CD Copy Stopper

CTho9305 writes "Technology Review has an article about a new CD and DVD copy protection system by Doc-Witness, where the disc itself has a smart card on it. The card checks if a request is valid, and then returns a key to decrypt the contents of the disc. It apparently works with standard drives."

Comments

50% below average... not true

[TibbonZero]

Actually, this isn't true.
Anyone below average scares the crap out of me and, by definition, that's 50% of everyone.

Let's look at a few IQ's- 90, 90, 90, 95, 100, 180.
With these numbers, the average IQ comes out to be 107.5. This puts 83% of the population to be "Below Average".

It can also work out the other way.
20 (vegatable), 50 (retard), 120, 130, 125, 100, 115, 180.
The average of these numbers comes out to be 105. So that putss 75% of the population above average.

Now you say, "Well isn't 100 supposed to be the average IQ? Well, yes, but as you can see, it doesn't always work out to be the median number either. Truthfully the average is probably a little higher or lower. But then you have to ask yourself who you consider...
To make everyone take it you have to factor in language (which many IQ tests factor in), problem solving, etc.. which can all be somewhat screwed up. A dolphin has a pretty high IQ as things should go, but he can't tell me if Cat is to Kitten as Dog is to...
yea, and then we have to factor in those with mental problems, or mental gifts. Those people throw things off pretty well. Then some people are uncaring or unwilling, which would pull the scores down more. What about people who have a huge problem speaking and dealing with people, but can spit numbers out at you (hmm, Pi...)

Anyway, 50% of people are not below average, nor are 50% above, even if it all averages out to "average" IQ...

Re:"legally rip" != oxymoron

[subgeek]

mr. ac troll,

i believe you are confused. "rip" is the term for copying data (esp. music) from a cd. it is different than "rip off" as is steal or dismember. i can "legally rip" a sheet of paper in half, but it is equally as unrelated.

as to your puppy analogy, that would be the same as buying a cd and breaking it into pieces to take with me to my car, not the same as copying it to listen to it in my car. your analogy does not make sense. chewbacca is a wookie...

i don't buy rights to the music, but i buy the right to listen to that media. at some point it must be converted from the unlistenable format of 010101100111000101010010110010010100101 etc. to analog voltages which are converted to sound waves by my speakers. what difference does it make if i change it to another 1101010110101010 format before i listen to it? hint: the answer is that it makes no difference.

slashdot wouldn't be fun if you never took the time to feed the trolls, at least when they are close to on-topic.

mean, mode, median

[renehollan]

This is why, whenever I utter the related phrase, "... if you're of average intelligence, half the people you meet are likely dumber than you," I prefix it with, "Ignoring the difference betweem mean, mode, and median, ..." (which is a reasonable assumption for large numbers of observations that tend to a normal distribution).

My complete monologue on this goes something like, "Ignoring the difference between mean, mode, and median; if you're of average intelligence, half the people you meet are likely dumber than you. In a democracy, they vote. Be afraid."