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OS X Conference DRM Panel Video Available Online

Posted by chrisd on from the dorm-panel dept.

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)"

19 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Considering it's a OS X conference... by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are we surprised it's in Quicktime?

    I'm actually wondering if it's an mpeg4 video, or a sorenson3 video, myself :D

    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
    1. Re:Considering it's a OS X conference... by MalleusEBHC · · Score: 5, Interesting

      When Apple received an award at the Grammy's, Steve Jobs said, ""If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." (More info here) So as far as we are concerned, Apple has publicly stated that people have the right to manipulate data, be it music, movies, or whatnot, that they own the rights to.

    2. Re:Considering it's a OS X conference... by alfredo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Jobs said on CNN that DRM is futile.

      Remember The first product Steve and Woz sold was the blue box.

      --
      photosMy Photostream
    3. Re:Considering it's a OS X conference... by MalleusEBHC · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And at the same time, Apple implements a form of DRM by crippling the iPod - you can copy songs onto it, but you can't copy them off. I'm an Apple fan, but this kind of BS undermines my faith in them.

      What is the purpose of an mp3 player? To transfer mp3s to it so that they can be played back later. The purpose of an mp3 (at least for legal uses) is not to take mp3s from one machine and move them to another machine. You mistake Apple's decision to not make piracy easy for a decision to implement unfair DRM against owners manipulating the music they legally own.

      Besides, if you want, there are many ways you can transfer songs from your iPod to another computer. There are hacks that allow you to do this. I know they have some for OS X; I'm not sure about the Windows version though.

    4. Re:Considering it's a OS X conference... by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 5, Informative

      Alright, I'm being careful with my use of words.

      I own an iPod.

      As such, it's designed to make listening to MP3s easy. That means it's trivial to update, synch, and upload music to the device.

      I did not use the word 'copy'.

      It's also trivial to copy music with an iPod. It is an external firewire drive, and you only need to enable that option within iTunes.

      If you're bitching because iTunes itself does not allow you to synch from an iPod->iTunes, then you're complaining that Apple didn't design music offload capabilities into an MP3 player, which isn't strictly a requirement of an MP3 player. Clearly it's useful for an MP3 player to be able to synch; iTunes->iPod is trivial, just plug and forget.

      Synching from iPod->iTunes is not a function of an MP3 player any more than allowing an MP3 player to open your garage door. However, the capability to copy music, as I mentioned above, exists.

      Drag files from computer->iPod.
      Drag files from iPod->computer.

      Were you looking for something else, perhaps? Apple including a checkbox on iTunes, 'Download music from iPod'?

      --

      GPL Deconstructed
  2. Wise move? by FyRE666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know I'm thinking that linking to a 49MB file from the front page of one of the biggest online community sites on the web may not have been the brightest of ideas.

    Someone's going to get one f*cker of a bandwidth bill this month...

    --
    Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
  3. Can you sense it by Raul654 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I feel a great disturbance in the force... as if many network administrators suddenly cried out in great pain, and were silenced.

    --


    To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
    --E.C. Stanton
  4. Old business models by markclong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. O'reilly uses Sonic.Net by Perdo · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's my ISP you jerks are slashdotting. I'll be lucky if I can even post this. Of course, locality has it's privlages. The movie is downloading ac 160kb/s

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

    1. Re:O'reilly uses Sonic.Net by jtrascap · · Score: 5, Funny

      134K/sec in Holland...ooooh! The fisihes in the sea are frying from the heat of the cable, I betcha...

  6. not just Mac OS X by g4dget · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Mac OS X is becoming, whether by design or by accident, a Digital Rights Management operating system where the rights in question are the user's rights

    So far, most operating systems other than Microsoft Windows are giving DRM a cold shoulder. Windows is the exception, not the rule.

    In fact, it's hard to see how DRM could work if there were a lively, competitive market in operating systems, media software, and hardware. In some way, DRM can only work if Microsoft keeps 95%+ of the market, which is kind of scary, because it means that Hollywood is going to do what they can to support Microsoft's monopoly.

    1. Re:not just Mac OS X by iomud · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The problem is that Windows is the defacto standard operating system thus becoming the rule. Until I can get something other than Windows pre-installed by a major hardware vendor it makes no difference that Linux or *BSD has no builtin nazi DRM scheme. Since there is no one to include those alternatives to Windows there is no real competition in the market that Windows exists in.

      I made a decision to no longer use Windows a while ago not because of DRM but its certainly another reason for me not to.

  7. Anti-steadycam? How about an antidote. by asparagus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's sorta OT, but here's a great link for DYI steadycams/dollies/whatnot. I'm pretty sure the /. crowd will appreciate what these people are up to.

    http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/

    -Brett

  8. The iPod *does* have DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:The iPod *does* have DRM by Xenex · · Score: 5, Informative

      "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"

      No there isn't.

  9. DIY QuickStream - QSS by djupedal · · Score: 5, Informative

    QT streaming from OS X only takes a few minutes to set up, BTW.

    Find out for yourself why these files are surviving the legendary /. effect? :)

  10. End Quote by Perdo · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Technologies that can modified by end users, that is to say Open source are explicitly not allowed in contexts where digital streams are allowed to come into contact with them because you could change them to geek around the restrictions that are being put in by Hollywood. So this is also a proposal to ban open source.

    The technology companies, by and large going along with it. And this is why we are here today. We want to find out how it is we can shift the technology companies from a sort of duck and cover perspective to going on the offensive. Because when technologists, who are part of a 600 billion dollar American industry, go on the offensive against Hollywood, a 35 billion dollar American industry, THEY WIN.

    "Two really important things you can do, one is you can tell five friends. Cause most people don't know this is going on. Most people don't know that there are three separate onslaughts on the ability of technologists to build any device that they want to. right now, internationally, in congress and in the FCC. Right now, going on, that if they succeed will be the death of their industry. And tell five friends in the technology industry just let them know so they can tell five friends. So we need a burgeoning consciousness of this. We need a million Slashdot readers to actually care about it and not just natalie portman or hot grits. And the last thing you can do is... um.. you can.. Boy! I just blew my buffer. What is the last thing you can do?"

    ~ Cory Doctorow, Electronic Frontier Foundation

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  11. Re:Apple Laptop Keyboards Unsuitable for Unix User by MacDaffy · · Score: 5, Funny

    If one lousy key is enough to keep you from buying a Macintosh, then I'm glad you feel it's that important. And Apple isn't "ignoring the Unix market;" it's ignoring YOU...

    As well it should...

  12. Re:Apple Laptop Keyboards Unsuitable for Unix User by Silverhammer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Blockquoth the poster:

    Apple laptops have built-in ADB keyboards. The ADB keyboard is broken-by-design.

    *begin Inigo Montoya impression*

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means...

    *end Inigo Montoya impression*

    ADB is a device bus, not a keyboard layout. Apple hasn't used ADB since it first introduced USB on the iMac in 1998.