Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Offers A DRM Patch
Transcendent writes "Microsoft Windows Update is offering a download for their 1.0 version of the 'Microsoft Windows Rights Management client,' if you care to download it. Seems that you need Win98 SE and up (or at least that's the minimum 'supported'). Details are here. Although it's not required or a 'critical' update, this just paves the road for all of Microsoft's software to require DRM technology on your computer. Quote from the details page: 'Installing this client allows RM-aware applications to work with Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) to provide licenses for publishing and consuming RM-protected information.' This, dubbed 'Activation', entails that 'your computer will be automatically connected via the Internet ... in order to create and save on your computer a system component that is associated with your hardware.' Hmmm... me no like ..."
The thin end of the wedge.
Remember where you were when the world started to roll over, and let MS tickle its belly.
But Grandad, didn't you try to fight them?
No little one, it just seemed harmless at the time...
Get your own free personal location tracker
Getcha free chains here! Bondage! Suffering! Leather gear, only the hottest from Microsoft! Trade-ins on unwanted liberty a specialty, test-whip today's amazing offer!
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
thnx MS makes my job soo much easier
Steel
There are none as blind as those who will not see.. (unknown)
Something tells me GNU/RMS is not going to like Microsoft's choice of acronyms.
tato (and tato only)
This post is strictly opinion, including the spelling.
So who cares if the OS supports DRM? It's up to the media companies to actually use it. Let them try to sell their crippled audio files. No one will buy it.
I, for one, welcome our new DRM overlords. And, as a trusted TV personality, I want to remind them that I can be useful in rounding up workers for their underground intellectual property lawsuit caves.
I wonder if Microsoft got any money from the RIAA to do this? I imagine if done properly something like this could actually put a bit damper on illegal music.
It's not called irony when its intentional.
How long before they make a patch like this mandatory? (well, as mandatory as they can make it.... like, bundling it in with a critical security update). Hmmm.... maybe that was their plan all along while they kept releasing all of their hole ridden tripe...
With everyone and their uncle updating their Windows these days to be safe from the latest viruses and worms, this is definitely a very good moment to push a DRM patch...
My next comment will be ready soon, but moderators can beat the rush and mod it up early.
Thanks for providing a link to an MS download on a pro-Linux site... no seriously, nothing like baiting on a slow news day. Were we expecting MS to sidestep digital rghts-management? I think not.
We'll ignore the fact that on the same day, Gates donated $168 million to fund malaria research, but funnily enough, I doubt we'll see that reported here.
Media Player 9 has had DRM options (defaulted ?) during the clickthrough installation since its release. I think more people will miss that then will install an unescessary windowsupdate patch . . .
Cool MS now please put DRM into all of your software. When people cannot pirate your software easily I can sell even more linux.
Got Code?
This is probably the rights management system included in office 2003 which lets you sign and limit future use of your word docs. This is what end users of your protected documents will have to install to read them. In this case, the 'rights' that are managed are the ones YOU grant. No proplemo with that.
It's been out for a few days. I haven't installed it.
You just know that they're going to make you install it somehow... Be it selling a product a lot of people use (Office) and saying it can't be installed without the DRM software, etc.
Everyone at the Office (TM) complains about having to use the cubicles next to the Windows (TM) where the mid-day Sun (TM) can be unbearable. I hope that this patch can help us respect each other's rights about sitting next to the Windows (TM)
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Windows 1984 and up is what it was supposed to say...
-By attempting the impossible we can achieve the absurd..
What applications at the moment would 'benefit' from this patch being installed, being "RM-aware" ?
Interesting that it supports Win98SE, since Microsoft itself doesn't support that OS anymore.
I, for one, welcome our new, um, overlordish overlords.
Good has been winning over for evil for too long. I'm glad that we will begin to see the balance restored.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
I think they may also be embedding this in service packs, in addition to the standalone download, so you may easily install it without even knowing. I know for a fact that I saw this DRM component listed under Windows Update on a Windows 2000 box with SP3, but after it was updated to SP4 that component suddenly wasn't listed anymore. Hmmm....
Microsoft will be releasing their next major version of Windows under the name "Linus" in the tradition of their new "RMS" digital rights management client.
"None of the information collected or generated as part of machine activation is personally identifiable. Microsoft will not retain any information collected during the activation process, except on a temporary basis where necessary to diagnose and resolve a problem with the Windows Rights Management service. Microsoft does not share any of the information collected during the activation process outside Microsoft."
It's an optional install.
You say "we'll see how long that lasts".
Ok, so maybe it becomes mandatory and gets installed on my computer. It will enable me to use rights protected files. If I don't want to use any rights protected files, then I won't.
