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Linux and DRM?

Posted by Cliff on from the stuff-to-think-about dept.

xgyro asks: "In light of the recent agreement between MS and Disney, and many calling for 2004 to be the 'Year of the Linux Desktop' does Linux have comparable DRM system to allow for distribution of protected content? Linus Torvalds has already endorsed DRM on the Linux platform. Possibly by coincidence, this company has announced a product that seems to provide for some possibilities. Will other companies follow suite? As a employee of a large content provider, what current options are out there for groups that want to deploy protected content on Linux?"

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. well, by pb · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linus didn't exactly endorse it, you know. And I think you'll find that DRM systems, by and large, are unwanted and insecure. If you can access the content, then you can strip it of its protections.

    --
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
  2. Linus does not endorse DRM by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Informative
    ...Linus Torvalds has already endorsed DRM on the Linux platform...

    Quoth Linus:

    "I also don't necessarily like DRM myself...I think you can use Linux for whatever you want to--which very much includes things I don't necessarily personally approve of."

    That's not exactly a ringing endorsement. If it is, then Linux could be construed to have endorsed browsing Slashdot, child porn, and writing viruses.

  3. Not an endorsement, an "I don't care if you do it" by schmaltz · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the dictionary--

    en*dorse - To give approval of or support to, especially by public statement; sanction: endorse a political candidate. See synonyms at approve.

    This did not happen. The quote from the article which you've fictionalized into an "endorsement" goes something like this--

    "I also don't necessarily like DRM myself," Torvalds wrote on the "Linux-kernel" mailing list. "But...I'm an 'Oppenheimer,' and I refuse to play politics with Linux, and I think you can use Linux for whatever you want to--which very much includes things I don't necessarily personally approve of."

    Please, xgyro, tell us how you extrapolated "use Linux for whatever you want to...[including] things I don't necessarily personally approve of" into "endorsed"?

    A Microsoft troll, no doubt, but necessary to refute. Fiction becomes myth becomes fact after time.

    --
    Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma ... where's Siggy?
  4. Re:One option is treating your customer with respe by orthogonal · · Score: 4, Informative

    That, and I'm not sure they're not watermarked with a personal identifier :).

    I realize that you're joking, but actually I did check, with the help of an IRC acquaintance.

    He and I both downloaded the same track from emusic -- at different times, just in case you're wondering, as it was a track I'd had for a while --, and then each ran md5sum on our copies. The md5sums matched. and for the truly tin-foil hatted, I had him give me the start of his md5sum first. ;)

    We weren't looking to pirate the tracks, we were just curious, given that emusic in its early incarnation as mp3.com had once boasted of its water-marking technology.

    --
    Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
  5. We're there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    "OGG-S OGG-S is an open source development project that aims to create an open Digital Rights Management (DRM) interface for the creation, playback, and management of multimedia files."