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Flash Memory with Copy Protection
Castar writes "Mercury News is reporting that SanDisk has created a new type of flash memory with copy-protection logic built in. From the article: "Today, much of a consumer's digital content is held hostage on a particular kind of device, such as an iPod or a PC, because that is the only way to prevent massive piracy. But with the SanDisk flash memory card, a consumer can move the digital content to another device. If the music company insists the data can only be copied five times, the memory card itself enforces that policy in the new device, be it a cell phone or music player." Rejoice that your data can be "liberated" from the confines of your PC or iPod!"
I was getting sick of all that freedom, good thing sandisk's taking care of that, so i don't have to
Today it's held hostage to your PC or iPod! Tommorrow, it's held hostage to your USB drive!
So, the only difference between this new flash and ordinary flash is that this one can do LESS ?
Step 1) Copy once
Step 2) Remove protection from your new copy
Step 3) No more DRM.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
What does `copied' mean? From the perspective of a storage device, the data being read and put on a CD, which is then duplicated a million times, is exactly the same as the data being read, decoded, passed through a DAC and fed into someone's ears. It seems that these constraints are either unenforceable or just plain silly.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
To quote Edward E. 'Doc' Smith:
Anything physical science can research and synthesize, physical science can analyze and duplicate
What they apparently don't get is that anything can be cracked, given enough time to research the protection scheme.
If I hadn't been modded down, you'd be reading this right now.
I feel so much more free now that I no longer can copy my own files. Thank you!
When SanDisk starts manufacturing DRM-protected thumb drives and PNY or other manufacturers continue to sell unprotected thumb drives, I think the market will do the talking.
The industry seems bound and determined to put copy protection on everything, whether it be ringtones or MP3s. Flash memory makers are doing their best to help them, and OS makers are doing their best to take advantage of those features.
We speak of Freedom as if Linux could provide it, but the question is gradually becoming whether it is better to be the canary in a gilded cage or the crow eating garbage in the snow. Having an isolated "free" system that can't interact with other "non-free" systems is not really how we expected things to turn out, I bet.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Yes, although I thought SD memory had this kind of "feature" too, as did some of the enhanced memory sticks from sony.
But remember we consumers have been crying out for a way to move our music around freely and securely. Oh, wait a minute, I have that, its called scp.
i don't understand how i'm confined. makes no sense at all.
if i use my PC or iPod, that's not really confining. plus, any idiot can get their music off of their ipod, it's as simple as viewing hidden folders. not to mention the availibility of free (legal) software that has that ability.
so how does this new flash memory free me up when i can just get current flash memory and copy my stuff as much as I want? i'm not really being confined at all. even with DRM, i can still play it on my ipod, my PC, and burn CDs to play on bazillions of devices. i can't even think of any other uses i would really want for my DRMed music.
hmm...maybe sandisk is making excuses here...maybe they know that consumers don't actually want copy protection built in to their flash memory.
This whole "Copy protection management" thing is getting ridiculous. What I want to know is how they can check for DRMed content without some kind of massive database.
..... oh wait :)
Speaking of which, what on earth is next? Will we be having DRM scanners next to virus scanners and spamassassin? Will W32.Boyband_somecrap be part of a new wave of definition file? Will we need to upgrade our servers to deal with the extra load on DRM scanning?
Oh who cares anyway? As long as it all makes money for somebody....
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Well, I imagine they'll be an licensed encryption key required. That'll be cracked in about ten minutes (probably by DVD Jon), but using hardware implementing his crack in the US will magically turn you into a felon.
Hooray for the DMCA.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Er, so if I copy a file from the memory card onto, say, an iPod, the memory card alters the way the iPod works? Huh? This makes no sense whatsoever.
One of these days, I wish there'd be an article about copy protection that protected the ability to copy.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Cheap and secure DRM -- looks like San Disk has done it.
