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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."
People 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.
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
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
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.
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!
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]
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."?
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.
Every day, I have to explain the difference between a slash and a backslah. Twice last year I had to tell someone what a colon was. A few times every week I have to explain right clicking to someone. Almost every day, I have to explain to at least one person the difference between their operating system and their browser, or the difference between the internet and their browser, and especially the difference between AOL and their browser.
I'm sorry you're offended that slashdotters are eager to point out the general ignorance of the public at large in re: computers, but your offense doesn't make it not so.
This doesn't, of course, mean that slashdotters are better, smarter, or superior to the average person. We're just better with computers. I have no illusions about being able to perform pulpotomies, gingival debridements, or apicoectomies. I am not superior to the dentists I support. But I do no a metric fuckton more about computers than they do, and I'm faced with the appalling - to me - breadth of their ignorance on a daily basis.
I'm sure at ADA conventions, dentists complain about the general ignorance of the public about proper oral hygiene and dental care. In fact, I know they do, because our dental directors (all of whom, obviously, have their own DDSs) complain about this ignorance all the time. Your surprise that a group of people who are knowledgeable about a field complains about the ignorance of people who aren't knowledgeable about it is somewhat surprising to me.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
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.