Winzip has had a password protection feature for its archives for a long time. Doesn't mean I have to use it. But if someone sent me a password protected zip file, along with the password (giving me permission to extract the files), I'd be happy that my version of Winzip supported passwords. It doesn't mean that my archives that are not password protected can no longer be extracted, or that I must password protect everything.
Sure, Microsoft could lock down Windows Media Player so that RM is required, etc, but then everyone (that cares) would just stop using WMP. You think they're going to lock down the sound & video API's in the OS so that nobody can make their own media players?
I have to admit, when I read the headline "Microsoft Offers a DRM Patch" I was pretty happy because I thought it meant they had issued a patch FOR DRM, in the same way a patch for "remote code execution exploit #502937" helps you avoid remote code execution exploit #502937.
Remember Divx? (Not the codec, the DVD format that eventually got dropped by Circuit City)
Crippled CDs are being complained about en masse, and are now the focus of potential Congressional action.
DRM is very much at the upper right end of the envelope. You know, where the pioneers - and the cancel stamp - go.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I would like everyone to take every opportunity to refer to Microsoft's 'trusted' computing as "restricted computing" instead. We need to get this meme going in the mass-market consumer mind. Every place you would ever refer to "trusted" computing, use the phrase "restricted computing" instead. DRM is "restriction management". There are no "rights" here, just restrictions. "RM" should be called "restriction management". If we can get enough steam behind this now, we can turn the debate around to let people really understand what they are dealing with. "Trusted" my ass!
you're not too far off hahaha
A 'rights management' patch? My friend (let's call him Joe), who is not entirely untechnical (sophomore CompEng), actually pondered the following when peering over my shoulder: "Probably should upgrade. About time they did something about those damn viruses." He was under the impression that the 'rights' referred to controls he could set. A good name, indeed.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
Ummm...this is IRM not DRM. The difference being that IRM is a rights management deal for Office documents, targeted at corporate environments. The download lets you view IRM protected documents without having Office 2003 installed, this isn't DRM, doesn't have anything to do with MPAA/RIAA, and is optional. So stop with the whining.
"Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
Lets hope the sharkbite and the missing foot convinces them it's a bad idea.
DRM isn't a bad system for controlling a client-server network. Don't want your confidential e-mails, documents and data being read by someone else? No problemo.
Problem comes in when you implement it on home users machines. A home users' machine is by definition a peer; both a client and a server of services on the internet. DRM is meant to turn a machine into a far more client oriented machine rather than a peer oriented machine by giving other people control of the media they give you. Meaning, the RIAA can burn cd's and when you buy a CD you may listen, not copy, backup etc a cd. Yet I somehow think that with Ms's incompetance there'll be a way around this, but that's besides the point I'm trying to make.
So where will this lead us? First rollout's going to be on corperate amercia's networks not on home users machines; this patch is basically a demo. Home users could care less about this kind of security; most people trust their families and if they don't, then there's a major problem with that family. Sure, people want firewalls and antivirus scanners, sandboxes and spyware hunting applications as far as keeping their machine from exploding, but as far as keeping your school report form your sister well that's just dumb.
Sure, kids don't want their parents seeing their pr0n collection or vice versa, but there are other tools available both withing winnt and outside to facilitate that kind of control(and even to an extent in win98). Plus there's the added "Teacher, it says "Drm error; you have no rights to open this file", how do I print the paper I made at home?." Although the school I went to had a strict secuity policiy; you get only 1 disk, that disk stays in the computer room, you are not allowed to put any disk in any computer, which later changed quite a bit as I hit highschool but you get the idea; it adds points of failure.
So what my guess is that they are either going to package it with a future os as an enabled, mostly harmless service that makes it difficult for you, for example, to copy a CD the RIAA doesn't want you copying. Much like how most people who run win2k aren't aware they are loging in under admin, so too will they be unaware they are running a DRM system and knowing MS, they'll leave it at that. There is nothing in Win2k that I am aware of that is forced on the user. WinXP home ed is a different story, but in Win2k you get admin control. Sure, it's not total control like with linux but the computer doesn't do things you don't want it to do; if you don't want it running tcpip you shut down the protocol and it's that simple.
Ms also knows full well that there are alternatives out there that people can and will use to bypass their security bullshit. Hell, I even have friends who'll pay me to mod chip their dvd player to get rid of the regional encoding. I also know people who play a lot of music on their computers and if all of a sudden they coulnd't they'd come straight to me and ask how to get around it.
In any case, if home users don't like it they will no doubt goto their geeky friends and ask "I can't copy this cd, what do I do?" and those geeky frineds will hand them a linux cd if that's the only alternative.
There's, thankfully, been a lot of developement as far as dumbing down linux so the average user can understand and utilise it. Sure, a lot of hardcore linux elitist assholes are going to complain, but when it comes right down to it most people are dumb and lazy. The next step is taking linux from, for example, a gaming engine to an actual game. We've got the engine complete, it's got documentation out the asshole, it's got different mods now we've got to make a coherent distrobution that's standards based that people can understand.
