Slashdot Mirror
Digital Rights Managment Year in Review
zjango writes "DRM Watch is a great source for the ongoing monitoring of Digital Rights Management issues and news. They've put out a useful 2003 year in review for DRM across several categories that Slashdot readers will likely find of interest. It is a
look back at the year's significant trends in DRM technology, along with some predictions for 2004 and beyond."
Maybe they left it out because it is largely transparent to the user. I would guess that once your three computers are 'authorized', you will rarely see it restrict you under normal circumstances.
Yeah, seriously. Apple's AAC "protected" files were the only DRM encoded media I bought last year, and probably the only DRM media most people bought last year, and it doesn't even get name-checked? Sloppy.
For most people, I think the more restrictive DRM schemes will be like the advertising monsters of Springfield -- "just don't look, just don't look". Nobody liked DiVX (the circuit city kind) and it went away.
~jeff
The way DRM is going is to the hardware level. Its far too easy for people to break software DRM because all it takes is a few debugging tools. The best thing to do is to start getting into hardware hacking early - play around with PICs and stuff (playstation mod chips are PICs) and get to the point where your as comfortable as if you were with a software debugger. DRM is restricted by the 'if you can see it you can copy it' rule and eventually even the best DRM systems finish with an unencrypted data stream or an enable signal. Law is not going to be on our side so if we want our electronics free from artificial restrictions we are gonna have to fight it ourselves and make a mockary of the DRM industry. Screw them all before they start coming out with DRM chips that call the cops or blow-up in the users face if they are tampered with. And stop them before it becomes illigal to own so much as a multimeter without a license.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Unfortunately this isn't the case. In future your computer will contain an additional chip (the "fritz" chip) which is able to regulate the flow of information only through "trusted" programs, OSes and hardware. It will recieve encrypted keys from the provider of the media which then allow it to decrypt the media itself. Assuming that you are unable to physically break into the chip, or to break the encrypted connection going from the chip to the media provider, then you will not be able to put the digital signal into a program which isn't trusted, such as a program to save the digital information into another file.
I also thought it was mathematically, computationally, logically _impossible_ but then I attended a talk explaining how the system would work, and I have to admit there is very little we can do about it. Even if you are able to break into the chip and copy some media you don't have the rights to copy, you will be caught because the version sent to you will have your identity recorded somewhere within it.
One of the more interesting things is that it is possible to get open source applications "trusted" so you can use DRM under Linux. However, if you modify a program, recompile it and attempt to use it, the fritz chip will notice and refuse to decrypt the media for you. Nasty
In the float-up-the-DRM-balloon phase, most average people aren't likely to react. And that's fine. Right now, all it does is enable the use/play of protected content. And, as noted many times in this discussion thread and in the article itself, it's an add-on to the OS. Don't want it? Don't use it. However, we've seen many instances of MS rolling an add-on into a service pack and then requiring that the service pack be installed for any future updates. It's then possible to enable the DRM package to restrict the legitimate use of non-protected content and/or software because the end-user won't have any other choice. MS will be holding all the cards. I think you're right on up until about here, but sadly I'm a bit more cynical about what the future holds. Too few people are in control of way too much on our planet (and that's another thread :p). I read a very interesting article by John Walker, author of Speak Freely recently, and you might want to give it a read. I can say the man tends to repeat himself.. but the ideas he presents and the overall picture he puts together is quite frightening, showing how the traditional giant producer/many consumers model for information and everything else can, will, and already is being imposed on the internet. A big part of this is DRM, and even moreso trusted computing.
"where words meet intent, lies rhetoric's lament"
restrict the legitimate use of non-protected content and/or software
No, that is NOT Microsoft's plan. They know that would cause outrage and backlash. They are stupid, but they aren't THAT stupid.
Microsoft goes to great lengths to explain that Trusted Computing will place NO restrictions on non-protected content and non-protected software. It's standard Microsoft Embrace-and-Extend. They embrace all existing content and software it will all work fine on the new Trusted machines.
Trusted computing only restricts the legitimate use of new protected content and new protected software and new protected websites. If you don't have a Trusted machine then you can't use the new content at all, you can't even install the new software, and you only get an error message of you go to the new websites.
The Trusted machine is not crippled at all when using it with the old non-protected stuff. Trusted machines are only crippled when using the new protected stuff, but non-Trusted machines don't work at all with the new protected stuff.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.