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Disney Suggests Mandating DRM On All Media
Ethan Butterfield writes "Cory Doctorow posted this on his blog this morning. Essentially, Disney wants the FCC to regulate all devices capable of recording from any audio broadcasting medium or from the Internet."
Could this possibly tie in with their crappy newly-released PCs? I'd love to get one of those and tear it apart to see what DRM they've put in.
Mickey with a shotgun saying something about a "motherfucking IP infringer" comes to mind...
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
That being said, I'm not surprised that it's Disney who made the official proposal. I give it 10 years before DRM violation arrests are second behind drug possession arrests. Buy prison stock now.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Tape recorders are a nono? How about wax cylinders? Punch cards?
Very, very vague.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Because, as we all know, once something falls into the public domain, no one will want to keep it around anymore and it will forever be lost.
That's the ultimate goal from all these 'media conglomerates', has been for some time.. I don't know why people haven't seen it coming...
Once its *all* digital, they have extra weight behind them both in the legal/government and technological arenas. Even helps squash competition by charging exurbanite fees to join the 'official drm bandwagon' and have your media playable...
That final day IS coming....And it will be the last day I will be considered a 'media consumer'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you don't think that disney can get the government to change something so important, google around for "Mickey Mouse copyright act"
Once the FCC mandates that all radio signals are digital, like they are with TV, you can make crystal radios all day long and listen to fuzz.... Doubt anyone will care..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Then we won't be able to listen to Disney music?
Bring it on!
As highly as it would like to think its own influence is, I don't think Disney is capable of forcing the entire tech sector to follow their restrictive standards. I've personally written some of my own content to DVD; would I be mandated to include DRM because of Disney's bought-and-paid-for laws? Worse yet, I bet there would be either an explicit or hidden licensing cost to Disney or whoever for the DRM technology. Whatever happened to free speech? If I want to put something of my own creation, isn't that protected free speech? What can Disney possibly have to do with me, my content, my DVD burner, and the friends I give my content to?
And one more thing. DRM is a joke. With the state of current DRM anyone can crack DRM by downloading a simple program such as DVD Decrypter. You don't have to know anything at all about encryption. Assuming DRM gets better in the future, which is debatable, it may be harder for the individual to crack the protection, but there will always be the hardcore hackers who hack the video and upload it to a P2P network for all to share. Assuming DRM gets so restrictive that it cannot be cracked, what can you possibly do to stop people from pointing video cameras at a monitor or TV screen in their own home?
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Because despite what he says in his blog FM radio is _not_ covered by what Disney asking for. Is it still too much? IMHO. XM Radio and Sirius both already have DRM, if I recall correctly, though you can still make an analog recording (and always will be able to). I could be wrong though, because I only have XM in my car, so it doesn't have any kind of tape outputs or anything. As far as internet radio, they should give up hope of regulating it all. As always, there is the fact that the internet is international. Also, there's nothing stopping you from setting up your own internet radio station, without DRM (other than maybe a couple of FCC regulations if Disney gets their way). Not that they would be able to find you without expending a tremendous amount of resources anyway.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Essentially, Disney wants the FCC to regulate all devices capable of recording from any audio broadcasting medium or from the Internet.
The real question is, what are they going to do when people publish plans to build "unencumbered" devices themselves on the net? Not straight circumvention devices, but devices that don't care about corporate idiocies, "to play free music" say. What will they do? go after the people who made the plans? go after the sites harboring proposing said plans for download? I can see that happen, given how hard it is to find decss.c these days <sarcasm>.
Seriously, these corporate dinosaurs really need to reinvent themselves with regard to revenue models. All these copyright laws, DRM chips, strong-arming and scare tactics,... from them make me think of a falling man grasping on straws. They may eventually bring file-sharing under control, but it'll be a triumph of corporate will against natural human behaviours.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I believe the fact that we are able to rewatch recorded programs is a happy coincidence of the fact that DRM or self-destructing media have not been practical schemes to date. I suspect our legislators and courts would at least entertain the concept that if it's broadcast once you can timeshift it and consume it only once, as you're effectively getting the same service as you'd get by viewing it during broadcast (with the added feature of skipping commercials).
Disney's trying to get a bigger slice of the pie, of course, but there's nothing inherently wrong with what they're trying to do. If you have a problem I suggest contacting your representatives and electronics/software manufacturers.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
I've been following this for a while, and until now I haven't said much, instead I've had the thought that since they own the copyright, it's their right to ask the FCC to do this. Until now.
The FCC and other regulatory commissions are there to two do things, the first being make sure that the public interest is taken care of (since they are a by-product of a democratic republic), and the second is otherwise regulate until #1 is met. In this end, they regulate the airwaves, but they've never regulated the technology, only what it can do. For example, you can't make a remote control that operates on the same frequency as other products, and you can't show a nipple on television. What you are allowed to do, however, is to record music and television shows for private use (not public use). Where Disney and other companies miss the mark is that they believe that their customers are inherently bad, and to that end, they should prevent people from taking away from their business venue, and they sincerely believe that they are right by asking the FCC to stop allowing devices to record broadcasts. Disney and other companies must work within the established guidelines set out by the FCC, and what we are witnessing is their attempts to change that landscape to maximize their profits, and minimize piracy. Unfortunatly when they do that, they minimize fair use rights.
War isn't about who's right. It's about who's left.
I'd be willing to bet that when the copyright is up for expiration Disney will lobby for yet another extension (say 100 years) and Congress will be well paid off to approve it. It will undoubtedly be challenged, but when it hits the Supreme Court, the Supreme Idiots In Robes will say its all ok as the time renewal is still finite (which seems to have been the reason they approved the last extension). Of course, Disney should really lobby for a 100,000 year extension on copyright as that too would still be finite and thus ok.
"You know what annoys me? Mickey Mouse's birthday being announced on the television news, as if it's an actual event. I don't give a shit. If I cared about Mickey Mouse's birthday I'd have memorized it years ago. And I'd send him a card: "Dear Mickey, Happy Birtdhay, Love George." I don't do that. Why? I don't give a shit. Fuck Mickey Mouse! Fuck him in the asshole with a big rubber dick. Then break it off and beat him with the rest of it. I hope Mickey dies! I do, I hope he Goddamn dies. I hope he gets hold of some tainted cheese and dies lonely and forgotten behind the baseboard of a soiled bathroom in a poor neighborhood, with his hand in Goofy's pants. Mickey Mouse. No wonder no one in the world takes our country seriously. We waste valuable television time informing our citizens of the age of an imaginary rodent!" -George Carlin
+1 Funny?
More like +4 informative
Well, yes, but remember that copyright applies to anything that is created/creative; and the creator may license the creation as he or she sees fit. DRM had better respect that. As for me, I shall try and persuade my children to license anything they create (until they turn professional) under an open licence such as Creative Commons. I'm sure they will prefer the potential exposure their work will receive. Give it a few years, and the Disneys of this world will be snowed under by people whose work is equally good because of this newfound ability to share.
I applaud this move. The sooner all this nonsense becomes unbearable, the sooner (educated) consumers will tell the media companies to take their DRM and shove it.
Alas, the general sentiment of the article goes the other way. Evidently freedom holds more weight with slashbots than something not coming from Redmond.
I find it hard to believe that this will happen but maybe I'm just being naive. Can anyone explain to me how the FCC is going to regulate the entire world? Heck the RIAA (or Canadian version) hasn't stopped file sharing in Canada and its unclear whether or not it is illegal to so in Canada. Won't other countries continue to make devices that can record audio broadcasts and/or from the Internet? Sure they can make feeds that require a special player to play but there is nothing stopping a person from recording the sound played through their speakers and circulating that around. Also, last time I checked, I can tune into my local radio station and record it either on a cassette tape or onto my computer very easily and distribute it in other formats on servers located in other countries. Am I missing something here?
Dog for sale: eats anything and is fond of children
I believe when I say, "Fuck That", I speak for all of us.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
...and they're going to use their lobby to do incredibly stupid shit like this. They see the writing on the wall, and they know that they only way that can stave off the death of their industry is thru legislation.
This is yet another sign that the publishing industry is running scared, and grasping at straws. They are utterly afraid of the public discovering that publishers aren't really needed anymore, and that they are simply useless middlemen.
The Attitude Adjuster, I hate me, you can too.
From Lessig's book Free Culture:
"Indeed, the catalog of Disney work drawing upon the work of others is astonishing when set together: Snow White (1937), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), /Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), /Robin Hood (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Mulan (1998), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and The Jungle Book (1967)--not to mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, Treasure Planet (2003). In all of these cases, Disney (or Disney, Inc.) ripped creativity from the culture around him, mixed that creativity with his own extraordinary talent, and then burned that mix into the soul of his culture. Rip, mix, and burn."
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Deregulation seems to only work one way, in favor of the major corporate interests that the FCC is supposed to protect us from. Instead, in this environment of deregulation, which allows more and more power to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, we see who is going to be regulated: the consumer!
Thank you, my fellow Republicans, for blindly following ideology as if it were holy writ.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I think copywrite has a place and protection of art has a place also, but at some time the business model just has to change. Once the medium has become so ubiquitous it seems it is going to be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It is SO easy for distribution of music, video, etc., and any attempt to shut that down will either: be too hard; be too confusing for the mass market consumer; or some mix.
