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3G phones: Send Anywhere, But Not Anything

glengyron writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting the success of an Australian company in developing Digital Rights Management for the next generation of mobile phones. Imagine if you could only forward email once, or not at all: these are the kind of restrictions being built into the next generaion of mobile phones. Read the article here. ODRL? Orwellian Digital Rights Language."

134 comments

  1. Disney has something to teach RIAA by anagama · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article:

    "If we don't provide consumers with our product in a timely manner, pirates will," Eisner said.

    This after Eisner was quoted as saying Disney will not let "the threat of piracy keep it from aggressively pursuing business strategies based on new digital technologies, even if that meant rethinking its current business models."

    Someone should forward this to our friends in the music industry.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    1. Re:Disney has something to teach RIAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Subject: FW:Disney has something to teach RIAA
      To: everyone@riaa.org

      *Error*
      This message was not approved to be forwarded.

      *ODRL v1.1*

    2. Re:Disney has something to teach RIAA by robbyjo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not only with timely manner, but also with an affordable price. That's the most important part for the music industry to learn.

      --

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      Error 500: Internal sig error
  2. Hey, disney supports it! by lily+alairia · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Disney supports it, you better believe that I will. It must be secure and built with the customer's best interest at heart.I'm sure it will be ultra secure, and not rely on things like the DMCA to protect a poor security model, and support all conceivable forms of fair use.

    1. Re:Hey, disney supports it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be sad if Mickey Mouse could builld more secure products than MIcroSoft... :)

  3. forward by coreyb · · Score: 3, Funny

    I for one would be glad if forwarding were harder. I really could do without getting pseudo-religious right-wing pro-bomb-the-hell-out-of-country-X email from my grandparents that's more header than text.

    1. Re:forward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Asshole

    2. Re:forward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AssHat

    3. Re:forward by Rick.C · · Score: 1
      Well, you could use some of that header info to your advantage. Just send some pink-o, commie, left-wing, government conspiracy drivel to those at the top of the header list and make it look like it came from your grandparents.

      Poof!! They get removed from some of their friends' forwarding lists. At the very least, they stop forwarding stuff to you.

      OK, at the very, very least, you get written out of their will, but I can see that you're a man of principles and you won't let that deter you from doing what is right.
      --
      You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
      "Math in a song is good."-Linford
    4. Re:forward by The_K4 · · Score: 1

      Problem is if the person who created the original pseudo-religious right-wing pro-bomb-the-hell-out-of-country-X email didn't limit forwarding then it won't help you. Seems to me most people making that kinda thing wouldn't set the "no forwarding" flag.

    5. Re:forward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha! That's a GREAT idea!

      Bravo, keep 'em coming.

  4. Actually... by ELCarlsson · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Imagine if you could only forward email once" Then I wouldn't have to deal with all those damn annoying chain e-mails.

    1. Re:Actually... by Pyrosophy · · Score: 5, Funny



      I don't know, think of all the money Microsoft would save not having to send checks to everyone who has forwarded their email.

    2. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would the creator of said chain letter restrict forwarding? I assume that would be optional. Even if they did you may receive a screenshot or digital camera picture of it.

    3. Re:Actually... by NewbieProgrammerMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If I RTFA correctly, they are using ORDL instead of the MS XrML standard because they only have so much bandwith available. I can imagine that aggressively preventing ad inifinitum forwarding would be almost necessary in that situation. I'd hate to not be able to call or check my email because Bubba wanted to forward that cool 1k email (with 15k of headers) to all 50 of his friends so they can get their check from Microsoft.

      --
      [b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
    4. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      while you're at it, why not just copy and paste the text?

    5. Re:Actually... by devilspgd · · Score: 1

      Because a lot of these people strugle with booting a computer, copy/paste is beyond them. It doesn't apply to everybody, obviously, but there is a large segment it does apply to.

      --
      Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
    6. Re:Actually... by buck_wild · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up "Funny", please

      --
      If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
  5. yawn, information wants to be free . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can we just have an "information wants to be free" section and put about half the stories away there? I get the damn point already.

    1. Re:yawn, information wants to be free . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. That, and a "let's discuss Microsoft while noything gets done with linux" section would free up a lot of real estate around here.

  6. proper definition of "DRM" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can we please stop defining it DRM as digital rights management, and start referring to it under the more proper name of digital restriction(s) management?

    I got this new definition from Robert Thompson.

    1. Re:proper definition of "DRM" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, I'll stick with Digital Rights Manager.

      Think of it this way: A Manager is something used to restrict productivity (ask your friends in retail or supply) so, in this case, it's digitally restricting your rights.

      Make sense? No? That's why I posted AC!

    2. Re:proper definition of "DRM" by robbyjo · · Score: 1

      Well, it depends. For the music industry, they would rather call it Digital Reprobate Management.

      But for most slashdotters, I believe we would call it Digital Reproach Management. :-)

      --

      --
      Error 500: Internal sig error
    3. Re:proper definition of "DRM" by freeweed · · Score: 1

      Sure, as soon as geeks universally drop the use of 'cracker' and only use 'hacker' :)

      Co-opting someone else's term for your own use cuts both ways.

      --
      Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
    4. Re:proper definition of "DRM" by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's both... by applying restrictions, DRM manages content rights. "Rights" in this case means the rights that the content provider bestows on you, it has nothing to do with any legal right you may have.

      The rest of the world refers to DRM as Digital Rights Management. Spending your energy to try and get people to assign a different meaning is like trying to get people to use words like "womyn" and "freedom fries". It's wasted energy

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    5. Re:proper definition of "DRM" by phlack · · Score: 1
      Spending your energy to try and get people to assign a different meaning is like trying to get people to use words like "womyn" and "freedom fries". It's wasted energy

      Not necessarily.

