissette album (you have your tastes, I have mine). My wife and I bought this along with the new release from Pink, came home and popped it into one of our computers while we made dinner.

After a minute or two I noticed that the speakers remained mysteriously quiet, and that no music puntuated the sounds of rattling dishes in the kitchen. Ambling over to the computer I popped open Windows Explorer (my wife had booted into Windows on her computer to play a game and hadn't booted back to Linux) and noticed...

...nothing.

Well, not quite nothing. There was a 'special media presentation' on the CD just begging for our attention, but other than that *no tracks* appeared on the CD. Wisely expressing my confusion with the words "what the fuck?" I popped the disc back in...and still there were no tracks.

Just that goddamned media thingy trying to get my attention. I didn't buy the damned CD for any bloody commercial, I bought it for *music*. Fuck the damned commercial, where the hell was my MUSIC???

With growing horror I realized I'd just been given the RIAA shaft up the ass for the first time. Here I was, with a CD I legally purchased, unable to play it in my - goddamnit - CD player.

Quickly I scanned the case and the plastic wrap the CD came in, thinking I'd missed some disclaimer like 'won't play on a computer, you mp3-ripping pirate asshole'. But no. Even the tiny print on the back said nothing of the sort. There was no warning of any kind to indicate that the CD was intentionally defective.

With something akin to a cry of rage, echoed by my incredibly pissed-off wife, I transferred the cd to my computer - which was running Linux - and fired up the burning software to see if it could find the tracks. It did without any problem whatsoever. Put it back into the machine running windows - the tracks were gone. Rebooted my machine to windows - no tracks. Booted my wife's computer to Linux and ran the ripping software - the tracks were there.

Yep, no doubt about it, the CD was crippled with 'copy protection'. I'd heard about CDs that Windows couldn't play but that Linux could, but I'd never actually seen them before. This was my first.

So here I am, ripping the Alanis Morissette cd so that I can copy the tracks back onto one of my own blank cds, in the hopes that the protection is on the cd itself and not incorporated into the tracks. If I'm right I'll soon have an Alanis Morissette CD that'll play in Windows as well as Linux - which is what I goddamned well paid for when I went to the store in the first place.

It's one thing to hear about this shit and express outrage over another persons misfortune, and quite another to find out you've been fucked yourself. I work for my money and I bloody well expect value when I plunk down my cash; if they're going to cripple the CD then the motherfuckers had better goddamn well label the shitty product so I can avoid it in the first place.

Until now I've downloaded music off of Napster, Bearshare, Gnutella, etc. to 'try before I buy' - just like everyone else I know. Our CD collection has quadrupled in the last two years because we've discovered artists we'd never in a million years consider seriously if we hadn't been able to hear the album first. Alanis was one of those artists and we now own everything she's put out.

But I have to ask myself now: if the music industry is going to deliberately sell me defective products, why on God's green earth should I waste the money I work hard for on fucked-up CDs? In this case it looks as if I can rip the songs to the computer and burn them back to a blank CD; but why should I have to do this? I didn't consent to buy a defective product, nor was I informed of the defect before purchase. I was more than willing to hand over $16 bucks to the RIAA bloodsuckers to buy Alanis's new album - and they screwed me anyway.

Assholes. Please tell me - how is this supposed to encourage a generally honest joe like myself to remain honest and buy CDs of songs I've downloaded and liked? If I know I stand a chance of being reamed, with the potential battle of trying to return the CD for a refund to the tight-fisted music store bastards that own my town, what incentive do I have to buy? All this is going to do is encourage piracy, not contain it.

Well, at least the Pink CD works like it should.

Max

Re:my first defective CD

[clare-ents]

Invoice them.

Dear Sir,

I regret to inform you that the mastering on the new Alanis Morissette CD catalogue number $foo is faulty. Using my own ehanced proprietry CD mastering toolkit I have been able to remaster the CD correctly such that it complies with the CD Audio standard [reference $document_at_phillips] and now plays correctly on all devices bearing the CD Audio mark which your disc did not.

I regret to inform you that the cost of doing this has been

blank media $1
mastering time $50

I enclose an invoice for the following amount and a correctly mastered CD for your use.

I hereby grant you license to sell the remastered Alanis album for a royalty of $0.01 per copy.

If in future you wish to avoid the royalty I can supply you with a standards compilant mastering writer for the sum of $10000.

Please pay the invoice by cheque payable to $my_name within 28 days.

Yours Sincerely

$yourname

Director, CD Fix Ltd.