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Microsoft-Sony Plan: A Media-Rights Ploy?
sk8rboi writes "Missing in Wed.'s (CNet) reports about the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG) effort from âoeMicrosoft and Sony to make sure DVD players and cell phones can communicate with each other over a home wireless networkâ is the real reason for the work--it's a DRM (digital rights management) play in disguise.
Look at it logically. Why would an industry alliance need to define a standard to share an MP3 file between a smart phone and a PC? According to EmbeddedWatch, the answer is, it wouldnâ(TM)t. The file can already be shared via wireless email or WiFi. And both can read the file, since both support MP3. Consumer-electronics systems and computers can already interchange all sorts of files. But what they canâ(TM)t do--and what companies like Microsoft and Sony wish they could--is regulate the transfer of such files (aka block them if theyâ(TM)ve been downloaded for free from KaZaa). (DHWG, by the way, is actually led by Intel.)"
At the risk of sounding like I've missed the clue-train. Can someone please remind me of why I want to use a smart-phone (whatever that is) to move my mp3s around? I pretty much use my cell phone for, you know, calling people.
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I would suspect that Sony and Microsoft both think they have interconnectivity options available. The question really should be what advantage will either, or both see as a result of this.
Sony is a very divers company, with quite a bit of infighting. The Music side of the business (which may be hemoraging money shortly) hates the idea of any of the other product lines (mostly hardware) having the capability of handling MP3 files in any form.
Something tells me that most of the MD players out there have a firmware update waiting in the wings that will turn on their ability to play MP3 files, significantly boosting the marketability of the player. (Do you know of a lot of MP3 players of any capacity that will run continuously for 50+ hours on a single AA battery?)
Since I have not been actively looking for a DVD player lately, I do not know if they are meeting the market demands of playing CD's with MP3 files on them. With the exception of the $300 devices, I am not sure that there are many competitors making players without this feature.
One of the options that Sony could be doing with their DVD players is something HP and others have been doing with stand-alone media centers. It is trivial to implement on a PS2 with the Linux kit, but would be cheaper to implement in an otherwise stand alone dvd player. All the hardware is there to play MP3, almost all Sony media devices have i-link capability so there should be nothing preventing the dvd player from streaming audio from a pc, or with a QNX os, be able to mount shared media folders and run slideshows while playing music, or possibly play video. (Though to play Divx/mpeg4 might be beyond the standard hardware in a dvd player.
From what I have seen as the capabilities of Sony H/W engineers, I strongly suspect that the submitter is correct, this is a ploy to get DRM distributed within the house.
Might be a pain to go to the store, pick up a copy of MIIB only to find out that fan site for ST-V that you are hosting on your home system disallows you from watching the movie. (as an example)
Then again, this is my observations and thoughts.
-Rusty
You never know...
If I am not mistaken, barring the device discovery and control part, everything is already known, has a widely known standard, and is already interoperable. With the exception of DRM which is marked as "Proprietary/Vertical". Will that mean that Sony DRM stuff (which will work on a Montavista Linux Based platform will not be displayed on my Longhorn PC? That's crazy.
And what if this become a "standard" like Motif or CDE? (Yeah, a bloated, cumbersome standard, that Micrsoft will replace with something suited for her whims instead)
And free content will be able to circulate between one system and the other? Oh, yeah...
I can envision the chaos that will occur when I will be able to rip the movies from one of the n competing DRM technologies.
Everyone will be posting torrents on /, (slashcomma) with downloads to the "easy-do-it-all-crack-o-rama" program, and then will be out renting DRM "X" standard technology in order to spread the content between pcs, cellphones, and their taiwanese blueray players.
+ + + +
HTTP enabled phone. Why I suddenly foresee http://4g.goatse.cx (don't follow that link even if it doesn't work) for the future cellphones?
"I am slashbot, hear me roar!"
I'd love it if my DVD player had on it WiFi or ethernet. I already have cat5 runs and would enjoy output of my computer in the form of media files on my TV, which I already enjoy over analog cable. This in a way makes sence, the fact that a DVD player is just a glorified mpeg decoder, it would be the next logical step having it act as essentally a networked video card. WiFi ability would just be icing on the cake in this sorta setup.
.mp3 file.
And it's also not like people like my self wouldn't enjoy this ability, which makes a fair amount of sence, to extend to mobile phones and PDAs. It seems the next logical step in home entertainment, being able for your friend to come over to your pad and share his snapshots directly from their handheld device directly to your TV. Or even a
These things make sence and are very marketable ideas. Hell, i'd buy a networkable DVD player.
But I think perhaps with the shadow of DRM that we should reserve implementations of these technologies to OSS. It's already been demonstrated by microsoft they are experimenting with "phone home for authorization" technologies and this just has far too much bad mojo. The last thing we need are remote enforcable EULAs.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
The article says nothing about using your smartphone to move your mp3's around (CNet doesn't mention mp3's at all). It says something about letting your smartphone communicate with your computer (or DVD-player, toaster, whatever). Maybe you can record your phonecalls and easily transfer them to the computer this way?
Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
If I feel that some media or player has the potential to "rip me off" by restricting my fair use rights, I will avoid it. I don't want to pay for a song or movie, and then be restricted from using it in a reasonable fashion.
Since all current Digital Restrictions Management schemes do not guarantee my fair use rights, I will not subscribe to any of them. I would rather "go without" the media than put up with this crap.
Reading Slashdot is ruining my spelling and grammar.
"The only problem I do have with DRM is if it prevents me from using the media that I have acquired legally, that pisses me off."
And who said that part is of concern when some company starts to draw a DRM specification? Remember DIVX (the DVD-like standard from Circuit City, not the decoder)? Pay 10 to watch a movie for 48 hours, 30 to own it and watch ONLY in your DIVX player (good, heh? you own it but can't take it to your friends house to watch with them... just like your VHS, records and CD... ops... none are like this? well... bad for YOU)
And the best part that was never addressed... and when I buy a new DIVX player? What happens? Well.. YOUR problem...
Nobody is thinking in fair use or consumer rights... as a consumer you are either a drone that must always buy new media, no matter what crap is up in the moment, no matter if you have a job or not... if you don't buy you are a thief, since you don't buy music, or movies you must be thieving it... with some kind of p2p... you are not allowed not to buy, since it would lead to a sales decrease, and sales decrease only happens due thieves using some scheme to steal the music.
I was looking the website of the Brazilian equivalent of RIAA and guess what they discovered?
Every region of the world that CD sales decreased are pirate ridden! Latin America had a decrease of 20% in the last five years... who's the culprit? pirates! internet and p2p! vevermind that the region is going down the hole... 20% of unemployement rate in Brazil, that or more in Argentina, Venezuela 30%... and the list goes on... not a single moron in these RIAA-like institutes thought that maybe when people don't have jobs they don't buy cd's!
England had a sales increase... due what? a good campaign on piracy and lowered prices... Japan? the same... hmmmm maybe the higher prices have something with lower sales? We had campaigns against piracy all over the world... Naahhhh... to easy! Is the fucking pirates!