      Although not the exact same thing, remember the deal with Apple and SCSI...they wanted it pronounced "sexy". That didn't go over too well. Probably because everyone else didn't like it, so they called it "scuzzy".

      With DRM being something no-one will like, if enough people will refer to it as Restrictions, then they'll realize what it is and reject it.

      Yeah, a long shot, I know, but it couldn't hurt. At the very least it would spur conversation and get more people thinking about it just a little more.

  7. imagine by cheese_wallet · · Score: 1, Troll

    Imagine, somebody builds a phone with features you don't like. Gee, what a horrible atrocity.

    1. Re:imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You suck.

    2. Re:imagine by buyo-kun · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't mind companies making a feature I don't like.

      I mind a company cutting out ablities of a product and calling THAT a feature.

    3. Re:imagine by ZeeTeeKiwi · · Score: 3, Interesting
      And when that restriction annoyed me I just hit 'Print Screen' and pasted it into a new message. There is NO point in this type of restriction.

      I can forsee the day when we will all be running a monitoring program which detects when a time/forwarding/other stupidly restricted deocument is being displayed and automatically snaps the image to a proof database.

      Even if palladium etc stops such an app running on the pc, a digital cam (or better, analog!) will still suffice.

    4. Re:imagine by Courageous · · Score: 1

      There is NO point in this type of restriction.

      That's not quite correct. Take the security biz. I mean, you know, [CLASSIFIED] type stuff. There's a real requirement for making certain certain types of data don't escape security management. The overlap between fulfilling security requirements and "digital rights" is actually pretty large.

      'Course, the problems are no less intractible. Don't bother me with minor details. :) :)

      C//

    5. Re:imagine by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      All that means is that the system was app level, not OS level.

      Go use a real trusted computing system for a while; Trusted Solaris is a good place to start. Security is built into the hardware, and no, you can't copy from a high-level window and paste into a low level one. And so on.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    6. Re:imagine by chriscrowley · · Score: 1

      "Prevent copying" in Lotus Notes is only a deterrent not a security feature.

      You can just create an agent and use this code to remove it from emails:
      FIELD $KeepPrivate := @DeleteField;

  8. yeah australia is one of the big players in the... by Kolenkow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    3G buisness... I don't think I'll worry too much about something as stupid as that... as if any 3g-network provider would build a system that didn't generate traffic... they want traffic, that's where they make their money...

    --
    Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even if you take into account Hofstadter's Law
  9. Take it a step further by eap · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wish someone would offer a mobile phone package that had no messaging capability at all. Imagine how great it would be to not get bothered constantly. I would pay extra for such a service.

    1. Re:Take it a step further by HeghmoH · · Score: 1

      I don't have a lot of experience with mobile phones, but I did have one for about a year or so. It wasn't anything fancy, just a very cheap introductory phone. It had separate options for calls and messages, so you could have calls ring but make messages be silent. And nothing says you have to read them, so there you go.

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
    2. Re:Take it a step further by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      Preach on. Why is it that there is no such thing as a new phone that doesn't attempt to be everything at once? My Nokia 5100 series is in dire need of replacing, but I refuse to spend a fortune on things I will never use. Does anyone make a phone that --

      -Is just a phone, with no games, web access (peh), text messaging or 16.3 million ring tones.
      -Has a nice big display that is not bright blue.
      -Is small, but still large enough for me to know it's in my pocket.
      -Has a menu system that makes any sense (the Audiovox 8100 is a good example of BAD).
      -Comes with a plug-in charger and not a desktop annoyance.

    3. Re:Take it a step further by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 2, Funny

      I have a phone like that. It has no call making ability, no call receiving ability, and no messenging of any kind. At first my freinds laughted at me, asking how much I payed for that brick, but they're just jealous that theirs are so small that they can fit between the seats of thier couch and weigh less than 10 pounds. The name of it is "Brick" and it only comes in a dark red color, but it's worth that small sacrifice for the privacy.

    4. Re:Take it a step further by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      I've got a brick I can sell you for $499.95 plus tax.

    5. Re:Take it a step further by michaelbresnahan · · Score: 1

      I have my phone set to forward all my messages to my brothers phone

    6. Re:Take it a step further by Dionysus · · Score: 1

      Nokia 2100.
      It still have text messaging, because quite frankly, it's a useful feature (although not if you are in USA, I guess). Nothing else.

      --
      Je ne parle pas francais.
    7. Re:Take it a step further by zanderredux · · Score: 1

      So... is your "brick" a pager instead????

  10. Holy crap! by Flamerule · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Did anyone else notice this?
    PR's four engineers built the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) language in about two years before version 1 was commercially adopted by Nokia and others in preference to Microsoft's XrML standard, in part due to political reasons, says chief scientist Renato Iannella. [emphasis added]
    A (semi-)major news outlet ran a story with DRM defined as Digital Restrictions Management, with "Restrictions" replacing the original "Rights". That is extremely fucking cool.

    At least, I've never seen this before. Is it just me?

    1. Re:Holy crap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One man's digital rights are another man's digital restrictions. It should be used in the proper context.

    2. Re:Holy crap! by six809 · · Score: 1

      Did anyone else notice this?

      Yes I did - I was going to express a similar reaction, but I found your comment. Here is a case where the truth has started to win out, perhaps?

      I know Stallman advocates the use of the alternate and more accurate term, but does anyone know who originally thought it up? Maybe it's just 'obvious', and entered the collective conciousness spontaneously.

  11. imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Imagine if you could only forward email once, or not at all


    I don't have to imagine it -- I've used Lotus Notes. They've had that feature at least 2 versions ~6 years. It's an important feature in the corporate world. get over it.

  12. This could be a Good Thing by Xeger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The introduction of cameras and multimedia SMS in the 3G market has given rise to privacy concerns, as we have seen in recent Slashdot coverage.

    Consider for a moment that when people could be taking pictures of you with their cell phones at any time and at any place, some basic rights management within this very limited domain of cell phones and messaging might be extremely beneficial.

    Let's say I take a quick snap of myself and my new girlfriend, and send it off to my pal across town so he can see how much fun we're having. Do I want that image to reach my parents? Do I want my ex girlfriend to see it? How about my co-workers and enemies? I'd rather not, thanks.

    By giving the sender some basic control over where the content goes once it leaves his phone, we would be enhancing the sender's privacy. And, of course, all such "DRM" technologies must be taken with a grain of salt, because you and I and any other techie worth his weight in 3.5" floppies knows that any copy-protection scheme is breakable. The DRM technologies introduced to date have been far from confidence-inspiring. So DRM within this domain is more of a basic privacy tool than an Orwellian move to own your cell phone.

    As for my preferred intepretation of the DRM moniker -- I've always been fond of "Digital Rights Removal Mechanism."

    1. Re:This could be a Good Thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would you send an image you don't want people to see, to a friend you don't think you can trust?

    2. Re:This could be a Good Thing by kien · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Consider for a moment that when people could be taking pictures of you with their cell phones at any time and at any place, some basic rights management within this very limited domain of cell phones and messaging might be extremely beneficial.

      I agree. But they could also be abused and, honestly, do _WE_ really need them?

      Let's say I take a quick snap of myself and my new girlfriend, and send it off to my pal across town so he can see how much fun we're having. Do I want that image to reach my parents? Do I want my ex girlfriend to see it? How about my co-workers and enemies? I'd rather not, thanks.

      This is one scenario where laws and DRM are not needed. If you send a snapshot to a friend and ask them not to forward it to anyone and they do it anyway...that's not a bloody friend and you would be wise to avoid sending them anything sensitive again. :) Now, if you just sent the snap to your mate without any request to keep it close, I think by most laws you would have no expectation of privacy and if they sent that photo on to an enemy or anyone else you'd be up a creek but (of course) IANAL so YMMV. :)

      So DRM within this domain is more of a basic privacy tool than an Orwellian move to own your cell phone.

      In a perfect world, I'd be thrilled to agree. But in the world I live in, large bodies of people whose job it is to make money have a nasty habit of adopting an "embrace and extend" attitude towards technologies that could potentially benefit most of us. Maybe I'm overly cynical or paranoid or maybe I just read /. too much.....or maybe there really are deep-pocketed interests in the world that want to control every aspect of your life.

      I hope I didn't come off sarcastic because I don't mean to be. You make a great argument for the legitimacy of this technology and I agree with it. I just worry about the potential vectors for abuse by those who don't have the best interests of their customers in mind.

      --K.
      --
      Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
    3. Re:This could be a Good Thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ask Trevor

    4. Re:This could be a Good Thing by mosch · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Let's say I take a quick snap of myself and my new girlfriend, and send it off to my pal across town so he can see how much fun we're having. Do I want that image to reach my parents? Do I want my ex girlfriend to see it? How about my co-workers and enemies? I'd rather not, thanks.
      I've got a really good solution to this problem. It's called 'trust your goddamned friends'.
    5. Re:This could be a Good Thing by Rev.+Rudolf · · Score: 1

      > Let's say I take a quick snap of myself and my new girlfriend, and send it off to my pal across town so he can see how much fun we're having.

      "Hi! Me and my girlfriends had this great new idea - a webcam in our dorm! Check it out!"

      Yup, restricting forwarding of that would be good, IMO.

      Restriciting sending it in the first place would be even better :-)

    6. Re:This could be a Good Thing by sjofi · · Score: 1
      Let's say I take a quick snap of myself and my new girlfriend, and send it off to my pal across town so he can see how much fun we're having. Do I want that image to reach my parents? Do I want my ex girlfriend to see it? How about my co-workers and enemies? I'd rather not, thanks.
      What if your pal across the town would be with your ex when he receives the pic?
    7. Re:This could be a Good Thing by elpapacito · · Score: 1

      If you have some info you don't want to become public, you simply don't make it public. You can't trust any technology to keep your info private for more then some time. Sending the pic to your best friend is the best way to make
      it public and well known in seconds.

      And if you don't want your ex to see, maybe she isn't your ex at all, otherwise why should she care about your new girlfriend :) ?

    8. Re:This could be a Good Thing by zanderredux · · Score: 1

      Geez. If you don't want your pictures being seen by lots of people, just do not send it over such an insecure media! DRM should not be a substitute for lack of personal responsability, IMHO. I think that technology can actually make life better but it is being widely abused by media compaines. Later, legislators will come up with ways to control the abuse, requiring more abuse on our privacy rights. There should be laws controlling the production of such technlogy instead of their use.

    9. Re:This could be a Good Thing by Xeger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wish I could make a blanket reply to all of these posts, because many of them make a good case against my argument. I've chosen to respond to yours because it has the most addressable points, the most coherency and the highest score (leading more people to read it, hopefully).

      The most vocal rebuttal thus far has been If your friend is willing to forward private material, then he's no friend at all. Along the same lines is If you don't want your friend to forward private photos, then tell him as much. In a black-and-white world, both of these statements would be perfectly valid. But even my best friends have been known to suffer momentary lapses of judgement. And there are numerous other cases where I might send something to my friend, and it would be unclear to him whether he's allowed to forward it or not. I only raised the spectre of the ex-girlfriend because it seemed to be a case where I most unambiguously did not my content forwarded. And I'd rather have a way to concretely enforce that restriction with a moderate level of confidence, than rely on my friend's reading and obeying whatever written instructions I attached to the photo. If I had truly sensitive information, you wouldn't catch me sending it via such an insecure medium in the first place. Without end-to-end encryption, I'm disinclined to put any of my secrets on the wire: spoken, written or otherwise.

