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Don't Smudge The Sensor When You Press 'Play'

Posted by timothy on from the well-it-sure-sounds-like-a-joke dept.

mattyrobinson69 writes "According to The Register, 'The RIAA wants your fingerprints.' They've teamed up with VeriTouch, who say 'In practical terms, VeriTouch's breakthrough in anti-piracy technology means that no delivered content to a customer may be copied, shared or otherwise distributed because each file is uniquely locked by the customer's live fingerprint scan.'" No details, but the article talks about a locked-down "wireless media player" to prevent such passing around.

15 of 436 comments (clear)

  1. outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they just don't get it do they?

    Locked down devices have no future. Witness Sony getting its but handed to it by apple, after years of walkmen, by making intentionally defective products

    1. Re:outrageous by badasscat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doesn't it look like one locked down device has usurped another ?

      I'm guessing you mean the iPod is a locked-down device too. But it isn't. It'll play non-DRM'd mp3's just as well as it'll play AAC files, which Sony players won't. Personally, *no one* I know plays anything but regular old mp3's on their iPod. I'm sure there are people out there that do use it for Apple AAC, but I would think those people are in the clear minority. People don't call the iPod and others of its ilk "mp3 players" for nothing. This is a clear fact that Sony and the rest of the RIAA (and don't forget, Sony *is* a member of the RIAA) don't seem to grasp. The iPod is a success because it plays mp3's. If it didn't, it would have failed. And mp3's are as popular as they are because they can be easily copied and traded, whatever the legality of it. It's as simple as that - if a hardware company wants a music device to succeed, it must support the standard mp3 format, which is what most everyone has the vast majority of their music in to begin with, and not for nothing either.

      Sony really has no such thing as an mp3 player - even their upcoming iPod competitor converts mp3's to ATRAC as you copy them over, from what I've read. It's an ATRAC player just like all their other digital music players (other than CD players, which are a dying market). Honestly, I half believe that the true nature of the PSP - which is considered a gaming device right now - is as a media player designed to popularize Sony Connect. It won't work, but I do believe that's the plan, to sort of sneak in there and make music a value-added feature of this device they expect to be popular for other reasons. And of course that music will be in the ATRAC format.

      Anyway, the RIAA is really smoking crack if they think people are going to have anything to do with fingerprinting to get their music. It almost reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where David Dinkins proposed a law requiring all New Yorkers to wear name tags all the time. I mean it's about that dumb. It's not even that it won't work (which it won't), it's that NO ONE will buy such a system, even if it means they don't get to listen to any new music. There's plenty of good music around already to listen to - more than I'd ever have time for in my life, that's for sure.

  2. It's been said before... by bravehamster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and I'll say it again:

    If I can hear it, I can copy it.

    These companies who are selling technology "solutions" to the piracy problem are like snake-oil salesmen selling cures to old ladies. It might make them feel better, but it doesn't make a damn bit of real difference.

    --
    ---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
  3. Riaa's Dream by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is The RIAA's dream. Everyone has to buy new... it's no longer possible to sell your music or give it to your little brother.

    However, the principle buyers of music, PCKs (Poor College Kids), won't bite because they sell their crappy cd's and buy used ones that they think they will like.

    Disclaimer: I am a PCK.

    1. Re:Riaa's Dream by netringer · · Score: 4, Insightful
      This is The RIAA's dream. Everyone has to buy new... it's no longer possible to sell your music or give it to your little brother.

      No, the RIAA's dream is mandatory cochlear implants with attached DRM'd combination locks and a coin slot.
      No the RIAA's dream is the same as Microsoft's:

      "Congratulations Mr. Smith, you're a father! It's a boy!"
      "Here's the birth certificate, the hospital bill, the fee for his initial Windows license and the fee for the first year of his right-to-listen-to-music license. We can combine those into the second mortgage loan amount or do you want to use your credit card?"
      --
      Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
    2. Re:Riaa's Dream by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      However, the principle buyers of music, PCKs (Poor College Kids), won't bite because they sell their crappy cd's and buy used ones that they think they will like.

      What are you smoking? The principal buyers of music are teenage girls. As you just pointed out, PCKs don't buy much new music; they buy more indy music, used CDs, etc. Teenage brats with excessive allowances are the ones keeping the RIAA profitable, and they're such herd-followers that they'll buy into any crazy scheme the RIAA concocts.

  4. Well by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have to ask if mugshots are to follow. DNA sample to buy a CD ? This does tend to confirm that the music industry considers there customers criminals and feels they should be treated as such.

    I can allready see the boost in music sales this will bring.

  5. Not the point by cot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real question is what if they can individually mark the music you purchase, and hold you liable if that music shows up on the net?

    Cash is going the way of the dodo. I imagine there will be some degree of outcry to this in general, but already almost everyone's using check cards, ATM cards, and what have you and the music industry just may decide to stop allowing the purchase of music with cash, effectively eliminating anonymous purchasing.

    Copy protection is inherently breakable if you allow the person to play the music back. The same is not true for watermarking, and I wouldn't be surprised if they try to go this direction in the long run.

    --

    1. Re:Not the point by selderrr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Cash is going the way of the dodo.
      no it isn't. There are way to many shabby practices that get dirty money. Last time I heard, there is as much fraudulent money (not counterfeit ! Just money gained from illegal activities) changing hands as white money. Andthe majority of that dirty money is circulating among the powers that be.

      They will never ever allow a fully traceable system to come alive. The mere fact that there isn't such a system yet proves this, since techincally, it not rocket sience.

      --
      When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
  6. Fair Use by manitoulinnerd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does lending music to a friend not constitute as fare use?

    What about when you die, if you have a sizeable music library (such could be considered an asset) how will your family be given access to it?

    They are wasting their time.

    --
    Burn Bright or Fade Away
  7. Re:I Hate to think... by sleepnmojo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is actually a great question the RIAA should ask. If this has no way of taking off in the porn industry, how the hell do they think they will pull this off to the general public. All great technologies of their time got their boost from porn (VHS, internet, etc)

    If you can't sell it to the porn industry, aren't they just wasting their time?

  8. No market for this, unless.... by orthogonal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the linked article: "iVue: a wireless media player that allows content producers to lock down media files with biometric security. This week Veritouch announced that it had demonstrated the device to the RIAA and MPAA.

    "In practical terms, VeriTouch's breakthrough in anti-piracy technology means that no delivered content to a customer may be copied, shared or otherwise distributed because each file is uniquely locked by the customer's live fingerprint scan," claims the company."

    Now just who is going to buy this, a player that you can't let your mom or girlfriend (ok, that's not a problem for Slashdotters) or colleague borrow, that you can't use if your hand's in a cast or even in a glove (nobody plays MP3s on cold days?)?

    And worse: how do you purchase tunes? Presumably, you'll have to present your fingerprint on purchase so it can be matched to the fingerprint when played. So will the media player lock you into purchasing only from merchants that process your fingerprint? How will you play free music -- like the legal live band recording at archive.org?

    Perhaps it will also play fingerprint unencumbered music, but then what's the point?Why go to the extra trouble to purchase from a fingerprinting vendor, which at least will probably require hooking the player to your PC, providing the fingerprint, transmitting the stored fingerprint from the media player through the PC using some proprietary mechanism like an Active-X control?

    again, who will want to pay extra to deal with having to provide a fingerprint?

    The answer: no one.

    So will it be legally mandated, or are the big record companies planning to stop selling CDs and sell only encrypted, DRM'd music? It has to be one of the two, or else this product has no market.

    --
    Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
  9. What gets me by ValourX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny -- you can lock down a player all you want, but not the output. Nothing stops you from running a standard audio cable from the output (headpone or speaker jack) of the DRM'd device into the input of an unrestricted device, thereby allowing you to copy the music.

    Sure it's analog (unless you use S/PDIF), and there will be a slight reduction in quality, but it will definitely be a useable recording.

    Yet another DRM technology defeated by a simply workaround.

    -Jem

  10. Artists of the world unite! by midifarm · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This will do nothing, but drive record sales into the ground. Artists need to uprise and stand up for themselves because the RIAA doesn't seem to be servicing them any more, it's all about the labels and the royalty publishers.

    You might hate his music, but George Michael has released his LAST store CD release. Everything from now on will be available online only! This is a huge step forward for the artists themselves.

    Bands like U2 and Aerosmith need to follow suit, drop their labels, do all their own production (which they do anyway) and sell their songs themselves. The day of the middle man making money off of the talent needs to come to a close. Our rights as consumers and fans are being infringed. The artists are the ones that need to step up.

    Lars if you're listening, drop Electra and start doing it all yourselves. Control your own distribution!

    Peace

  11. I can see the scene now. by julesh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You walk into the music shop.

    You: I'd like to buy the latest... err.. Eminem single, please. Erm. As a present, you know. For my little brother.
    Sales assistant: Certainly, if I can just take your fingerprint...
    You: Fingerprint? I didn't know it was a crime to buy Eminem records. Yet. Although I'm sure somebody's working on it.
    Sales assistant: No, no, it's just to stop other people from using it.
    You: No, no, you don't understand. It isn't for me. It's a present.
    Sales assistant: Sorry, we need a fingerprint.
    You: He lives five hundred miles away.
    Sales assistant: We can sell you a voucher? Or maybe you could get him to send his finger to you?