Part of the ability for the artists, the people who create the artists, and the people who owned the artists, to own the marketplace relied heavily on the ability to control the media. With the explosion of media options, control is barely doable, and if doable is going to be way unreasonable.
So, the shift in the business model will be a sea change (a sea++ change?). And while the grubby money mungers at the top have always been able to be filthy rich with their controls and sleezy contracts now they will have to settle for less control, more flexible contracts with artists, and ultimately less wealth. They'll be dragged kicking and screaming, but eventually that's where I see the marketplace going.
(case in point: Grateful Dead completely bypassing the record industry, and basically cutting CD's live and in person at their concerts.... and encouraging fans to make copies....)
All these posts saying "If it can be heard, it can be copied" and the ilk are missing the point. The publishing industry's agenda for perpetuating their needless existance is something like:
It's not going to matter if it can be copied-- simply the act of having the capability to copy will be illegal. If you don't have all DRM-compliant devices, or if you tamper with your DRM-compliant devices, you'll be charged and trucked off to prison.
We need a revolution in "intellectual propery", and we need it quickly. Too many people already fail to understand that the system is a social contract, and the terms of that contract are negotiable by the people-- not dictated by the corporations.
It is no stretch to think that, if they could get it, the DRM helmet is their ultimate goal.
The Attitude Adjuster, I hate me, you can too.
I mean, I don't want to be on Disney's bad side, and since the scope so easily records waveforms, I guess I'm going to need a firmware upgrade or something.
There are three main approaches to implementing DRM:
* Disable use on systems after a leak and redistribution. Generally done with some kind of watermarking scheme. Never going to happen. Watermarking is a cute research idea, but it turns out that efficient compression (eliminating data that isn't visually/aurally important) eliminates the same set of data that watermarks need to play with. There are a host of other problems as well -- generally, if someone can detect a watermark, they can remove it. Caught a bit of interest early on, pretty much went away.
* Stop redistribution after a leak. The RIAA/MPAA are still working on this, but it's ultimately a doomeed effort. Computers and networks were made to copy data.
* Try to prevent the inital copy from leaking. Never going to happen. There are too many places for an initial leak to come from with any kind of widely-distributed data. There's a hybrid approach using this and watermarks to identify initial leaks followed by legal action against the source of the leak. This doesn't even work against small-scale distribution systems like screener DVDs -- it will *not* work for a large-scale system.
That's not so bad. It just means that the econonmy of our society is changing once again. Attempts to keep the rules from shifting and the econonmy from adjusting are as useless as the feudal lords trying to keep merchants from becoming the new powerful class.
May we never see th
It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I don't think Piracy is the real concern here. It's all these irritating people who are avoiding the goal of the media oligarchs to control *all* media, all content, all music.
Once only the RIAA can manufacture music that can be played they can finally crush all those troublesome musicians, artists, actors and film directors because there will be nowhere else to go, there will be no alternative music available in the USA.
It is the same play that was made by threatening CD manufacturers with lawsuits for aiding and abetting that was used to make it harder for small businesses to get CD music manufactured, and which backfired only because the CD writer became cheap.
The media companies wish the printing press to be a monopoly granted by government (to them of course). It worked in the USSR why shouldn't it work in the USSA
No. A key element in capitalism is the free-market. Government regulation, such as mandating DRM in all devices, is counter to that element. The word you are looking for is "corporatism," the other side to socialism's coin.
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
DRM requires network. Otherwise it loses all its strength (if it can be done just by local hardware, it can be done by local (my) software.)
Does it mean all DVD players, home cinemas, tape recorders, walkmans, discmans, pocket MP3 players and all that is supposed to be networked? And what about computers, say I pay for modem, do I have to pay for 1.5h long distance call if I want to view 1.5h DVD movie?
Either they are very stupid or VERY greedy.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
What he's quoting
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Then Disney wouldn't have been able to steal also many movie plots from Rudyard Kipling and the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson.
Infuriate left and right
You're talking about corporationism and ultimately fascism.
The only thing magic about Disney these days is their almost bottomless capacity for greed. Their products are unimaginative, formulaic and their theme parks are little better than entertainment sweat shops. Disney lawyers suing day care centers for having the audacity to paint one of their characters on a wall, DRM, the Bono Act. The list gets rather lengthy.
A greedy, ugly, disgusting company.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Yup, Lion King is actally a rip-off too.
They compied almost all from (in the asian are popular and well-known) Tezuka's "Kimba the White Lion"
That alone would not be that bad, but Disney simply refuses to acknowledge the deed. A simple "based upon the works of" or "inspired by" would have acknowledged the original creators work, and cost Disney only about... nothing.
More info here: http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
Back in the Soviet Union, they had extreme security for anything that could be used for duplication of information, lest it be used for spreading subversive information. Now Disney wants the same thing, except that the claimed reason is different. The ability to quickly and easily spread information as far and wide as possible is what has allowed our society to get as far as it has. Now they want DRM technologies so that information flow would be restricted. This is about as far from progress as a proposed law can get
I know this is so so off-topic, but its kinda fitting and without even reading the article im sure its obvious this is this years nomination for crazyest crack-induced suggestion by a corporation so its just not worth it. All these media giants are going crazy over making sure their films and 'entertainment' are protected more than most government documents (although in reality we all know how secure DRM is and how well people look after their laptops full of secret data) but theres a really interesting trend you can see for yourself on imdb.com - on the world-wide top rated of all time film list, almost every film was made before the last ten years, but on the world-wide top box-office earning list, almost all the films (that have made the most money) are from the last ten years. So to sum up, all the media companies are really keen to make sure you buy their films, yet they have been poor films but more money than ever before! infact almost every new release seems to be a box-office record breaker, but lets not forget, the last ten years have given us Gigli, Torque and Crossroads! how can they be making so much money with so much crap? My theory is its a conspiracy (obviously) and they are trying to get rid of the means for the masses to make their own entertainment (limit the quality of cameras and audio equipment without a license) after that and DRM they can make us watch whatever they want, why? because (double conspiracy) they have embedded subliminal messaging into films that will turn us into their slaves! the new overlords are comming!
sorry i kinda discredited the rest of the post there..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
How far are these people willing to go? The only way they can stop people from writing applications that don't bother to obey DRM is to make compilers illegal.
Its about controll.
:)
Big Media wants to make it such that devices that play non-DRM media are illegal.
This would mean that if you wanted to create content (music, movies, probobly also Software if companies like M$ get in on the act), you need to pay big $$$ to Big Media to do so (and since they have a monopoly, they can, if they dont like the content you want to create, refuse to licence to you period).
What I want to know is why the big Technology companies (who have the most to loose from this action) dont get together and fight back...
Companies like ATI, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, IBM and others. Not to mention companies built around "free software" like RedHat. As well as organizations like the EFF and FSF. If these groups got together to fight Big Media... (remember, the technology industry is BIGGER than the media industry in terms of total $$$)
If needs be, use their own dirty tricks against them (back-door "secret" payments to congress etc)
Although on the other hand, I suspect that there is some reason I havent thought of as to why opposing this would actually be bad rather than good for the tech companies
While the FCC is asking the question about copy protection for digital broadcast radio, as it stands they do not really have the authority to actually mandate any copy protection for it. I'm pretty sure that those in charge are aware of that as well.
The only reason the broadcast flag for TV happened was because Congress gave the FCC broadened authority to move the DTV transition. That expanded authority is missing for digital radio, and will likely never happen.
So, calls for the FCC to mandate DRM will not likely work, and if the FCC tries, it would probably be killed by a court appeal. Watch Congress - that's where anything important will happen.
I fear that most people are already too far gone. Most poor bastards don't have enough independent thought left to even think that it's possible to question a notion like "A creator should receive economic compensation every time their work is copied". People simply think that the current system is "just the way it is", and their hobbled minds aren't flexible enough to even comprehend that things could be different.
This statement is VERY consistent with my experience of non-geeks. I actually DO socialize with non-geeks on a regular basis (I don't even refer to them as non-geeks...thats just for the benefit of slashdot). They are utterly unaware of these intellectual property issues, and they DO all blindly accept the notion that content creators should have complete control of content use until the end of time, and so on. The history of copyright law, the ideals of public domain, and so on, are completely lost on them.
Stupidity and ignorance are outright dangerous. Unfortunately, pointing out one's stupidity/ignorance is never well-received.
LRM is a Legal Rights Management system designed to control legal rights given to corporations for the protection of humanity. The system will allow corporations to exist and to run business under fair-trade conduct but will prevent them from stealing the rights of others. LRM will also provide mechanisms to control corporations for the purpose of new and exciting business methods such as limited time models and restricted mergers. under the *IT TACA DA PISS Act, LRM will be mandatory for all registered corporations. The following is a brief guide to the key features of the proposed LRM:
- Limited Time Models:
Corporations will be allowed to use business models for a limited time only determined by public vote. For example, the distribution and sale of plastic disks containing digitally encoded video and audio maybe restricted by public vote to a time of (for example) 1 year. After this time the corporation or corporations would be forbidden from practising this business model.
- Restricted Mergers:
The number of mergers or 'buy outs' a corporation will be permitted to perform would be determined and hard coded into this legislation. After the allowed number of mergers a corporation would have to be liquidated (the assets rewarded to the tax payer) and rebuilt to regain its allowance.
- Fair-trade Conduct:
A democratic process will exist for the regulation of all corporate entities. Voting by the general population will determine rules by which corporations must follow. Such rules could include the restriction of DRM technology in products that are deemed 'aggressive' by the voters and the clear labelling or banning of products that attempt to tamper with the parameters of existing playback devices (such tampering if not clearly labelled may be deemed criminal intrusion of a remote computer system). Flaws in products may also require clear labelling including the lack of security measures deemed vital at the time of production.
- The restriction of 'tools' for the purpose of by-passing LRM
Lawyers, Head-quarter Relocation, Campaign Contributions, 'Politicians', Sponsored School Education Programmes and 'Remakes' will be banned, their use, trafficking, sale, possession and discussion will be offences subject to fines of up to $10,000,000,000 (which will be rewarded to the tax payer) or 2 years corporate suspension (from a tall building).
*IT TACA DA PISS Act:
It Takes Ages Creating A Decent Anagram Politicians IMFO Should Stop.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Have you got your Listener's License?
Listen and heed. It's coming, unless we stop it.
I must have the director's cuts of some of those Disney movies, because I just got through watching The Jungle Book and there wasn't a stitch of clothing on that oh-so-friendly bear. Also, in Dumbo they try to draw your attention away from it but if you freezeframe it you see that the mouse doesn't have pants on, just a shirt...
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
When you outlaw Non-DRM audio, only outlaws will use Non-DRM audio!
Actually i think they might be on to something here - we live in a democratic society right? so how about we put it to the people, do you want:
a) Mandatory devices on all digital audio recorders that control what you can and cant record and recording off digital radio (just like you used to record off analog radio) to be illigal.
or b) No high quality digital _Disney_ radio service
Yes we can all live without Disney (i've been living without them for years)
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
These implants would detect when you have a song stuck in your head, and on each such occasion, cause the appropriate sum of money to be transferred from your bank account to that of the appropriate copyright holder. For your convenience, the same implant could also be used to detect thoughtcrime, using rules similar to those in spam filtering software. Matching one of these rules would be considered an automatic conviction under the law, with no due process, no investigation, no arrest, and no trial. The implant would simply cut off the flow of blood to the brain. This feature would, of course, be utilized by the primary feature of the implant, in that if your bank account runs out of money and you get a song stuck in your head, the flow of blood will be cut off.
Because the brain is one of the most prevalent devices out there that can record audio.
Who the hell do they think they are?
They got filthy rich on the cartoons of their founder. Now they're trying to lock up the world into encrypted DRM hell?
If you're worried about your movies getting leaked on the internet, deal with it yourself (like the special DVDs for screeners). I've got no problem with that.
Hire security guards to shoot filmers in the cinema. I don't give a damn.
Bring out your movies on super secure quartz atomic encrypted cubes - I dont care, I'll get a player IF I WANT.
But dont you DARE go sticking your nose into how I store my personal data and creations.
If it forcibly comes into my house (broadcast) and I can legally watch/hear it, then I can also find a way to record it, whether using a needle and hot wax or a fast learning talking parrot. TURN OFF THE TRANSMITTER if that upsets you.
Here we go again:
DRM will be a disaster once:
- keys start getting lost, corrupted or failed
- key providing/validation services go under/
ot they abandon your DRM format
(side note: if Win 2.0 had activation, would
MS still provide me a key if I had to
get an install going NOW to run some old
software????)
- your hardware fails or is stolen (and all
your media was tied to some unique key
therein)
- your media is partially corrupted
(good luck recovering DRM encoded material
off media with corrupt TOCs or bad blocks).
"The ones who leech off the talented are the ones who run the show."
...is that Disney was one of the VERY FIRST to LITERALLY circumvent copyright law in order to keep their Mickey Mouse in their possession for longer than the law says they can. This is what REAL copyright circumvention is. The perfect example of why the rules don't apply to the gigantic conglomerates, but the rest of us can all go to Hell.
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
They are wasting their own time and money. Why do they bother coming up with these hairbrained anti-piracy schemes when within the space of 3 days, some spotty teen who lives in a basement is able to break it and spread the hack far and wide? They are better off making good content than trying to protect the usual pap they are trying to sell.
RebateFX.com - Spread rebates for Forex traders
Disney - pay tax and we may listen to you.