      Also -- the truth of the matter is that I'm a homosexual. If someone sent a picture of me and my boyfriend to my ex-girlfriend I'd probably be relieved, because it might send her the message she seems so dense about receiving. But that's neither here nor there; I just felt like injecting some reality into an otherwise hypothetical discussion.

      Regarding the potential negative impact of ODRL: going from previous experience, we can be sure than the deep-pocketed acolytes of the embrace-and-extend god will use their multiply hyphenated power to turn this technology against us. They don't want to control every aspect of our lives; for the most part they're just after our money, and they want control over any aspect of our lives where money is involved.

      But let's take a step back and examine the domain once again. We buy cell phones that speak to only one network provider and use trivial encryption; we have no guarantee of privacy to begin with. Those of us unfortunate enough to be living in the United States of Ashcroft know with absolute certainty that everything we say, write or do with our cell phones is recorded and scanned for keywords as a matter of course.

      The scant content that is available to those of us lucky enough to have a 3G phone is either already heavily protected or it's utter tripe that isn't worth stealing in the first place. Network connectivity and a central authority are both inherent to the platform, and we can be reasonably certain that any content made available to us will take advantage of that fact, and strictly enforce the licensing terms. Our cell phones are not a free or open platform to begin with.

      This point was driven home when I called my provider (Verizon) to enquire about becoming a BREW developer -- BREW is a sort of cut-rate alternative to Java for cell phones -- and was told that the entry fee into the program was US$3,000 not including development tools or software licenses, and that all software must be digitally signed by Verizon before it would run on any phone.

      By standardizing DRM description language, we at least are guaranteed a few sanity checks: if I want to give my ringtone to my friend who's using Cingular because I don't want it anymore, at least both of our networks speak the same DRM language. And if I do want to download some premium content, I will find that more is available to me because producers have greater confidence in the system. And if the same DRM technology enhances my control over my own content, then it's all the better.

    10. Re:This could be a Good Thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      By giving the sender some basic control over where the content goes once it leaves his phone, we would be enhancing the sender's privacy.

      Who has the keys to decrypt your pic? Nokia. So, someone at Nokia sees your pic, and posts it to the internet. <sarcasm>Good thing you had control over the content</sarcasm>.

      As soon as you publish something, you lose control over its distribution (from a technical perspective). Your friend could take a picture of his screen and forward the image to anyone he wants. If you trust your friend not to do that, why do you need DRM in the first place?

    11. Re:This could be a Good Thing by kien · · Score: 2, Interesting
      A most insightful reply, and informative as well. I believe that we agree on most of these issues on an ideological level, but I think you're more pragmatic than I am...which is fine. And maybe our social backgrounds and/or beliefs are different...which is probably even better.

      But even my best friends have been known to suffer momentary lapses of judgement. And there are numerous other cases where I might send something to my friend, and it would be unclear to him whether he's allowed to forward it or not. I only raised the spectre of the ex-girlfriend because it seemed to be a case where I most unambiguously did not my content forwarded. And I'd rather have a way to concretely enforce that restriction with a moderate level of confidence, than rely on my friend's reading and obeying whatever written instructions I attached to the photo.

      The real issue surrounding DRM is control and I think you make that point very clearly with these statements. The "battle lines" seem to be drawn around trust versus control. I believe that those are the two sides of the balance when it comes to online justice. As an idealist, I favor trust and as a pragmatist you favor control (although I think you favor a balanced control...not utter control). Finding the balance between these two extremes is probably the best thing we can do for the future. (Of course, it doesn't help the debate when Intel's definition of DRM is described as "Trusted Computing".)

      Also -- the truth of the matter is that I'm a homosexual.

      I'm a heterosexual Christian with a Southern Baptist upbringing and yet here we are having an intelligent, civil discussion about technology. I fear we might be creating a Slashdot Paradox. :)

      We buy cell phones that speak to only one network provider and use trivial encryption; we have no guarantee of privacy to begin with. Those of us unfortunate enough to be living in the United States of Ashcroft know with absolute certainty that everything we say, write or do with our cell phones is recorded and scanned for keywords as a matter of course.

      "United States of Ashcroft"...ROFL! How appropriate given today's environment. I happen to work for a large telecom company and I can tell you that your privacy is equally violated with wireline phones. I have the ability to listen to every call placed in the USAshcroft. I also have a documented procedure to allow governmental agencies to listen to your calls. I don't have the time, interest, or ethical deficiency to listen to calls for fun and neither do my coworkers. And I have not been asked to perform an emergency call trace for the government in over 4 years.

      So yes, of course you are correct that the centralized nature of cell phone service today obliviates any expectation of privacy.

      Network connectivity and a central authority are both inherent to the platform, and we can be reasonably certain that any content made available to us will take advantage of that fact, and strictly enforce the licensing terms. Our cell phones are not a free or open platform to begin with.

      And again, I totally agree with only one qualification...that's the case TODAY. At one time, only IBM offered the PC and customers were locked into them. At one time, mainframe vendors were incompatible. History tends to favor the end-to-end philosophy (the PC, the Web, GNU/Linux) where the control is decentralized.

      By standardizing DRM description language, we at least are guaranteed a few sanity checks: if I want to give my ringtone to my friend who's using Cingular because I don't want it anymore, at least both of our networks speak the same DRM language. And if I do want to download some premium content, I will find that more is available to me because producers have greater confidence in the system. And if the same

      --
      Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
  13. A new direction in Tech by buyo-kun · · Score: 0

    I think that DRM and other supporters of this kind of thing are the first in a span of companies to come looking to make any piece of tech they can get their hands on, more and more useless until its just a assembly of wires with a plastic box.

  14. restrictions != legal permission to forward by redcane · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >Iannella says users of devices such as Nokia's >3650 multimedia messaging service mobile phone >benefit by having explicit rights to forward >media once it has been consumed. Actually no, they might be able to have a copyright notice saying "You may forward this to one person" But they haven't given us that "right". They've restricted us to that right, even though it used to be at our discretion. Now you can't use the material for "fair use" in any way even though you should be able to! >"The advantage is that the terms and conditions >that they acquired the content under can be >managed by the handset. They need not worry >about an infringement that may occur. Therefore >they will legally be allowed to forward content >on. Of course you don't need to worry about an infringment occuring, because you no longer have that option. REstricting us from copying stuff doesn't legally allow us to forward content on, we must have already been legally allowed to, just now they're making sure we only forward it their way.... In fact even if we're legally allowed to forward it, we might not be able to now.... I *really* wish they'd stop pretending that DRM has *any* advantages for a content consumer...

  15. I can see it now... by nickgrieve · · Score: 4, Funny

    Alice receives a memo from Bob, tries to forward it to Charles and the phone denies her. Alice then calls Charles and tells him she just got a memo form Bob at head office, tried to send it on but her phone would not let her, she then relays the contents verbally. Alice then calls Bob and tells him to get on to the communications guy, these new phones are a pain in the arse, can she have her old one back please.

    1. Re:I can see it now... by Whyaduck · · Score: 5, Funny

      Alice receives a note from Bob skewering Charles' new toupee. Alice is a two faced shit, so she tries to forward it to Charles. Bob had set rights on the email so that it can't be forwarded, and it can only be read once. Alice can't send the email, doesn't realize that she can only read it once, but tells Charles about the message anyway. When Alice tries to show Charles the email when they're both in the office the next day she looks like an idiot because she can't show it to him. Charles fires Alice and gives Bob her job. Voila, digital rights management has benefits for content consumers (who are also, on occasion, content producers).

      --
      Hello, I must be going. I'm here to say I cannot stay, I must be going.
    2. Re:I can see it now... by nickgrieve · · Score: 3, Funny

      Alice gives Charles a blow job, gets promoted over Bobs head. :-)

    3. Re:I can see it now... by jlaxson · · Score: 1

      Thats great (changes my outlook on DRM entirely) if the system allows the end user to set rights on each piece of information. But the vibe I got from the article was that the network provider (and content providers through the network provider) set the permissions on the message, regardless of the intents of the end user.

      --
      On Apple Input Peripherals: They're okay, I guess, but I was really hoping for a one-key keyboard and a 109-button mouse
    4. Re:I can see it now... by flanman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think that this is the scenario that's envisioned with DRM. If you create content, then you OWN the content.

      What DRM wants to do is protect people who make their living creating content ( like music and images ) and allow them to make a living at what they do. If they choose to open up the content to the world, then that should be their choice.

      The challenge to telco's and content creators is to price this stuff and facilitate the distribution of the content so that you WANT to share it and you don't feel fiscally raped every time you do want to share it.

    5. Re:I can see it now... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Bob had set rights on the email so that it can't be forwarded, and it can only be read once.

      Alice types the message into her desktop email client and forwards it to everyone in the company.

    6. Re:I can see it now... by buck_wild · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but then it didn't ever come from Bob, and she just looks like a petty liar.

      --
      If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
  16. I won't buy a DRM enabled phone. by havaloc · · Score: 1

    This is just crazy. I'll never buy, or use a DRM enabled phone. This is part of reason I won't get a Verizon phone, they won't allow you to download any applications to the phone unless its through them, and you pay a subscription for it.

    1. Re:I won't buy a DRM enabled phone. by joaer · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This is just crazy. I'll never buy, or use a DRM enabled phone. This is part of reason I won't get a Verizon phone, they won't allow you to download any applications to the phone unless its through them, and you pay a subscription for it.


      Unfortunately, in that case I believe you won't be able to buy or use a phone at all, at least not a 3G phone. Currently working for a major mobile phone vendor, I can assure you that DRM is a cruical part of the platform.

      When it comes to downloading applications, there is more to it than just DRM. Restrictions is set up to not allowing users to include them, foremost for safety reasons (at least from the vendor's point of view, operators might probably include some business aspects there as well). Imagine a trojan running wild calling expensive toll numbers without your knowledge. We are not just talking major embarrassment here, we are talking major phone bills, and potential network crash. Therefore, only apps checked and approved by the operator are allowed to be downloaded. One exception is java apps, since the virtual machine can be set up to restrict hazardous safety behavior.
  17. GET THE NAME RIGHT! by arvindn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry for shouting, but its Digital restrictions management. ODRL is Orwellian Digital Restrictions Language. Please. If we don't get the name right, who will?

  18. Great idea!!! by Wench · · Score: 3, Funny

    Cuts out all the chain letters and those lame jokes you get 17 times over; the ones with the >>>>>>
    >>>>>>>>> markings...

    (Yah, so there might be some teeny weeny unwanted side effects. Whatever.)

    --
    No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.
    1. Re:Great idea!!! by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

      Ok, now DRM is starting to appeal to me... ;-)

  19. Re:yeah australia is one of the big players in the by Wireless+Joe · · Score: 1

    Yes, I know of at least one carrier that charges per kilobyte. I can't imagine them implementing any kind of data restrictions.

  20. Re:Today's Lessons by 7x7 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    beLIEve

  21. Hello...? by vonsneerderhooten · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Imagine if you could only forward email once, or not at all.

