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Next-gen Copyright-aware P2P System Whitepaper
meier73 writes "A whitepaper has just been released detailing a secure (OpenSSL/digital signatures), copyright-aware P2P network. The paper claims that this system enables legal file trades, something that isn't guaranteed by Kazaa, Morpheus or eDonkey. The whitepaper goes on to state that the long-term goal of this system is to catalog
every human creation in existence that can be expressed by a digital medium. Project stats: a super-computing cluster that will scale to more than 900TB of storage, 300M transactions per day and trade music, television, movies and books.
Doesn't this constitute a responsible and legitimate use of P2P?"
Gnomoradio is also a legitimate use of P2P, though its catalog is much smaller at the moment...
You won't get modded up for stating the blatantly obvious.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
(Disclaimer: I don't work for id and don't know the details of their situation, but I do work in the game industry and am familiar with the practices in general.)
In many cases, copy protection like this is forced on developers by the publishers. The devs usually have absolutely nothing to do with it, never even touching (or knowing) the copy protection software used. For all of us, it's very frustrating because we try to provide users with as bug-free an experience as we can get, and then publishers slap a buggy-as-hell copy protection system on and we take the flak. They're the ones who are all paranoid about pirates, while we mostly just want people to have fun playing our game.
That's a mistake, really. I bought D3 when it came out and love playing it. While you can't use CD emulation cd software to pretend the cd is in the disk is a moot point, even trying to copy the cd doesn't work. {I've tried this with several programs and in linux using bit-for-bit copies, still never worked- let me know if i was doing something wrong.)
= 9&t=4091 or you can search google for that tutorial that allows you to play w/o the cd in the drive. (sorry I couldn't find a link for it, could someone kindly post it for me?)
So I found a tutorial on the internet on how to effectively use a HEX editor on doom3.exe to essentially remove the software protection, or copyright (whatever it was called, I cannot remember)
You can learn how to run Doom3 on Windows 98 Systems (which is something you can't do normally) using this tutorial: http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/index.php?act=ST&f
Anyways, just because _you_ can't run the game without the CD in the drive is your own shortcoming and not the reason for pirating the software. It's just a justification for your act of piracy and don't try to delude yourself or others into believing that this is in any way a correct cource of action.
Besides, this is a minor annoyance to have a cd check of any kind. But havn't ID in the past, provided a patch that removed the cd check as a convienence factor for us? Come on.. just lighten up a little and do some hard work by hexing it yourself, or finding someone who can do it for you.
p.s. I've scanned those doom3.exe no-cd cracked files you can download, and they're almost all serial stealers that use a quick hash and send it off to somewhere on the net. Especially off p2p networks; they're usually worms etc.
--zoloto
No problem :).
"If as you say you supply me with a number (say 15) keys so that I can upload an album of my homegrown music (1 key per file if I understand you correctly)."
I must have said something confusing in my last post, I'm sorry. We don't give you keys for uploading music, we give out keys for software.
If you're simply interested in getting your music onto the network, you don't need to worry about keys at all. You simply signup as an artist and upload your mp3's via our website. If you want to sell someone else's music, you use our sales server to associate mp3s with their respective creative works that we have catalogued and then set your prices. I'm sorry for the confusion.
"What is to stop me from uploading 1 of my tracks, and 14 tracks from (insert_popstar_here)? What if I am not the only one doing it?"
If you want to become an artist on our network, you must send us information so we can verify your identity. We also make sure that you're the actual owner of whatever works you claim and upload to the network before we allow them to be sold.
Now, if anyone tries to sell a file on the network that isn't associated correctly (i.e. you use an mp3 of metallica, but you associate it as "mary's little lamb"), then the buyer who tries to purchase the song from you isn't going to be very happy :). He'll come to us and get the correct copy of the song for no extra charge, but we'll also know that you're not selling the right music to people. We'll let you know what you need to fix -- but if you keep doing it we'll have to assume you're doing it on purpose and fine or ban you :(.
"(ps, I think the best solution to most of the issues I have raised is to impliment a karma/moderation type system for your uploaders. Look around slash for some ideas)"
We have exactly that :). Buyers and sellers can vote for each other on the system, and when transactions go awry, your "karma" can go down.
Again, sorry if I misled you about the keys -- that has to do with verifying 3rd party client software, not content on the network.
Dave Longley
CTO
Digital Bazaar
The system described in the whitepaper has been implemented - its purpose is to enable anybody on a P2P network to support the artist while trading files legally with their friends and other people on the net. We have a very difficult balancing act to perform: help the artist and fan without removing any of their rights.
The protocol is open because we want to enable software interoperability (we don't want to lock anybody out of the network using special file formats or nasty DRM - we believe in protecting fair use).
Here is how the system works, in a nutshell:
- Artists register a creative work for sale on Bitmunk - they set a royalty, each time a file sale happens, a royalty is distributed to them. Lets say 30 cents (almost 3 times as much as the artist gets from iTunes or similar services).
- Somebody comes along and has an MP3 or FLAC or OGG of the creative work registered by the artist and wants to provide it on the network. They setup a sales server and want a cut of the sale whenever somebody buys it from their sales server. Lets say their cut is 20 cents. Bitmunk's cut is 15 cents (for providing the service).
- Somebody searches the network and finds the seller and the creative work they are selling and buys it for 65 cents.
- The person that just bought the file can then turn around, set their own sales server up and (since they like the artist, and also have a slower connection) charge 10 cents for re-distributing the song on their sales server. Now people have a choice between buying the song for 55 cents or 65 cents.
What incentive do people have for using such a system? Here are a couple:- Its legal - you don't have to worry about a lawsuit.
- You can support the artist more directly, and make money doing it. You can then use that money to buy other stuff off the network, or transfer it directly to your bank account.
- We don't use DRM for copyright enforcement. The system doesn't treat you like a criminal.
- The financial aspects of the network operate on efficient market theory - it is incredibly efficient at finding the perfect price for the artist and the buyer (this means cheaper music, with more money going to the artist). If you look at a supply/demand curve - the network finds the equilibrium point very quickly.
None of the online music stores do this. In the iTunes world, it is a corporation selling to you. On Bitmunk, it is your peers selling to you and vice-versa with most of your money going to the artist.Bitmunk is a network where you are (along with the artist) in control of setting the prices. We're not trying to emulate a "true P2P" network as you put it - we're trying to do something that is far more important - help artists and fans. This isn't marketing BS speaking - we are putting everything we have into making a system that works for everybody.
If you would take the time to look over the site, you would see that we are making a very serious attempt at solving the current problems with digital media distribution. Go to the forums, ask some questions - I guarantee that we can answer them.
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
It would not run for me while I had cloneCD's cd emulator or cloneCD installed. Needless to say I was a bit irked by this.