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Microsoft's Janus DRM Software Officially Unveiled
hype7 writes "News.com.com is reporting the official unveiling of Microsoft's new DRM system, internally dubbed 'Janus'. Interestingly enough, a wide variety of companies including AOL, Dell, Disney, Napster and Freescale, a subsidiary of Motorola, have all signed on to the technology. Whilst some content providers and producers are keen, it remains to be seen what consumers will think - 'the new digital rights management tools include features that would protect content that is streamed around a home network, or even block data pathways potentially deemed 'unsafe,' such as the traditional analog outputs on a high-definition TV set. That's a feature that has been sought by movie studios in advance of the move to digital television.' I love the quotes from the MS rep - 'This release of technology really enables all kinds of new scenarios that are emerging now,' said Jason Reindorp, a group manager in Microsoft's Windows digital media unit. 'We're taking quite a holistic view.' It's good to see Microsoft taking a holistic view of preventing the consumer doing what they want with their paid for content, and protecting us from unsafe data pathways."
It's also funny to watch posts like mine dive straight into Offtopicland.
Sorry, though, I don't have an opposing argument for you that I can actually defend. Oh, well.
The name Janus is also the name of the super secure air transport to and from Area 51 for employees.
The problem with that is, they blame the reduced sales on the filesharing that is the only thing keeping them in buisness (yeah that's right, it's the best advertising they are getting and I'd attribute it to more sales than radio or previews).
In turn this just makes them slam in more restrictive DRM.
Remember the boob tube and music are the least of the things this affects and the least significant. You may find physical activities more fulfilling but the MOST fulfilling activities are things like learning, reading, etc. Mental excerise takes the cake over physical activity any minute of the day and it mostly centers around books. Which though less talked about are certainly part of this.
I'm sure if given the choice most people with an IQ of at least 150 will take books over walking if they could only have one for the rest of their lives.
And most of the rest are the ones responsible for this mess, which is just one more reason to cull them from the breed. We've shown it works with cattle and sheep, and they are after all pretty much like sheep. Hell there is even a book about some guy 2000 yrs ago who called them all sheep and said he was the shepard, they happily agreed and have been mindlessly following for over 2000yrs!
+447743552957
Not that I normally hang out in the red light district in Amsterdam, but I happened to be there two weeks ago and accidentially went into a porn book store (was looking for the public library which I think is nearby). Anyway, this particular store specialized in corporal punishment (spanking) magazines, most of which involved girls in school uniforms. They had titles like "Janus #67", after the publisher's name (Society of Janus). More info is on their web site.
Do you suppose this is where MS got their name?