    Hello.. am I the only one that's ever heard of copy- and- paste?

    -D

    1. Re:Hello...? by colinmeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The important distinction between what is legal and what is possible... As a musician, I can undertand the appeal of a DRM language that would allow me to specify, for instance, that a recording can be forwarded arbitrarily, but only listened to once at each site.

      As an engineer, I understand that methods for enforcing this kind of contract are either overly intrusive or ineffective. Suggestions are welcome, except from the "we-listen-and-decide-how-much-it's-worth" crowd, since this crowd seems to decide - conveniently enough - that a recording is worth listening to only if it's free (the whole "I-wouldn't-buy-the-album-anyways" argument).

      I am intentionally playing devil's advocate here. Please offer me reassurance that the honor system can work in cyberspace, as it does at (for instance) traffic lights...

    2. Re:Hello...? by sharekk · · Score: 1

      Ah, but that will now count as circumvention and you can be sued under the DMCA =P

    3. Re:Hello...? by janda · · Score: 1

      Ok, so this may be considered "offtopic", but...

      Please offer me reassurance that the honor system can work in cyberspace, as it does at (for instance) traffic lights...

      You obviously don't live in Denver, Colorado. Or San Francisco, California. Or San Diego, California. Or anywhere else on this earth.

      Say, how are you getting to /.?

      --
      Karma: Food Fight (Mostly affected by Date Plate).
    4. Re:Hello...? by L0k11 · · Score: 1
      well traffic lights seem to be a completely different situation.

      where i live, we have cameras at most of the busy intersections.

      you run a red light and later that month you get a pretty high-rez picture of your car (good enough to see your grumpy face) and a hefty fine

      I cant see any sort of legal way of enforcing that people get paid for music. there is no equivilent of police patrols for red lights that will stop someone paying zero dollars for music.

      unless you accept DRM... which wont happen. we accept cops on the streets (sometimes barely - our cops have a habit of using speeding tickets etc for revenue raising)

      but i cant see anyone accepting DRM unless it is completly covert. for instance... my new DVD-rom will only allow you to change regions 4 times before becoming locked... it was not advertised on the box so i am left with a crippled peice of equipment. honestly i will be looking at a way of circumventing that just for the principal... not because i actually have dvds from 5 different regions...

      --
      "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
  22. phone features by Doppler00 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I'm still waiting for a phone that will actually tell you how many minutes you've used peak/off-peak instead of forcing you to go to there website. It's obvious why they don't have this feature, but still I'd rather have something useful like this than cameras or DRM.

    Oh, and why to some companies still charge $0.10 for you to send a 100 byte message when one minute of phone time is several kilobytes?

    1. Re:phone features by dmszero · · Score: 1

      billing tip 101 the billing sytem determines whats peak, and off peak, not your phone. so the phone has no way of telling you how many mintues of peak, or off peak youve used. you could get the billing system to send you an sms with this in it *shrug* as for sms's, well someones gotta pay for the sms gateway. voice and data are not the same... well in 2g anyway.. ;) packet switched voice is, as the name suggests data, but people dont like to be slugged 5c/kb for voice now do they? dms0

      --
      -= world leaders choose world leaders not us, not a democracy, not a revolution! =-
    2. Re:phone features by dmszero · · Score: 1

      i forgot html formatting was on... GRRR

      whoops

      dms0

      --
      -= world leaders choose world leaders not us, not a democracy, not a revolution! =-
    3. Re:phone features by Oliver+Defacszio · · Score: 1
      With all the bullshit, useless gimmicks built into phones these days, why not a programmable "peak/off peak" timer to take into account the fact that different carriers start evenings and weekends at different times? Then again, I suppose that would take valuable memory space that is better suited to, what, a "your weight on Jupiter" calculator that is probably being offered soon.

      God forbid that phones actually do phone-related things.

      --

      -
      Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
    4. Re:phone features by dmszero · · Score: 1

      HAHAHHA

      yeah thats not a bad idea, some of the new phones come with j2me (JAMiD?) compatibility so you could maybe roll your own..

      getting an sms from the provider is probrably the best way to do it.. at least then you know exactly when the boundaries are.

      timezones, billing systems, and time bands are a bitch ;)

      dms0

      --
      -= world leaders choose world leaders not us, not a democracy, not a revolution! =-
    5. Re:phone features by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      "I'm still waiting for a phone that will actually tell you how many minutes you've used peak/off-peak instead of forcing you to go to there website"

      That would be hard to do technically. Phone charges are determined by the rating & guiding system, not the phone network. The network tells the rating & guiding system when you called and for how long; this system then assigns a fee to be charged and "guides" the charge to your account for billing.

      Letting the phone know when peak hours start and end is difficult because
      1) Very few rating & guiding systems are build to send information like this back into the phone network. Mostly they receive data only. 2) There's no protocol in the GSM or 3G standards (as far as I know) to convey this sort of information. If handset manufacturers could agree on one, it'd be a simple matter of sending a (silent) SMS.


      "Oh, and why to some companies still charge $0.10 for you to send a 100 byte message when one minute of phone time is several kilobytes?"

      Because they can. Rate schedules have very little to do with actual costs. People often just want to let someone know they are running late for dinner or whatever, and a single SMS gets the message across more cheaply than a phone call. The consumer saves money even at $0,10/message, and the phone company is happy since he now has a smaller amount of traffic netting him the same revenue.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    6. Re:phone features by Danga · · Score: 1

      I have Sprint PCS service and all I have to do to find out how many peak and off peak minutes I have left is dial *4. It has worked well for me and I have not gone over my minutes just by checking that every once in a while.

      --
      Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
    7. Re:phone features by buck_wild · · Score: 1

      If I'm using minutes in my plan and I don't go over, then I'm never 'saving' money by spending a dime to send a text message.

