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Welcome to the Future of DRM Media
MrFancyPants writes "'DRM, digital rights management, is quite possibly the holy grail of the music and movie industry, allowing them to control exactly how DRM protected content is used, distributed and above all can be tracked right down to the individual end user.' Hardware Analysis reports on a horror story of someone picking up a DVD recently and having to go through an agonizing process of installing DRM-enabled applications to even get it to play on his computer. If this is what the future holds, you'd better think twice about buying DVDs and other media, as you're basically at the mercy of the producer."
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june01/iannella/06iannell a.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_managPeople pay money for products that suit their needs. If a product fails to meet the needs of the user, they can:
- bitch and complain
- return the product
- don't buy such products in the future.
If what the xxAA sells suits the needs of enough customers, they'll be successful with it. If they're overly restrictive then they'll fail. Obviously they think that most consumers won't mind the limitations, or even notice them.
Is that so difficult to understand? Just because YOU can't rip a DVD doesn't mean that the MPAA will care.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
Welcome to the end of them seeing a single one of my dollars.
I refuse to financially support this horseshit.
i'll just continue to rent them from blockbusters and use http://www.dvdshrink.org/ to rip, copy and burn them.
From the article: That agreement, amongst other things, stated that I could only play back the content for a period of five days, on the computer I installed the InterActual Player application onto, after which I had to re-acquire a license.
Plenty of time to make a "fair use" DivX copy. And share it on BitTorrent just out of spite.
Just
> better think twice about buying DVDs and other media, as you're basically at
> the mercy of the producer
Not just that - most users simply aren't capable of installing all that crap even if they wanted to. Loads of people have problems even double or right clicking on something (and I'm not just talking about Apple customers, either).
I used to buy a pile of music cd's. Even after mp3's appeared, even after napster and their ilk... I liked having the CD, and I liked having the highest possible quality recording I could get.
What has happened now, is that the last two "CDs" I've bought had DRM on them, and the only reason I bought them is because I love the two bands (radiohead and the tea party). I can't play them without putting special sfotware on my XP box. Which I refuse to do because it's stupid and I paid for the CD in the first place.
So now I never listen to those two CDs.
And then I realised, why buy something I never listen to?
So I dont buy anymore CD's. That was a year ago.
Coralized link of the DRM'ed T2 Extreme DVD
Quick summary for all those too lazy to read the article:
Content needed WMP9 with InterActual Player, which required a license, which could only be retrieved if you connected from US or Canada. And, the content could only be played for 5 days. Author concludes "Shame on you Artisan Home Entertainment Inc. and may this serve as a prime example of DRM at its worst."
Gan Family Homepage
They're gonna try this because they are stupid and need to be dragged kicking and screaming into every new market that opens for them, but ultimately the power is in *our* hands because we have the money they want. When we stop buying DVDs that are overpriced and burdensome, they'll dump the DRM.
DRM isn't nearly as valuable to them as... say... having a market for them in the first place. When the returns start coming back to retailers from people like my mother-in-law, they'll relent.
Trust me.
She's very persuasive.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
As we saw in another slashdot article, the DVD business makes up a large amount of the Hollywood's profits. Watch the movie in the theatres and don't buy the DVD's and watch the DVD portion of the profits plummet.
Hollywood and the music companies aren't budging. The masses are just accepting what they push down our throats. Perhaps it is time to use our power as consumers?
Because the Industry still wants to..
That is why we should whoop up to http://www.magnatune.com/ and support John in his struggle as independant and open media company!
copyleft
creative commons
In this case, the solution is to use DVD Shrink and make a copy for yourself without all of that extra bullshit on it. There will ALWAYS be a software solution to this crap.
I don't respond to AC's.
If sales of the DRM versions of films stink, then the powers that be won't be able to implement them profitably. We need to make sure that the cost in lost sales due to DRM techniques pissing of the customer exceed the lost sales due to the media being copiable. Of course this is easier said than done, as there are millions of customers that need to be organized versus just a few production companies that can easily rally together, but it is the only way that production companies will get the message.
It's like DIVX (no, not the video compression, the now defunct DVD competitor that had embedded DRM), DIVX movies were cheaper than DVD's but they had a limited license that had to be renewed for multiple viewing (like pay per view). Customers rejected it and it (thankfully) died an ugly death.
"...you'd better think twice about buying DVDs...."
Yes, this obviously encourages piracy. When the "legit" ones are difficult to view/listen to, it drives people to the nice "cracked" versions that are much easier to use.
this is a repost of an AC post I did by accident.
I used to buy a pile of music cd's. Even after mp3's appeared, even after napster and their ilk... I liked having the CD, and I liked having the highest possible quality recording I could get.
What has happened now, is that the last two "CDs" I've bought had DRM on them, and the only reason I bought them is because I love the two bands (radiohead and the tea party). I can't play them without putting special sfotware on my XP box. Which I refuse to do because it's stupid and I paid for the CD in the first place.
So now I never listen to those two CDs.
And then I realised, why buy something I never listen to?
So I dont buy anymore CD's. That was a year ago.
And what exactly is this a slashvertisement for? To tell us not to buy the T2 über-edition?
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
The real problem with DVDs is having to go through the agony of watching all the warnings, ads, and amatuer animation, before being allowed to watch the movie that one has duly licensed. This agony clearly drives consumers to the P2P networks to acquire a copy that just allows us to watch the movie, without 5 minutes of 'value added content'.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Once he installed the third party player and received a license, he no longer needs the third party player. WMP9 will play the content.
The license acquisition url of the protected file points to a webpage that had him install a third party player, instead of delivering a license like it's suppose to according to the Windows Media SDKs.
So instead they have their crappy player deliver the license. It's just a scam to get you to install their player.
Once you have the license, Windows Media Player will not open the license aqcuisition URL again. It will just play the file.
-- I lick the WMSDK ass-crack for a living...
Boycott that crap!!! Thats what!
...don't watch them at all. Why give them any money at all if you are that unsatisfied with their product/service?
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
The problem isn't that they DRMed their stuff. Fine. Let them. It's theirs, not ours, even if we really, really want it to be. But not telling us that it is DRMed is misleading advertising. It's like selling someone a car that automatically spraypaints the inside of their garage or else refuses to turn on. If the car manufacturer requires a garage to be painted a certain color, then fine, they can do that, no matter how ridiculous it may be. But they have to make that extremely pertinent information known prior to the sale.
If I can see it, I can copy it. If I can hear it, I can record it.
At some point, no matter how high-tech the DRM gets, the data must be presented in a form humans can perceive. All the encryption in the world won't stop little Mikey from holding a microphone up to the outputs and making a non-DRM copy.
To anyone who says that such a copy will be inferior in quality, I note two points:
1) The loss only occurrs once. The non-DRM copy can then be shared digitally with no further loss of quality.
2) The original work was recorded from the air. The band actually played its song, or the actor actually did his thing. If similar technology is used to create the non-DRM copy, the loss will be negligible. (Imagine a home theatre system set up on a soundstage in someone's basement, with pickups and equipment to record its "performance")
People also seem to have this irrational fear that the old technology will suddenly disappear. My digital camcorder is pretty good, and it will still exist when the world is DRM'd. So will my mp3 player, and so will my non-DRM compliant microphones.
Furthermore, there will be a high demand for DRM-noncompliant technology. Even if it is illegal, I predict a briskly moving black market in such technology. If there's a dollar to be made, someone will make it.
As for watermarking: pay cash.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
What sort of DRM does the Radiohead CD have? Just wondering. Is it the type where you press the Shift key and the DRM goes away?
I'm pretty much out of it when it comes to buying new CDs. When the RIAA censored Napster and its users, I made the decision that buying CDs was kind of immoral (like buying goods made in slave factories).
I used to have this mindset. Well, I still do. But at the moment, I've gotten to the point where it's really starting to be a pain in the ass as a ligitimate consumer. The FBI warnings are twice as long now. I'm getting annoying warning messages when I pop a DVD in my computer to watch. I'm at the point where I've found it more enjoyable to have DIVX versions on my hard drive.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
Seirously, this isn't a horror story... it's shady marketing. A horror story would be if it required him to install a 3rd party application which broke/uninstalled the rest of his stuff, and then it went outside, keyed his car, then poured arsenic on his lawn.... because the player's development office was built on top of an INDIAN BURIAL GROUND!
I get the rights when this gets on the big screen.
- Dan
The buyer already owned a regular copy of the film. He bought this version because it had a HD format copy of the film in WMV9 format, but this version was DRM'ed.
If he DVD Shrink'ed the film, that would defeat the purpose of buying the better quality HD version.
DRM is the digital version of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
That was my Christmas Slashdot Discussion Contribution this year!
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
and of course, when the VHS recorder was introduced in the 80's, the movie makers were doomed and saw the writing on the wall
You don't need your Mommy government to stop this one. The free market will do just fine.
Make your case in the free and open market place of ideas. People will stop buying DVDs and the DRM will change. If people don't stop buying then you'll realize, again, that you are in the tin foil hat minority.
I have the feeling that the revolt against DRM will not come until it's too late. Too may people are content to drop a DVD into their set top combo DVD/VCR that they bought at Walmart for $40 and watch the movie. Until DRM starts to affect these people, there will be no change.
This entire DRM issue is an infringement of our right to privacy. The technology will allow producers to track every move of every piece of content, any time. They will know what I watch or listen to, how many times, when and where. In short, they will have to come up with something less intrusive, or a lot of people will go for "trackfree" content instead.
Play dumb, every time you go back to walmart/Smart return the cd/dvd and complain that it doesn't work. Get a duplicate and take it home open it and return it the next time claiming it doesn't work after about 5 or 6 tries they'll just give you your money back and if enough people do it they'll bitch back up the line, and stop dealing with that particular DRM...just an idea.
You can legislate morally you can't legislate morality
"At some point, no matter how high-tech the DRM gets, the data must be presented in a form humans can perceive. All the encryption in the world won't stop little Mikey from holding a microphone up to the outputs and making a non-DRM copy."
When Mikey's PC automatically checks the digital watermark on the incoming music against some distant secret CDDB-like database, and shuts off the recording because "microphone recording of protected media violates the license code", this just won't work.
The only way you will be able to do this is with hacked hardware/software, or with vintage tape recorders.
DRM and the fighting against it are both losing battles. First, most of the trouble I hear about with DRM involves playing protected media on PCs. As long as the media works in the DVD player that the average Jane User has in the living room, most people won't care. That part of it is what, in some sense, has Microsoft worried the most. Microsoft has to develop and promote DRM on Windows to first satisfy the rights owners and then to be able to promote Windows as the preferred media platform. But Jane User doesn't need Windows to play DVDs and generally wants to stay as far away from those difficult to use PCs as possible. DRM nightmare stories will make sure that she doesn't even think about playing DVDs in a PC.
/.. ;-)
At the other extreme, as usual, DRM will not stop the real pirates who have time and resources to defeat any DRM scheme. So ironically for Microsoft and the entertainment industry, people will still be able to get cheaper pirate DVDs they will happily play in DVD players that do not (in most cases) use any Microsoft technology. Knowledgable PC users (ie geeks) will continue to find ways to get around DRM and/or b*tch about it here on
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Everyone loves to bash Big Media, and how ??AA is teh suck, but people still queue up and slurp up the latest to be shovelled out of Hollywood. It's now a "well known fact" that current pop music is garbage, but people keep buying it. Its not enough to say "well, I wont buy DRM stuff", because whats still implied is "but I'll buy everything else".
Do you really need all of the Sopranos on DVD? Must you watch 3.5 hours of TV per day? Must you buy the latest boy band or cookie cutter post-grunge band CD? While we on Slashdot may seek out entertainment in non traditional ways, on dark alleys of the Internet, or by frequenting local music venues, the majority of people, while they may bitch, continue to shovel money at ??AA.
It's the same way the US complains about high oil prices - we THROW money at OPEC, then complain when they charge us more. Who's the bad guy there?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
So DRM can degrade the customer experience? No shit, Einstein. I think we /.ers have known this for some time.
And we need to think twice before buying that DVD? I don't need to think even once. If they don't put it in a format that I can use (and yes, these formats exist), I just don't buy it.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
The movies people download don't have DRM to hassle with. So now on top of getting the movie for free, they get possibly a better product.
When will these industries learn that you can't slow P2P by pissing off legitimate customers?
could, the author, of this article, be William Shatner, in disguise, maybe, hiding between all the, commas?
Self-referential sigs are rarely entertaining.
I am personally offended by digital rights management software. As a guy who uses multiple operating envirionments (linux, OS X, beos, windows xp, QNX, and a couple of others) I need data compatibility across all of my platforms. digital media has been pretty much standardized by way of open formats and codecs. people with either multiple computers, or multiple operating environments are plagued to use proprietary and mostly inferior operating environments (read windows) in order to play back new media... this is ridiculous! not to mension that the more layers of DRM you apply the more opprotunity that the playback isn't going to work anyway. I should not have to jump through hoops to play "legitimately obtained" media. now that those socially and legally honnored arguments are out of the way everything comes back to one simples statement that hackers (no, i'm not talking about crackers here, i'm talking about persons who creatively solve technical problems) have always stated. "information is ment to be free". I'm a strong believer in this statement. the nature of information is that it can be stored on any medium. can be broadcast to anyone, and is difficult to control. intelectual property is just plain a bad idea. donationware, shareware, etc. is fine, but users should never be forced to pay for information that can be stored and shared freely at no expense to the content creator. rebroadcasting and redistributing of all media should be perfectly legal under fair use. if you are going to make something public then leave it public, don't make every single user pay for it. so long as there is DRM, there will be a group of good, dedicated hackers to creatively circumvent these crazy limitations and a band of followers.
May the coffee god Smile upon you!
In a similar view, though probably not as annoying as this, I got to be a fan of Monk. Even though it's on "basic" cable, we really did not feel like shelling out an extra 30-35 USD a month to be able to watch this series. So we got friends to tape a few episodes for us, but for the most part, we waited for the series DVDs to come out. As they are now, you have to put up with the ads for other USA series on the f*#@!ing DVD, and it won't allow you to skip them. Thankfully, our player as a 16x or 32x FF mode, so it made short work of that. But it's getting REALLY annoying.
... maybe we'll see a shift.
...
We also have a ton of movies on VHS that we WERE thinking of buying, but now were reconsidering. I've already invested in a Canopus ADVC-100, and all I still need to get is a fast-enough hard drive to capture and process about 3 hours of video at a time... With all their DRM and further annoyances, the MPAA just lost at least 1K or so in movie sales from us. Not even a drop in their bucket, but if enough people do it, maybe
Remember folks, speak not only with your voices, but with your $$. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only thing that really gets through these days
I have an extensive collection of purchased movies and such. As situations like this continue to arise I find myself ripping more often. Not because I don't have the money to purchase something but simple for the fact that it's my way of protesting.
Hopefully more and more consumers will protest via whatever means they feel necessary. My hopes is that for a day, week or even a month there could be local, state or a country rally where no DVDs are either purchased or rented. Hit them where it hurts - their bottome line!
Q: I am short, useless and provide no value. What am I? A: a sig
horror story... agonizing process of installing DRM-enabled applications... mercy of the producer...
If I dare read this article, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. Sounds like chilling stuff!
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I've seen a message about installing the Interactual Player from several DVDs. I generally cancel the message and play the DVD with my own DVD decoder software. The message usually claims that you need to install the software to playback the movie, but as far as I've seen, this is not true. This makes sense to me because the movie plays fine in his DVD player. I'd be willing to bet that if he used any other program than Windows Media Player he would be able to play the DVD with no issues.
Let me guess: you're one of those "no children left behind" from Texas, right?
The T2 extreme edition WM9 disc isn't a DVD-Video.
This is also old news, I think as of last year? Man, Slashdot editors really is getting stale and behind the times.
I see one crappy bit of software (I've had to use InterActual's player before, unfortunately) and a stupid decision concerning a licence combining to provide a shitty user experience.
When this is the norm, come back and say you told me so. Until then, just complain to the people responsible for this crap; if enough people do so and mean it, they'll either see the error of their ways, or go bust; either way is a win.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Bingo! A copy of the Cluetrain Manifesto, would be the ideal holiday gift for the **AA executive on your holiday gift-giving list.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The biggest problem are the typical computer users; they don't realize how badly they're getting screwed. As a Linux user, I realize just how invasive some of the things producers are doing really are, but Joe Six-pack (poor Joe) doesn't have (or WANT) a clue; until this stops being a niche issue that only geeks understand, it won't change. When will that happen? Beats hell out of me; I still can't figure out how Microsoft sells anything computer related, but people, for the most part, are cattle; they believe what they're told.
My family used to buy about a dozen CD's per year. I'd take the CD's - convert it to MP3's - put it on my home server for listening at home, and download individual MP3's to my MP3 player for music on the go and in my car. First time I bought a CD that was DRM'ed and couldn't be extracted - I stopped buying CD's. Haven't bought one in over two years. If the studios load up DVD's with DRM to the point that they can't be used - DON'T BUY THEM! Abusing your customers is not a viable long term business strategy.
[Insert pithy quote here]
in the ONLY language they understand - revenue!
Return the DVD to the store for a refund.
If you don't hit them in the sales, they'll NEVER hear your message. If you keep the DVD and gripe online, they won't HEAR your message quite as clearly as if you return it. True, they will see reduced revenue as Slashdotters stay away from the DVD, but it won't be quite as direct.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Elvis is 50 this year, which means in exactly 10 days time he will start to come out of copyright and be put into the public domain (just incase anyone didn't know what Elvis sounded like)
So, what about DRM.
if I download Elvis from Real and they put DRM on the track how the hell am I supposed to make as many copies of the public domain work as I want?
This is based on the assumption that...
DRM is technical not artistic so it doesn't count as a new work, just a copy.
Real used the original Elvis recording (or copy of).
you live in the UK (or possibly the EU as well)
But still holds true in 50 years time when that DRM music you purchased comes out of copyright, how can you then put it into the public domain?
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
That's a 3D shooter for PC. It not only has the normal copy protection requiring the user to have the DVD in the drive but also checks for DVD Backup programs installed and will refuse to run if one is found. Unfortunately, the error message was very unspecific and forced me to try-and-error uninstall some programs. When I asked a friend who works for a game mag, he told me that these methods become more and more common. That was half a year ago btw.
Aren't you already at the mercy of the producer to produce something in the first place?
I, for one, welcome the DRM overlords. I would happily install endless amounts of software if it meant I could watch such cinematic delights as T3 in HDTV.
"That's the way a free-market works. You don't HAVE to buy that move, you know..."
Nope, they don't have to buy. They'll simply engage in a never-ending war of attrition, that'll devastate the media landscape for everyone, innocent and guilty alike. It'll be like the Palestinean and Israelite conflict all over again. Neither side backing down, convinced they're right, and the other side's wrong. Grooming sons, and daughters for a war they didn't have a hand in creating. Devoting money and technology, that in a sane world would go to better causes. The Content industry fighting for it's economic existance. The pirates fighting for free entertainment. No one a winner, and we all lose. Wonder when the bulldozers, and the bombings will start?
With stuff being leaked early all the time, there'll still be plenty of non-DRM'd copies of music and movies floating about the place. The trick will be to track them down and download them without the MPAA/RIAA detecting such things.
For context, I am in the USA.
If the commercial says "Buy the movie now" but the packaging says you are only licensing the movie, isn't this called false advertising?
Shouldn't the commercial be "Get your license to view this movie as we see fit, including 20 minutes of commercials that play each time you view the movie - which you cannot skip."?
1) I don't know about the Slashdot crowd, but I don't have a couch right next to my computer. Although my computer chair is plenty comfortable, it doesn't allow me to lie down, and otherwise restricts my position.
2) My 17" 4:3-aspect ratio monitor is not the best movie watching environment. Sadly, linux does not want to use it's widescreen function, so no matter what I do, it's always between two black bars.
3) My desk is cluttered. If I even wanted to wire up a good (I mean good; I can hear small things) surround sound system, with subwoofer, it would cost me at least a week of work, be amazingly frustrating, and cost at least another $2000.
Now, let's see what I have in my living room:
- 50-inch plasma HDTV display
- Full surround sound, prewired with the house, paired with an amazing preamp/video mode controller, a good amplifier, and some kickass speakers.
- Couch
- Kitchen within hearing and viewing distance
- Progressive scan DVD player
So, even if you never watch a movie on your computer again, it's not that bad. Provided I don't want to leave my computer, my monitor doubles as a (small) TV, which is connected to two gaming systems, each of which has the capability to play DVDs. C'mon /., I don't like DRM, but get your panties out of a bunch. I'd honestly be more concerned with music DRM, because *that's* all done on my computer.
There have been a number of times where I'm talking to folks about something, and the topic of Movies/CD's come up. When you're trying to explain to people why you don't buy them any more, it helps to have an actual, real world example of the problems that DRM brings to the table.
You seem like a nut job ranting about hte 3v17 of the man until you can sit Jane and Joe down and explain to them that they can't watch their new kickass T2 DVD they bought, because someone decided they didn't actually own it.
While it might be a holy grail for the major labels, I think the frustration that many consumers will have with the control will lead to a new boom in original freely available music online. Much like in the early 90s on the Amiga with mods and stuff.
'Unfortunately, after trying to play the dvd back with Windows Media Player 9, I couldn't get it to work'
Ah that little cherry, put a weird track on the DVD to make windows choke.
Windows Media Player 9 is the DRM.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Piracy (ARR!) of music and movies, even as a protest (yeah, right) isn't going to help eliminate DRM. In fact, it only strengthens the case of those industries trying to foist DRM on us in the first place.
It's only logical; the more people "pirate", the tighter the industries are going to try to clamp down. All at the expense of legitimate users who just want to watch/listen to what they paid for.
Let's face it, folks. DRM didn't just will itself into existence. It was the industries' response to people who wantonly ignored copyright laws for the sake of getting something without paying for it. Simply doing more of the same isn't going to make it go away.
Want to get rid of DRM? Stop buying CDs. Stop going to concerts. Stop buying DVDs. Stop going to the theatre. Cutting off revenue isn't going to be enough, as the industries can simply blame it on "piracy". Cutting off DEMAND would force them to address the true problem.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Remember Divx? The First Generation DVD players Circuit City pushed like crack that would play $5.00 DVD's for only a few days after the disk phoned home?
Don't be surprised when it makes a comeback in HD-DVD or BluRay. Regardless of how catastrophic a failure Divx was it was exactly what the MPAA wanted, which was a way to tell a DVD not to play unless the MPAA says so.
Simply put, the MPAA knows that the box office is eventually going to die. I mean why go to a cineplex and pay outrageous prices (for tickes and food) and then have to deal with cell phones and babies making a ton of noise in a sticky seat when you can just watch it in your own home theather on your couch with the same visual and audio quality on a HDTV.
Basicially their overall plan is to shift ticket sales from the Movie Theather to your Home Theather. It's already on in the Cable and Satellite Industry and it's going to start soon on the DVD side, if not with HD-DVD or Bluray then with the Next Format.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
You're already "at the mercy of the producer" when you buy any kind of content, in terms of quality.
Producers of content are able to sell it because the quality is high.
If DRM interferes with the overall quality, the companies that can't get their act together will ultimately fail or lose market share.
DRM isn't a big deal, unless you're stealing stuff.
Amazing magic tricks
I hope the folks who at DVD Decrypter update it so it will strip a DVD of all these cumbersome programs and such also.
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
"DRM ... is quite possibly the holy grail of the music and movie industry..."
;yes, and much like the infamous holy grail, is a completely unattainable myth.
"if it can be engineered, can be reverse-engineered."
;treehead
"If any part Linux was stolen, then Windows was the biggest heist in history."
You just lost them, try using the word customer next time, it puts you on top for a change.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I had a comic book character I invented that is out for Justice, but is blinded to think all crimes are equal. It starts out with the Indiscriminator perched above a bank and it shows two robbers running out below. He jumps off the bank in pursuit, but Wait theres a bunch of fleeing citizens. Whats more, some are jaywalking! So the Indiscriminator stops his pursuit of the bank robbers to beat up some jaywalkers. Later issues have him diving off an overpass to rip open the roof of a car thats speeding. He then beats up the driver.
God spoke to me.
DRM, digital rights management
Who do you think invented that term? if you call it digital rights management you are playing right into their pathetic marketing game. Call it digital restrictions management - a far more fitting description?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
You mean to say you need to be a deranged psychopath to not want to eat what they're putting on your plate? There is nothing to satisfy your entertainment needs than shrink-wrapped, genre head-cheese from M. P. Ass. A. member wiglomerates?
The reality is that Hollywood, Madison Av., and their ilk are focus-grouping themselves into oblivion. Mass-market values are a symptom of industrial production. There is no more mass. There is no more market, at least as understood by the behemoths.
Its a generational shift and its taking place now, before your eyes.
illegitimii non ingravare
There's a lot of posts here saying that if we don't like it, stop buying DRM'd CDs and DVDs and they will drop it. No they won't. If we stop buying DVDs and CDs the RIAA and MPAA will turn around and blame it on file sharing and tighten up DRM further. We can't win.
What if you've got no internet connection? How do you acquire a playback-license - is there a freephone number to call and get a playback key? Or is "Internet connection" listed in the system requirements on the back of the box?
Ding ding ding.
:)) and so I'll never buy HL2 (although since it doesn't run properly on Linux yet, I doubt I'd even pirate it ;)). On the other hand, I was so pleased to find a good Linux installer for UT04, which doesn't even require the CD to be present when you run it (!), that I almost bought another copy :)
I'm not a fan of piracy in any form, and have a couple of hundred grand's worth of original, legit DVDs, but if I were faced with a situation where I was required to jump through hoops to play something I had legitimately purchased, or forced to use a piece of hardware that "phoned-home" everytime I tried to play something, I would ditch my ethics and switch to piracy in a heartbeat. I'm not saying that piracy is justified; I'm simply stating what I would do.
Piracy will always (barring some incredibly devious, completely unhackable DRM that prevented even a relatively low-quality rip) happen, and it strikes me as utter insanity to inconvenience the legitimate user more than we inconvenience the pirate.
The same trend is happening in games, I gather (Half-Life 2 is a pain to play if you've purchased it; a breeze if you've obtained it illegally - although I haven't tried myself so feel free to set me straight on this
I went through a similar experience with a Sony CD (Star Search) that would not burn to a CD as advertised. Sony never answered the emails for help. Borders said I could not return it since it was opened. I finally called Borders corporate office and they gave me a gift card for the hassle. The retail channel is not ready to handle DRM-related issues.
" DO you think that is a responsible approach to resolving the issue? Seems terribly pragmatic to me. A much better approach is to buy non-restrictive DVDs. If you are morally opposed to DRM content, you should avoid it altogether and not simply circumvent it."
Morality has nothing to do with it. One can't have a moral basis against something, and take an immoral act to resolution. Ethics however is a different matter. Those are much more flexible, and amiable to the wants of the heart. That's why the middle east can be the way it is. Taking of a life can fit situational ethics perfectly, even though there's a moral prohabition against it (Though shall not kill).
Radioshack makes a DRM hack! It's crazy, i can't believe they're getting away with it! http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fna me=CTLG&product%5Fid=42-2387
OUT->IN
Let's not mix the issues. Because this company is lying about their product, and does not know how to make them user-friendly, does not mean that DRM is bad.
DRM itself is good. It enables studios to have less fear to distribute their movies online and keep gaining revenues out of them.
And sitributing online means that studios can save money on delivery costs by distributing their movies online. In the price you pay for buying or renting a DVD, you pay for the sales guy behind the counter, the monthly rent of the shop, the plastic piece of the DVD, the time people spend chosing which and how many they will put in each store, etc etc.
All this does not add value to me.
Also, distributing online gives more choice to the consumer, the movie is never sold out, you don't pay late fees, you don't have to move your butt back to the shop. Also, it makes the startup distribution costs lower, enbling smaller studios to aslo distribute less mainstream movies.
Without DRM, forget about all this, it will never happen.
Like many new technologies, the very first trials are not very user friendly at first, then it gets better.
No, the main problem of this technology is that it is in the process of being controlled by only 1 company in the world, and this company will take an unfair share of the pie. Very small per unit at first, but just enough to make billions selling overpriced operating systems.
Still arguing IE vs FireFox? The field is changing, and for once, MSFT is changing faster than anyone else.
T2 Extreme Edition: $14.99
"After routing my IP address through an anonymous proxy server in the US I however managed to unlock the content just as well and was presented with a license agreement I had to agree to prior to being able to play the content back.
"
Telling the MPAA how you circumvented their DRM & violated the DMCA: Priceless.
If stored media becomes too difficult to use (which I predict it will be in time) our entertainment dollar will be spent on some form of "pay per view." Combine that with the no-copy-bit, and you've got exactly what they want. They want you to pay for something that you have no rights to. You won't have a right to record it for watching again later -- they want you to pay for it each time.
I believe they are hoping to make stored home media a thing of the past.
Think of the profit on this idea. They store the media and just play it back for you on demand and each time, they get more money. It's not like a public performance where the actors get paid for each time they act. The makers get paid once. The publishers get paid forever.
I don't like where things are going, but who does? I can see where all kinds of "inconvenience" will be installed when playing back your old stuff or even current and new stuff. If it weren't for VCRs learning to set their own time, I'll be there'd be MORE VCRs blinking 12:00 than not even now... how much worse will it be when you are required to have a broadband internet connection just to play your own damned movies thanks to DRM.?
Specifically, it does that that "InterActual Player (included on the DVD)" is part of the system requirements.
And it does have the little (albeit fairly hidden) "Region 1" logo on the package. Of course, IMHO, that logo is not nearly enough and the restrictions should be clearly spelled out on *all* DVD packages, it the IP restrictions should've been spelled out on this one. (And, of course, the whole region coding thing is a stupid PITA anyway, but that's another issue.)
And it does specify that an internet connection is necessary to view the HD content.
Not that that makes it good or even acceptable, and that's certainly not enough to give adequate warning to a non-techy user, but its enough for a tech savvy user to determine that the process for running it is going to be annoying at the least.
You may not have, but then you've probably not been around the right group of people. Working at a college help desk there are lots of people who make mistakes with what sort of click. Probably the worst is when people double-click on a toggle button like a "connect" button. The first click starts it; the second stops it. And very confusing to diagnose over the phone.
This is not to say that everyone is stupid, just that there are aspects of using a basic GUI that many people don't know.
This post written under Gentoo-linux with an SCO IP license.
Look it even says so on the DVDs you buy.
_ ia.gif
:-)
http://player.interactual.com/enhanced/images/pcf
So there... NO MORE COMPLAINING... just read the damn box and don't buy the defective goods!
Funny thing is... InterActual claims to be PC friendly!
The situation is lose-lose one for the costumer : if we boycott protected DVDs the companies will blame the money lost on the .torrents,kazaa,etc. and they will enforce all the DVDs with DRM and they will have win since there is no way that all the population will stop buying DVDs. If we don`t boycott they`ll still make money, so there business model is working and put DRM on all DVDs. Both way DRM protected DVDs will be a standard and piracy will continu in some sort of way. It`s the revolution (as in "Tourner en rond").
"They're gonna try this because they are stupid and need to be dragged kicking and screaming into every new market that opens for them, but ultimately the power is in *our* hands because we have the money they want. When we stop buying DVDs that are overpriced and burdensome, they'll dump the DRM. "
So which came first? The DRM, or the illegal copying? If the first? Why didn't we do something sooner? If the latter? Why did we let the situation get out of hand?
So, again, we find another insuation that DRM is inatley evil. Its quite funny to see how little respect for creative work there is in this forum. Some how I think the mentality of the individual is being broadly applied to everyone with a little too much self-rightiousness. Just because some of you may _choose_ to submit your work to a public forum in exchange for the use of their work, does _not_ mean that _all_ work created _must_ be treated in the same manner. If I write a book, I should not have to give it away in return for the promise of someone else's book. If I make a movie, I should not have to give it openly to the world in return solely for the equal right to someone else's movie. If I choose to do so, then that is my _choice_. But as someone who is looking at creating works in this new age, DRM is most certainly something I will look into to try to mitigate rampant copying of the work. OH! how unfair that I should ask for payment!! OH! how un-wise of me to not see how giving away my work is a great marketing tool! OH! how we meek few suffer under the rule of evil creators!! This yolk of a monatary system will break our simple backs!
is that if you do it for a couple of years, all the movies on broadcast TV are new to you!
The Future of DRM is when you have to put money in the slot on the top of your P.C. or the OS won't run.
Software patents will ensure this.
Please vote to end all freedom as industries are people too.
The author says he read the hardware/software/system requirements and saw nothing about this onerous DRM protection or any mention of software necessary to obtain a license. He learned this after he bought it. This is essentially bait and switch. I share his outrage and indignation. He should be given a refund on the grounds that the product labelling is misleading.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
Why is this surprising to anyone? Anyone that takes the time to read any EULA for a DVD or software product will certainly realize that DRM merely enforces the rights that these big companies have asserted for years. Why is it so surprising to people that when you buy a DVD or a software product, you don't own it?
I for one am glad DRM is here - because it's finally waking people up to the rackets that have been boiling on the stovetop for years. DRM will finally make the consumer wake up and force these big companies to change. People are finally realizing that when you click "I agree" you're pissing away all rights as a consumer for anything. These companies have been legally able to write their own laws, no matter how oppressive they may be, for years.
If you can use Digital media you can copy digital media. That is a fact. All the copy protection in the world will not change that fact. All that will happen is the DRM media will become such a pain to use that people will just download warz version! A good example is the complete collection of Samuri X dvds I bought. I could have downloaded them from bit torrent but It was worth the $80 that I paid for it on Ebay to not have to go through the hassle. If the DVDs where DRMed to death I would have found it easier to download and burn them myself.
What the RIAA and MPAA need to get a grip on is that a DVD collection of a TV show should cost $5 per DVD. The other thing they have to look at is that people that download all the simpsons probably would never PAY for the DVD collection to start with. DRM is much like the old copy protection on software in the 80s. A usless waste of money and effort.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Customers (or consumers) can not organize. You can't realistically organize the slashdot crowd. Never mind the other 99% of the public. Fortunately, the public will collectively reject anything that is too complicated for the individual to use. For that we must remember that old quote (by who I don't recall) that said "No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the general public". I think an equally true statement would be: No one will ever make money assuming the public has a brain. Witness the inability of people to program a VCR. In this case, people will discover they can't watch the HD version on their DVD player and will stop buying. I'm not concerned about this one.
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Good post. Totally spot on on IP rights.
However there are some good legitimate reasons that copying should be permitted - like making backups. Now if the MPAA and RIAA wanted to address that by saying, "if your CD has gone bad, just mail it in and we will ship you a new one for a buck (covers the dupe and mailing costs)." Then the arguments against copying would be toast. Of course just like eveyone here the MPAA and RIAA wants their cake and to eat it too.
To me as usual the real big problem is the copyright periods (DAMN YOU DISNEY!). Its rediculous and stifles creativity and freedom of expression. Disney made a bundle ripping off other stories. But whats good for the goose...
so, the above post is spot on technically, but we are also dealing with people who do not act in good faith. They are crooks too. In which case - the gloves are off?? tough call.
really, the standard argument of voting with your wallet just serves the **AA just as well as pirating. Sales drop and they will happily cook the books to 'show' that it is down to piracy and thus they will lobby for even more draconian clamp downs on the net.
The cycle will continue till either the authorities get fedup with their antics and tell them to f'off, or hopefully, artists realise that they can benefit from a new business model provided by a new breed of record label.
I bought T2 Extreme DVD last week but it didn't work until I found out that it required the installation of some strange InterActual software in order to play it. Yesterday night around 2:30 AM I finally gave up on getting that software to work. I have literally wasted my money AND my time on it! It seem like we are already looking at the end of the idea of DRM.
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I hope the purchaser took the trouble to hop on Amazon to post a review to warn others.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
that played and ripped fine in my Mac... so i'm curious if it's an XP thing...
and it has been given up before.
Let me ask: do you think the author of this article is going to buy any more product from that company?
There is no copy-protection scheme that makes enough extra revenue by deterring piracy to make up for the revenue lost by pissing off legitimate customers!
About holding the shift key?
If you don't buy the DVDs / CD's, they will get the message. However, I think they will get the wrong message or at least publically. They will just blame the "lagging" sales of DVDs (CDs) on the fact that they are being downloaded, copied, etc.... Instead of other reasons people do not buy the DVDs and CDs,; ie toooooo expensive, DRM, etc... Just my 2 cents....
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"Hollywood and the music companies aren't budging. The masses are just accepting what they push down our throats. Perhaps it is time to use our power as consumers?"
Here's a novel thought. Maybe the masses aren't as affected as "/."'s believe. They can go many places and get the content* they want (legally even). Everyone here bitches about the economics of the situation, but the masses overall ARE getting what THEY WANT. This is reflected in the fact that sales overall are up. So exactly why should they get involved in YOUR battle? They didn't start it. They might have to FINISH IT, because of all the misguided actions by those who don't know better. But then history's loaded with the masses having to clean up after the misguided actions of a few (WWI & II)
*Everything that's used as justification for piracy. From valve's games, to harry potter books, from movies, to music.
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Yes, but the problem with that is the push toward a completeley closed DRM system. One requiring a digital path to the speakers, which will need to have their own DRM-enabled decoders and DACs to do the final conversion to analog audio we can hear inside the speaker itself.
When that happens, mic-ing the speaker is the only way...barring opening the speakers and doing a little soldering and whatnot. But that's a tactic I'm sure there will be attempts to stop as well.
> > I was a bit surprised as to why I needed to install InterActual Player as it says Windows Media Player 9 on the cover, why can't I simply play the content back without having to install yet another application? But then it became quickly apparent that I did not only have to install and download an update for the InterActual Player in order to facilitate playback, but would also need to acquire a license.
Quoth the parent poster:
> And, the content could only be played for 5 days.
Now remember, Slashdotters, it goes like this.
Pay for DVD, want to watch WMV9 stream of HD-movie. Having to connect to the Internet to update the InterActualPlayer DRM system and acquire a license to unlock the content for 5 days... is bad.
Pay for CD-ROM, want to play single-player of HL2-game. Having to connect to the Internet to update the Steam DRM system and acquire a license to unlock the content and play in offline-mode for 30 days before having to log back in again... well, that's just great!
So to recap: We don't like MPAA, so their DRM is bad. We like Valve, so their DRM is good.
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Of course this depends on a warez'd copy existing on the 'net in the first place...
It wasn't a DVD that was encumbered with DRM. It was a special edition, high-definition version of a movie. It's not a big deal.
Want to get rid of DRM? Stop buying CDs. Stop going to concerts. Stop buying DVDs. Stop going to the theatre. Cutting off revenue isn't going to be enough, as the industries can simply blame it on "piracy". Cutting off DEMAND would force them to address the true problem.
Two problems:
1) You'll never get enough people to go along with such a plan to make enough of an effet for the movie companies to notice.
2) Even if they do notice, they would simply blame it on piracy, and they would force even more restrictive forms of DRM.
"Of course for the rest of the users who don't venture on P2P they're screwed messing with license agreements and shit. This of course won't stop them from buying it. Afterall a commercial on TV told them to buy it. They must obey. Stupid serfs."
And it's this attitude that'll keep your fight confined to you and your friends. Why the hell should the masses give a damn about you and your little war? They're ALREADY getting what they want, largely on their terms, and that's reflected in sales figures. Why should they throw their hat into your ring. When your heart is already filled with contempt for them "Stupid serfs." Your attitude is more likely to cause them to fight on the content providers side. Not just to keep the well from drying up. But to spite your contemptious ass.*
*I've also seen this attitude every time Linux discussions come up. Quite frankly you all are your own worst enemy. Keep up the good work. You all deserve yourselves.
Wait till any software, document, whatever will come with drm enabled. So you want to open the word documents from december 2004? Install drm update and renew your licence first.
"Let's face it, folks. DRM didn't just will itself into existence. It was the industries' response to people who wantonly ignored copyright laws for the sake of getting something without paying for it. Simply doing more of the same isn't going to make it go away."
C'mon. The industry has always been about DRM. When piano rolls were popular, there were forms of copyprotection on that. When computers became popular, the industry tried copy protection. When CD's were introduced, the copyprotection was that you couldn't reproduce them.
DRM is not a response to piracy, although it is viewed as reducing the amount.
DRM is about control. Way back in the days of the jukebox, people couldn't afford to buy a lot of music. But they could afford to put a nickel in the jukebox...pay per play.
Back when movies could only be viewed in the theater, and they could be put on TV with no fear of copying. There was effective copy control, and while it wasn't DRM as such, it was the best they could do.
The industry LOVED this model. To this day, they are trying to get back to the model where they decide how and how much you can view "their" content.
Its not about piracy, its about getting more money for you for what you have now for free.
As someone who doesn't illegally rip material, I'm starting to find all the DRM stuff annoying.
I bought Dido's second album, for example, only to discover that you can only play it on a PC through a proprietary software player (assuming your OS will run it, naturally). That player sucks, and does annoying things like messing up my system-wide volume levels. I haven't tried personally, but I'm reliably informed that it doesn't work in some car CD players, either.
The point here is that what I bought was marketted as a CD. It was right there on the shelf in the CD section, next to other CDs, with nothing obviously saying that it wasn't. To be fair, there may have been a note about whether or not you could play it on certain computers visible in the small print; I can't remember and don't have it with me to check. But who reads all the small print when buying a CD from the CD section of a shop?
Now, "Compact disc" is a trademark of Philips, as is the CD logo you see on cases. Philips officially denies permission to use that mark to companies using technology that prevents playing the disc properly on standard equipment. (Google for this if you're interested.) Thus anyone marketting the material in the manner I saw it (be it a record shop, the music publishers, or whoever) is infringing on Philips' rights, and deserves to get smacked down for it.
It's a shame Philips don't seem to be pursuing this more aggressively, because preventing this kind of dilution of a mark is exactly what trademark law is for. I imagine that if all record shops were suddenly required to separate out normal CDs and copy-protected not-quite-CDs in an obvious way, sales of the latter would probably drop PDQ, and the problem would disappear just as fast. I can only assume that since everyone's doing it, they want a clear test case in their favour first to make it quick, easy, and most of all cheap to follow up with others. Maybe they're looking for such a test case and just waiting to make their move. Maybe they just don't care, but as one of the world's biggest manufacturers of CD/DVD burners, that seems unlikely.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I really haven't bought a new CD since that album. I was always fairly selective, but I did buy a few each year until that point. So they really have lost a genuine, paying customer in me. I don't find the loss has ruined my life; I listen to the radio if I want to hear some new music, and occasionally use a legal download service if I really like a track I've heard. Now I'm a living own-goal for the media industry's DRM technology. Anyone else?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
they said television was going to kill the box office
it didn't
they said the vcr was going to kill the box office
it didn't
guess what?
p2p/ broadband-accessed media is not going to kill the box office
people still go to movies, and always will, because of
1. the quality
yes, you can spend megabucks on your home theatre system. most people can't. watching lord of the rings on a 17" monitor just isn't as appealing
2. those cell phones and babies? THAT'S PART OF THE APPEAL
como?
i'm not saying cell phones and babies are appealing, what i am saying is that other humans in the dark, munching popcorn, gasping when you gasp, laughing when you laugh, adds to the enjoyability of the experience on a subconcious level because WE ARE SOCIAL ANIMALS
watching a horror movie by yourself at home just isn't any fun
watching a horror movie with a family member who you had to cajole to watch it with you isn't any fun either
going to the box office and sitting in a dark room with a bunch of other humans YOU KNOW are interested in watching something with you is appealing... in the same way slashdot is appealing!: people crave feedback and community
why do they add a laugh track to sitcoms? see?
the box office is the modern day equivalent of the medieval cathedral: a place of society, of community, and we crave that subconsciously, whether we admit to it, like i do, or not, like you don't
and so the box office will be with us for a very, very long time, no matter what future tech is introduced
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Now the new RoTK EE disc just outright crashes my ATI dvd player when I try to play the disc. Every other DVD I have works just great.
What are these people doing?
DVD regions were added to control distribution, in order to make as much money as possible. Now, people got fed up, and started cracking it as a response, or they simply downloaded the DVD or DVD-rip instead of having to wait for the latest and greatest movies to reach their country/region.
DRM is ultimately about control, as this story proves. It is not about piracy at all. It's about forcing people to license things for limited periods of time, thereby squeezing more money out of us.
Don't kid yourself with ignorant comments like "it was the industries' response to people who wantonly ignored copyright laws". It wasn't at all. It's just an excuse. DRM is about controlling distribution and forcing people to pay more for less.
Clever signature text goes here.
If there is some way to play the media so that it can be viewed or listened to by the end user, then there will always be some way to take that end result and place it into some sort of format that can be viewed by anyone reguardless of digital rights.
albeit illegal, technology has a long long way to go before being able to stop reproduction from happening. they're better off relying on their frivolous lawsuits to prevent pirating.
I see comments left and right basically saying 'why don't you just rip it'. Well frankly that doesn't work, or at least not with the apps I tried. If someone has a brilliant solution that does allow me to bypass the DRM, and play back the files when, and where, I feel like, I'd appreciate it if he/she could shoot me an email at the address noted in the article. Sander Sassen http://www.hardwareanalysis.com
You see, there is a parallel to the industrial revolution here in the information age.
History teaches that during the 1800's there were many people who believed that the entire meaning and purpose of the industrial revolution was to leverage inventions like the cotton gin to expand their plantations for unlimited growth and profit.Ironically just the opposite was true,the industrial revolution actually demanded a mobile and skilled workforce.
They responded first by making slavery last forever, and making laws so harsh you couldn't even teach a black person how to read. Then they responded by trying to micro-regulate the northern states, then they responded by trying to break off from the Union and fence themselves off from the rest of the world, and all hell broke loose.
Today many in media circles believe that the entire meaning and purpose of the information age is to use inventions like the internet to leverage their copyright holdings to the far reaches of the earth for unlimited growth and profit.Ironically,just the opposite is true,the information age demands the unrestricted flow of information.
At first they responded my making copyrights last effectively forever, then they responded by making it so that illegal copying could be punished worse than rape, then they tried to micro-regulate the tech industries (DMCA) then they fence the information that they controlled off from the rest of the world (DRM). It is only a matter of time before society tells them to go to hell, and all hell breaks loose.
The VAST majority of people buying or renting DVD's take them home to their DVD player and push "Play".
Most people won't know, care, or even notice DRM restrictions, since in their eyes, they ARE using the DVD as it was intended.
People that are inconvenienced by DRM restrictions on their computers are a tiny blip on the MPAA Radar. The MPAA frankly doesn't care if they are inconvenienced.
TFA states: "It had no warnings of the content being protected or only playable in certain regions..."
Sorry, but there's a standard-sized Region 1 logo near the bottom of the box on the right, roughly where every other Region 1 DVD puts it. This would strongly indicate that it was meant for Region 1, being the US and Canada. While one could argue that one thought this only applied to the DVD version of the movie and not the DVD-ROM HD version, well, that's an OK argument, but to say it had no warnings is flat-out false.
TFA also states: "I was a bit surprised as to why I needed to install InterActual Player..."
Sorry again, but InterActual Player is, in fact, the third thing listed on the back of the box as one of the requirements.
I will agree that the DRM on this is more than a little oppressive (5 days?!), but a decent chunk of this article (having to install a 3rd-party application, anonymous proxy through US to get a license) deals with things that are unrelated to DRM.
Your mileage may vary, but mine is constant.
... can't this fellow just get Freeme or something similar and un-DRM his WM9? Note the third link, this may no longer apply.
Has anyone else tried this to know if you really need to install InterActual? I despise that software, and I see no reason that a Windows Media 9 DRM file would require 3rd party software to work. I could understand if there was some kind of codec to be installed, but the only reason I've ever needed IA is when I wiped my computer and hadn't reinstalled DVD playback software yet.
You do realize that FPS is generally part of the standard on your TV/etc (NTSC/PAL) as well as your media player. Trying to exceed that will make the DVD uncopyable sure, but also unwatchable on many TV's.
Having the population of the country buy new TV's is a little harder than the "player-of-the-month." Some people get really attached to their old idiot boxes.
as one Argentinian comedian circa 1980s would say:
"THIS is America?!?!"
-nando
DRM is like sheep's clothing. Describing it, as the article does, is not enough. The most crucial aspect of DRM is how it is used -- what's under the clothing. A number of DRM tech companies frantically try to please the wolves, and fail to address the need to keep the uses of DRM within legal bounds. My soon-to-be-published article, DRM: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , tries to explain this.
Aire Libre
Will somebody please find that dude's keyboard and destroy the comma key? Please?
Police officer: "Police! Refrain from using the comma key and step away from the keyboard!"
There's a lot of good discussion on the DRM for these types of discs at http://www.avsforum.com/.
I'm not crazy about the DRM either, but the main reason I haven't bought any is the 5.1 surround sound options for these DVDs. Your only choices are either 1) analog 5.1 outputs or 2) a new receiver that decodes WMA 5.1 format.
For folks with home theater PCs with a digital audio connection, this is really annoying.
"Abusing your customers is not a viable long term business strategy."
And your customers* abusing you is?
*The ones who never buy the product aren't customers. Just as those who don't have citizenship, can't vote.
Close but most stores will only exchange for the same product.
The thing to do in this case it to exchange it. Then come back when convenient and exchange it again. Repeat until someone b****es. At that point you can use a store machine to demonstrate that the DVD will not play and insist that they exchange it for one that does or give you a refund. Since the product is mislabelled as being a DVD (which it is emphatically not), they would probably rather pacify you than deal with consumer affairs. It's a bit of a hassle for you because you have to keep going back but you can be assured that the retailer will note that this DVD is costing them money to stock and will likely take that up with the distributor.
JM2C
Tell them you'll file a complaint with the state consumer protection and/or attorney generals office
Tell them you'll start documenting the problems everywhere on the web you can
Tell them you'll contact the local press (many local TV news shows have consumer alert segments)
Forget threats. Take action and do those first. Otherwise, you'll get brushed under the rug and refunded only after much hastle that everyone else has to do also. They will only grease the squeekiest of parts and keep the money of those who feel trying for a return is useless.
Starting with a media campaign (like this slashdot forum) will protect others. They will notice the bump in sales just like Circuit City did with their failed DVD. The fantastic DVD's that turn black when exposed to air... Have you bought any? Would you even if they were cheap?
I stopped buying MS hardware when I was building a PC on my coffee table. Optical mice just came out. I bought a MS one. I installed the mouse and loaded the driver software. I was presented with a big EULA.. WTF?? for a mouse??? I continued it's instalation and then got a complaint that the driver could not find my Internet connection.. WTF??? I removed the mouse and gave it away and bought a Logitech optical mouse. No hastles. I've never purchased another MS hardware product since. Logitech has me as a loyal consumer now. I've heard MS fixed the problems due to the backlash, but I'm not taking chances. I expect to see a breakdown in the HD format DVD's. Some studios will try real hard to lock the content down and will suffer sales problems. Indi studios will show them how it's done. Good product at a great price. When that's demonstrated, then maybe some big studios will break ranks and follow the money of volume sales.
I expect this DVD format to have backlash for the unplayability of these disks. It'll take many years for the damage to the reputation to be fixed.
It is why SACD has such a slow start. It's copy protected. The unprotected layer is deliberately downgraded to make the protected content sound better by comparison. I don't know if they still do that, but they were caught cheating in this manner. Now the reputation is get the regular CD instead. It plays the same in all players and isn't crippled in sound quality.
Why pay more for a deliberately downgraded product. Maybe they no longer downgrade the redbook layer.. The damage to the reputation is already done. Nobody is paying more for the format because of the demonstrated intentional lack of quality.
Hiting the Media first is the way to go. Finding the reviews of the product is the bigest reason I'm not considering a SACD player anytime soon.
HD DVD's now have the same black eye for the same reason. It's proven that it doesn't just work out of the box. When they simply work out of the box like the original CD's and DVD's, then I might be interested, but I'll be cautious knowing there is already broke stuff out there.
Knowing there is broken CD's out there is one of the biggest reasons I have curtailed my CD purchases. I don't want to have to deal with defective CD returns.
It's all about your reputation. Loose it in business and you loose business. Why can't they get it?
The truth shall set you free!
Here are some possible solutions, rather than eating the dog food:
1. Support Indy Bands/Artists - if nothing else by downloading their work and sharing it with your friends so they become popular. Better yet - take the money you would have given the RIAA and give it to Indy artists.
2. Entertain yourself and others - learn an instrument if you don't already play one. Compose some music or learn some tunes you like - perform it for friends and family. If you are good enough get a gig at the local tavern - or simply put on an impromptu concert on the town commons. If your stuff is really good, set up a computer as a recording studio (multitrack recording software is cheap and full featured today) and generate MP3s for the web and open-source it.
3. Support Indy movie makers. Give them the money you would have given the MPAA.
4. Become an Indy movie maker. If the market has crap - then make something better and open-source it. If people donate to your cause, all the better.
Instead of being a good 'consumer', feeding at the trough of corporate crap, why not step back and do something different with your time and your money?
Our forebears were able to keep themselves entertained without all the trappings of our technological society. Life will go on without the entertainment mega-corps.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Dear God! When did this happen? Why was I not informed?
Gee, if only you guys would put as much energy into letting the content producers know, as your entire investment of "I'll rant on "/."", "rip a couple CD's/DVD's" and "P2P a few". This subject would go away. Or maybe I'll be just as cynical as you, and believe that you all really don't want this situation to go away, and merely want to milk it for the pity factor.
Back here in Europe, the campaign against piracy (by MPAA and RIAA) also meant huge prices. Two years ago, I used to buy an average of 10 DVDs per year. This year, I switched back to VHSs to my main consumption, while only buying great classics (the last one was, I think, South Park, some 6 months ago). Just think about it: LOTR:ROTK is priced from about 40$ to upto 100$ on main web sites.
It's only logical; the more people "pirate", the tighter the industries are going to try to clamp down. All at the expense of legitimate users who just want to watch/listen to what they paid for.
You've got the cart before the horse. The industry will clamp down harder if they think they can get more control (and money too). Piracy is just a convenient excuse. DRM does nothing to stop piracy - protected bits copy just as easily as any other. I hear that the tricky part is getting the packaging right.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
No just buy from artists that don't belong to the RIAA. You know the independent people who are trying to sell music without labels.
evil is as evil does
The way this works is that if you don't like the product, then you don't buy it. When enough people decide they don't like the product adn the seller's sales fall, the seller will change the product.
The fact that one does not like something about the product is not license to steal the product. This point seems to be lost on too many folks in this age of digital media.
fuck drm. digital shmigital. sure, if the MPAA and the RIAA had their way, we'd be paying cents for each time we watched a chapter from a dvd or each time we played our favorite songs.
however, the last time i checked, those functions (watch, play, listen, etc) are analog functions. no matter what twisted digital software crap is wedging its way into our media formats, we still have the ability to dub it off. sure, maybe we won't get the perfection of progressive-scan dvd and 5.1 surround sound, but it's still *possible*. even dubbing the surround sound and reencoding the separate streams sans DRM is possible.
the MPAA and RIAA can hawk DRM all they want to. piracy is not going anywhere, though. they can eliminate fair-use rights and have total control over cd/dvd media and players, and piracy will STILL be as rampant as it is today. it won't be as easy to do, but the scene will not wither and die because they excercise more control over the consumer.
-mike
If I purchase a DVD that doesn't allow me to play it without aquiring a license online, AND they don't mention that on the DVD COVER, then they can give me a free internet account to go and download that license. If the DVD cover doesn't say that I require an internet account and I purchase it and then cannot play it, then it is false advertising. They trick you into buying something and then throw a bunch of requirements at you afterwards. This would obviously piss off ANYONE who has to go through this process, and especially piss off and frustrate the 95% of people that aren't so computer literate. The 5 day license is completely absurd. If I purchase a DVD that ends up having these DRM-enables "features," I will mail a bill for my time of having to download the updates, and a new bill (1 hour minimum of course) each time I have to go and get a license (which may be every 6 days). Oh, and they better make sure that license server is still available in 3,4,5,20 years when I want to watch my DVD again.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
Back in the beginning of the PC, software vendors were upset with people copying or borrowing their friend's program floppies to install the program on another computer without paying for a license. The response to this problem was to create a key on the original floppy. The program would startup and ask for the original install floppy. This floppy would contain a key or code somewhere on it outside of the areas known to the OS. If the application did not read this from the floppy, it would not startup. Suddenly:
- The vendor had to deal with customers calling and needing a new floppy because the original was lost or damaged.
- Customers hated having to do this physical step to use the program.
- Customers hated not being able to backup the original floppies since standard OS copy processes did not copy the required key.
These and other headaches created an uproar among the users. Soon, vendors were touting the lack of a key on the floppy as a selling point. To this day, most software vendors simply accept some copying as part of the cost of doing business because the customers were getting too upset.
Software vendors are still trying to do this in less obtrusive ways (MS activation) but they are still having problems with customers rejecting it (remember Intuit and TurboTax?). Entertainment content providers want this and even more control too. But, I don't think it will work for them and I'll tell you why.
The only software "DRM" that is acceptable to people is for high end, niche products like engineering tools. Software that provides a high value to the customer, making it worth the headache of dongles and locking schemes can get away with it. It also has to be very expensive to develop so that competition in the market is minimized.
Movies and music simply do not reach the level of barriers to competition nor cost to value for the user that customers will be willing to put up with very restrictive DRM. The entertainment industry will keep trying and we must fight any restrictions via law that they continue to push. But if they want to waste their time using technological means of angering their customers, I say let them, because it will be rejected by the customers if it gets to strict.
and they might hang themselves.
I think having unlabeled, complicated, annoying DRM on a product is just wrong. In the story about the T2 DVD, it was a frustrating ordeal for this guy to view the DVD he had purchased. That is nothing but wrong.
The thing is that he was only able to make it work because he was internet and computer savvy above the average level. So your average user would be sitting there with a DVD he/she can't watch on their PC and the retailer won't accept it back.
Talk about frustrating for the average user. I doubt they would keep buying DVDs like that.
Myself, I buy some DVDs, but if DRM becomes really popular with DVD companies I will quit buying DVDs. I'd rather read a book than have some greedy corporation interfer with my entertainment experience. I'm not going to pay out $30-40 to have a frustrating experience. And I'm hoping other people won't either.
..then we just have to suck it up and do without the movie, even if you really like it. It won't kill you. Go out and build a snowman or something. Yup, it sucks, but that is the most effective way to stop this nonsense. Draconian DRM technology adds no value to the product and is there solely to manage revenue. If it causes a loss of revenue it'll be dropped. Trying to fight a legal or political battle might seem easier, but it isn't as effective.
I read the article and feel his pain. The movie distributers are trying to pull the same crap that closed software companies tried years ago--put a bunch of legalese in fine print on the box, and force the user to agree to terms that he couldn't know until he bought the product and opened the box. I'm sure that given the circumstances it would be illegal for a store to refuse a refund (should be anyways).
The folks who brought us the interactual player are intellectual dinosaurs, and so are any distrubutors who get into bed with them. Besides that, the first and only time I installed the Interactual player it screwed up my default DVD player software and behaved like spyware (it behaved oddly when I wasn't connected to the network). As such I've decided NOT to buy ANY DVDs AT ALL until I've rented them first. If they include Interactual software I NEVER buy it.
Thankfully, I've been able to just hit "cancel" when the Interactual installer autoplays on such DVDs and manually launch the proper software. If I ever encounter a DVD that FORCES me to use their $h!tty software then I'll not only not buy it, I'll try to get a free rental from the video store.
Please, get it right next time. I am so tired of these misleading names confusing the public long enough until it's too late.
-- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
You might be able to make a case for deceptive advertising where they don't clearly disclose the DRM. Consumers are accustomed to DVD's that can play without any restrictions. By greatly restricting what the consumer is getting without clearly disclosing these restrictions, the media companies' omissions are materially deceptive. Actually, if enough people complain to their state's attorney's general, we might be able to at least get some sort of clear warnings on the package.
Whenever I try to boycott a movie, they show an AD, that tells me I MUST see that movie. So, I have to go against my will to the theatre. Then, when the DVD comes out, they show another AD that says I MUST buy it, so I do, even though I already know the movie was crap!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The Civil War was the bloodiest in American history.
Will such extreme measures be necessary this next time around?
Please register or login. There are 17 registered and 2800 anonymous users currently online. Current bandwidth usage: 733.41 kbit/s
Now thats efficient communication.
I think all this sucks, yes. But I don't see what the big deal is.
If you don't like it, spread the word, but above all, DO NOT give them YOUR MONEY.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
At this point I'd like to point out that the sole reason I haven't bought Halflife 2 is Steam.
I downloaded the HL2 demo last night and even tho it's a free demo I had to let steam onto my machine in order to check it out. (got to write a couple of emails between clicking on the "play" button in steam and it actually loading) My game playing experience was clouded by the red haze of rage. Steam put a nice little TSR into my system tray as well! Wasn't that considerate of them. I wonder if I'll have to reformat in order to get steam back out of my life. Oh well the computer needs it anyway... microsoft media player has taken to demanding something or another of me since it seems to have found a way to update itself into DRM obnoxiousness while I wasn't looking (how'd that happen? It was fine the other day...)
GAAAFUCKYOUSTEAMIHATEYOU!!!!!!
I hate MS (well, it's more complex than just hate) and excessive DRM as well, but that's hardly worthy of comment around here.
This aspect of DRM has been predicted by many including Lessig and Litman. The fact is: Corporations are known for their inability to stop asking for more and more. DRM makes it possible for them to ask for whatever they want and change the rules any time.
However, since this guy actually likes T2, I am going to assume he is a part of the ignorant public that are spoon fed by the press into believing that locking up all information is a good thing. If this is so, then perhaps ordinary people are beginning to realize just how broken copyright law is and how far the law is from the ideal (which most people do not understand either).
Since this member of the public is also a member of the press (well, the gaming press), I will answer some of his questions:
The truth is that there is a difference between the law and DRM. DRM is a set of laws without the responsibility normally imposed upon government. It is a system whose integrity is enforced by government without regard to how fair the rules of that system are. Therefore, a corporation using DRM is somewhat of a government unto itself with arbitrary dictatorial powers that can be changed at a whim. I find it interesting that a free society would allow this sort of thing to exist.
Acceptable? How? You have bought something, and then you are willing to have someone check again whether or not you have the right to use it? If licences are to be sold, they should be in the package or given to you at the counter when you pay. No one should ever be able to further scrutinize your purchase unless they have probable cause and a search warrant.
You do, of course, realize that by routing your "IP address through an anonymous proxy server in the US" you committed a federal offense that could carry jail time. That is a circumvention of access controls added to copyright law by the infamous DMCA specifically to protect the DRM that you think should be used to protect copyright.
So why are you surprised? Would you also be surprised if they demanded money for the next license? But why should they not? Authors should be compensated, right?
Welcome to DRM: You have no rights. Period.
In fact, that is the point of licensing: You are not the owner; they are the owners and you are just borrowing the "content". Because you are not an owner, you have no rights except to refuse to "borrow" from them. If you agree
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Hmmmm I thought we killed DiVX. DAMN you Circuit City!
also see the track "Truth in Advertising" by the group Negativland.
Or so.
This appears to me to be a rerelease of the previous edition which also had the DRM.
So no, they didn't get the message.
And I've personally been warning people away from this disc for the entire period it has been out.
The whole thing was conceived by MS as a WMV9 demo back when WMV9 came out. That's how long ago it was.
Anywway, I want HD DVDs. But I don't want DRM on it. I need to own the discs. Please support me in this, don't buy DRMed forms of HD DVD. Make the industry produce a product that does what we want.
Went to InterActual's site (The company whose software was required to unlock the DVD mentioned in the post) and prominently displayed is an ad for InterVideo's (Note the similarity in the company names) WinDVD 6 DVD player software with the InterActual add-on pack for "only" $39.95. So I went to InterVideo's site and prominently displayed there is an ad for their DiscMaster 2 CD and DVD copying software. Neat.
The best removable storage format is "SD", including SDIO: small, fast, cheap, tough, easy, dense, and including a full IO bus as well as just memory. It's really the MMC format, with IO added. And DRM: S D(IO) means Secure Digital (Input/Output). Some of the MMC is dedicated to some kind of HW encryption that can prevent copying, despite the owner's instructions. There are very few SD IO cards that actually do IO ; almost all are just SD/DRM versions of the MMC. Interestingly, MMC and SD memory cards are just about the same price:capacity, though SD must be more expensive to produce. The industry is clearly marketing SD more than MMC, despite the lower margins in a very competitive industry. Yet we haven't heard much about SD DRM.
How long before they do to us what Compuserve tried to do to us with GIF: a submarine technology we gladly accept, until we depend on it, and only then do they activate their claims on it, which we would have rejected had we known, before it was too late? When will they flip the switch on SD DRM, locking up our content with handcuffs we've been happily buying all along, while letting them keep the keys?
--
make install -not war
Thanks for the link on that, I look forward to giving the site a spin when I get home. Of course I don't understand the why the various media companies get so hyped up about downloading and the like. If I download an album and listen to it, I either trash it if it is crap, or if I like it I go out and buy it. I've done it with many albums (Dido, William Shatner, The Streets, Travis, DJ Hype, etc..) and I tell all my friends/family about the music and encourage them to go out and buy it. Same deal with a movie, if I watch it through netflix and like it, I buy it and tell all my friends and family to buy it/rent it. If you put out quality product, you don't have to worry about people downloading it. The majority of people who download it, if they like it enough will buy it. The ones that won't buy it probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
For those looking for Artisan Entertainment to complain too or notify of plans to boycott, you might be interested to know that Artisan has merged with Lions Gate. Oddly enough, Lions Gate is the same distributor that decided to not opposed P2P distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11. Another item of interest might be that Lions Gate main web page includes a new ticker which has a link to a new story that more WMV-HD movies will be distributed via CinemaNow. Will these movies also be DRM'd via the InterActual Player? I don't know. But you may want to tell Lions Gate what you think.
Down with DRM!
I buy a DVD, my fuckin money goes to support those greedy bastards. They make millions and they still want to control us because of those "rippers"(call them whatever you want) and everybody is a victim here from average joes who don't know jack about DRM and pirated copies to people who just want to be able to bring a movie to a friends house to have a laugh at Dr. Evil's failing plans.
Once again, an abysmal solution that they will probably more in the future because they have yet to find a system that would penalize the movie pirates and not every single consumer.
That is the real threat to the potential everyone here can plainly see. Watch out when the Republicans propose to mandate broadband service, generously intending to *bridge the digital divide* and *enfranchise the less fortunate*. When your feed becomes a utility delivered by protected monopolies as electric service is now, you are fscked royally.
The most tangible threat at the moment is the mentality of the FCC, which leads directly to Orwell's squawk-box, but with a sweet HDTV screen.
I'm not saying the threats aren't real. But the potential is just as real. The parent poster is afraid of their massing power, but the wiglomerates are just as vulnerable to fragmenting markets as they ever have been. The railroad lobby hasn't been keeping anyone awake at night lately, has it?
illegitimii non ingravare
You can always choose a different movie with different actors in it, that has less DRM.
This is my sig.
Simple, if you don't want DRM, don't buy it. When profits tumble, the DRM will go away.
Having to view sodding adverts really pisses me off. I bought the movie, I should decide what content I skip over, forward wind etc, not some exec who wants more of my money.
This Hollywood is one reason why I make copies of ALL my DVDs. If you stop me making copies, I stop buying. TaDA!
From the article:
"Unfortunately, after trying to play the dvd back with Windows Media Player 9, I couldn't get it to work, as I needed to install a 3rd party, InterActual Player, application that was required to play back the content. I was a bit surprised as to why I needed to install InterActual Player as it says Windows Media Player 9 on the cover, why can't I simply play the content back without having to install yet another application? But then it became quickly apparent that I did not only have to install and download an update for the InterActual Player in order to facilitate playback, but would also need to acquire a license. So obviously the WMV9 content was protected by DRM and could only be unlocked after connecting to the license server to obtain a license..."
This would have happened with ANY DVD that the guy put into his computer. Windows Media Player 9, "out of the box", does not have any DVD decoder software for playing DVD movies built in. You still have to either a) pay for the Interactual DVD decoder that WMP9 "suggests" to you when you attempt to play a DVD on your computer, or b) buy a DVD decoder/player application off of the shelf.
The same thing happened to me when I recently installed a new DVD-ROM drive. I assumed that since I had Windows Media Player installed, I could simply pop in any DVD (and I tried many) and it would play. Not so, since a DVD playback decoding plug-in or player is NOT included in WMP9 -- instead, Microsoft wants you to go and pay for one from one of their partnered companies so they can both make more $/rip you off some more.
Now I have the same concerns about DRM/obscene copy protection/license ownership as the rest of us on here, but I really don't see what the article has to do with DRM at all.
If I'm wrong, please explain.
Last night I was up late putzing on my windoze box and trying to take still shots from mpegs for friends/family that I had recorded with my digital camera. It turns out, I could not do it, even though I KNOW I have in the past successfully used the methods I was using last night under windows... whenever I tried to save a still image it would save it as a black box. I used many different programs, video players, etc etc. I'm not much of a windows person, so I didn't know what other workarounds to consider, and I was only doing this in windows because I wanted to eventually edit those stills using Adobe. I normally don't keep my windows box updated at all because of such things (my home network is firewalled)... in the past I know I've successfully done the things I wanted to do last night, but the difference then was I had none of the service packs installed. Anyways, this is what I sent, I know it does NO good whatsoever, but in my furious anger last night, well, it helped me sleep at least.
Because of your contributions to Digital Rights Management, you have deprived me of the ability to edit my own home videos. Thanks to your lobbying and cooperation with Microsoft, I am not able to take still screen captures from mpeg videos from family gatherings which I took with my own digital camera, due to the constraints that have been added to software at your behest. Thank you very much for protecting me from being able to preserve my own family history and memories. I so very much needed to be protected from myself.
In reality, by the end of the hour, because I am very technically adept, I will have accomplished what I wanted to do tonight using video editing software on one of my home linux machines. I feel absolutely sickened for the people who are not as computer savvy as myself who have effectively had their rights taken away because of you since they do not know how to perform work-arounds or use open source software that is not cripped by "digital rights management".
I will be spreading the word to my family, friends, and coworkers. By the end of the hour as well, I will be ebaying all of my movie DVDs, except those which are independent foreign films and anime series not produced or distirbuted in the U.S. I will no longer be supporting your films, whether in movie theatres or through DVD purchases, and I will encourage everyone I know to do the same.
You think you can push the average person around with your influence and money. And you are indeed correct to a certain degree. Where you are wrong is in forgetting that the source of your money ultimately comes from us, the consumer. There comes a breaking point where people will realize that their rights are being treaded on, and they will take action. This person has already arrived at that point, and I will be taking others with me. And once you have killed the roots (the consumer), the tree will die too (you).
Since this has been a tight year for me due to medical bills, I was considering letting my membership in the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lapse, but after this incident tonight, I certainly will not be doing that now. The money I would have spent on movies and DVDs will be spent on renewing my EFF membership and my Free Software Foundation (FSF) memberships to prevent you from deciding what I can and cannot do on my own computer and with my own data."
Isn't this a violation of the WTO rules on the free flow of trade? I've always wondered about why protection schemes such as region encoding are allowed since they artificially prevent the free flow of goods between countries.
Having to view sodding adverts really pisses me off.
Just wait till your next remote comes with an "I agree" button...
You DO know you can turn Steam off, right?
Only that it must be running to run Valve games... how is that bad for a content-delivery-on-payment system?
The problem isn't so much DRM, but rather that the consumer is being utterly defrauded about what they are getting for their money.
I have no problems with DRM that would enforce existing rights I may have as a user of copyright material: time shifting, media shifting, lending out media, selling media, etc. - though such a system does not currently exist (it would require communicaton and refutation of keys to authorized playback devices - say 10 simultaneously).
However, such a system must also recognize new rights I may be deemed to have by the courts. If timeshifting, archiving, and media transfer are deemed to not violate copyright, then all existing equipment I have that enforces DRM must be retrofited, at the DRM users' expense, to recognise those rights. Same goes for all other people encumbred by a particular DRM system.
In the past, one would build the device, and then defend that it offers fair use (MPAA v. Sony - Betamax decision). However, today that may be legally impossible (DMCA, and relatively uncrackable DRM). But, on balance, one should be able to petition the court for a preemptive decision on whether a particular use would be fair, and if the existing DRM mechanisms do not support it, they would have to be modified at the DRM users' expense. The idea is that the DRM mechanism is a proxy for the DRM user's rights and so must change as those rights do.
I am not suggesting that this would be an inexpensive undertaking for a DRM user faced with supporting a newly recognized fair use. But, it is a reasonable requirement, in the face of the control they exert.
You could've hired me.
I'll change my phone number. Doesn't sound like it would be worth my time to explain DRM to my family members who still get confused on how to save email attachments....
I recently downloaded two albums, but because they were proteted with DRM technology, I haven't been able to burn them to discs. Does anyone have a solution to this problem?
"Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy
If the commercial says "Buy the movie now" but the packaging says you are only licensing the movie, isn't this called false advertising?
Do the commercials say "Buy the movie now", though? Offhand, it seems to me that home video commercials tend to use phrases like "Available now on DVD", or "Bring the movie home for Christmas", neatly avoiding the issue of ownership vs. licensing.
The guy likes DRM and he got what he asked. Just because this one is more effective than the rest, he shouldn't whine. What's DRM if it doesn't work? I repeat, this guy embraces DRM, for he thinks copyright law is not enough to protect the entertainment cartels.
Count me in after unmpteen attempts I gave up. I returned the " Extreme DVD" back to the store , and yes I live in USA. This was at most a sick attempt from microsoft to limit piracy. My compputer wanted to install interactual player again and again. I'm glad DivX is coming with the HD Avi movies. If I ever buy a DRM protected media it would certainly not be from Microsoft. What did microsoft think I will call them and debug the thing over the phone. They must be out of their mind. I just wanted to see how HD movie is different.
My only comment to the movie industry here is "Good luck, guys!"
Unless you give consumers what they want, they will continue to get it elsewhere - ie online. I stopped buying dvd's and going to movies because of the obscene amount of protection (installing a drm'ed player!) and advertising (up to 30 minutes!) involved, respectively. The only source that actually offers me what I the consumer, want, is bittorrent. So that is where I will go.
I don't care about free movies; $5-$10 is a price I will happily pay to save my time. All I want is content that I can access when and how I want, without advertising. God forbid the movie industry offer this to the public. The further they get from actually giving consumers what they want, the more people will, like me, turn to illegal methods to get the product they want.
It's funny... in world economics, we learned the same lesson from Soviet Russia: the more you try to break the market, the more the market breaks you.
**** You never REALLY learn to swear until you own a computer. ****
Any attempt to legislate away something that appears to be a victimless crime in nature is doomed to failure. So it will be with DRM.
Someone, somewhere, will always work to break free of the restrictions that the music and film industries try to force upon them.
As I see high school kids every day, I will make the general statement that the priacy that exists in this age group is not drastically damagin the industry. Crappy product? That's damaging. Kids download songs, not albums, picking and choosing the best material they can get their hands on. The lack of uniform quality causes trouble.
Even the CD format shares blame. When albums clocked in at 45 minutes max, artists made quality music through the album. The cover art had value. A CD? 60 some minutes of material that didn't have to see the light of day, and wouldn't have 25 years ago.
In film, the studios are not losing money. The number of films created that go straight to DVD is amazing, and the creative accountents can make a successful movie appear to lose money.
TV too- they are mining gold when releasing old sitcoms. Money that would have never been made before.
Has anyone looked at the film and music execs? Do these guys look poor?
The potential damage is to the bottom line for small artists trying to make the leap. They however WANT you to copy and play their music.
DRM is all about making MORE money. Not less.
befuddled (noun) 1. Unable to create a pithy sig
/cringe
That post had so much potential...
There was a big legal battle about who owned the rights, and eventually the new studio was allowed to remake it (as Never Say Never Again) though without the regular James Bond theme music and credits.
But all the legal wrangling does help to prove your point: Copyright is a monopoly.
It's only logical; the more people "pirate", the tighter the industries are going to try to clamp down. All at the expense of legitimate users who just want to watch/listen to what they paid for.
which will alienate more customers and cause more piracy which will mean less money, more DRM. Hopefully these people will go bankrupt from this stupid stupid cycle.
Lesson learned. I just bought NFS-UG2 from EA but only AFTER I was able to d/l the full game and verify the hacked no-cd patch worked first. (...) Why buy and risk it not working when you can d/l and test for free first?
Which of course exposes you to the full legal risk of any other pirate. "I was going to buy it" will not be a valid defense. In other words, you've already done the deed. Why expose yourself to that risk if you're going to purchase it anyway? Nearly every game in existance has a no-cd patch, certainly all the popular ones. Buy it, get the patch/crack, and play your legal copy. Downloading the whole game is just an excuse to convieniently forget to go to the store and buy it.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It's bastards like you that sue for stupid ass reasons and cause there to be disclaimers and warnings on everything. I'm sick of seeing disclaimers and warnings on stuff.
I have to wonder about the region control stuff. I was working in Germany about six years ago and before I left home I went and saw Saving Private Ryan at a theatre in the United States. Eight weeks later it opened in Germany. Now, in those eight weeks the studio managed to get the movie dubbed into German (German's don't do subtitles) and get it distributed in Germany, Austria and presumably the German speaking areas of Switzerland. This was long before the DVD was ever released in either the US or European markets. My experience with other movies was similar, it took about eight weeks for a movie released in the US to be released in Germany in a dubbed version, less time to be released in the UK. So exactly what does region control do other than piss consumers off in one of the largest markets (the European Union) in the world?
For new movies the studios do everything they can to release them into the world market as quickly as possible, they have to, not because of concerns about piracy, but because they've spent a lot of money making that movie and want to recoup it as quickly as possible. So for new movies region control is a non-issue as the movie will probabbly be released in foreign markets months before the DVD comes out in North America. For older movies, it doesn't matter because the release of an older film is hardly going to compete with the theatrical release of the same film in a foreign market (I think that everyone on Earth has probably seen E.T. and Star Wars by now).
The situation was bad enough in the UK that friends of mine were purchasing two DVD players, one that played Region 1 DVDs and one for Region 2 content as the Region 2 disks often didn't have the same features, such as trailers, making of features, deleted scenes, etc that the Region 1 versions did.
At the time I was thinking that someone could have made a killing selling a system that had two DVD-R drives in it, one set for Region 1, and one for Region 2. Even if you had to have two separate decoding chips for them to comply with the idiotic and draconian licensing terms of the DVD-CCA you'd still be able to save money by combining the remote control, video and audio output circuitry and power supply.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
"Seriously, this is worse than you realise. Our only hope lies in technology, namely in secure anonymous ubiquitous wireless broadband global filesharing networks."
Ah yes, Faith. I thought all P2P'ers were athiest or agnostics?* So why do you speak with a forked tongue? On the one hand you expect technology to somehow be a solution to what's a social problem. While on the other, you ridicule technology to failure for everyone else.
"And in the leet and mighty pirate groups, who tirelessly work on their 0-day releases. Alternatively we need to organise and play their game of lobbying, lawsuits, astroturfing, etc., which we don't like and aren't as motivated because we have no monetary interest."
This indicates to me, that you don't understand how societies work. Weither you realize it or not (the blinders of demonization no doubt). When all is said and done, we are talking about people. There are no buildings attacking. Technology isn't attacking. It's all about people. Your WAR of attrition is against people, making a living. They have the same hopes, and dreams. They have the same emotions. The pirates while faceless (much like your enemy, eh?), are seen as people who don't give a damn about anyone else but themselves(1)
"But in the long term we will win, even though the next few years might be somewhat rough. "
There's nothing special about the "long run" that guarentees anything. There's also a great number of things that can happen, rendering all moot. e.g. asteroid.
"Even though some are trying to take it from us, we are still winning. So, in the end, we should not despair."
I think humanity will have far more to worry about, than weither they get free entertainment, and you can take that to the bank.
*A reasonable hunch, considering mainstream religions have provisions against stealing (and no, semantic games don't work with one's religious leader).
(1) I should also point out based on other pro-piracy posts, you all have an attitude problem. You refer to the masses as "sheep" and "seirfs" (amoung other terms). One this will turn those "masses" against you. Even if they don't like the content industry (evidence shows otherwise). They like your arrogent attitude even less. And will bond with the industry to spite you.
So feel free to put your faith in yourself, and your technological solutions. A lot of people will hurt, but not as much as those the masses see as "the enemy".
Microsoft did get caught.
They just were not punished.
The five-day license works like this: if you want to play it five days later, the software will insist on using the internet to get a fresh license. This will keep working as long as the license server is alive. I use software tools in my job that operate this way, but I don't think consumers will ever buy in to this model.
I think the important fact here is that, a year later, this is apparently the only DVD that's been released with these conditions. As we have all pointed out, the barriers to playing this content are too big for any but hard-core geeks, and most of us object for philosophical reasons.
He said he owned the regular version, but wanted to get the HD version for better quality. Going through analog would defeat his buying HD.
Anyway, this guy also justifies DRM and he believes copyright needs protection with DRM - copyright laws are sufficient to protect authors. However, now, he whines and cries about this DRM's effectiveness.
He said:
"I used to think that this [DRM] isn't necessarily a bad thing, as although I'm convinced that the whole idea of p2p-ing music and movies has hurt sales tremendously is simply a misrepresentation of the truth, I do think that copyrights should be protected, if needed by DRM. As long as it doesn't restrict me too much in how I can use the content I bought I have no problems with using DRM, much like I find that registering a piece of software online with a product key is perfectly acceptable... If this is how future DRM protected content will be distributed I have strong objections to the use of DRM, as this is a prime example of how to quickly alienate any prospective consumers."
If DRM didn't work, it wouldn't be invasive, restricting, and controlling. There should be no DRM whatsoever because it only hurts paying consumers. People who download or buy from black markets do not suffer from DRM. I am saying this only to consumers, since the entertainment moguls need and embraced DRM for their oligopoly.
I agree,these ads are really annoying. I guess they are sort of counter productive. I no longer buy Disney movies no matter what because of this. I'm quite sure I'm not the only one that react that way.
What I feel is even worse is when they start adding anti piracy ads that paint me as a potential thief of their IP. One movie distributer had a film that started with a film showing portraits in black and white all with a black square patch over the eyes of the persons like they do with not yet convicted criminals in newspapers. At the same time the speaker reads fictive senteces for IP crimes.
I really felt offended, I had after all paid to see their film. I certainly didn't pay to be called a thief. I did in fact not even see the film, it went out of the DVD player and into
the trash can.
Do I have to mention, I will never ever again buy anything from that film distributer either.
The same will probably happen if they use some hard to use or offending DRM technology to their DVDs. I can live without seeing movies or listening to CDs.
I wonder if the film industry and music can live without customers.
God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
So what if they tighten DRM further? If you didn't buy in the first place, how does that affect you? Moreover, you can win if you stop consuming their content. Don't share and download as well as don't buy. Go out and listen to live music instead etc.
Isn't the video on the DVD nothing but Mpeg-2? Doesn't that mean that you can just yank the VOB files, rename the to .mpg and watch them?
Maybe I'm missing something...
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Digital Line-Out to Digital Line-In. Play, record, save as MP3, thank you.
or
Start - Programs - Virtual Audio/Video Device. Play, record, save as MP3/MPEG, thank you.
or
Start - Programs - coolEdit/MovieMaker Pro - File - Extract Audio/Video from CD/DVD - Save as MP3, thank you.
or
Start - Programs - Kazaa Lite - Download, thank you.
or
Start - Programs - Mozilla - www.google.com - "Breaking latest DRM" - Thank you
Average non-Slashdot reader's reaction:
"What the fuck do you mean this DVD cost $5 more than the one without the DMR or RDM or whateverthefuck? This shit doesn't even play in my players! Fuck you! I'll give my techie friend a beer and he'll make me a copy of it."
Thank you.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
So far this is a windose problem folks. The range of ways to rip a DVD in Linux is impressive.
... Standards and Practices !
You'll need libdvdcss and libdvdread, both widly available and then everything from dvdbackup to vobcopy will rock and roll on the disc.
Lxdvdrip in it's present incarnation is very cool and if the title (the main one usually) is over 4.3 gig (dual layer is standard in commercial DVDs) it'll requantize it for you (I prefer that to the bitrate reduction some utilities use).
You end up with a 4.3 gig region 0 unencrypted disc that'll play anywhere.
I have yet to fail on a DVD.
PenGun
Do What Now ???
one of the reasons why i download music and movies is because i do not want my money to be used to further develop such technologies.
this is little of the subject but remember Metallica? that band got HUGE by the word of mouth and by people freely copying and distributing tapes their songs. they became the most popular metal band without any radio play what so ever. nowadays they are just sad and pathetic, and that drummer guy is a little whiney, spoiled, prissy Paris Hilton-esqe brat.
Having to view sodding adverts really pisses me off.
I've always enjoyed the sodding adverts. It's the adverts for products or services I am not interested in that bother me.
the internet will not kill newspapers
tv did not kill radio
etc.
the whole point is that for every medium that comes along, there will always be a niche for it, forever, and newer mediums merely push the old medium around somewhat, and pioneer new ways of communication the old medium could not
you can't watch tv while driving the car, but you can listen to radio
you can't read the internet in the subway, but you can read a newspaper
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Actually, many of them go even further, and say things like "Own the greatest romantic comedy of all time!" etc.
Yeah, there's a helluva deal if I've ever heard one.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
My 67 year old mother has been trying for about a week to get an ebook she bought from amazon. It is unbelievable difficult. First you have to download and install ms-reader. No matter what, after the installation you told the installation is outdated, and they instruct you to download and install again. Then ms-reader has to be activated. There are no instructions on how to activate, you have to go into settings, 3rd page, about half way down for a link. To activate ms-reader, you need an .net passport. Part of the .net passport process involves one of those image boxes, where you have to enter the text that's in the image box. You are notified if you entered everything correctly, you have to guess. This is another area where you are constantly sent around in a circle. My mother couldn't get it to work. I advised her to get a hotmail account, which she did, but she is still having problems.
I never plan on getting an amazon ebook, if they are this much trouble. Also, I suppose there is no way to get them to work with linux.
Don't boycott it. Return it. Then walk back to the shelves, find and buy another copy, and return that. Continue until only non drmed cds/dvds/whatever are on the shelf or you get kicked out.
Or just buy a bunch, return a day later. Repeat with different things.
Either method works (2 is less annoying.) Why will they work better than a boycott? Well, most stores ask for your reason for returning the item. This goes into their database. Give a good reason (eg: It has DRM, and I can't use it.) and retun it. This notches up the little counter on the number of returns. The more people that help you, the more returns. Soon, those drm products (and that DRM complaint) will be the most returned items in the store. Guess what they drop first?
Not a sentence!
It would work, if you could find enough people that were committed to it. Get a few million people to agree not to buy any DRM matterial for a month, and let everybody know it was an organized boycott, and why.
The trick in the UK is to buy a really cheap DVD player. Asda (now owned by Walmart, but not occupying the same sort of super-dominant market position) have them for about £30 or so; generic no-name ones with no surround-sound outputs, and the remote control magic code to switch the player to Region 0 (or to a specific region, for RPC movies) is easily found by Googling.
For your PC's dvd drive, go get an RPC1 firmware, then add DVD Genie to solve any software-type region coding.
Except for those poor fools who go out and buy the boxed set, and still can't play because of Steams DRM crap.. 3 days of wasting my time turning off every possible local blocker, until it went back and I get to spend money on something else. Too bad I can't get back the wasted 3 days of my life.
Does it show that I'm less then impressed with the shit that is HL2 "protection"
There is a store in my neighborhood that sells CDs and DVD's - some of them are copies and some of them are filmed from the theater. This is flat out theft but I don't see the fed's busting them and it is pretty obvious that the local cops know what is happening there. They would have to be blind not to. I mean they are selling "Meet the Fockers" right now, the sign says so.
I've seen similar stores in other cities and frankly, I believe that they exist to some degree all over. Maybe most are less blaitant but they are there. So are the individuals who copy DVD's they rent and then sell 'em to neighbors and friends.
If the MPAA can't stop these people, why do they work so hard on DRM? Why does DRM have to be so non-transparent?
Let's think about that for a bit. It is because they want to eliminate any sort of private ownership of the product they sell. They would rather sell something that spoils like lettuce than something that lasts like a CD or DVD. That way you need to refill and they can enhance their revenue chain (long term). They will probably reduce the initial cost of the product so that people won't complain and then charge a smaller amount to "recharge." To aviod the complaints of the environmentalists they won't require replacement media (it will also help them because they won't have to spend the money to reproduce the media).
My view is that if they were upfront about this, I probably wouldn't find much wrong with it. But they are setting us up to shove it down our throats.
Oh, and the other thing is that then, those bootleggers that they are ignoring? They will be working for them!
It does not work on my Philips DVD/CD-ROM drive on my PC since it has some technology by Sony marked in fine print "NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying."
Which translates to "Ha ha you fool. You would be better off downloading a pirate copy off the internet, because that would have more chance of working on your bog-standard PC (with addition of popular graphics card) that you bought from the largest retailer in the entire country than you have of this store-bought game working. By the way we printed the quick reference guide in black on black so you'll want to download the instruction manual too."
So Philips lets Sony get away with murder on the computer games front, what makes you think they will do anything on the movies or audio front?
Perpetuates VHS! You can share VHS tapes between the UK, Australia and New Zealand, but the powers that be have split them up into two DVD regions (2 and 4) so british people can't view DVDs of "The Topp Twins" (NZ television program) but have to try to find VHS tapes instead... God knows why TVNZ etc. want to limit their market.
To be fair, a few BBC DVDs are region "2+4" to pacify the antipodeans.
I buy them. However, if this becomes a reality I will likely start downloading cracked/pirated copies.
I bought the T2 "metal" box set about a year ago. I already owned the DVD but wanted the extra footage and soforth. I get it home, open it up, and inside the box with the disc is a little slip of paper that says something like "this disc uses some of the most advanced technology for your viewing pleasure. Some features may not be available on your player, but this will not inhibit the enjoyment of the movie."
Ya right. Tried it in three players... well actually two players and a computer. It wouldn't even start in the computer, (impossible to select the Play option from the root menu) and on both DVD players it played normally except every time it came up to a scene that had "multiple angles", it played EVERY ANGLE SEQUENTIALLY. So I got to see the same scenes 4-9 times from every viewpoint. The DVD menu was hopeless... graphics were overlapped and not where they belonged, some options could not be selected, and in most cases the select pointer was not where it belonged.
It went back to Sam Goody the next day. I explained it wasn't defective, it was just poorly designed and that I couldn't use it - they took it back and gave me a refund.
So this is not the first time that studio has pulled this sort of stunt with "new technology". If you're going to pay for the "special edition" you should at least get some quality.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Although DRM is terrible a software workaround will probably be forthcoming. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the pirates versus xxAA people. They say it will be impossible to break. That has been said so many times in the past that it just doesn't even rate a reply. They say it is encrypted. So what? The encryptions have been broken in the past they will be in the future. (Not that I'm saying go around giving away free DVDs - I'm just saying you have to the right to view the contents of the DVD and if you have to decrypt it to do so that is ok in my mind - although you may differ in your opinion.)
:-)
But to truly hit the xxAAs where they will most feel it - go buy a lot of DVDs and then take them all back. If you really want to torque around the stores do this repeatedly. Get your friends to help out. Believe me - if a few thousand people do this (like a couple of hundred dollars worth of DVDs) then this will make everyone sit up and notice. Because a few million dollars of DVDs being sent back will make everyone reconsider their policies. I plan on doing it myself. And of course writting to our reps in office as well as the DOJ people and complaining of misleading advertisements (the OWN it versus licensing).
And remember! Now that Microsoft et al have agreed that their EULAs are offensive and are having to change their method of selling software - this bleeds over into buying movies. It is just as illegal to say you own the movie and then make it like you are actually licensing the movie as it is to have a restrictive EULA you can't read before you buy the software (and not allowing you to return the software).
Also, don't forget to open all of the DVDs before you attempt to return them. Just say you had to (of course) try all of the DVDs before you returned them.
Have fun!
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
The T2 extreme edition WM9 disc isn't a DVD-Video.
This is also old news, I think as of last year?
This is the first time someone bought it!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Here in Australia, we often get Disney movies advertised on TV as now you can "OWN" this movie for the first time on DVD!
1. Editing or forcing producers to make Blockbuster-friendly versions of films.
2. Reinforcing the encrypted DVD business model...Blockbuster still pays for the rental DVDs, MPAA keeps producing them.
3. Reinforcing Hollywood's trend of making Bruckheimer-esque crapulescant action films with recycled plots and oneliners.
Except when Joss Whedons "Serenity" comes out, September 2005, it will as far from recycled crap you can imagine. Remember to go actually pay for that one.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Mod parent up!
I just snortled my Red Bull reading this!
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
I have discovered that RealVNC is able to grab stuff off the screen, out of what is effectively video RAM. Now then, I suppose that on a two-cpu machine there is enough power available to run a dvd player (powerDVD comes to mind) while capturing the screen in realitme. Now, if only the ethernet card could keep up.
How long before...
Here's my concern I haven't seen it raised here yet. In order for you top watch said movie he had to get a new license every five days. This means that if for whatever reason they decide that they don't want to show the movie any more they just stop giving out licenses.
This makes me think about 1984 and how much easier it would me to change history if everything was digital and needed a license to view it.
I will tug on the Liberals ears here a little.
Imagine if the only way to purchase Fahrenheit 911 was via a DRM protected media. Now say the Conservative portion of the government stays in power. they do not want anything "bad" to be said about the man who "Lead To Victory Over Evil" (or whatever happened.
Someone would just purchase the rights to the movie and turn off the license. Poof... no More Movie.
That's just scary.
I hate stupid rules... Rules that make sense I don't mind... But the stupid ones just really bug me!
The kind of reply that this sort of thing generates is not unlike the annoying problem that Telemarketing is. Thank God for Dave Berry and his wonderful article "Ask not what your telemarketer can do to you", wherein he published in his article (carried by about 5000 newspapers in the US, average circulation 40,000), a (real) toll free 1-800 number for the American Telemarketing Association. He encouraged readers to speak up and voice their constutionally protectected opinion of the Association, and "be sure to wipe off the mouthpiece after you are done." After the Association disconnected the line, laws changed. DRM and the DMCA deserve nothing less.
Well, faster to get is relative. If you figure it takes 30 minutes to an hour to run to the store and buy a DVD, compared to five minutes on the computer to queue it for download. If you compare it as being downloadable three days before the theatrical release, much less the DVD release three to six months down the road.
On the other side, it's very easy and fast to grab a DVD at a store when you're there anyways. No real need to worry about corruption or getting the wrong thing.
And of course, the whole music thing was exasperated by the movie industry selling movies cheap. "What do you mean, I have to pay more for the movie soundtrack than I do the movie?". Prices have dropped, but I remember asking myself why they were trying to sell ~60 minutes of music for more than a two hour movie (with sound!).
I don't read AC A human right
> I have no problems with DRM that ...
> would enforce existing rights
So a DRM system should for instance make it impossible to modify GPL licensed software without extending the license and the DRM enforcing of its terms to the derivative work!
I agree that anyone who sells a product (including selling a license) restricting some of the buyer's lawful rights should be sued to death. The problem is that those who do these things are stronger players in the courts. And they've already been using copyright as an excuse not to fix the products they sell you and at the same time to not make the info available that would enable you to fix it youself or hire someone to fix it for you. Can you imagine a situation where you cannot have your car fixed because the info needed to fix it is protected by copyright? (but of course you may upgrade to a new model!)
The only confusing thing was my bad joke.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
OK...
Let's talk about that software that you've "bought". You might find a reminder like this in your EULA: "Software is licensed. Not sold.". And that's the point. If all you've paid MS for Windows is a few hundred bucks, you don't own it. To own it you'd have to offer a few hundred billion bucks, i'm afraid.
By default, copyright holder has "all rights reserved". Later that owner might give some of those rights to you. What you get when you buy a chunk of plastic called DVD from Disney is a right to take a look (maybe just a limited amount of times) at the contents of it. That's all. And this sad fact of reality will not change until Disney's copyright expires. To get the privilege you pay in bucks (and maybe megabytes of the encrypted area on your HDD). In no way you become an "owner" of those bytes. You own the data you create. They own the data they create. Your data is under NTFS encryption. Their data is under DRM encryption. You won't tell them your password, they won't tell you theirs. Pretty fair, i'd say.
Do the commercials say "Buy the movie now", though? Offhand, it seems to me that home video commercials tend to use phrases like "Available now on DVD", or "Bring the movie home for Christmas", neatly avoiding the issue of ownership vs. licensing.
Some do say this. For example, the commercials for the recently-released movie "Elf" chant "buy it now" to the tune of "Jingle Bells." The other side of the issue is paying money to see Will Ferrel try to act... blech.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
I do hope those are all stolen DVDs - please don't tell me you *reward* the media giants.
I think you misstated a point. If something can be seen, heard, felt or smelled, it will be duplicated by someone, then converted to a medium of choice for distribution. NO MATTER WHAT. I believe the media giants understand this.
Copyright nonsense has lost all pretense of existing for the public good. So between now and the final bitter end of all legal copyright protection, the existing magnates wish to maximize their profits. How quickly they are stopped is directly proportional to how greedily they behave.
Of course, once copyright goes away, our beloved FSF has a bit of a problem too...
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." - Josef Stalin