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Buzzword du Jour: DRM
mattmcal writes "Though the RSA Conference in San Francisco and Bill Gates' keynote were expected to stir up several headlines on 'security' today, the news coming from 3GSM in Cannes seemed to deliver more tangible results. From Qualcomm's new DRM chipsets to NDS' mobile VideoGuard, several interesting 'DRM (digital rights management)' announcements raise the bar for distribution-shy media companies who may have increasing opportunities for driving content to mobile devices. But Intel's Barrett knows this is only the beginning of a complicated standards problem."
Hi. I'm Linus Torvalds, creator of the Open Source OS Linux. I'm glad CmdrTaco and company have created a forum for Open Source news and views, and I am so thankful for being able to post in the Slashdot forums. But now I must get something off my chest.
As you all know, I am a fairly clean cut, well-kempt person (I know, I have a beer gut only ESR could dare to challenge, but you'll have that if you spend 18 hours a day coding and eating Cheezie Doodlez), and in the GNU community that is an anomoly: virtually all users of GNU software and the GPL, under which my Linux kernel falls under, are unkempt, long-haired, beast-bearded dirty GNU hippies, and I am sick and tired of having to deal with them.
The person I have the greatest problem with is the (in)famous communist, RMS. Now, RMS may have been responsible for GNU, the GPL, GCC, and many other contributions to the computing community, but his stance, as well as stench, displayed in his essays and actions, nauseates me. I mean, with that filth-ridden beard of his, where does he have room to demand Linux distros demarkate the OS as GNU/Linux? When he is as clean-shaven as I, he may have the right. Until then, as he sits and plays his little flutes and drops acid like there is no tomorrow, he can shut his mouth and go back to reading Marx. I am sorry to sound so harsh, but a little hygeine every once in a while is a Good Thing(TM). Makes me wish I'd went with the BSD license back in the day.
Next in line of dirty scuzballs I have to deal with, and probably the worst thorn in my side, is Alan Cox, the primary coder of my kernel's TCP/IP stack (ha, what a joke!) and all around dirty GNU hippy. The man's wife, who I spent a few years with at the University of Helsinki, often calls me crying in the middle of the night to complain of the rank, unbearable stench the man exudes after sex. On several occasions I have personally had to withstand his torrent of rotten odor at trade shows, exhibitions, and beer bashes that permeates every inch of his toxic person. Along with the typical GNU hygeine (mis)habits he practices, he also bitches and whines about... well, everything. He lies a lot too; evidence for this can be seen in the fact he almost always wears cheap black sunglasses when talking to people he knows are better than him (such as myself).
And then we come to ESR. I won't reiterate the sewerdweller-like cleansing habits he practices as well, but I would like to focus on his general lifestyle. Firstly, he's never been to school. As a German expatriate, education should have been his priority; however, becoming a Gas Baron was his ambition in life until he realized he would fail at it. I wish he'd make that realization with the other things he tries to do. Secondly, the man is a sub-intelligent hillbilly. You know, the kind that goes to inner-city computer stores and buys 386s to set up as servers all over his house, with cigarette smoke-stained 14" monitors piled high upon his kitchen table. He has no cooth and can't integrate himself into any social situation involving "white collar" executives without rambling into a tirade on gun rights or tanning roadkill. Couple the above facts with his ruddy complection (from drinking Jagermeister like it's water) and his gnat-ridden handlebar mustache and you've got the makings of one more person who pisses me off.
Well, that's it for now. Hopefully with these feelings off my chest and into the Open Source community, things will change for the better. I'd like just once to talk to a Linux user or advocate who washes and changes their clothes at least weekly. Until then, thanks to CmdrTaco, Slashdot, and you, the reader, for the opportunity to bring things to the table and share for the betterment of our community.
I'm still screwed up on CRM. How about giving the damn acronyms a break?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Make sure you don't call it "Doesn't Require Manual", because then DRM-stamped products will sell like hot cakes.
My rights don't need to be managed, thank-you. You'll take gcc out of my cold, dead fingers.
Listen in on Donald Duck!
You got it completely backwards. You need to convince the DRM developer that his scheme is unbreakable and that no further review will help. Then you convince all the media companies to make them standard. ...and then you break it (see DVD CSS) and you're able to use the CD/DVD you bought as you please.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
I will not.
I will not.
No, no, you don't seem to be understanding me here; I will not.
No, really.
Yes, my decision is quite final, as in over-my-dead-body final.
Argh!!! [throws up arms in disgust] Igor! Fetch me the 2x4 of Enlightenment!
And look how effective it has been.
He says as he browses through his Terrabyte RAID of Divx movies planning the evening's viewing while the never ending playlist of MP3s piped throughout the house rolls on in the background.
Oops, one of the P2P boxes just crashed. Gotta go.
Funny you should say that, as I thought of a handy anti-DRM slogan right now.
DRM is to media and playback, what fathers are to girlfriends and sex.
Ok, so now I am a geek.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
CD's aren't anywhere near as flexible as old records were, just try bending one a bit, it'll snap on ya right away...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Actually, at the conference the buzz-word is not DRM, but RMS i.e. Rights Management System -- that is what several companies are calling their DRMs.
I'm not sure why marketing departments are re-framing DRM as RMS -- it is only removing digital and adding system. Maybe digital is now just a noise word? Or maybe they want their RMS to do more then digital rights?
-- Herder Of Cats