      --
      If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
  23. OpenIPMP by merriam · · Score: 2, Funny

    Similarly, I find myself involuntarily transposing OpenIPMP into a form that is easier to pronounce.

  24. What a phone is designed and good for by tyrione · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TALKING. All the rest is mental masturbation. Give me a Wireless phone that doesn't drop connections is all I ask. The companies should fix their backbones before they release pointless WOW factors that only 'sort of work' as billed.

    1. Re:What a phone is designed and good for by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

      AMEN!!
      I could not have put it better myself!!
      You are 100% on the money and this should mod +5 insightful..

    2. Re:What a phone is designed and good for by Dionysus · · Score: 1

      Come to Europe. Never had a dropped call. Then again, the cellphones companies aren't the ones to fix the backbones.

      Besides, I doubt this is for the American marked.

      --
      Je ne parle pas francais.
  25. DRM is a good idea for this usage by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Think about the following scenario.

    Girlfriend/wife/significant other sends you a 'hot' voice/video message for your eyes only.

    If her parents / colleagues / friends / family got a forwarded copy (possibly by accident) it could ruin her reputation, cause her to lose her job, etc.

    DRM would be effective in this scenario.

    1. Re:DRM is a good idea for this usage by toddestan · · Score: 1

      But we all know that DRM is useless, as it will be cracked as soon as it's unleashed.

      And if all else fails, take a picture of the phone with another camera-phone-thingy and send it on it's way.

    2. Re:DRM is a good idea for this usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What about just erasing the fscking things you don't want others to see/hear/whatever?

      Want your things safe? Put it into a safe!

      I don't see why I must drop my rights to protect your lazyness!!

    3. Re:DRM is a good idea for this usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      It's very simple. Don't want something that can be used against you to get out?

      DON'T FUCKING SEND IT!

    4. Re:DRM is a good idea for this usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The usual way these things accidentally get to the wrong person is when the *sender* screws up; hits "all" when they meant "allen" or whatever.

  26. Does this mean they can... by retardedtimmah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can they inhibit people from using these phones for pr0n0graphic uses now? I wish. I think that 3G phones will do very little except make the pr0n co's even more money and make sick stuff more prevalent in our society/generation :( makes me sad. PZ

    --
    Drugs have taught an entire generation of American children the metric system.
  27. Value by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In any real, undistorted Free Market, value is set by the CUSTOMER, not by self-agrandizing "content creators".

    (This is also IMHO the main reason the whole concept of "supply side economic stimulus" (wel-fare for the well-off) is a fatally flawed conceit ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H concept.)

  28. Fwd:Fwd:Fwd:Fwd: by freeweed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interestingly enough, until this year I never found the need to use spam filtering. The couple every week or 2 wasn't a big deal.

    However, I at one point was getting several dozen a day of the usual chain letter/joke/picture Fwd:Fwd:Fwd (ad naseum). Putting a filter to delete anything with more than one Fwd: in it cut my junkmail down to virtually nothing. I used to complain that users were worse than spammers - some 'friends' were in the habit of sending me a dozen of these 'gems' at a time.

    Of course, in the past 12 months this has all changed. I'm now the lucky recipient of at least a dozen spam a day, and it's getting worse every week. 40% my ass, more like 80% in my case.

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  29. Ok, lets take one instance by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I could see why they might want something like this for lets say......images. Whats to stop someone from using someone elses phone (or if they're like Ice T they have 3, and yes i did see him have 3 phones open on a table in a restraunt in front of him), taking a picture of your screen with the image, and then sending that, with no DRM. Now, granted with that kinda reproduction, you'd most likely have some pretty big image degradation issues, but the principle is sound. Its the same idea as recording a DRM'd mp3 from an analog signal.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  30. Mickey Mouse can't.. by AceM2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    but what about Gadget from Rescue Rangers? Come on.. You know you had a crush on her when you were a kid..

    1. Re:Mickey Mouse can't.. by The_K4 · · Score: 1

      Man, I wish I had mod points because that is the funniest thing I've read yet this week!

  31. The jokes by Archfeld · · Score: 1

    and stupid 'OLD' crap someone just DISCOVERED on the net far outweigh the spam I get as well. I've opened another account and keep it for my friends to bombard me with useless crap that I haven't the heart to tell them I saw 2 years ago. I just smile and say that was funny...

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  32. Bad move by CowardNeal · · Score: 1, Interesting
    My first concern would be to grow the 3G market. Internet usage proliferated cos we could all copy stuff and it was free.

    I don't know how 3G is going to be taken up in great numbers if they don't let it proliferate with free and adult content.

  33. As one thing leads up to another by SlimFastForYou · · Score: 1

    You have the right to read this message (spam). You do not have the right to delete it, nor do you have the right to ignore it. You are circumventing the Digital Rights Management otherwise, therefore hacking (and thus a terrorist). Very un-PATRIOTic of you!

    Hmmm... Wonder what we ought to do with all these new "hacker terrorists"? How about sending them to be gassed? At least involuntary servitude for life - c'mon.

    The point is - Support the Electronic Frontieer Foundation (EFF: http://www.eff.org). These people are awesome, and if it weren't for them, we might have 5 DMCAs. Vote for representatives that believe in not regulating the unknown to them - the Internet.

  34. Only in a perfect world... by PrimeWaveZ · · Score: 1

    Would email be capable of being forwarded once. Oh, how I wish that were the case.

    1. Re:Only in a perfect world... by buck_wild · · Score: 1

      I disagree, but only at work. If a VP sends something to his direct reports, who then forwards it to their managers (adding their own spin to enhance the message a tailor it to their staffs) and eventually it gets to me. And then I forward it on to the people actually involved with the project. If I just make my own message, it loses the sense that one of the 'gorillas from the mist' has spoken about their project.

      --
      If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
  35. They're not getting rid of e-mail forwarding by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 2, Funny

    They are actually adding a feature called "e-mail backwarding". It's like e-mail forwarding, only the complete opposite. Instead of being limited to sending the message to anyone, you now have the full ability to send the message to no one.

    Once you learn the quirky syntax of ODRL this will all make sense.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
  36. USA - the country of fear and distrust! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fear of your friends, neighbours and even your own family leeds to stupid design solutions like this. Go and search for the weapons of mass destruction under your friends bed. I am sure he is planning something.

  37. ODRL - Rights expression language by cesther · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ODRL is a XML based rights expression language. So it will allow you to express a license of rights that could be considered Orwellian.

    It could also be used in many positive and creative ways (an exercise left for the reader).

    But it is not an access control technology (DRM) in of itself.

    There is another XML based rights expression language being pushed by DRM vendor ContentGuard called XrML - which they own but 'freely' licence.

    The real question is: Can a rights expression language express unregulated uses?
    What should the defacto position on which an instance of expressed rights (in ORML or XrML) be?
    Can a rights expression language express that the content is no longer covered by copyright in the EU?

    Larry Lessig's Free Culture discusses the unregulated side of this issue.

  38. Re:even worse by wiresquire · · Score: 1

    If you know a little about Lotus Notes, you don't actually need print screen.

    At least in V4 (and I think V5), any developer worth their salt new that there was a particular field, let's say $NoCopy that held a flag on whether you could copy data or not or print data or not.

    But in certain circumstances (yes, I am being a little vague here on purpose), you could manipulate that particular field. The words "replicate", "local copy" and "macro/agent to delete field" seem to vaguely come to mind.

    And then ..... well, you know the rest.

    Certainly, I think Lotus Notes security is superb. And I know I could stop someone from doing this if required. It's just that I can imagine situations where the uninformed may leave certain loopholes open.

    Finally, if you must know, this had nothing to do with a business environment. I just happened to screw some things up in a dev environment that I figured I had better fix.

    --

    So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?

  39. DRM... by Afty0r · · Score: 1

    DRM - Digital Rights Management
    DRM - Digital Restrictions Management
    ODRL - Open Digital Rights Language
    ODRL - Orwellian Digital Restrictions Language

    All these references to Orwell... all this altering of acronyms is very... Orwellian in itself.

    I count not less than 4 comments rated 4+ on this thread which are deliberately attempting to mislead the public over the above acronyms in order to alter their perception of that which the acronym denotes. How the hell can we sit here and pretend shady men in suits behind DRM and ODRL are "Orwellian" when we're openly and publicly practicing techniques endorsed in 1984 to our own ends?

    1. Re:DRM... by glesga_kiss · · Score: 1
      You got it backwards. "Digital Rights Management" is Orwellian. It sounds as if it is the opposite of what it actually means.

      "Digital Restrictions Management" is a more accurate term.

    2. Re:DRM... by Afty0r · · Score: 1

      You got it backwards. "Digital Rights Management" is Orwellian. It sounds as if it is the opposite of what it actually means.

      "Digital Restrictions Management" is a more accurate term.


      So you say, but I disagree. It protects the *rights* of the authors (as defined by law) but also *restricts* the user... either definition is correct. My comment did not attempt to establish the "correctness" of either version of the acronym, just to point out that there are multiple viewpoints, and that a huge number of people on here are very hypocritical.

      But then, I guess we all already knew that.

  40. Re:even worse by the+bluebrain · · Score: 1

    Ah, but then the developper would have enabled "consistent ACL", and "user may not create agents".

    And any users who have the Notes-Fu to use API calls to disable the ACL flag you hire into the Notes dev team.

    It's win-win :)

    --
    yes, we have no bananas
  41. If they're trying to fail by fr0dicus · · Score: 1

    Then this is the right way to go about it! On one hand we have 802.11x which is multiplatform and rich with many forms of software, as well as innovations such as Apple's rendezvous. On the other hand we'll have this, restrictive, closed and limited. I know where my money (already) is....

  42. Re:Lies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HAHAHAHA, your karma whoring plan failed this time ;-)

  43. This is nothing to worry about by Beautyon · · Score: 1

    If you want to provide content under your own licence, its your call. This DRM scheme is an open standard is not mandatory, and is not built in by default to 3G phones. You are free to use it or not.

    Make your own mobile content and services and licence them in the way you see fit; its your business. The market will decide who is the winner.

    --
    ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
  44. Which all boils down to by lourencm · · Score: 1

    phone companies wanting to ensure pr0n companies can protect their revenue streams on picture/video phones.

  45. Re:yeah australia is one of the big players in the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mine might..I'm on Sprint. $10 USD per month for unlimited wireless web.
    Unlimited includes wireless web, text messaging, downloads (ringers/apps/images) and I've heard you can use it as a wireless modem for a laptop.
    I can see wanting to limit that...

  46. You tell 'im anonymous!!! by JohnnySkidmarks · · Score: 0

    What was wrong with what the above poster said? He is stating only that nutters like his gran and gramps are annyoying old codgers with a bunch of uninformed-nutter-codger friends in their rightist retirement bunker, where they promptly send donations to law abiding institutions like the KKK via Newt Gengrich... and make damned fine cookies.

    --

    I went to battle MC Escher but drew a blank

  47. [OT] DVDs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just to make a point--as long as you have DVDs from two regions, only being able to change the regions 4 times is an issue. Every time you want to watch Movie B (say an imported out-of-region DVD), you'll have to change the Region, and then change it back to play the rest of your movies. This means that you can only watch Movie B twice, assuming you watch an in-region movie after watching Movie B both times.