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European DRM News
burgburgburg writes "Two new fronts opening in the battles over digital rights management. First: news.com is reporting how French authorities are investigating EMI France and music retailer Fnac over anticopying technology included on CDs that allegedly renders them unplayable on some systems. The investigation began after the Bureau of Competition's antifraud unit (DDCCRF) received complaints from a consumer group known as UFC-Que Choisir. Second: BusinessWeek reports that the EC is investigating Microsoft to make sure that they don't illegally dominate the field of digital rights management. Regulators have told Microsoft and its partner Time Warner that they are looking into their plan to acquire the company ContentGuard, which makes DRM software because of concerns that it will create or strengthen Microsoft dominance of the field."
When is someone going to investigate region coding? its anti-competative and has absolutely nothing to do with copy protection.
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If they ever perfect DRM people will just make an analog copy and take the one time (small) quality hit. I'm not even going to talk about bit-for-bit copys that the real pirates use. It's really just a way to lock in the consumer.
wanted: one clever sig,apply within
Any CD that's copy protected shouldn't be called a CD. Simple enough...
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
this wouldn't be around for very long. I doubt that's how it will work out, though. :-(
..."Contraband" by Velvet Revolver, a band newly formed by ex-members of Guns N' Roses and the former frontman of the Stone Temple Pilots, became a best seller in June despite heavy copy protection and a warning on the packaging.
(above excerpt from the USA today article.)
http://request-header.info
How about this?
Set the copyright system back to the default 14+14 years. If the record companies decide to use DRM on their stuff, make it illegal for them to apply for the 2nd 14 years. That way people can make backups of their stuff unhindered by sh*tty copy protection, and they get to make a little more money.
-=OR=-
Let them keep their Life+70 terms and DRM. In turn file sharing must be legalized and royalty-free sampling and public performance made legal for everyone who buys a CD.
Why yes I am paranoid! Thanks for asking!
I recently bought a CD from Fnac - "Face A/Face B" by Axelle Red. It says right on it that it incorporates copy-protection technology, though it also carries the official CD logo.
The results:
Linux: plays.
Windows: loads their CD player without asking, crashes system.
Car CD player: plays.
Portable Discman-style CD player: doesn't play. Each track plays about 9 seconds in then gets stuck in a loop skipping back a couple of seconds.
"My name is L...Laura..."
Sorry. Friday afternoon. A bit punchy.
...laura
The "one lock" method has been used repeatedly by the content industry. Think Macrovision and CSS. It has the disadvantage you stated (crack one, crack 'em all) but has the advantage of providing consistency and influence over people who make content players.
If there are six big content providers each with their own system, and one of their DRM systems screws up on one the players, the manufacturer of the player will say "The DRM is screwy and we don't support it. Bitch at the content provider." If there are six big providers who all use the same system, and it doesn't work on one player, then the player is broken and it will be "fixed" to work with the DRM.
Remember, DRM isn't about stopping piracy. It's about controlling how the everyday user consumes content and allowing the content providers to build a revenue structure as they see fit without having to worry about users circumventing it through things like (time|space|format) shifting.
Very true, but there's a gamble there as well. For instance, if MS and T-W were to come up with one system, and other groups came up with their own, there would be the temptation to break the other guy's system, to drive artists to your "better" DRM system (DMCA items aside). Especially if MS has desktop dominance and an interest in promoting one system over another, seeing as they're the only folks that know how their OS interacts with the software.
DRM is actually a beautiful catch-22 for MS. They can cash out any way you build it, because all they need to do is break/leak competing software, and competitors are screwed. (And as history shows, MS has no problem doing this when the situation calls.) So, MS builds a system, IP's it to death, and gets to call the shots on who gets to do what. Even if someone were to do the same for another OS (not that OSS folks are real big on the DRM idea), they're risking MS's ire.
So, in one smooth "righteous" move, MS automatically sweeps up the competition. Thanks to the DMCA and other fine laws, reverse engineering and so on means that no other OS users will be able to listen to music on their PCs. Then, while sales fall, those laws will get tightened even more , until using another OS is all but illegal.
It kind of reminds me of school. Someone would screw things up for everybody else, because the boneheads in charge (in this case, congress), can't see that they need to deal with the real problem (putzes that load 500 CDs onto the internet). Instead, they want to "protect" everybody, so we all have to sit back and allow our computers to be loaded down with stuff to protect us from what we MIGHT be tempted to do.
Meanwhile, the majority of people respond with, "Baaa. I just want to listen to music. Baaa!" People often can't believe that the Inquisition happened without more people standing up against it, yet we're watching it unfold right in front of her eyes. Gotta love how history repeats itself.
Microsoft has just released their much anticipated hands-free cordless mouse. Warning, it may hurt a little at first.
Let Microsoft get the monopoly! If MS is controlling DRM technology, then it's sure to be completely insecure and easily hacked.
Still, I'm glad I've hung onto all my old LP's.
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
Stand up to industry bigwigs?
In case you've forgotten, we have the EUCD over here just as you have the DMCA overe there - the effective privatisation of copyright law (Corps now write their own rules - trying to circumvent those rules brings in the law).
Our governments are just as 0wnz0red by media corporations as America's, I'm afraid.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce