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Microsoft Preps 'Janus' Music Copy-Prevention Scheme
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft is expected to unveil copy-protection software this summer that will for the first time give portable digital music players access to rented tunes from all-you-can-eat subscription services -- a development that some industry executives believe will shake up the online music business." Janus is the Roman god of doorways, gates, passages, preventing people from copying music, etc.
Has Apple iTunes been hacked yet? As in giving people un-encrypted, un-watermarked AAC files?
They are working in the wrong direction. It's not about copy protection anymore - the niche market that the ipod hit is no longer a niche market. The name of the game over the next few years will be make a store with music you can easily put on anything, take anywhere. I predict Apple makes their flavor of CP open.
mix_master_mike
vafrous
I recently tried out the Wal-Mart 99c per song download and found it pretty cool, DRM and all. I was able to download to my work computer and then copy to my home computer (with the license). So both are viable in both locations.
The only downer is the fact that if you lose the licenses you're screwed.
Also worked on my MP3-player so I can take the song running.
The interesting note is I charged the song. So it ended up being 99c. This was the only charge for the month on my credit card. However, my balance for the month was zero! Wal-Mart had given me a 'Small Balance Credit' which I assume is that it's probably less of a loss (99c) then some transaction fee (several dollors) from the credit card company.
So I guess you get twelve free songs a year if you handle this correctly!
I don't want to rent...I want to OWN.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
It should be really interesting to see how quickly this gets adopted. Like you say the model is really similar to DIVX and people in general just do not like rentals.
TV subscriptions are one thing because most shows are transient, and you can record forever the ones you like. But a music subscription offers no similar benefits, only an ongoing cost and limitations on use (can you burn real CD's with a subscription service?)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sure, I can see rented videos...But rented music? Who the heck rents music?
Little digital audio player with Microsoft 'Janus' technology.... Meet my digital-in connector =D
(or if they don't have digital out (which sucks and I wouldn't buy it anyway) then analog-in works fine too...)
Hundreds of thousands of songs! For 10$! Can't beat the price. W00t!
These guys are REALLY really dumb.
Think about what is going on here in order to hack it. You would have to reverse engineer the software, bypass the authentication/security mechanism, then connect to a server with your IP address to pilfer music. All the while, M$CO and the RIAA are sitting back with a piracay and DMCA greivance. This would be about as bright robbing a bank naked, in broad daylight, and using your own car as the getaway vehicle.
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Step 1) Rent song.
Step 2) Put rented song on mp3 player.
Step 3) Go to Radio $hack, buy an adapter cable to connected mp3 output back into PC.
Step 4) Record song from Sound Card's 'Line In' using a high-quality program like Goldwave.
Step 5) Enjoy all the choonz you want for $10 / month.
So, is there any reason that this can't lead to "digital music libraries" where the songs are "checked out". This could make legal downloads nearly costless (like checking a book out from the public library). The only hurdle is to keep people from checking out copies for super-extended periods of time such that nobody else can check that copy out.
They better make it an extremely accurate clock, or one of two things will happen:
If the clock's fast, people will bitch about not getting what they're paying for, and they'll switch to a different service.
If the clock's slow, the provider's will feel cheated, and may likely switch to a different service.
Oh, and as MS DRM becomes more pervasive, we're bound to see some sort of antitrust court action. (I guess the biggest question right now is will it be in one year or five?)
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You bring up the exact point that makes this an entirely different beast. As much as M$ doesn't get security right, some over there much be reading some theory books. Real security requires authentication as well as encryption. This is why those self signing AIM certificates don't make sense... no authentication. And if you pay for the authentication, then save the stream and crack it... your name is even closer to illegal act, much easier to figure out it was you. The line-out re-record is never going to go away. Most people don't mind the slight quality loss. However, it is a "process" and time is money, the majority of people won't bother, and that's the point. Nothing will ever be "uncrackable" you just have to make it hard enough to be a nusience.
I'm reading the responses here, and I'm a bit apalled (sp?) at the number of people complaining that this won't work/is evil/ shouldn't be used.
Are you kidding me? You're going to give me anytime, anywhere access to over 400,000 songs for $10/month, and you complain? Man, I wish Apple would do this, because I would certainly pay for the service to use with my iPod. These subscriptions are marginally useful to a small group of people in their current form (work on CPU only). Give me a $10 subscription that I can use on my iPod, and I'll sign up tomorrow.
Who cares if it's DRM. It's a great value, and the type of service we've all been anticipating for many years. I hope Apple beats 'em to the punch!
This is the name of a Roman god - with Indo/Aryan origins. Interestingly, Janus was - literally - "two-faced".
TWO-FACED: Dictionary Entry and Meaning
Pronunciation: 'too`feyst
WordNet Dictionary
Definition: [adj] having two faces--one looking to the future and one to the past; "Janus the two-faced god"
[adj] marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another;
"she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill;
"a double-dealing double agent";
"a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray
Synonyms: ambidextrous, deceitful, dishonest, dishonorable, double-dealing, double-faced, double-tongued, duplicitous, faced, Janus-faced
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."