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Unique ID Codes for CD / DVD Manufacturers
terrymr writes: "The movie & recording industry are lobbying hard for the European Union to require all CDs & DVDs to carry unique source identifiers to aid in combatting piracy. They are also demanding tougher penalties for infringers. It seems the only people who would be hit by the ID code requirement would be the legitimate manufacturers as the pirates simply wouldn't bother."
Well...I guess this could also give Microsoft some ammunition with their claims about not being able to release the source code of certain Windows components (including the Intellectual property protection stuff) due to threats of national security. Seems that copying and file sharing really is terrorism.
Anyone have any solid facts (or at least a little more substantial than these whisps of smoke) about music and movie piracy supporting terrorism and terrorists?
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Yes, that is why all those movies are out on Usenet and IRC, to fund terrorism.
When I read last Friday's story about watermarking on all ADCs, I went and joined the EFF. People have a lot of inertia with these stories, they disapprove but find it hard to get worked up. At some point it will become so anti-libertarian, all in the name of protecting the exploitation of artists by a giant parasitic maggotlike managerial structure, that you will feel the cold restrictive hand on your shoulder day by day.
Consider joining the EFF or a similar organization today, to help them keep our freedoms on our behalf.
It seems Philips dislikes this type of activity, and has gone so far as to disallow copy-protected CDs from using the "Compact Disc" logo. Given that they're based in the EU, I suspect they have a pretty powerful lobby there as well. I sincerely doubt that the EU would risk losing the support of one of the biggest electronics producers around - after all, one of the selling points of the European Union is that it is "business oriented". Losing the support of a major player like that is a bad business decision.
Current damages are based on how much money people make on selling the stuff. However they want that changed to the full retail price... which allows companies to set there own damages by overinflating the value of their software then giving everyone a discount.
Have a copy of 2000 Enterprise server, your why not just give your house to Bill!
James
So, I'm all for the BSA enforcing Microsoft's licensing rigorously. Together with the antitrust and un-bundling pressure on Microsoft, this may lead to a more competitive market again.
This is a tricky and dangerous detail. Right now, if Microsoft rips of a GPL program, they may get penalized based on the money they have made from it. Under these proposed rules, Microsoft could rip off GPL programs with impunity because their penalty would be nil (since the GPL retail price would be zero). This is clearly not acceptable.
If we are going to have penalties on copyright infringement, they should be based on a percentage of the net worth of the infringer, not on some imaginary retail value dreamed up by a marketing department. That way, the penalty is comparably painful to whoever infringes.
I really don't see what putting an ID code is going to do here. Sony music traces pirated CD key to Virgin records... what then?
The only way I think it could be useful is if you have readers/cd players which also keep track of the keycode, maybe are hooked up to the Internet etc.. and report you...
I think it's an interesting question, if you were the HEAD of a record company what would you do? If you embraced the Internet and mp3s, are you a visionary or are you just openning yourself to rampant piracy and going to get burned? Does copy-protection technology actually work? or does it only play into Orwellian fears? I've thought about it at times, if you had the intellectual property rights to all of Frank Sinatra's songs for example, what do you do??????
They have to legislate for something that CD/DVD makers should be doing on their own initiative, for their own good?
They can't track it back to the actual purchaser, instead they'll just know that Best Buy Store #768 sold it to an anonymous pirate?
In the EU, you don't have to be a law enforcement organization to carry out a search order?
The courts will assume you actually own the copyright just because you claim to, so that you can file false claims against someone just to fuck with them?
They're suggesting giving police powers to the the alleged victims? ("more powers by copyright holders to seize and preserve evidence of piracy")
Remind me not to visit europe anytime soon.
The main example provided by the Motion Picture Association is a "DVD-R factory" that produced Spider Man and Star Wars copies.
But this is not a factory with professional DVD-burners. This is just a guy who bought 30 DVD-writers at the computer shop around the corner - just as you and I could do. I am afraid that some day we will end with a unique ID on our DVD and CD writers at home just to protect the copyrights.
Just as with the prohibition in the 1930s we have here laws that are far outside acceptance by the general public. All those measures won't stop the main problem (in this case: overpriced CDs) and in fact it only helps the mob.
I really don't see what putting an ID code is going to do here. Sony music traces pirated CD key to Virgin records... what then?"
You are assuming that your transaction is anonymous.
If you are paying cash thats probably true. But id you are paying by credit card the transaction is date stamped etc, Its not hard to correlate the sale with a particular credit card. And thats just with current techniques, it would not require much to add the SID code to the barcodeand that gets tagged with crdit card number and you
have to do almost no work to find out who bought the CD. Then add a watermark to each track which has the SID and voila if a track is ripped and
put on your fave p2p network they know who ripped it. Whhich is the real
goal here. If they were just interested in finding manufacturers they would not need a SID just a manufacturere number.
oooh!! do you think they may be lying?
-he who laughs last, is a bit slow.
journal
Piracy is used as an excuse to force consumers to put up with tougher restrictions, to use the copyright laws to push all media to a pay-per-view-or-go-to-jail format.
This quote, "use piracy to fund other activities such as drug dealing, arms trading, money laundering and terrorism." cracked me up.
I was under the naive impression that drug dealing and arms trading were highly profitable, I thought money laundering was used to hide the massive ammounts money those actvities generated.
It's now obvious to me that file sharing and pirate CD's in flea markets are really just a front to pay for unprofitable activities like drug trafficing and arms trading.
Come on guys, at least try to make up convicing FUD.
Australian? Join EFA
I've heard some dumb things in my day (such as college students getting drunk only to bounce on their beds and fall out the window) but this is beyond my comprehension.
/.ers know very well they'd go after anyone they could. It's a cartel / monopoly. They don't have to worry how many customers they piss off at this point.
..."
I am in full agreement with harsher penalties for mass producers, but this isn't what would happen if the MPA, BSA, or any other organization got what they wanted. Often times it is a large piracy ring the companies go after, but
So basically it sounds like CD's and DVD's will becoming with a SID (Source ID) which will identify the factory that made it. How is this supposed to help prevent piracy? Suppose I'm churning out masses of DVD's in Germany. Ok... they know which plant the DVD came from. So fucking what? If the truth is being told they more than likely won't know which store I even bought the original disc from. Not to mention it wouldn't be hard to buy a disc from someplace like Norway, which isn't even a member of the EU, and have either a different SID or no SID.
Something tells me this whole SID thing is not to prevent or track piracy, but to keep small DVD / CD producers from being a threat with even more rules and regulations.
From the article:
The software and media groups also want the process of being granted civil search orders (known as Anton Piller orders in the UK) to be made easier and cheaper throughout the EU. Some countries already make the process relatively easy, said Peets, but not all. "In some member states it costs 100,000 euros to obtain a search order, and in others it can take months to process the request, by which time there could be a leak," she said.
What is wrong with that? It seems like Peets wants to be able to barge into any house he or his cronies choose to look for pirated material. The US would do good to have a large fee to obtain a search warrant. Maybe the government / police / corporations would think twice before applying for a warrant.
Also from the article:
"Pirates are using the Internet to download illegal copies of movies and then burning them onto CD-ROMs or DVD Recordables,
Jesus Christ in a furnace! What if somebody used bi-pedal motion to smuggle a DVD across the street for a neighbor to copy! We must act quickly against this "walking" lest piracy run rampant! Quickly, start putting the plant ID on all shoes made so we can stop piracy and make sure nobody makes their own shoes!
Everytime you look at porn a devil gets their horns.
Of course not. Terrorism is the new Devil, and trying to make the populace hate and fear the things you oppose, is an age-old practice.
Off topic, but of note was Chaney's (was it Chaney?) warning about new terrorist attacks. The US government have found the perfect excuse to push their own people and those of other countries around: "We must fight terrorism!". Chaney is just keeping the ball rolling. "We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia". Shades of 1984; Orwell alreay knew that a war is the best way to keep your own people in line. "War on drugs" didn't cut it, war on terrorism seems to, and everyone with an agenda, including media companies, are jumping on the bandwagon.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
1.Price
2.Availabillity
3...uh. I can't think of anymore..
Assuming noone is making a point of civil disobedience, the reasons to CONSUME a pirated disc are few. If someone doen't want to pay for a software program or crappy music by one of today's artists, they will get a pirate cd, or make one themselves.
That's where availabillity comes in. If someone can't find Nick Drake's Pink Moon at their small town Walmart, they can get it over the net.
None of the arguments used by the *IAAs target either of these, because it makes pirating THEIR fault. (Too much $$/not enough content & We don't bother to keep that in stock/ Are you sure you don't mean Nick-elback?)
Either way, consumers are NOT being served.
Today PC game market is almost dead. The only way to sell your game is to have some kind of online authentiction for network play. Don't expect any non-network kind of game (expect mainstream "who wants to be a billionnaire") to sell, but most people will have played your game
Just look around you, and your geek friends.. They will more likely buy crappiest DVDs around than buy the game they have spent weeks playing.
It's impressive how game industry, which is FAR MORE destroyed by piracy, but does nothing.
If someone pays by check or credit card, or is recorded with facial recognition, the record company can trace the CD to its original owner.
When I was in college, people had CDs stolen from their cars all the time. I can easily picture someone stealing CDs and posting them on the internet. In this situation, the record company will track down and accuse an innocent person.
You'll just need a music license that you'll show when you want to buy some cd/dvd.
There may be several types :
Then you'll also need to register your cd/dvd burner at the nearest police station so they know the special id written on each cd you burn.
They'll be able to track you if they find a cd you burnt and gave to a friend : you'll get 99 years in jail.The idea here is to be able to trace a CD back to the plant where it was manufactured, so that large-scale pirates can be stopped.
Yes, cash will work for a while.
Sadly,when the industries feel is it their right to uniquely label and track these things they'll feel it's their right to watermark more and more thoroughly until, as others have suggested, the quality is barely better than VHS tapes. Before that occurs they'll have come up with mathematically unique IDs that use some variation public key exchange to verify their authenticity to the player. Players that don't require this, will the "tools of terrorism" etc. etc. The real pirates will breeze through all these safeguards like they don't exist, and the only net effect will be higher costs and lost civil liberties.