There needs to be integration with the processor (e.g. processor starts up, decrypts and runs a boot program using a special key) -- but that's already been done. Secure storage makes those two things work better. Note: if your processor is old school and non-DRM, you just snoop the bus and get the secrets.
Looks like a real home run: this is the "right place" (from an economic standpoint) to put the DRM. It will be cheap and secure.
However, it then becomes a juicy target for attack: if they are selling these chips by the millions, and they are protecting IP worth billions, then it is time to break out the acid and electron microscopes, and figure out how to deactivate it. And then it is busted.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Trying to make bits uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet.
The sooner people accept this, and build business models that take
this into account, the sooner people will start making money again.
- Bruce Schneier
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
They've learned from "less is more"...
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
That's the New Freedom(c). Get used to it. Flash drives that can't copy, cameras everywhere (London), not owning your own house (eminent domain), being held without charges indefinetely (patriot act). It's all part of the New Freedom (c). See everything is turned upside down. It's easy.
No, it can do more, the new functionality just isn't something most consumers will find beneficial. In my opinion, products like this are inevitable. Media companies will eventually have to tap the enormous potential of electronic distribution. Does anybody believe they're going to do this without some system in place to control access to their premium content? I just hope when the time comes it will run on an open DRM platform instead of some studio-created proprietary one. Not holding my breath though...
You can't have full copy protection until you get rid of the analog version. I wonder how long it will it be before the *AAs start burning books?
Some thoughts I am still mulling over:
a) Any device encumbered by DRM will fail if there are alternatives available on the market. If there are no alternatives the product might enjoy a limited success until the product becomes so successful that alternatives/clones/ripoffs become inevitable.
b) All forms of drm can be corrupted/broken/negated, and most will be broken within a matter of days or even hours.
c) Most new technology will be used in ways the inventors never imagined. Trying to restrict this behavior with DRM will surely kill your product.
This 'Gruvi' (what a horrible horrible name) probably falls under cat. A, and will disappear soon.
-- No Sig is a Good Sig
And the encryption stuff won't be available for linux.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Sure, it's silly, but that does not mean it won't work. If everything in the chain is non free, you won't be able to do what you think you will be able to do. There will be a difference between the CD and the DAC.
If you have been keeping up with "Trusted" nonsense, this memory falls right in line. It has a fritz chip in it and it's going to act more like an IPod than memory. It will ONLY copy to a "trusted" device. There will never be a legal linux reader and it won't work with 99% of existing devices. It will have the power to only send low quality audio to any device with an audio out, so that "recording" via a sound card will yield an "FM radio" quality copy. Your music will no longer be a hostage on a few devices, it will be held hostage in the memory itself.
Right now, you can avoid DRM insanity but that's not going to last. When the world's three music publishers only release in DRM form, you will buy it or not have current popular music. The hope of music executives is to drive the world back to music quality and distribution that existed before digital technology. You will only hear good quality music live. Everything else will be FM and no one but them will have the ability to sell caned music. You don't think windoze will play that nasty non-RIAA music do you? Tomorrow's computers will be like todays music stores, RIAA only or no RIAA at all.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
When the world's three music publishers only release in DRM form, you will buy it or not have current popular music.
O nos! What will I do without new Tittney or Chrislutna Ogle-ara? I think popular music sucks, and I don't think I'm alone. The decline in music sales isn't due to rampant piracy, it's because most new music sucks.
If musicians don't care enough to make sure their product isn't compromised by the distributor, then I don't care to support them. I'll keep listening to the music I already own, and only buy unencumbered music.
</curmudgeon>
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
Oh, yes. And remember that for media presented to the user in an analog format (currently the majority of content that people want to protect), there's always the analog hole. After all that work, money, time, effort, crypto PhDs, vendors, promises, advertising and getting the public to buy into it, pissing off your hardware guys, outcompeting cheaper competitors, forging agreements with slippery people who are out to stab you in the back, and dealing with dubious governments and consumer advocacy groups, the content can be simply and easily ripped by anyone who can solder two wires to a speaker cone. This comes at only a very slight reduction in quality (remember that people are already settling for the quality of *MP3s*, where 90% of the data is already being thrown out at the factory!), which may even be recoverable with clever software tools that understand the lossy compression algorithm that the publisher is using.
