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Gateway to Ship PCs with Pre-Installed DRM Music Files
Captain Chad writes "News.com has an article about Gateway's decision to bundle Pressplay's music service with its PCs. Of interest is the fact that 2000 popular songs will come pre-installed, helping reduce download time for those of us with modems." I wonder how much Pressplay is paying for this privilege. All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access.
Gateway spins Pressplay service on PCs
By Reuters
December 5, 2002, 10:11 PM PT
Computer maker Gateway on Friday announced a deal with online music provider Pressplay to load its PCs with 2,000 songs from music stars such as Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks and Frank Sinatra.
The deal with Pressplay, a joint venture between Vivendi Universal and Sony, capped a turbulent week for Gateway, which saw its stock fall 17 percent Thursday after the troubled PC maker warned that fourth-quarter revenue might not measure up to expectations.
The news came after three consecutive quarters of losses at the Poway, Calif.-based computer maker, which has suffered from weak demand and stiff competition from rivals such as Dell Computer.
Under the Pressplay deal, Gateway consumers can access the Pressplay service and features in several ways, including a 90-day free subscription to the service that contains 2,000 songs preloaded and available for streaming and downloading.
By loading it on a computer, consumers, especially those using dial-up connections, will save weeks of downloading time, said Michael Bebel, chief executive officer of Pressplay.
Other Pressplay plan options will also be available, some to be sold separately in hard-drive packages.
Gateway signed another deal with Pressplay rival Listen.com's Rhapsody a few weeks ago, marking the first distribution pact between a computer maker and one of a current crop of subscription services, trying to lure customers away from unauthorized song-swap services that have emerged in the wake of now-idled Napster.
Under that deal, buyers of Gateway desktop PCs will get a coupon for one free month of Rhapsody and a demonstration of the service on the PCs.
"The Pressplay deal is significantly different because we're pioneering a way to deliver digital music on the hard drive," said Brad Shaw, a senior vice president for Gateway.
Shaw said the deal would have no impact on the company's fourth-quarter forecast announced earlier this week.
After the free trials, consumers can get the Pressplay service, which provides more than 200,000 songs and additional features, with pricing options starting from $9.95 a month.
"We're now making it possible for people without a broadband Internet connection to get in on the fun of digital music by delivering it to them in a whole new way," said Ted Waitt, Gateway chairman and chief executive in a statement, adding those with broadband will enjoy it even more.
Gateway earlier this year sparked the ire of the music industry by running TV ads that showed Waitt and a cow--the company's mascot--singing along to a homemade CD, directing viewers to a Web site that encouraged them to "protect their digital music rights."
The ad was construed by the recording industry as an invitation to music fans to join in the fight against Hollywood as technology and media companies locked horns over digital copies of entertainment.
Entertainment companies, burned by piracy and file-sharing services like Napster, have been seeking more control over digital copies of movies, music and TV shows, while tech companies are putting out even more products that encourage customers to "rip" and "burn" entertainment software.
Gateway executives this week said they have always supported legal copying.
Waitt said the Pressplay deal was a great example of the technology and recording industries working together to drive innovation and serve demand for legitimate digital music.
Gateway plans to promote with television, Web, catalog and e-mail marketing.
10 minutes?
Don't worry the gateway will soon break and the crisis will soon be over...
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Would anyone really buy a computer just to get the music on it? Buy a CD, or just use one of the many p2p apps out there.... sheesh
Free Online Dark Fantasy RPG - http://www.blackmud.com
You probably recieve a right to use when you buy the computer with them. and FP or something.
The poster says that the computer contains data which you cannot legally access. I would actually interpret that you can access it, you just cannot legally try to go around the protection mechanism that pressplay has put on it.
The files are named *.mp_ or *.wa_ morons
I am quite sure that there will, eventually be a very easy workaround for this. Don't companies realize that no matter what they do, somebody will crack it?
I wonder if and when music will actually get to this point where everyone buys music online? Personally I like to own the CD to have the original CD art...
Why isn't it legal? Afterall you are paying for the data by purchasing the computer...if it comes prebundled, one would assume they paid in order to bundle it... This is similar to paying per download..
I SURVIVED THE GREAT SLASHDOT BLACKOUT OF 2002!
So long as I can still delete the damn things.
If you pay for something (software) you can use it. This software has access to a database of DRM'ed music files, that you would have paid for if you bought that Gateway PC.
Since they gave you the content, when you break the DRM for the purpose of listening to it, you're not breaking it for the purpose of copying it (necessarily). They gave you the copy on purpose...so it'd seem that tools designed to give you access to content that was given to you by the copyright owners might not be covered by the same DMCA.
" including a 90-day free subscription to the service that contains 2,000 songs preloaded and available for streaming and downloading."
editor should have read the article.
also, my cable box comes with the ability to recieve all of the channels too, whats the legal implication there?
my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120... whats the legal wrinkle there?
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
So I am supposed to pay for an over-priced machine just because you can give me access to things I can allready get access to.
It would be even better if they shipped it with bootleg copies of new movies. Anyone want a pre-release copy of The Matrix Revisited or Return of the King?
Worst. Sig. Ever.
This sounds like in the server market where multiple CPUs are already installed just not activated. Its very tempting to pay to activate the CPU or in this case the music, since you are so close to having access to it.
"All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access"
You already can't reverse engineer any protection - its not that different.
"After the free trials, consumers can get the Pressplay service, which provides more than 200,000 songs and additional features, with pricing options starting from $9.95 a month. "
So basically, it's a big ad? Nothing new here.. And we all know that the files will be cracked extremely quickly (of course, some geek will have to fess up and admit to buying one of these!). No matter, they'll all be songs I wouldn't want anyway - the "pop"ular stuff that the radio plays day in and day out, no doubt.
In general, it's a good idea, but if you think about it: 5 megs on average per file (guess) x 2000 = 10,000 megs... That's a LOT of wasted space for something you're not supposed to be using until you pay for! So, yeah, I'm paying extra to waste space. Nice.
If Gateway didn't do this, we'd all be eating talking cow steaks in a week. Those cruel, vicious monsters.
....As if the free AOL icons on the screen weren't enough... now is the paperclip going to pop up and say "You haven't been force fed pop music lately. Would you like me to play something by Brittney Spears?"
Music = marketing and product all in one. The more you listen to music the more you either like it or hate it. If you like it you'll buy more, if you hate it you'll suffer through it or turn it off.
Now the music companies are going to put their marketing materials (free?? music) on the computers to further entrench themselves.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
But when it comes to movies, DVDs, CDs you people will bend over and take it up the ass and still scream blood murder? Gotta love the hypocrisy.
.
SIG:Slashdot: indymedia for nerds.
This is the saem as buying a filing cabinet with sealed papers in it. Papers which have a warning on them that "if opened, could subject you to a fine of $5000" etc. It's entrapment. Of course the users are going to want to play with the files. Then again, buying a smoke detector does not give you a legal right to extract the radioactive elements.
I love the idea of a computer comming with music pre-loaded, but I disagree with everything that DRM stands for. But since the music is already there, most users will enable whatever they have to without thinking about the terms. This is a very big step for the RIAA to total control of media. Smart move on their parts=(
"Entertainment companies, burned by piracy and file-sharing services like Napster, have been seeking more control over digital copies of movies, music and TV shows, while tech companies are putting out even more products that encourage customers to "rip" and "burn" entertainment software."
On the one hand, we got tech companies saying burn your music. Enjoy it, play it, sleep with it, whatever. On the other hand, we got the RIAA saying: HEY! Wait! You can't do that. You need to pay me for that.
In the middle is the customer going you know what? Screw you both. Make music. If I like it, I'll buy it. (--In most cases) Hey, PC makers, you make pcs. Don't worry about what I do with it, it ain't your concern.
Sent from your iPad.
then you get 2000 songs with your gateway. Lets see ... average 15 songs a cd .... 2000 / 15 = 133 ... times $17.00 for the average CD ... $2267.00 free !!! ... and it's not your fault you did BUY the computer and that just came with your computer. Same thing goes for when you buy a box from an auction, to find it's full of gold, to the victor go the spoils.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
>also, my cable box comes with the ability to recieve all of the channels too, whats the legal implication there?
The premium channels aren't pre-recorded on the box.
>my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120... whats the legal wrinkle there?
The car company doesn't want to see you dead, perhaps?
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access.
That's not new. I've been other examples of software that comes pre-installed but "locked" where you need a key that you can get by calling the company and paying more money. I seem to remember Adobe having some fonts like that pre-installed at some point, and I definitely recall special-purpose PC's coming with application software pre-installed but disabled until you bought an access key...
I'm not sure what kinds of "legal wrinkles" might apply, but I do know this is not the first time it's been done.
101010, 222, 52,
I just bought this damn computer and I have no more disk space!! Oh yeah, i have 2000 songs on here that I can't listen to...
IS this legal, even though noone can legally acces them? I didnt want them, i didnt pay for them.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
This is like saying "Buy our machine because the box has pretty cows on it".
this will spur some people to try their best to hack this DRM system. After all, if you already have 2000 songs on your HDD you might want to access them, if just for the sport aspect ;-)
you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access
So ? If I recall correctly, mainframes in the old days used to ship with HARDWARE that you couldn't access legally. The machine came preshipped with X amount of RAM, which was enabled by simply flipping a switch after you payed for it. Noone ever complained, even though RAM prices those days were somewhere in the region of what we pay now for an average house.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Got digital out and digital in? If so what is preventing someone from playing the "protected" media and recording it into another program thru their digital soundcard?
No loss in quality.
Don't forget. Vivendi is also doing bad. They're going to break next. I think the service will have to change name do PressStop instead of PressPlay. :)
According to FEDERAL POST OFFICE laws, if you recieve unsolicited merchandise, you are not financially liable for it. You may consider it a gift, and keep it or dispose of it as you see fit. Seems to me that a similar interpertaion of the law applies here. OFF THE MAN, BROTHERS!
But remember, you can always simply 'upgrade' or modify the chip and go whatever speed you want. This may or may not violate warrenty, and you may or may not be pulled over for driving some obscene speed on public roads, but those choices are at least totally up to you.
The reason Santa is so jolly is that he knows where all the bad girls live.
"The Pressplay deal is significantly different because we're pioneering a way to deliver digital music on the hard drive," said Brad Shaw, a senior vice president for Gateway.
I sort of remember something. A way I used to get digital content onto my machine...nap something or other...man that seems familiar.
Honestly, who do these people think they're fooling. Look at the selection of music, they're obviously targeting the audience most utilizing current p2p apps. Do you think most high school and college kids are going to give up their napster/kazaa/audio galaxy/etc for something they have to pay for?
If you get an error, type "OVERRIDE" or "SECURITY OVERRIDE" and then try the optimize command again.
...The way I interpret it, you cannot legally access the same data. Pressplay has put data on the drive that you probably would get from the 'net, so it's saving you time (and maybe bandwidth charges, depending on your ISP). If you were to get it from the 'net, it would be illegal (using p2p).
The way I interpret it (IANAL), they've broken the law.
The thing immediately popped up in my head: :)
How will they find so many remixes of our lovely Britney? on P2P ?
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
Gateway computer, preloaded with songs: $999
Connection to the Internet: $19.95/mo.
Knowing it's only going to take a couple minutes to crack 20,000 songs wide open: Priceless
slashdot!=valid HTML
So what? My computer already has tons of data I can't access without illegally reverse-engineering files. My server at work is chock full of e-mail that I can't access without (probably) violating my cow orkers' rights. One might argue that the layout of my CPU is data stored inside my computer, but I sure can't have access to that.
Gateway ships YOU with preinstalled DRM Red Army Choir music files.
My parents have insisted on buying Gateway PCs because they are so "reliable". They seem to forget that they come bloated and in 2 cases, broken to begin with, and are decent machines only after a good format. Needless to say, I would have reformatted a GateWay PC no more than 3 minutes after it's first turned on. This seems like a waste to me.
Contact Me (got tired of viruses emailing me).
License more than 200 songs from mainstream and niche artists, encode them to 160Kbps MP3s, and bundle them on new i-Systems.
No DRM. No free trial. Just free music.
Mix. Burn. Repeat.
2000 "popular" DRMed songs you can listen to for 90 days, or about 300 encompassing all genres of music that you can listen to forever? Hmm.
I knew you could boys and girls. Competition from Dell, and yes even HP and Compaq is just too much for Gateway. Despite lowering prices to the point where they operate in the red, they just can't seem to keep up.
It's too bad really, I think they were a good company who just had to make too many compromises.
Than the ton of shareware/nagware games and crap thats already pre-installed, yet unregistered?
You can't use it until you buy a key.
Yet they always market it as "comes with 8 zillion dollars worth of free software!"
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
How about that? IBM finds it's cheaper to ship a mainframe with 8 or 16 CPUs, even if you only paid for a machine with 2. They deactivate the other CPUs in software. If you want to upgrade to more processors, you send them the money, they send you the codes to activate more CPUs.
Any problem with that concept?
You caputer the digital out of your sound card
Make that "analog out". Windows ME and Windows XP operating systems have a Secure Audio Path that disables digital outputs and unsigned drivers when playing restrictions-managed audio files.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Personally, I don't like alot of the mainstream music that is out today. So if I buy a *cough* gateway *cough* why would I want these music files? The top 2000 hits....Ummmmm I would rather not have that on my computer.
Can I rather have the top 2000 punches?
I do find it interesting that computer makers are making it easier to rip and burn, while supplying pressplay et al inside it. This bothers me a bit. There has to be something backroom-ish going on. I agree all things equal, it may make the college freshman grab one, but other than that I see no special reason for it. So what are they getting out of it? Advertising, sure, but whatabout pressplay logging? You think they are sharing their logs with Gateway so they can determine what songs to put on the next generation of PC's? Maybe Gateway just wants to see how much their computers are actually used for the digital music they push so much in their adverts. Either way, I don't like multi company bundling. It just smacks of small print consumer stick-it-to-em EULA's.
'I don't want more choices. I just want better things.' - Edina Monsoon
What's a modem?
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
This is data that is locked until you pay a service.
Don't you realize what DRM is all about?
Why did you waste a +1 posting bonus on this?
Is there a list of the songs that come with it? Is it grouped by genre? There's alot of different tastes out there and I can easily see several people buying this FOR the music (non-tech ppl of course), just to find out that it doesn't have single song they like. 2,000 songs @ ~4 megs a piece = 8,000MB, or 8Gigs sacraficed to an unusuable data format. 8gigs over a modem certianly isn't a laughable amount over a short time span, but how many 56K 80+GB warez sites have you seen? I can't justify the loss of space/Saved bandwidth ratio especially when I won't want most of the music...
I think it would have been a better decision to slap 8Gigs of DRM'd Porn on the drive..
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Further, didnt I pay for the HD? Isint it my hard drive? They should pay me rent for wasting my space with unaccessable junk.
It comes preloaded with the Eminem and Dixie Chicks?
c:\
c:\deltree \mypreloadedmusic-DRM
Are you sure you want to delete the directory \mypreloadedmusic-DRM and all subdirectories? [Y/N]
Youbetcherass
172 File(s) deleted.
c:\
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I don't see the problem here. How is this different than buying a computer that comes bundled with demoware / shareware / crippleware, for which you may have to purchase a licence for it to not expire or become full featured? This just seems like an analog for media-data, as opposed to program-data. No one complains about the demo software, but now it's a big deal when it comes with "demo" music?
"you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access."
Bullshit. You're buying a PC with pre-licensed data. Same as if you bought it with Word preinstalled, which isn't transferable either. Head out of ass, now.
my cable box comes with the ability to recieve all of the channels too, whats the legal implication there?
Its illegal to decrypt them without permission. Doesn't mean that the law is right. I personally agree that the law makes sense, but people are free to disagree with me and try to convinve their elected representatives to change this law.
But this is just because of percieved cost to them. It costs them money to send me signals. In the case of data that's already on my hard disk, it doesn't cost any more to supply decrypted data than it does to supply encrypted data, yet they want to charge me the full cost of the media just to decrypt it for me.
so I order a PC and I get a full hard drive of Britney spears and the Back Street Boys.
It's weird... you buy the data, but aren't allowed to use it.
... to the Microsoft Tax when we buy a machine loaded with cruft we have no intention of using?
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
So...we're now buying computers that have *OUR* hard drive space taken up by useless software that doesn't below to us? A:\format C:\ www.kazaalite.com... Pfft, if I want to have software on my computer that doesn't belong to me, I may as well have it be software of my choice, that I can actually use!
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
i am sure glad that computers will be packaged with more useless stuff to waste hard disk space. i've had to spend hours deleting all the junk of my dad's laptop and my mom's compaq pc. and with the laptop, it was like pulling teeth getting the major retailer to send a disk for windows so i could format the whole thing and just reinstall the OS. they tried to get me to copy the windows image on to 29 floppies. you would be insane to sign up with a service like this with a modem anyway, i doubt you could download enough data in a month to justify the fees charged.
I would hook the boot HD up to a different computer, extract all the songs onto it and format the drive on the gateway afterwords. Never once did you boot thier install of the OS that has the license agreement. And since they "gave" you the songs on your computer you're free to do what you want with them. I.E. remove DRM and enjoy in OGG format.
Is there an option available to pre-load my machine with porn instead?
--It's Pimptastic!--
Of course, you can feel free to activate any of the CPU's on your own, but doing that will invalidate your multi-million dollar support agreement with IBM.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The concept of 'having data that you cannot legally access' has been around for ages already: Adobe Type-On-Call (Not sold anymore, as far as I can tell.)
:)
This was a CD full of fonts - Adobe's entire font library, in fact - where you could not access particular fonts or font collections without sending Adobe a bunch of money first. They'd give you a key to unlock those particular fonts.
I'd been wanting to try and crack it open ever since I was 15 or so, but... looks like I'm not allowed to anymore
That company has its head so far up its ass it amazes me.
Execute? [Y/N] _
Any problem with that concept?
Ummm.... actually... No.
IBM do not have a monopoly on their machines. If they do this, I'll ask Sun if they can supply am 8 processor Sparc for the same price as IBM's "2 processor" machine.
Obviously, if I think EMI are charing too much for a Robbie Williams CD, I can't ask Warner for a cheaper price.
"All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access. "
So what? I bought a name brand PC a few weeks ago that came with Quicken Deluxe on it, to be used only if I have bought the reg key.
The real issue here is that this won't work: within two weeks of these bad boys hitting the street, there will be dozens of postings on how to circumvent Pressplay's reg/purchase code strategy and gain access to all of the music, just as I can go to any one of dozens of sites for hacks into getting my unregistered copy of Quicken to work. I wouldn't do this, of course: no no, not me....
There's a metaphor here from Apocalypse Now: the Bridge at Do Long. Every day the Americans would rebuild the bridge, and every night the Vietnamese would blow it up. Each new tack by the RIAA and its DMCA cronies to secure rights in this fashion will be defeated, sometimes within minutes of hitting the street.
This points to the need for them to dynamite their business model and think up something new: how many people actually pay for content? (And porn doesn't count. Besides, porn is largely stolen anyway!) The answer is none, zero, nada. AOL-TimeWarner's about to find this out the hard way. Gateway and Pressplay are making it easier than some to circumvent by the fact that the files are on your machine, and you can ostensibly do what you want to with them without them knowing. But even if you had to download them, you'll still be able to hack them.
"Don't matter how New Age you get, old age is gonna kick your ass." - Utah Phillips
I don't know if this is feasible, but why not just provide enough copy protection for a certain period, but then stipulate that when someone unlocks the content, the copy protection period is over?
When you think about it, part of the problem with the situation is that the various record companies want perpetual, or close to perpetual control of the content. If people could access the content in only a copy controlled manner, for say, one month, I would argue that this is an entirely appropriate length of time given how the Internet affects distribution. It seems that this would result in many more releases and a greater diversity of both music, and copy control technology. After all, if every company used exactly the same mechanism, it would greatly increase the likelihood of the copy protection getting broken.
Then, the companies could pay certain groups to both provide the latest new method of copy protection and not help to break it. Look what recently happened with WMA, and how it reflects this type of model. Microsoft could now pay the company that last broke the protection to develop a new one that would last for a longer time.
In essence, let's have copy protection, but only for as long as it naturally lasts.
So how long before they preinstall encrypted pr0n on machines using a similar system?
Remember how Gateway ran that commercial that "respected your rights to download music" (or somesuch). I took that commercial to be a slap to the face of the RIAA - now they're the RIAA's lapdog? Or have I completely misread this?
Schnapple
With my new dual USB iBook, on the default install, there's something like 600 megs of MP3's by various big name artists (can't remember them all, since I reloaded with my new 10.2 cd I forgot to back them up), spoken word stuff from Henry Rollins I remember, perhaps someone else can fill /. in on what's all on there. Pretty neat I think.
Yep, they're 100% unencrypted, copy them anywhere MP3 files. They're installed when you do a full system restore. No DRM here. Not needed or wanted.
You mean, TotalRecorder doesn't work with those the same as with LiquidAudio? Well, if not regular analog output shouldn't be too bad either. I wonder how much of the quality loss can be canceled by capturing the same song multiple times, at different volumes.
>my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120... whats the legal wrinkle there?
The car company doesn't want to see you dead, perhaps?
Also, tires rated as capable of travelling 150mph are very very very expensive. They don't want to give you OEM tires that cost that much. Also warranty costs are higher for them if some owners drive 150mph and cause extra wear and tear.
Apple used to include free MP3s with some of its models so people could use them with iMovie and iTunes. Sure the music was mostly instrumental or public domain, but at least it was free and didn't require an Internet connection to unlock.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
Gateway computers come with a recovery CD, don't they? (at least my friend's did). So what happens if something goes wrong and you lose your hard drive - since you paid to listen to those songs (through advertising, upped computer price, or through the 'free' trial), do you get them back? Do you have to redownload the 2000 songs you have 90 days free access to? I doubt they have a couple of DVDs of music in the box, ready to be reinstalled for you...
I can see some poor suck^M^M^M^Muser calling the tech support people crying for her Britney! *ack, the horror*
The end of DRM will the following: Microsoft, working in concert with the Big 5 record labels, will begin to deliver content in the form of stainless steel balls. Sort of like BBs, but bigger. They will insist that these steel balls are, in fact, music. "Believe us," they'll say, "we thought long and hard about this one." The steel balls will, however, confuse consumers. "I don't know," they'll say, "I can't hear anything." But the labels will insist that the steel balls work fine. "They're music," Hilary Rosen will say, "but they're copy protected." "It's foolproof," Jack Valenti will say, and then -- a few months later -- introduce his own version of the steel music balls: plastic video pyramids. Each pyramid will be about three inches high, black plastic, and weigh about three ounces. "Microsoft helped us with the protection algorithm," he'll announce. "In fact, they're so secure not even Microsoft's new operating system can play the video. But trust us, these videos look great." Confused consumers will be seen walking around with steel balls and plastic pyramids. "I don't know," they'll say, "I haven't seen anything yet, but I look forward to it." Another music lover will admit to liking the way the steel balls feel. "They're so smooth and lovely. Perfect." "The Register" will point out that the balls are not, in fact, perfectly spherical. "There are tiny, minute imprecise abrasions. But to the naked eye they'll look pretty nice." Posters on Slashdot.com will claim that they've not yet cracked their steel balls and enabled the music. "It's in there," a Slashdot poster named Borg2Soon will say, "I've set up a Linux box to play the steel balls." The plastic pyramids are a bit more diffucult since they take up more space and aren't as portable as the steel balls. "You can't carry as many pyramids around at one time," John C. Dvorak will say. The Screensavers Patrick Norton will be dubious. "Well, I'm not sure why they made the music into steel balls. I liked the normal files." The screensavers Yoshi will design a case-mod in which users can place up to one thousand balls and fifteen pyramids. "It's a wicked mod," Yoshi will say. Thousands will build the mod. Millions will praise the balls. "But not the pyramids. I don't like the pyramids." John C. Dvorak will wonder why they just couldn't have made the pyramids plastic balls instead of plastic pyramids. "Come on, Microsoft," Dvorak will chide, "not everyone has room for all these pyramids." Microsoft's stock will skyrocket. Amazon will merge with Starbucks. They'll rename the new store 'Pequod.' The White Whale will be spotted. "Balls!" Ahab will shout.
I'm not sure if they still do it, but Quicken used to come preinstalled on many OEM computers. Tucked away in one of the subfolders were the install files for Quicken Deluxe, which you could use if you purchased it.
Seems like a very similar situation.
Of course, Intuit didn't disable it if you were late on a payment, so maybe the analogy isn't perfect...
All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access.
I don't see much of a difference between this and software demos that are made up of the full version and only need a registration key to be unlocked.
You can access any of that you want. You can't however sell, distribute, or give away what you access. I can take my computer, rip out the CPU and spend a year mapping the layout. I have done nothing illegal. If I sell it or publish it the internet then I have broken the law. You own what you own and unless you SIGNED a waiver to say you were not going to do this you are free to do what you want with YOUR stuff.
Disney Interactive about 4-7 years ago used to include entire programs with its computers but would disable them until you paid an online payment to them.
This is way back though. I just remember trying to figure out how to get through the disabling so I could play... Never figured it out. (I was really young then.) All I knew is that if you signed up with them (it would dial a long distance number and give your info to them), the programs would become active.
Perhaps now with the internet, more people will go out of their way to break the DRM, but I am willing to say most will either pay to listen to them, or just continue downloading like they always have using morpheus or something similar.
~ kjrose
>>my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120... whats the legal wrinkle there?
>The car company doesn't want to see you dead, perhaps?
A company that cares for it's customers???? Impossible! They are most likely worried about lawsuits because the tires might only be rated for 120mph.
Profit!
Main screen on!!
Imagine a...
MS sucks, Linux roolz!
Well, one of them is still vaguely fashionable around here!
Milquetoast the cockroach from Bloom County/Outland or Caspar Milquetoast from H. T. Webster's The Timid Soul?
:P
Inquiring minds aren't getting your joke
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
No, really I bet 20,000 /. readers are currently ordering this system so that they can be the first on thier block to crack the DRM. Talk about target audience.
8=> 0o
Karma: Censored (mostly affected by decency laws)
They don't deny the channels you don't pay for. You see, out on the pole, the cable company installs little filters called Traps. These are what decides the channels you can and can't get. A buddy of mine gave me an A trap and a B trap, which allow me to get Starz and Encore. Digital boxes, yes, they can prevent you from getting channels you don't pay for.
In effect, your channels are never "turned off," just filtered out. Head out to your box, remove/add traps, and viola! Free pay TV channels.
And as for the preloaded music, fuck that shit. There's no way I'm paying for 2000 BlowTown, Backdoor Boys, *NSuck and Tittany Spears tunes. I'll just suffer on my 56K connection downloading good music like KMFDM, Bile, Juno Reactor, Fear Factory and Type O-Negative for free.
FUCK DRM. FUCK THE RIAA/MPAA. LONG LIVE FREEDOM!
Sorry, could you say again? I kept getting this static that sounded like "BLAH BLAH I'M AN ANONYMOUS COWARD IGNORE ME"..
slashdot!=valid HTML
Don't buy it! Tell other people you know to avoid Gateway (or other manufacturers) products incorporating DRM.
Spread the word and make it hurt these guys in the pocketbook! Show them that RIAA & MPAA are full of shit and that they will lose money by failing to appeal to -CONSUMERS- instead of listening to corrupt big business.
BOYCOTT!
I'd love to see the first lawsuit after these watermarked mp3s get cracked and make it onto a p2p network.
"Dude, you're going to Jail!"
*ducks*
Money I owe, money-iy-ay
I didn't quite grasp it in the article, but I would assume that this data is somehow encoded/protected so that it is only accessible with the key or subscription (post-trial)?
I remember when ID software shipped extra games on their Quake, etc CD's. You could call in and get a decoding key to install the games.
After a while, somebody cracked the CD and you could get the games with a keygen... somehow I think encoding data on a machine is just asking for trouble.
How much are Gateway paying to lease 10gig of HD space from each of their customers? Nothing? OK then : rm -rf drm_shite - or whatever the windows equivalent is.
You know its a slow Friday, when we are actually taking the time to complain about Gateway. Whats there stock at? As of this posting $3.68..
Yawn....
I am just going to take a nap.
10GB of crap music surely won't be encoded where it should be, 224 IMHO, so does any know the quality of these 2,000 songs? When does pressplay and gateway include a free extra hard disk simply for the purpose of storing all these damn files?
Adobe font files are the same thing - they come on a cd and you could check them out and purchase others by calling a phone number.
Nothing wrong with that.
Sun won't supply you with an IBM computer it will supply you with a sun computer. So your comparison does not seem valid to me.
Pressplay sells two plans:
$9.95 / month for unlimited streaming + downloading into press play format
$17.95 / month for unlimited streaming + 10 conversions to portable formats
they also offer the $17.95 / month plan as $14.95 / month if you pay for the entire year in advance.
The non portable format is tranferable to one other system. Further tracks can be organized in play lists and sets....
My guess is that they are trying to sell people on the $9.95 / month to have a large music library on their computer. I'd further guess that pressplay also is coming out with some sort of portable player for their format.
So a gateway customer paying $9.95 / month has:
1) a very large music library on their system
2) The ability to add to it freely as new music comes out
3) The ability to take this music and move it to their portable player
I can see this doing quite well. 200k songs ~ 18k albums ~ 500 shelves ~ 100 sq foot CD collection ~ 1/2 a small record store excluding duplicates ~ a small record store including duplicates.
That's a lot of music for a home user at a price which is not unreasonable. I can see music fans which aren't that computer savvy going for this. The main thing that needs to happen is for gateway/pressplay to offer a way to get the music into a car for people not to realize this is not as good a deal as it looks like.
...where id software decided to package all of their old games encrypted on the CD with the ability to 'unlock' them with a credit card.
Then some unscrupulous scoundrels broke the encryption, and turned a $9 game preview into Best of ID Software Platinum "Game of the Year" Edition.
blah blah client side security blah blah tooth fairy...
Also, i wonder if, when they tell you the size of the HD, do they chop off the space they've filled up with 2000 unwanted songs? Do they make it obvious that you could save a few gigs by deleting them? Probably not.
vk.
The latest extentions of copyright's thanks to Tree Hugger Bono (It got you babe) should make the 1924 cartoon character a cinch to protect.
Help fight continental drift.
Flame away!
The cable companies did so much legal junk in the past (blatent paying off of senators... judges, congressmen..) that you really shouldn't use it for anything legal. Basically Cable companies got a bunch of junk put on Sattilte tv access, so regular sattilite sucks, and nobody uses it.
About your car? Your car doesn't falsely advertise that it's capable of going 150... it's just a fact that can be judged by logic. What? you don't think Gateway will make this into a huge scam? 2000 FREEEEEEE Songs!!!!
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
If they're going to take up storage real estate on a hard drive where you own the platters, but you can't use the data legally, they owe you compensation for the space they're stealing from you.
In short, charge them a monthly fee for having their data on your hard disk drive. Many companies do that as their primary business--selling external storage.
The sooner such practices as this bankrupt the businesses at fault, the sooner the practices go away.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
Stand around.
Clear your throat, or cough.
Watch the line form! Enjoy! (Bring a videocam and start a p0rn site=$$$!!)
Gateway says here:
.mp3's. We don't feel that you have any rights for files whose names end in any other set of three letters."
"As a leading proponent of inexpensive and easy-to-use downloadable music, Gateway believes consumers should have lawful rights to encode, copy, collect, purchase and listen to their personal music collections in the MP3 format. We fully support an MP3 user's right to:
'Rip' and encode their own CD music collections into digital music files for their own personal use and enjoyment.
Make as many copies of their digital music files as they would like for their own personal use. This freely allows consumers to copy their MP3s on any number of their own computers in various locations, as well as on to their portable MP3 hardware players.
'Burn' their music files onto compact discs for their own personal use."
Yeah yeah yeah, now that I see Gateway's ACTIONS I can go back and re-read those words with the right slant. "Of course, we never expected you to think that the files you purchased as part of your Gateway Computer are YOUR files." Or perhaps, "Well, we only meant that for
My mother taught me that the essence of a lie was not whether or not the statement was technically true, but whether the speaker intended for the listener to misunderstand them. I'm afraid Gateway's fine talk about consumers' rights is just such a statement.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Just call me a visionary!! .
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three
I dont care anymore, most music comeing out is crap, the older stuff isnt affected (yet), I have over 400 (legally purchased) cds, 300 LPs, and 500 casstettes. some independent bands really show us what they have and Ill buy their music directly from them. the older stuff Ill just buy at used music stores/pawn shops
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I think Mastercard has the copyright on that arrangement of words ending with "Priceless" - You just busted their copyright, widely recognized trademark and harmed their good name. Oh oh!
Why not? All I want is a machine that wil run Oracle, or Apache, or work as a web server, or to handle a lot of financial transactions, or do some serious number crunching. Both solutions will do all these tasks perfectly happily.
Why would you specify that you need an IBM server, and it absolutely has to be made by IBM
It costs them money to send me signals.
this is always a fun topic. cable tv is using a faulty delivery mechanism. it doesn't cost them money to send the signal per se. the signal is always there. they just rake in extra money for decoding it for you (is it really encrypted?). most likely, it costs them money to sell the signal, probably by giving a kickback to HBO for every subscriber they have.
Its illegal to decrypt them without permission
the law allows consumers to own their own cable tv decoder box, so it's not illegal to decode a cable tv channel. weather or not its illegal to watch those channels is another thing. what if you record the channel and view it later?
the phone companies either give you a dial tone or they don't (if you haven't purchased the service). from there, you either have long distance or you don't. you subscribe to the services you want, then they provide it to you. call forwarding isn't automatically on the line.
the cable company delivery is like ordering a pizza and then underneath the first pizza is another pizza. you can't eat the second unless you paid for it? wtf? you only ordered one pizza, it's not your fault they brought two (even though the second might be hidden under the first somehow).
Its illegal to decrypt them without permission.
out of curiousity, which law prohibits that? the DMCA probably doesn't apply because the viewer isn't attempting to copy copyright material, and in some cases it's an analog signal that's being decoded (are there digital decoder boxes on the market yet?).
You know, the music may have its merits but when they start loading up the harddrives with a few gigs of pr0n before I buy it, then maybe I'll be interested (Now thats a time saver!)
3Y3
---- Anyone can act smart, but it takes a smart person to act stupid. ----
I wonder how long it will take for someone to crack those files and whamola - 2000 free songs...
John is a teenager. His parents bought him a Gateway laptop for his first year at college.
John opens his laptop to find some really cool songs sitting in 'My Documents'. Wow! That's cool!
John tries to play a song, and gets a notice that he needs to pay first. John is a college student. John doesn't like paying.
John opens up the latest flavor of P2P filesharing software and downloads the damn song for free.
Of course, I'm sure the fact that consumers are rallying around the concept of free MP3s, while by and large still buying CDs, doesn't really mean anything. Research shows if we put padlocks on all our content, and then throw it in consumers' faces every chance we get, we might still be able to inflate our profits to pre-Napster levels!
Idiots.
Fired for having sex and taking drugs? What year is this? 1932?
http://www.bringbackangus.com/
Last I heard, doing 120 is still illegal; at least in this country.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120 and if you drive 120 MPH you endager me and others. No one will die if you listen to music shipped to you on your hard disk without paying some big stupid media company. Nor will anyone die if I make a program that can play that music for you, but unlike the speeder, I might go to jail for that.
As has been pointed out a million times before, the implications for free speech and publishing are grave. A big fat music publisher has made a format that only they may use to play music that limits your ability to use and share that music which is really someone else's work to begin with. You are not alowed to understand that format and will go to jail if you study it and publish the mechanism used to "protect" the content. You are told that it is immoral for you to read that content without the publisher's permission and that it's wrong to share it with your friends. RMS saw correctly what happens when all publishing goes this way, we all end up being slaves to the publishers. They can charge us more than we can afford to learn then use that debt to extort all our future work, which we will then have to pay to access. Imagine a format like this being used to publish your next paper. Now imagine that your children have to pay the publisher to read that paper. Sick.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Little OT but ...
This reminds me of the Sun Enterprise 10000 (StarFires) that came with 64 processors pre-installed but you could use only the ones that you paid for (others need to be "enabled" before the system can use it).
S
This may seem like a silly question, but what good does this do people who buy the computer, but won't have an internet connection? For instance, a person who buys one for their kids to use for schoolwork or a person using it just to store recipes, use Quicken, etc? They won't even be able to access Press Play's online presence. So is the encryption done locally via something like a registration key, or does it require a connection? Just wondering.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
What better way to frustrate P2P users?
They download the mp3 and three months later you cant play it! Infact i think it has started already!
No seriouly! This is perfect...it might be the beginning of the end!
I remember the very first IBM compatible computer my parents bought.... It was a floor model from the store.. It had free pr0n on it cause I guess the guys there used it in the back for a while for personal business!! Whatever happened to the good old days??
The CRT iMac currently sells for $799.
iBooks and eMacs start close at $999.
Is it really that hard to check facts?
the signal is always there. they just rake in extra money for decoding it for you
Actually, if you look at it in certain ways, there's no difference between Cable TV, Pressplay's service, and Divx (i.e. the DVD rental technology). All of them charge a certain amount for decoding data that they supplied for free in an encrypted form.
There's a difference in people's perception of it though. With tangible media, people feel they already own it, and shouldn't have to pay to have it decoded. Illogical when you analyse what's going on, but who said people ar logical?
the law allows consumers to own their own cable tv decoder box, so it's not illegal to decode a cable tv channel. weather or not its illegal to watch those channels is another thing. what if you record the channel and view it later?
You are allowed to own your box. You aren't allowed to unscramble a scrambled cable signal without permission. I'm not really up on US law actually. The UK law actually states that it is an offence to unscramble a scrambled cable broadcast without permission from the rights owner. US law is based on the same international treaty.
I think delayed viewing is expressly permitted in US copyright law (it is in UK law). Even if it isn't, the Betamax case established a legal precedent that hasn't been revoked.
the cable company delivery is like ordering a pizza and then underneath the first pizza is another pizza. you can't eat the second unless you paid for it? wtf? you only ordered one pizza, it's not your fault they brought two (even though the second might be hidden under the first somehow).
Tangible media again. Actually in this case, the economics are interesting, and similar to music in some ways. It doesn't cost them much more to give you the second pizza. Ingredients typically cover about 30% of the cost of food. If they made an extra one on the offchance that you might pay extra for it, this could work. People would get a bit upset if they were given it but prevented from eating it though.
out of curiousity, which law prohibits that? the DMCA probably doesn't apply because the viewer isn't attempting to copy copyright material, and in some cases it's an analog signal that's being decoded
Not sure. I would have thought that the cable companies would have asked for copyright law to be ammended to protect them before rolling out their services. They wouldn't like to take the risk of supplying premium channels if they knew there were no legal sanctions against people pirating it.
Hey I think I accidently hit submit too early. Oh well, sorry if I did.
Quoted directly from the Pressplay.com faq:
How does the quality of a download track compare to a streaming track or CD?
pressplay downloads are encoded at a higher bit rate than our streams and therefore are of better quality. pressplay downloads use a high-quality WMA format that comes near to CD quality.
WMA FORMAT? GOOD GOD!!! AGGHHHHH
WMA sucks (and god only knows what they used to rip the cds!)! I don't want to listen to anything in wma, let alone a service I pay money for! I already encode all my albums to OGG format, since I only listen to stuff on my computer. I hate the WMA format after listening to copies of "high quality" wma files, and I know that all the pressplay service would make me do is press the big fat shift-delete buttons. THAT's RIGHT, no dumb quality music for me. Oh and I don't buy computers made by big companies anyway, but it's a real shame anyway, that they chose WMA format, becuase WMA just plain sucks.
It's a marketing entrapment ploy. It's not about protecting the artists, but protecting their fat ass way of life. So treat it like what it is - a game of bluff.
START BY...
- Downloading the free personal version of ZoneAlarm at http://www.zonelabs.com . This will clue you in as to just what is trying to get IN to your computer, or more importantly, what is trying to get OUT of your computer! For the first time user, this can be a very enlightening experience.
- Take the few minutes necessary to understand how it operates, and then make sure that you don't give permission to applications that you REALLY don't mean to... especially anything that looks like it's an 'E.T. phone home' sort of thing. Operation is pretty intuitive. Configuration by default, is to not allow anything through, and to Alert you of any inbound or outbound attempt to breach the firewall.
NOTE: If you are feeling particularly paranoid, then unplug your internet connection before starting your R&D fun.
Now do whatever the hell you want to with the 10 gigs or so of DRM content that they so thoughtfully preloaded onto YOUR computer.
Don't forget kids: If you crack anything, post them to appropriate NG's so that we can help them to get a little taste of how it feels to be relentlessly violated (like by ramrodding constant amendments to the Constitution).
TO ANYONE OFFENDED BY THIS: I AM NOT A TROLL, BUT I AM SUGGESTING ACTS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE. I stopped buying music when they first introduced CD's, at too high cost and too little value/quality. Things have only gotten worse since then. I personally own over 4,000 vinyl LP's, and the industry has for all intents & purposes, lost me as a customer. Of course it helps that I already have enough music to last a lifetime, much of which is OOP. But that doesn't change the fact that there is a war on now Fair Usage rights, and the jackbooted strategy vaunted by the DMCA, the RIAA, the MPAA, and our ever clueless elected politicians. Dont' let them get away with it!!! Make the bastards work for a living like the rest of us.
They wouldn't like to take the risk of supplying premium channels if they knew there were no legal sanctions against people pirating it.
then don't give them to me unless i pay for them, simple as that. don't give me something that's kinda hidden and expect that if i find it i won't use it. maybe the pizza company charge for delivery per pizzl. they can't charge you extra for the delivery if they find out you eat the second pizza somehow.
untangables are generally services. say i hire an electrician to install some circuits. he installs some extra circuits on the chance that he can upsell them to me. i'm not interested, but find the extra circuits after the fact and find that i am able to use them just fine. can he now start charging me for the service he performed of installing those? hell, no. he can only charge me for what i contracted him to do which was install x amount of circuits.
I bought the Motorola T720 cellphone, the new color one with games and all. Well it has tetris and tony hawk skater game, Both of these games are DEMOS! and thats one of the main selling points of the phone, look at the ads for it. I bought it for the big screen, and returned it yesterday for a Nokia becouse the Motorola keept crashing on me. But we will see more of this in the furtre becouse people buy things and say, "wow it come with this and that..." umm no.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
are we gonna discuss this? The record industry is What Is and What Should Never Be. It's Wearing And Tearing on me and I'm tired of the Battle of Evermore with them. We should all be Going To California, giving them No Quarter and taking them to the Gallows Pole. I've got a Whole Lotta Love for that idea - That's The Way to do it.
Hey, record industry: You may be Dazed and Confused but this aint no Communication Breakdown - listen to what we want or Your Time Is Gonna Come.
Thank You and Rock and Roll.
Your example still does not fly. You're not looking for a specific machine, just a good number cruncher. An activity, as opposed to a specific solution. So why does your example want a specific CD? Don't you just want something good to listen to? Warner has just as many similar artists as EMI, so why not go to the place that provides the cheapest music?
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
If not, you could take this to a country where DMCA doesn't apply, apply any crack that shows up and legally own 2000 songs. You can even sell these unencrypted disks to others and make a business out of it.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
not buy a damn gateway with those crap songs on them. everyone likes to make a big deal about this shit but the fact is, if you dont like what they are doing just don't buy it and stfu.
I heard some music, and it gave me a very unique and very specific emotional experience. I want to reproduce that experience. To do this, I need to have the same singer, and the same music. A different performer who is similar will not be adequate.
When people want to buy a server, they will look at what's available, and buy the one that is most suitable to their needs at the optimal price.
Are you saying that people will be happy to buy a different CD when they had their heart set on the one they chose?
Even if my reasoning is wrong, it doesn't matter. I'm reporting on the effect, not the cause. The effect is that people who would be happy with a different 8 processor server will not be happy with a different CD.
...or beaming free satellite TV signals to you, and expecting you not to decrypt them? I agree; it's a pretty stupid business model, that can only be salvaged by the application of some really stupid laws. The public has traded essential freedom to reverse engineer for limited gains in terms of more access to TV programming.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Ponder this if you will:
1. User id10t buys a new Gateway with music installed
2. id10t downloads Kaaza and procedes to share their entire hard drive
3. Johnny Hacker downloads the watermarked music and cracks it
4. Johnny puts it back on Kaaza unencrypted(but still watermarked) for the world(and the RIAA) to see
5. User id10t is charged
Finally stupitity will be a criminal offense. Of course it could be Grandma going to jail. I would like to see that prosecuted.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
Glaxo, Inc, announced today it will soon begin shipping sealed bags of M&Ms with its blood sugar testing kits...
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
then don't give them to me unless i pay for them, simple as that. don't give me something that's kinda hidden and expect that if i find it i won't use it.
Then nobody will want to supply cable. Copyright - inappropriate though the term "copy..." may be - is designed to allow people to provide this sort of service and have a chance to make a profit on it. The alternative is for nobody to provide this sort of service.
The reason the electrician doesn't charge you for the extra circuits is that there is a perfectly viable way for you to get what you want without him having to create an artificially barrier. Copyright is highly specialised in that it is designed to allow people to profit from business models that would otherwise not possibly be profitable.
The pizza company can selectively choose who and how many pizzas they supply. They could even carry and extra pizza, and offer it to you, only actually giving it to you if you agree to pay extra. Cable companies can't be selective. They have to supply everything. All they can do is prevent people from receiving everything.
Sure, they could go for an alternative method of supplying only a standard package, which is the same for everyone, but it wouldn't suit many people. I like the movie channels. I'll happily pay extra for them. Most people don't want them, so the standard package probably wouldn't include them. My parents only want a handful of channels. If they had to pay extra for more channels, they would probably decide to just go without.
The net result - I lose out, because I don't get my movie channels. My parents lose out, because they don;t get the extra channels they want, and the cable compoany lose out because they lose some subscribers, and also don't get as much money from me as I'm willing to pay.
After all, I don't care if some jackass wants to distribute 500 GB of mp3s. I just want to be able to burn my discs and place them on my server, where they're a hell of a lot safer from scratches.
However, watermarking *must* create audible distortion from the original music. If you pay for this, you are NOT getting what you paid for. So, perhaps we should look for laws that can be used to our advantage here.
I mean, if they offer to sell me Britney Spears' "I have no talent!", yet distort the audio, no matter how small that distortion is, it would be like Crazy Vaklev attempting to sell me a beaten rusted Yugo while saying, "Da, tovarisch, is havink passanger and driver side airbags!"
I guess not if it's a no-OS box you're going to put linux on, but there's even an EULA of sorts for that (GNU/GPL).
<pedantry>There is no EULA for Linux; you are free to use it in any way you want. The GPL is a redistribution, not use, license. Personally I have no problem with any of M$'s redistribution licenses. It's use licenses that piss me off.</pedantry>
All's true that is mistrusted
My family bought two Gateways about 5 years ago. Back then it seemed they did a decent job about not adding too much useless crap that nobody needed, something that other OEM vendors such as Compaq were notorious for.
I've not seen a new Gateway since then, but it seems they've gone the way of others and are now innundating users with gigs of junk.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
First, it's 2000 songs, not 200,000 as you state. That's at best 200 CD's assuming 10 songs. Considering that there are on average maybe 25 or so music categories (ie, Alternative, Rock, Blues, Broadway_&_Vocalists Children's, Music, Christian_&_Gospel, Classic, Rock Classical, Country, Dance_&_DJ Folk, General, Hard, Rock_&_Metal International, Jazz, Latin, Music Miscellaneous, New, Age, Opera_&_Vocal Pop, R_&_B, Rap_&_Hip-Hop Rock, Soundtracks) that's 8 albums per category. Not a "small record store including duplicates" by any means.
Secondly, this music will grow old. Sure, they can download new stuff from Pressplay, but how many poeple are going to do that over their 56k lines?
Ultimately, I think this is an interesting idea, but will not be an overnight success. Then again, Pressplay probably needs all the users it can get, so I doubt they're worried about piracy (as if KaZaa/etc weren't already the dominant players).
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Nope, yours is.
The reason they put the data on the PC does not dictate what you can do with it, the law does.
You are forgetting about the doctine of first sale. This states that if I buy something copyrighted I am automatically given certain legal rights, unless I sign a contract otherwise. So if when buying a gateway, I don't have to sign a contract, I am given certain rights to all the data on that computer. One of those rights being personal use.
So, I have permission under copyright law to use those files, but the DMCA makes it illegal for me to translate them into a usable format.
Here are some more links about first sale:
Life is too short to proofread.
My first "PC" was a Gateway. I admired their high quality and worksmanship at the time.
Then they started making shit computers with proprietary hardware and other junk.
And now supporting DRM?
Too bad Gateway. You've just insured I'll never buy another one of your products. I do not deserve to be treated like a criminal before it has been proven I am one.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
PressPlay's signup page says "unlimited access to over 175,000 songs" The "2000" figure is just the music that is _already on the hard drive_ of these gateway boxes. The idea is, they save pressplay bandwith and save their customers download time (those who are actually interested in pressplay.) - so they put the stuff they expect to be most popular on there. KaZaa is not a "primary player" - they aren't a player at all. The only time that KaZaa's content overlaps the content of PressPlay is when it is illegal content. (i.e. KaZaa's legally justified existance for trading non-copyrighted material does not compete with PressPlay at all) re: 56k. Well, these are WMA files, I believe the bit rate provided is 128k (equivalent to "some higher rate" of MP3 - I'm not going to argue about how much higher) - most albums are about 60 minutes ... do the math. It's an overnight download, or at least a few hours - BUT - I am pretty sure PressPlay also lets users download files at significantly lower rates, so, download those, if you like the songs, download the 128k rate files. If you REALLY like the songs, pay $1 for each one you want to burn to CD.
Windows doesn't know it's not running on real hardware
How do you know that the Windows OS does not detect VMware, Connectix Virtual PC, or Plex86 software and consider it an insecure environment?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Your math is off a bit. First off there is the 200k issue (what's included in the membership). Gateway is only using 2000 as a teaser I guess but that's more of a short term issue. DVDs cost pennies to duplicate in mass. A 10 DVD set...
Now also notice I said small record store.
200k songs / 10 songs album / 25 catagories x 2 remove duplicates = 1600 albums per catagory.
That ain't bad for a small store.
1, Informative?
What the hell is going on?
It boggles the mind.
An unintentional haiku.
©2002 Anonymous Coward
It's pathetic that no one, including the press, is calling the record companies on this rip-off. These companies would rather whine and pay off congressmen instead of taking three simple steps to curb piracy and make more money. 1. Offer uncompressed downloads of individual songs, something that you typically don't find on peer-to-peer networks. 2. Sell every song that gets airplay on a CD single, with artwork and a "B side" like a 45. 3. Put music that people ACTUALLY WANT on DVD-Audio. If people start paying for compressed music, we'll wind up with sound where we are with video: No high-quality media left AT ALL. Compression is killing art, no joke. Ever notice that DirecTV goes to great pains to avoid using the word "good" in their ads? "Yes, every channel is 100 percent 'digital quality'." I had an answering machine that was 100 percent digital quality, and you couldn't understand what people were saying. Welcome to the Digital Millenium, where the media purveyors call you, the customer, STUPID and get away with it.
The first iMacs came with a lot of songs, but the ones they ship now (iMac G4s) don't.
IBM's still does a good job. Most of the stuff they preinstall is IBM software, and none of the stuff they put on is software you need to buy a key to use. Unfortunately they don't sell as well as other companies, since most stores don't carry IBMs. You can order them online, though.
I'm sure this is a far-fetched idea, but I was just thinking about the fact that marketing droids came up with this "Digital Rights Management" which has been conveniently called "DRM" by everybody from manufacturers, resellers and slashdotters. The idea I had was that, instead of calling this massive problem by the name that the marketing types would prefer, we should go thru the trouble of at the very least saying the full name, and preferably the RMS version of "Digital Restrictions Management", so that Joe User is at least prompted to ask what it is. That way it doesn't get lost in the millions of other acronyms and abbreviations he has a hard time keeping up with, like RAM, P2P, P3P, etc, etc.
This is just a thought, but I think it'd be at least minimally beneficial.
And where does it read that music is DRM 'protected'? I just wonder that.... It actually is more like vice-versa, against drm... duh...
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
Whats the purpose of digital out then?
Digital output is for local bands. Digital out is for open or half-open formats like Ogg and MP3.
If i had some high quality tunes on my machine
WMA files, which are most likely to require a Secure Audio Path, are typically supplied in too low a data rate to be considered "high quality" among music enthusiasts. Don't be fooled by the 3 dB boost that some have claimed that the WMA encoder provides by default.
I would certainly like to use my digital out to send it to my high end stereo system, most likely over the digital output
If you can afford high-end audio equipment, you can certainly afford a collection of Compact Discs from which to produce high-quality Ogg files. The music on the discs that aren't Compact Discs probably isn't worth your money.
seriously, what kindof genius came up with this idea?
Bill and Hilary. The ones who didn't live in the White House.
Will I retire or break 10K?
out of curiousity, which law prohibits that? the DMCA probably doesn't apply because the viewer isn't attempting to copy copyright material, and in some cases it's an analog signal that's being decoded
The DMCA has several sections and makes several things illegal. It is not restrticted to digital data. It is not restricted to copying. It is not restricted to "illegal" activity - meaning a librarian, teacher, and student can all go to jail over a completely fair use bookreport which immune from copyright restrictions.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
That said, I wonder how much variety they have managed to represent in 2000 songs. I'd be interested in at least seeing what they are.
This is probably illegal and could get your life in a MegaCorp Prison:
1.Buy this Gateway with 2,000 locked songs with 90-day free trail.
2.Install Total Recorder, nice tool from High Criteria, for who I do not work for. They will charge you $11.95, those capitalist pigs!
3.Play all of the songs and capture them and convert to Ogg Vorbis files, a free open source format (those commies!).
4.Burn the ones you like all on CD's and save them.
5.Share with your friends on your favorite peer-to-peer network. Now you done it. You just join Organized Crime!
So be careful. You could be a Big Time Criminal in your own home. Next thing, jackbooted thugs with bulletin proof vests will break down your door and carry your off to re-education camps and make you a Good Citizen of the People's Republic.
Wait. This is no longer funny.
Windows is not aware that it is running on a virtual machine
Unless Microsoft pushes changes to the Windows OS's bootloader through the Windows Update service. Wouldn't it be easy for Windows to just md5sum the BIOS, and then decide that if the BIOS checksum matches that of the BIOS used in a known version of VMware, you're using VMware?
Will I retire or break 10K?
It might as well go here.
1 - reciece 2000 songs on your hard drive
2 - ??
3 - Profit
I feel so dirty.
Two computers ago I had an HP pavilion PC which came with an installed but disabled copy of simcity 2000. Activateing it was free, but part of the lenghty registration process. By about the forth reformat I got fed up with registering just to get the game. I tried to break it, but the main EXE was invalid. This was in the pre-p2p days, so I couldn't find a new copy anywhere. It certinly get the PC registered a few times through, so its an effective marketing technique. It will be considerably less effective with pressplay. There is a small problem with the pressplay service. That $9.95 monthly fee is perpetual. If you stop paying all your brought music stops playing. Could make a lot of people angry.
There is only one even half-effective DRM system for music, the Microsoft WMDRM system. The DRM component comes in two forms, DRMv1 and DRMv2. DRMv2 has been cracked, and decrypter program is called "freeme" and can be found quite easily on most p2p networks or search engines. DRMv1 has not been to well defeated, but there are still ways. The "unfuck" utility will do it, but it means a reencode into a low-bitrate WMA, or the universal analog hole or recording fake sound card will do it. Most content, includeing pressplay, is DRMv1 protected.
From the story: blah blah blah blah blah.
Here's where I say blah, blah blah blah blah.
Seriously... almost every tech company in existence jumps onto whatever the latest fad is. DRM will fail, and I will personally see to it as will millions of other people.
When will they get it? If 100% of entertainment was DRM'd, I'd still not buy it.
Actually, most Gateway computers come with the same stuff that you'd get if you purchased any computer, including an IBM. Sure, if you don't run windows it'd seem like junk, but to around 95% of the market out there, these things are required on those new computers, because people don't have any idea. It's all about the number of features. Standard software that includes MusicMatch Jukebox, Roxio EZ CD Creator, Norton anti-virus and AOL (which more people think is their operating system than anything else) should all be there for the common consumer.
And remember, if you don't like it, Gateway provides GWScan, and you can low-level the b*stard and be done with it. KaZaA installs more crap than most OEMs preload, and all it does is crash systems.
Legality is not the issue. KaZaA/Fasttrack is the most widely used source of digital music downloads. If pressplay doesn't realize and act based on that fact, they're delusional.
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