What do we have to watch out for? Firstly, if Ms gets control over what you can and cannot run, then they are most certainly not going to let you run competing products
Candy-Coated Knowledge
1) this component with never run on Linux or OS/X desktops (let alone other desktops).
...
2) in 18 months or a year +50% of new content will require it (MS authoring tools will make it easy)
3) most CIOs will cave in and view this as a reason to accept MS licensing
4) more XP and new MS licensing 6 licenses are sold, more content authoring tools from MS are sold, complete and utter locking in of MS on desktop is more likely
Conclusion: either way, in every way and on all sides Microsoft wins hugely by doing thing
Or I could be wrong
...but when MS controls 85% of the country's desktops, Ashcroft is pushing for greater intrusion into our private lives, corporations are being pressed to provide any and all information they have on citizens to the DOJ (and are doing so -- viz. JetBlue), and the Supremes simply override the Constitution at whim, I'm afraid it's not time for "ho-hum".
Unless you're incredibly comfortable with Reich Emergency Protection Act ---- oops, make that the "Patriot" Act ---- it IS the apocalypse, and it's time to wise up and push back.
No. If you don't want the patch, don't download it.
I think the point is that any newer (media) software written for Windows will eventually tie-in with the RM APIs, so you won't have a choice in the future. It won't be as simple as "don't use it." MS is apparently floating the balloon to see how the users react. Unfortunately, most users lack the forward-thinking ability that supposedly distinguishes them from their simian ancestors (I can't name one person who patched for MS Blaster - until after their PCs were infected) they won't give a hoot until they're being charged $1 every time they listen to an MP3.
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
But what is not a minor thing is trivializing the horrors of the holocaust by comparing it to a software patch.
At least the holocaust deniers admit that, if it had happened, it would have been a horrible thing, but slimes like you say: Yeah, it happened, but it's no worse than a Microsoft software patch.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Because like it or not, new versions of software will be full of bugs (read exploitable, hackable), while older versions will be more well-crafted (read treacherous).
All of these is assuming that you do not want to trust MS. Personally, I'm undecided, but for lots of you out there, you have decided. This is the best advice I have for you.
It's all about the monopolies. Suppose one company decided to sell this DRM stuff. It would never catch on; it doesn't add any value. Nobody would install it. Now, suppose one music company wanted DRM. They'd sell their music with DRM, and they'd instantly lose to others who sold it unencumbered.
Unfortunately, there's a monopoly in both the music industry and the operating systems industry. Microsoft can run any software it wants on 90% of America's desktops. If the RIAA decides they're pushing DRM, there's nobody else you can buy from. (Yes, Linux and indie, but they're not in a controlling position.) So we're screwed.
Litigious bastards
DRM is used in Linux kernel on desktop computers - Direct Rendering Module is needed for open source implementation of hardware accelerated OpenGL.
RMS is used mostly for marketing - eeryone knows Richard Stallman.
And finally - RM is upcase of very important Unix command, which allows to remove both applications and copyrighted data.
Damn Microsoft, must you steal everything? Try to think about your own acronyms. Try to create something instead stealing all the time.
Linus has said about the DRM issue.
Zealots on both sides of the DRM debate can bite
my fleshy ass.
Really if I wish to manage my rights on files I use public key encryption. That way I can confidently know what really I am allowing access to. I dont need nor would I want any rights management Microsoft give me.
As for Joe user never noticing. I think Joe user will. If my memory serves people really did not like the activation process that came with Windows XP. This seems to be taking it just another step further.
However, Microsoft is referring to its implementation of DRM as RMS, which Mr. Stallman would expand as Restrictions Management Services. Windows users who don't read Slashdot are likely to confuse these initials with Mr. Stallman's initials and think Mr. Stallman endorses Restrictions Management Services.
Will I retire or break 10K?
>I think the point is that any newer (media) software written for Windows will eventually tie-in with the RM APIs, so you won't have a choice in the future.
It actually is.
I don't use Win XP because I don't like its activation scheme. I chose not to use it.
I don't use Word/Excel/whatever on my Windows 98 computer because I don't want to use it. I chose not to use it.
If a piece of software does require RM API then I will decide if I want to use it or not.
>It won't be as simple as "don't use it."
Why isn't it? How many non-MS OS users have already done exactly this?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
I'm sure someone has already said this, but...
What are you worried about? If you don't want to support the RIAA then don't. If you don't want to support MS then don't. Buy indie. Buy a Mac or Linux. There will ALWAYS be someone to offer an alternative to the flavor of the day, and you have a choice.
The people who buy the disposable crap that the RIAA peddles probably won't see the effects of DRM like a more advanced user will. I know this is a very large brush I am using here, but I will go out on a limb and say that 99% of the people who buy Britney Spears or The Ataris albums use their computers for e-mail, ICQ, and writing their resume to get a job at The Gap. You could give them a patch entitled "MS Will Spy On You Patch" and these people would still download it because a computer guy told them it was required.
The people who know better will not use DRM, plain and simple. And before you go into a "but when MS rules the world and all hardware has to comply to their specs" argument, there is simply too much money in big business and education/research for the entire hardware industry to shift this way. Virginia Tech just proved that admirably with their G5 flotilla, to pick a recent development from the haystack.
It is good that you are concerned, but to go so far as to say that we are all screwed is just being dramatic because you will always have a choice.
On one hand, we could potentially see more digital content via DRM. On the other, it's kind of like being able to see movies ONLY if we go to the theaters.
*Sigh*
I do have one optimistic hope, though. Wasn't it Princess Leia who said "The more you tighten your grip, the more will slip through your fingers"? Well, I think that applies here. If it's such a pain in the butt to have movies on your PC, then Indie movie makers will have an extra boost. "For $5, you can buy our movie DRM free. We'd rather not treat all our customers like they're thieves."
In that light, I kind of look forward to it. I think the content industry is selfish enough that it'll blow up in their faces.
"Derp de derp."
Logic, reason, and calm rationality in a Slashdot discussion? Burn him at the stake, boys!
"Sufferin' succotash."
Clients don't have to use DRM in their Word documents. It's completely optional.
The fear that many users will express here is that in a future version, Microsoft will set up a future version of Microsoft Word to enable digital restrictions management by default on all new documents. The unexpressed goal here is to nip it in the bud.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You think they're going to lock down the sound & video API's in the OS so that nobody can make their own media players?
No, of course not. That would be anti-competitive behavior abusing their monopoly status.
Oh wait...
But seriously, it's conceivable that they could fold the DRM into the API itself, so that, for example, the API wouldn't function without some token from the DRM component. Now you have to follow the rules to use their API... and of course you can't just spoof the token, becuase even if you figured out how, you'd be violating the DMCA.
It may sound paranoid, but on the other hand I can already hear all the marketing spin.
Don't you care about your rights?
Even if you don't care about your own, are you so shameless as to shout down those who do?
Here's a brief explanation of why Fair Use rights are important:
"Why does the public have a "fair use" right to use copyrighted material without the copyright holder's permission?
At the doctrine's core is a fundamental belief that not all copying should be banned, particularly in socially important endeavors. The Supreme Court explained, "the fair use doctrine exists because copyright law extends limited proprietary rights to copyright owners only to the extent necessary to ensure dissemination to the public."
Copyright law serves as a regulatory scheme designed to balance the competing rights of creators to exploit their work, entrepreneurs to receive a return on their investment, and the public's interest in gaining access to works. The fair use doctrine and other public rights are designed to further the ultimate goal of disseminating knowledge to the public. In developing an information infrastructure that serves the public interest and encourages the open flow of information, it is essential to continue to balance the competing interests and preserve the public's fair use rights in an electronic environment as it has in more traditional formats."
Understanding Fair Use Rights
Actually, digital restrictions management protects authors[1] from consumers in several ways:
The "anti-consumer" sentiment toward DRM typically relates to reasons 2 and 3.
[1] U.S. copyright law uses "author" and "works" instead of "creator" (n) and "content" (n). Mr. Stallman agrees that we should use the same terminology used by the letter of the law.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'm not sure if they monitor this or not, but you can change your Windows Update preferences to not show certain updates (click the Personalize Windows Update link). I wonder if everyone just went and chose to hide this update if they'd get the hint. Even if it's not a monitored thing, at least this way you wouldn't have to look at it onece a week when a new patch is released.
Right now Richard Stallman is the first link in a Google search for RMS, that's going to take time and effort for Microsoft to change, and any astroturfing attempt on Microsoft's part would probably be met by a grassroots effort to keep Stallman at the top.
RMS himself, on the other hand, doesn't need to make much effort at all to take advantage of the situation. It would be easy for him to tack a short rant about DRM, TCPA, "Trusted computing", and all the other current buzzwords onto the top of the political "action items" on his home page, so that even more mainstream people looking for information on MS/RMS are directed to GNU/RMS instead. It would also be easy to make sure that his essay The Right to Read, which looked like a paranoid rant in 1997 and looks like a prescient description of DRM policies today, gets read by many of the MS/RMS websearchers who hit his site "by mistake".
I hope this isn't a coincidence; I hope some Microsoft exec intentionally chose "RMS" as a snide little poke at Stallman - that would make it sweeter when it backfired.
But information isn't a consumable no matter how much corporations might want it to be, nor should it ever be treated as such. To do so is, ultimately, to turn us into mental slaves.
I swear, if a quick and easy method existed for making someone forget something, its use would be mandated by governments faster than you could say "intellectual property". Pray that day never comes (but, of course, it will, since it's merely a matter of technology).
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
Microsoft is giving us the opportunity to activate the much-anticipated Windows RM technology on our computers--absolutely free--enabling "certain features of the software," and they've given us their word that they won't collect any personally identifiable information. Isn't that enough for you people?
Man, if Microsoft started handing out bags of money on the street while nursing sick puppies back to health, you guys still wouldn't trust them.
Me, I'm going to install it right now. I can't wait to see what sort of new and exciting functionality is added to my com--[PLEASE ENTER A VALID CREDIT CARD NUMBER TO COMPLETE THIS POST]
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
It's just one more reason I'm becoming completely unmotivated to work in corporate I.T.
I've been an "I.T. guy" ever since my first job, and frankly, I banked on "PCs and DOS/Windows solutions" as the stuff one needed to keep up with to retain a decent job.
Somewhere along the way (I think roughly around the time Microsoft started pushing Active Directory integrated with Exchange 2000, but that's far from the ONLY factor), I started becoming disillusioned with the whole thing. I had always tinkered with Linux as a curiousity and fun "alternative OS" to use at home - but couldn't spark any interest in it where I worked.
I decided to "rock the boat" a little bit, building Linux-based thin clients PCs out of old, depreciated systems being taken out of service, and asking employees to try using them on a "trial" basis. I had few complaints, and got most of the ones I did have ironed out in short order. (Mostly, people whining about needing support for their scroll wheel mice, stuff like that.)
I think it threatened my co-workers though, who were die-hard "MS only!" people. My boss was "on the fence" about the whole project, basically not wanting to stop me from experimenting - yet uneasy about it disrupting his little "happy family" of I.T. employees.
Next thing I knew, I was let go. By this time, the job market was quickly drying up, and I spent a long time collecting unemployment checks, and trying to find another, similar job to no avail.
I finally found work with Apple Mac systems. Wow, what a difference! Problem is, it's a small mom and pop place that's hanging on by a shoestring. My hours got cut back to part-time recently, because he couldn't make ends meet otherwise. It's really disappointing more folks haven't yet discovered the things Apple has done/is doing with OS X.
But anyway, here in the present, I see the I.T. job market SLOWLY starting to open back up, but when I read the job descriptions, my stomach churns. I don't even want to apply for most of them! It just seems like signing up to administer hundreds (or thosands?) of users on Exchange email while helping develop roll-outs of the latest MS technologies is like signing one's death warrant.
This DRM garbage is just another nail in the coffin, the way I see it. I can just imagine the fun it'll be explaining to the higher-ups why everyone's locked out of hundreds of important documents because Joe Schmoe encrypted them and then got laid off/fired/took a vacation/whatever. It's already insane enough trying to keep up with all these security fixes (and fixes for broken fixes!), stop the floods of email from woms/virii, and all the other MS headaches.
Obviously, there are still plenty of I.T. folks out there happy and willing to take on these jobs, risks and all. But maybe all my experience has made me too jaded? I'm about to throw in the towel. I don't have nearly enough "real world experience" using the OS's I see as superior solutions (Solaris, Linux, BSD, etc.) to get a decent paying job supporting/administering them. I spent too much time in the MS camp for that. I think I can handle the Mac OS X support quite well, but nobody's hiring for that. MS's current offerings give me the creeps....
I think that everyone needs to remember that this is what DRM is all about. MS has been walking a thin line between established publishers who demand protection of their or their clients copyrighted works on one hand and the consumer who will use whatever product benefits them the most at the lowest price. I don't think that the DRM battlefield is as clear cut good vs. evil as many seem to believe. .mp3's that play on the computer will not play on the stereo and cannot be copied to a portable player. However digital content providers feel comfortable that no residents of this house are using any content that was not properly paid for.
Imagine if you will a future with two drastically different homes. In home A, there is a home computer running a MS OS that is similar to what we have today (before XP) that allows you to play any of your files on any computer in the house and doesn't have any restrictions on the software it uses and or the hardware you attach to it. This computer is linked to the television, stereo, and who knows what else!
In home B, there is a home computer running a MS OS that is linked to a remote server with administrative rights over all hardware and software additions and checks that all of the software and media on it is payed for and legitimate. This computer may or may not be hooked up to the home entertainment system due to conflicts that may arise with its playing of digital content over other hardware. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Home A is a place where consumers are happy and unfettered and these consumers have stayed with MS products due to their ease of use. However, the content distributers are unhappy with this set up.
Home B is a place where the consumer is not so happy because
This is the thin line...
Can MS satisfy content distributers with out alienating their consumer base? Without consumers of their products the protections are meaningless. Will consumers change over to another product that is less intrusive and controlling if such protections are put into place? Those content distributers have deep pockets and if they are entirely reliant on MS products to protect theirs MS will surely be in a very powerful and potentially never ending money making enterprise.
So MS right now is feeling the waters out, playing both sides of the coin to see what will give them the best profit model for the future. If DRM pushes people to a competitor then some incentives to stay loyal will certainly come into play. But what if... what if... MS goes the other way? What if by signing an allegiance with the content distributors MS can ensure that the only way to get content is through them and their products? Maybe... but again if the consumers get too pissed about that then new content distributors might just spring up. So you see, we don't necessarily need a revolution. The fact that we have freedom of choice is a very powerful check.
This discussion from microsoft shows where they are planning to go with this. It is going to be part of the Windows 2003 server line. Or you can use microsoft's own service (which uses passport) if you don't want to run your own server. And all of this does tie in to office 2003 as it looks like the first product to take full advantage of it. Talk about vendor lock in....
when the new Itunes for Windows service comes out before Christmas, that this patch will be required if you want to use the media you purchase through the store. Then, when everyone decides "to hell with DRM" and continues to download free songs on P2P, they will be able to convince legislators to shut down Kazaa, Gnutella, etc.
You don't deserve your name.
It's Connor, not Conner. That's why you can't find him. Check the phone book. Even Arnold figured that one out.
There are 3 RM downloads at the MS site. The first is the one in the article - the Client piece. There are also a part for the Server and SDKs for CLient and Server. The Server SDK is not available to just anyone. MS has to license you. They do this via a form of their security Certificate Server. The SDK lets 2 users connect for development work, but beyond that you need a license to code for it.
.NET, SOAP, IE 6 and IIS. This all has the feel of an end-to-end "solution" that they will market to the RIAA and MPAA types. It looks like a substantial infrastructure needs to be in place in order to enable Rights Management content, and the consumer^H^H^H^H user will access protected material by going to a specially engineered web site using IE 6. They also mention a "lockbox", whatever that is.
They mention some of the technologies used: COM+, an Active Directory server,
Your average hobbyist programmer or shareware programmer isn't going to be able to participate in this. Something tells me the licensing fees won't be cheap. The "right" to access protected material obviously come from certificates, and that model of PKI has proved to be troublesome at best. Furthermore, the "rights" being protected by this setup are those that perpetuate the aims of the RIAA, the MPAA and the like.
They're not about to let anybody get in on this protection racket. The certificates will no doubt be VERY expensive for the content producers so that the barrier to entry is high. They don't want some kid in Hong Kong to encode his music files using this technology and then give them away to others, fully within the confines of this system. This is really bad, because anyone even tinkering around with the technology without a license will automatically become a criminal under the DMA.
$210? The version for students and teachers should price at $140, iirc.
The upgrade version is around $220, and you can get the full and new version around $360 with minimal usage of Google. And that's professional. Considering that Office includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Publisher, and Outlook, that comes out to $60 a program at the absolute most.
I mean, yeah, you could pay $500, and get each program at $75 or so... but, ummm... that's comparable to WordPerfect Suite... and, really, a totally normal market price for productivity software. Especially a professional quality one - which is, frankly, more than a lot of people need. Hardly any non-professionals are going to use Access. Most of them won't even use Excel, Publisher, or Powerpoint. Outlook Express is fine for most people. All most people use out of Office is Word. And most of them could use Wordpad. We're talking about what is really designed as a product to be purchased by businesses.
It's hardly Gates's fault that people buy far more powerful programs than they need. And, really, unless you're going to fault him for running a business, and seeking to make profits, it's tough to understand why you say Office is overpriced. Unless you want to go on a rant about how corporations are necessarily evil.
But in that case, please include your address for your complimentary box of tinfoil.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
I've got issues with companies that try and 'slip it under the radar' like MS. Perhaps MS should realize that people like me who admin Windows machines, and switch to Mac are going to tell everyone who requests 'Computer Help' to grab a Mac. No viruses. Easy. Powerful. And sexy-hot. :)
With the advent of the G5 kicking ass and taking names, there is less and less reason to go with insecure, unpredictable, untrustworthy Windows.
Frankly, I think it's good that a major corporation is finally taking such a keen interest in the personal lives of their customers. DRM allows them to keep and eye on us, be our "Big Brother" if you will, just to make sure everything's okay. I don't know about you, but I feel safe and secure in the hands of such a responsible company.
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
I have not downloaded that new patch yet, but for a while now, I have watched many apps checking with M$ to see if they have permission to run. At least I THINK that is what is going on. They always check with crl.microsoft.com instantly after startup. These are just random apps and it looks like the OS is doing the checking, not the apps.
It started doing this after I downloaded some of those patches for those damn RPC worms. Me thinks they snuck the DRM thing beta in those patches and this is to fix a few items.
..starting with paedophiles (Megan's law in USA, and tagging in UK) exposing these specific groups after they have served their sentence. Next it will be all released sex offenders, then violent criminals, and finally those with misdemeanors. A little at a time, soon all 'potential criminals' will be tracked, just like 'potential terrorists' are starting to be tracked now.
I have been emailing microsoft 5x a week requesting an update like this. I need more restrictions in my life. After I got out of the clink, I realized that having freedom and the option to choose what I want to do was just dangerous. Now, if they incorporate some micro (or even macro) payment stratagies into this DRM stuff then I'll feel like I paid multiple times to view or use the same materials. pfft
...but when MS controls 85% of the country's desktops
Big deal. Adobe and MS give away e-book readers. AOL gives away access software. Getting people to buy the paid content will be the trick. AOL is losing share. They gained ground as they were pretty much the first national dialup ISP. Now that they have copmetition, free software isn't keeping them from shrinking. Unfortunately paid access stuff has to compete with already in place free stuff. They do not have the only content without free competition. Many early markets were served by AOL only. DRM does not have this headstart in a world of free content. The pay stuff has to advertise heavly to get people to spend the money.
If your company requires DRM or you want to play DRM media (not unlike a DVD, DAT, Sony Mini-Disk) you will need a DRM machine. Due to it's limited capibilities, it should be limited to a single use type function much as a DVD player, or cable TV box is now. For the rest of your computing, use a primary general purpose computer which does not have the serial copy restrictions of DVD, DAT, Sony Mini-Disk, etc. I'll have to use a general use computer to do my editing and creating. This is doubly true if it needs released in an open format.
There will be programming that can only be viewed on the TV in the living room. There will be other programming that can be played on your RIO, in your DVD player, in your car.... As long as there is indi content, the DRM stuff will have harder time entering the market. Don't forget the Circuit City DVD experiment, full priced E-Books at Barns and Noble and of course the tiny press play optical. People don't pay full price for perishable media. They know it will go bad and won't invest in it for the personal library. The last DVD I bought, (Jackie Chan flick at Wal-Mart) I spent less than $6 for it. Selling a DRM protected newspaper article for $2 with an experation and with backup problems will be a very hard sell. Some corporate stuff that is sensitive may have a place, but for general consumption entertainment, it won't fly at high prices.
Hey RIAA, Why can I find Jackie Chan videos for under $6, but no good music for less? Don't call loss of sales due to competetion for the entertainment buck a loss to piracy.
The truth shall set you free!
The patch is optional only for today. Long term an optional, limited DRM system makes no sense.
Prediction:
Windows Rights Management System (RMS) will eventually give way to Windows Everybody Supports Rights management (ESR)
Not that I agree with you about the U.S. State Department, but would Amnesty International be any better? And trust me, the people in "the infamous camp X-ray" aren't there for violating copyrights.
Carthago delenda est!
No, they'll make you drink your own poison.
Scenario:
Someone buys some RIAA CD and put it in the computer, of course they don't just play music anymore they launch flash but this time it tells them it needs to validate the CD and you can get the patch easily from Microsoft. Click here!
Or
You want to watch some movie clip at atomfilms, but it won't run without the DRM patch. Click here!
Or
The NYTimes won't load without DRM protection, afterall anyone can just copy and paste their HTML. Click here! Don't worry if we make revisions or anything, its just like paper. Read the corrections section in the morning.
Big content and information control types are going go ecstatic as this slowly rolls out. Third-world dictators can put down their national firewalls and just use the built-in DRM patch before accessing anything on the WAN.
Its a win/win situation for those against open information, standards, and fair competition.
The idea is that the DRM machine lives inside the general purpose machine. Normal content (like old mp3s) is not affected by the DRM machine. DRM content can only be accessed through the DRM machine. If you don't have any DRM content, you won't even notice the DRM machine is there.
...its more than likely that it will never occur that you can only view protected content via things like media player. Are you seriously telling me that you believe MS will make it impossible for people to watch their home videos on their computers? Or, are you saying that I won't be able to record myself playing the piano, making speeches, or otherwise recording audio and play it back to myself? I'm sorry, but I just dont see this happening. Ever.
Well, that would be the point where i delete your email without reading it - no matter how important it is. I won't accept that someone else can tell me how to read my mails (long ones are best printed), how to store them and/or if i'm allowed to forward it to my second account.
Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
Oh please, don't just blindly throw all eggs in one basket. MS-RMS is designed solely "...for people who need to protect sensitive Web content, documents, and e-mail...". In other words: MS-Office output.
What's wrong with that and how it's connected to RIAA?
Instead of blaming MS for doing actually something good (at this time), perhaps it's just about time to think of Linux' answer to the problem of protection of sensitive corporate data. Otherwise, very soon, there will be no place for Linux on corporate desktops.
This is a very good point. Apple embedded DRM in their optional free iTunes and Quicktime software. And nobody sees it's bad, because it allows you to burn CD's (for now). /., people always object saying that's not DRM. That may have changed after the eBay-sale of a song, but people were not opposed to Apple's DRM because it was disguised pretty good.
It's even worse, when bringing this up on
Apple Music Store is nice because it makes the music industry look silly. But it is bad bacause you can't play the songs on *nix/windows systems.
Hear hear. But having said all that, the masses are already calling us dirty hippies for playing with Linux and Apple and not playing along.
This is the golden opportunity for Apple and for Linux to get some more market share, should the price of DRM Windows shoot through the roof. Perhaps we should be encouraging this trend?
Personally, if it were economically viable and if I had the time to spend on re-educating myself I would be off the Windows bandwagon ASAP, as I have wasted too much of my life reinstalling Windows.
More recently, I have spent the better part of the weekend trying to get 2 computers on WinXP that are 3 feet away from each other to see each other on the network, despite the fact that one of them can access the other's FTP server. Having accomplished this one of the computers decided to ditch 1/2 the RAM and ignore the network card...
In contrast, my friend doesn't even know what the inside of his Mac looks like...
Oh really? I was at a school last week and several teachers back from sabbatical all over the world had brought back DVDs to show the students examples of foreign filmmaking and culture. I had to break them the bad news that the reason their DVDs won't play here isn't broken DVD players, it's the region encoding. I told them I could circumvent it, but the tools to do it were illegal to use and I wasn't going to take the risk.
My girlfriend wanted me to rip a few songs and whip up a CD of MP3s so she could listen at work. No deal, the CD just wouldn't rip. I asked to look at the packaging, the 'Compact Disc - Digital Audio' logo was missing. I had to tell her that her CD was unrippable, and she'd have to tote the original to work, which she won't do because it cost her $20 and she won't risk having a coworker scratch it.
This stuff DOES affect lots of people, but most folks chalk up the failures to broken hardware, or damaged media, not DRM. The EFF needs to buy some commercial time on prime-time to teach people about this, because the problem is too technical to garner support without real-world stories getting people to call their representing officials.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
This client has been out for quite some time already as a download.
It is clearly separated not beeing a 'required' update on windows update just like it says in the article, but it's also mentioned as a "download" on windows update and not a "update".
In all the hullabaloo raised over declining media sales (by the music industry, may their toenails grow backwards), I haven't seen much discussion about demographics. The "boomer" generation (to which I belong) represented a big population blip in the retail music world, and we've pretty much stopped buying music. The 14-26 year age group of today is much smaller, and is fundamentally convinced that content should be free (or at least low cost). This trend will only intensify as they are alienated by the heavyhanded tactics of the Digital Rights crowd, and (worse) have to start paying for their own music with their own money, buy houses and cars, raise children and pay off student loans at the same time.
In essence, the music industry has lost two generations of music consumers, and is trying to retrain a third (today's 0-12 year olds) to pay whatever they ask for increasingly banal content.
But basically, the product sucks. In an attempt to capture the attention of the mass market, the industry has resorted to more and more outrageous marketing and content, with diminishing returns.
Consumers now spend a huge portion of their disposable income on entertainment. Disposable income has nowhere to go but down, given long term economic trends, including globalization and escalating energy costs. So the long term prognosis for the entertainment industry is poor. Digital rights managment is akin to bailing out the ocean with a teacup.
A few years ago, the nations phone companies were convinced that they were on the verge of becoming major players in the entertainment world because they controlled the phone lines and could deliver "content". Turns out they a) couldn't control communications technology b) didn't know beans about creating "content" and c) had a wildly exaggerated idea of how much time consumers were willing to spend sitting on the couch consuming phone company "movies on demand".
So let the marketing geniuses have their fun. They aren't smarter than everyone else and in fact may not be smarter than anyone else.
[Insert pretentious and semi-clever sig here: ______ ]
I'm late, there are nearly 600 messages, I did not read them all, but if you all think this is just about listening to music, you're truly blind.
Once anyone can a) see inside your computer, b) be "contacted by its software" (as we won't call it "phoning home" anymore), and c) can "reach out" and flip bits inside your computer ("but only for our own software, Mr. Customer, sir!")....do you think you'll avoid:
And there will be so much more...that even I cannot see. My dreams, though, of late are all dark and unnerving.
This is about nothing less than control of information, which necessarily brings with it all lesser forms of control - mind control (yes, sigh, that's a "trigger phrase", but it's the best term I could use, I think), control of dissemination of information (like....news?), and control of point-to-point communication (email, chat, VoIP, etc).
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I wonder if anyone's even reading this?