So, don't be afraid of the DRM-using industry. Pity them. They have things a hell of a lot worse than you do.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Has SanDisk ever heard of Secure Digital? Sony MagicGate? They ought to have, since they manufacture both...
Or is Sandisk just giving a lot of fanfare and hoping their me-too solution will actually be used by someone?
This press release is filled with double-talk and flat-out Orwellian nonsense. Like: Preventing people from backing up their data 'gives them more options'.
We get a bad feeling about all this because so much money and resources is going into developing a technology that no one who is actually buying the technology actually wants. The chip designer firm is working with the chip manufacturer who is negotiating with the global entertainment corporation who is linking with the agent who interfaces with the artist who toots up with the liaison of the technology company.
So who's missing here? How about the people who are actually putting out the money to actually pay for this stuff. One person buys an entertainment product and a little while later discovers that they can't do the simple and obvious things that they had come to expect that they could do with it; like backing it up or moving it to another medium like the car stereo. Suddenly the perceived value of this entertainment item drops to half or less of its previous value. So the consumer is only willing to pay $8 for the same CD that they were willing to previously buy at $16 when the CD or CD player has copy prevention technology built into it.
Now the entertainment corporation is raising the price to pay for the development of this new technology and also raising the price because the competition (from easy copies) is now restrained. So the perceived value (and price) is going down at the same time that the price for the entertainment product is shooting up. How exactly is this supposed to be good for the entertainment company or the artist? It must be that they fundamentally assume that because they are so cool and beautiful that the vast dork masses will buy the product regardless of how much it costs or difficult it is to use. This is what happens when entertainment people start talking business with computer people. The greed goes recursive and you end up with the worst mentalities of both industries in one package.
In the long run (10 years plus) this mentality will only act to reduce the importance and viability of the entertainment corporations. The board of directors will look to spin off the entertainment divisions in the way that everyone is now trying to dump their record companies. Maybe DRM is nothing more than a long term plan on the part of the technology companies to seriously depress the value of the entertainment companies so that ten years from now (when all the ultra-fast download-entertainment-directly-to-the-home technology is in place) they will be able to buy the entertainment companies for a tiny fraction of what they are worth now. Or maybe it's just the fantasy of immature greedheaded yuppies with too much access to other people's money.
As long as that sound comes out of analog speakers, I can take two microphones, one mixer board, and a tape deck (Or an on the fly line-in cd burner from Sony) and make a copy of that music nearly perfectly. Gimme a break. Anyone with half a brain for making music could figure this one out. So there's the audio aspect taken care of.
As far as video goes, I don't know what to do about that. Data? There are programs out there that can copy everything, bit-for-bit, and burn to another DVD/CD. Therefore the license is still valid and intact, and you can put it onto another person's computer. Since they have the "original" (as far as bit-by-bit goes) disc, it should work fine.
These companies are just wasting their time, money, and energy in a pathetic attempt to "control piracy" (read: force their monopolies upon everyone else.) I'm wondering when they'll realize that Newton's third law could very well apply in this situation; For every copy-protection/license/DRM scheme they come out with, someone else will successfully crack and make the exact opposite of it.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Not considering other media storage formats like Iomega ZIP, this is just a list of flash-memory media formats that 'I' am aware of to have come out in the 10 years since 1995 when Compact Flash Type 1 was introduced:
That's an average of more than 1 new flash-memory format/year, and I'm sure there are others that I have missed.
If someone buys a Rolling Stones album on a DRM'd SD card, they're making a bet that from now on, every
-- I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous