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OS X Conference DRM Panel Video Available Online
gnat writes "Tucked away on the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference presentations page are links to Quicktime video and mp3 audio recordings of the Digital Rights Management panel featuring Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News, Cory Doctorow of the EFF, and others. (My apologies for the sometimes shaky video--three Cokes for breakfast is the anti-steadicam)"
Are we surprised it's in Quicktime?
:D
I'm actually wondering if it's an mpeg4 video, or a sorenson3 video, myself
I suppose my thought on the Mac as a true 'digital rights management' platform is that so long as the Mac targets creative endeavors such as video, music, print, and graphics... digital restrictions management have to take low priority. Being able to encode, manipulate, share, distribute, decode, edit, etc, is very crucial to the whole concept of... content creation.
Still, it would be nice if Apple could make a public comment to that effect. In case you're wondering, now, I haven't been able to download the video yet! In the process, as we speak.
GPL Deconstructed
Like the first speaker says....the entertainment industry has used their current business model for many years....and it has been VERY good to them. They won't give it up easily. But the big players will push this on people and hope it works.
I sure hope Apple can resist the pressure to get on the DRM bandwagon.
You know, that's getting really really old.
Excellent point, but while Microsoft's adoption of DRM may be the exception to the rule the adoption of Windows is not. Unfortunatly, Microsoft can force others to adopt DRM by their size alone.
My iPod (which works great under linux *g*) does indeed have Digital Restrictions Management software on it. How does it work? Simple.
It doesn't just play MP3s you copy to it. Instead, to get a song to play back, it has to be renamed to some 4-digit number, and the ID3 tag info is read from the file and stored in a binary database on the iPod, the "iTunesDB." Any song not registered in the iTunesDB won't play back. Sure, you can copy the MP3 named "2493.mp3" off the iPod any time you want, it's just annoying when you want to do it a lot and you don't have all the information laid out nicely. Also, you get used to the Artist/Album/Track/Genre info being accurate. It's much smoother to rip a CD you own than to put random tracks from the 'net on there.
This is the iPod's DRM system. It works by highlighting the advantages of ripping your own music and encouraging Fair Use Doctrine, instead of forcefull taking away your rights. It encourages buying of CDs because ripping them gets all the info right, and copying the songs back off the unit just gets annoying to rename and look up the info per song.
Oh, the final component of the iPod DRM system: a small etching in the steel on the back of it which reads Don't Steal Music. Now, I surely don't believe Copyright Infringement is anywhere close to the crime that actual theft is, but that one little phrase permanantly engraved there sure does have a subconscious effect when you're loading it up with tons of music you didn't pay for.
Thank you Apple, for DRM the right way, in a system which encourages Fair Use, encourages buying more music, and extends our rights, instead of negatively enforcing the agendas of the RIAA.
Accept that when the EFF and others have investigated Paldium etc. they've found that MS is essentially giving the user the right to choose. A non-DRM OS will not be able to play DRM-protected music (no big deal here since I don't plan on buying that crap). However, MS wants to give their users the CHOICE to buy DRM protected music, as well as the choice to rip MP3's or WMA's of their favorite CD. Just because Microsoft is supporting DRM compatible junk, doesn't mean that they are exclusively supporting it. I've been Beta testing WMP9 and not only do you have the option to disable DRM, you don't even have to install it in the first place.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Huh?
I just plugged in my iPod (Mac version), and looked in the hidden folder iPod_Control/Music/, and located in various folders are my regular MP3 files, happily sitting there with their original names. Each of the folders has a generic name like "F01", but that's probably because of the way the iPod accesses the files.
It's pretty trivial to get the songs off of the iPod once you open the hidden folder. Now maybe the songs have to be registered in the iPod database (or maybe that's just used to track the playcount for each track), but the files themselves don't get renamed to a generic four digit number. Maybe it's different when you get it running under Linux, but on the Mac, no problems there.
And I applaud Apple's stance in not assuming that its customers are all would-be crooks. The way iTunes and the iPod work together discourages casual music copying (by preventing music from the iPod from being automatically copied back to iTunes), but it doesn't affect what I can do with music I've bought. And that's what DRM should be.
The day Macs use DRM is the day the company loses 90% of its customers. Why? The majority of Macs are used by creative professionals (if anyone has real statistics i would love to see them). The majority of Mac users see their computers as a tool they use to create their dream or artwork, as a way to express themselves. (come on flame me for sounding like a gay mac user) The day a Mac user tries to open a piece of stock art or a quicktime movie or aiff or mp3 and the computer says "I'm sorry you have already used this piece of swip X times, using it again or putting it on another device will violate its copyright! To obtain further rights to use this piece, contact blah blah blah" is the day most mac users will switch platforms (to what viable alternative i dont know, but im sorry linux is NOT an option for creative professionals, and I would rather switch careers then go back to using pcs and dealing with the draconian microsoft). I'm sure Apple knows this and for that reason will never include any DRM besides the basic and easily hacked DRM similiar to the ipod. Just wait for Apple to release a small tivo type device that is portable with firewire capabilities for transfering and SYNCING to a mac, just like the ipod.
and yes i am pulling this out of my ass, but hey its the internet so who cares?
Er, you CAN copy off the iPod. You just have to do it yourself, you can't have it automatically happen.
Errm. The parent post I replied to said that copying off the iPod is a huge hassle and requires legwork to get the songs back into normal format (eg, "some band - some song.mp3"). It "can" be done, and the software makes every attempt to thwart you from doing it are two different things.
Furthermore, what's this talk about "automatically"? The iPod starts dumping all its music or grabbing all the music it finds without any user intervention?
Considering that most of us have a single PC that is our "main PC," their move makes sense. Plus it ensures that if you DO move an MP3 illegally, YOU'RE doing it, not Apple.
Now we're getting down to brass tacks. Apple isn't doing anything, the user does everything. Apple supplies ripping tools and PCs, why doesn't that make them liable for all other forms of copying? Why would moving an MP3 from Computer A to iPod B be "legal" but from iPod B to Computer B be "illegal"? As long as A, B, and C are all owned outright by the same person, it just sounds like fair use to me, as fair as watching a video tape I made in the VCR in the kitchen, the bedroom or the living room.
What you describe leaves open the analog hole. Hollywood and the RIAA don't want that to happen, and Microsoft has given every indication that they intend to cooperate.
Please give me some evidence of this. True, when you've booted in DRM-mode there is no analog hole. And when you are booted in "insecure" mode you can't access the DRM'd files. However, you are still making a choice.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips