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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."
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
Why would you send an image you don't want people to see, to a friend you don't think you can trust?
I agree. But they could also be abused and, honestly, do _WE_ really need them?
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.
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
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.
-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.
Not only with timely manner, but also with an affordable price. That's the most important part for the music industry to learn.
--
Error 500: Internal sig error
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.
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...
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.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
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.
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...