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Zune's Viral DRM Will Violate Creative Commons
lopy writes "Medialoper has noted that Zune's highly touted wireless file sharing will infect otherwise unprotected audio files with proprietary DRM. In cases where users are sharing songs covered by any of the Creative Commons licenses, this would be a clear violation of those license. From the CC FAQ: 'If a person uses DRM tools to restrict any of the rights granted in the license, that person violates the license.' It'll be interesting to see how and if the CC community responds." An anonymous reader wrote in mentioning a post to the Crave blog, relatedly exploring how the Zune stacks up to the iPod.
Fool me once, shame on me.
With DRM, Microsoft, RIAA, MPAA, and the usual cast of characters, it's "fool us a billion times...", it doesn't seem to matter, they keep throwing this kind of foolishness our way.
I guess the good news about this is the silly layer of DRM adds that more assuredness the Zune will be a miserable also ran in the market.
Users will get over the cool factor quickly, especially when the favorite song someone shared with them stops playing three days later. Yeah, there's probably documentation. Who reads it?
I don't see any ads for this device touting "share your tunes three times or three days, whichever comes first!" to catchy music. If I were to buy one of these (not) anticipating the magic of wireless sharing I would return it immediately on learning the fine (hwah?, not so fine?) print.
And, what other silly DRM is layered? I wonder (and almost suppose) Microsoft further encumbers shared songs a la making a song shared by someone unshareable by a sharee...
And, if Microsoft wanted to limit the listening, why so Draconian a limit? WTF? If a tune has any texture, any depth, any insight at all, it can take a lot more than three listens to develop an ear for that song. Too bad. Clearly this is not the era to be exposing listeners to Beethoven or Mozart.
As for my part, I now freely distribute copies of music from my collection to any who want them. I always verbalize the disclaimer they must buy if they like with a wink and a nod. I know now my good faith efforts before were empty gestures. (I even refused in the past to let my daughters make tapes of CDs for their friends, not any more...)
This is all really too bad, because it could be interesting use of technology. Not really my cup of tea (I've posted on this earlier, responses to my post convinced me there could be some market for this).
It's time to sue Microsoft for contibutory and vicarious infringement for doing this. Use the Grokster case as precedent. It's time the pro-DRM side got a taste of their own legal medicine.
Zune accomplishes this amazingly stupid feat by wrapping shared music in a proprietary layer of DRM, regardless of what format the original content may be in. If Microsoft's claims are to be believed, this on-the-fly DRM will be seamless and automatic - which must be some kind of first for Microsoft.
This story should be pulled immediately! Slashdot does not tolerate cheap shots towards Microsoft
what sharecropping is to realestate ownership. It's just that simple.
Am I the only one who thinks that it violates the spirit of Creative Commons to turn end-listeners into lawbreakers?
This isn't why artists license their works using CC, and it's the same BS that the RIAA tries to enforce.
CC licenses exist to protect against large-scale systematic explotiation by commercial entities or other organizations. To say that an individual is somehow breaking the license by playing a song over a wireless interface is counter-productive.
The FAQ on the article basically does not allow a person to distribute a creative commons work that has been modified with DRM. Microsoft is doing no such thing. While their software will DRM-ify the song, it is the end user who is using the Zune as the mechanism of distribution. Clearly the works are available without the DRM, as the original user got the song in the first place. This seems to me to be an issue of a transport layer. If you know Microsoft will always DRM, and you try to use this mechanism to distribute CC'd licensed works, then perhaps you are the one who is in violation of the license.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
Considering all the FUD that gets commentary and analysis about MS and Vista recently, it would be nice to know exactly where he got the information that Zune would also wrap non-WMA, non-DRMed files in a DRM layer.
Does it really do that? Anyone have a source?
From the sound of the article, this is only implemented for the wireless sharing feature and not for all media, so you'll still be able to send these files to each other, unencrypted, with no adverse effects. It just won't work over wireless.
As for the CC-licensed content, the original data is still available, unhampered by DRM.
It's unfortunate that the link to the previous analysis is broken in the article. For something like this, it really helps to have more facts.
Assuming the Zune allows violation of the Creative Commons license in this way, who is liable? Is it Microsoft, for making the device, or the user, for distributing Creative Commons-licensed material in a way that's incompatible with its license?
I personally would recommend an Ipod over this DRM monster, but well-meaning relatives may inflict this on you in celebration of Christ's birth or whatever.
In this case, possibly the only way to survive this player may be a community produced firmware replacement. Its been done for the ipod and many other devices already.
If not then there are always the post-Christmas ebay auctions...
My little Linux and tech blog
Ok let me take a poll
How many people will buy a zune ?
Ok of those select few, how many have CC content they are or were planning to put on the zune ?
Is anyone's hand up? Furthermore, it would be the end users that would violate the CC license, not microsoft. I can violate the licence today with Microsoft Media Player. Why doesn't CC sue microsoft for allowing users to violate the licese that way? Zune just makes it easier to violate the licese CC doesn't have a say and doens't ahve a leagal leg to stand on. The whol anti DRM thing on slashdot has gotten way out of hand. There are many artists who awnt this kind of protection for their music. They are stuggling to make ends meet and tak to fans who tell them they burned copies of their cd's and gave them to all their friends. These bands are on INDEPENDANT labels, not covered by RIAA. Its an option, let people choose to use it or not use it. Microsoft added a feature that previously didn't exist amoung mp3 players and wanted to make sure that no one used it to violate the artists rights. It just means that you will have to distrubute CC licences files some other way, possibly the same way you are doing right now!
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
I appologise for not remembering where I saw/heard this but in the last 24 hours I saw a comment that made a lot of sense with regards to the Zune and the 3 day/play rule. This feature is not meant as a convenience of the user so they can share their music with others. Its a feature of the marketing people so they can virally encourage you to buy more.
Imagine a bunch of kids at school. The first one buys a track from the Zune store, shares it around to all his/her friends, creates interest in the cool tune. And then *poof* the music vanishes. So what do all the friends do? The head off to the Zune store to buy buy buy.
From that perspective the feaure makes a great lot of sense.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Given that no DRM I've yet heard of has been able to stand up against a bunch of people willing to crack it, does anyone think the Zune might gain a cult following if someone should manage to disable the 3-day/3-play limit on the songs? Or even the DRM wrapper that adds DRM to the songs that don't have it? Because a DRM-less Zune actually sounds like a good idea. Hackers, get to it!
A big problem is that many media companies and companies like Microsoft don't really believe that copyright license like CC and the GPL are "real" licenses. These companies believe that there is really nothing backing these kind of license up, and while the little people may get pissed off, no one has the resources to come after them. It's going to take a court case to make these people pay attention to Open Source licenses.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
That this product in and of itself will not prosper.
On the other hand, someone will find a way to hack a better , more open OS onto it, using it's hardware capabilities. And they will have a hit.
Or MS will abandon it and whoever is doing the OEM manufacture of the hardware will sell it to a company wiloling to put an open OS on it.
I can always dream and hope.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
...Zune of Borg. Lower your firewalls and prepare to be accessed. Your audio and video uniqueness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.
TLR
A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
This is no less than vandalism and theft of potentially free music. What about private recordings which is without the user's consent mangled and will be unusable in three days? A worst-case scenario is when the clean audio file is deleted because "someone else has a backup of it".
This just have to flop. The average user can't be so stupid that s/he accepts this humbug.
or the **AA would have had to sue the hell out of them. The ultimate nightmare for a **AA executive is a "college Zune party." A bunch of people get together, swap a ton of music/movies/etc., and leave. No torrents, web servers, or IP addresses to list in a lawsuit or threatening letter to a college administrator. Microsoft would have been guilty of enabling illegal file sharing/IP theft without this DRM wrapper.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
As a former long-time owner of a Sony Minidisc player, I can give you a glimpse of why the hate is so strong here. It's about (what my best friend calls) 'wasted potential.'
Let me give you an idea of what my Minidisc life was like for about 5 years:
The device is capable of so many uses. You can record, you can play, you can run with it, you can hook it up to a million sound systems, etc. etc. etc. But the software is designed with keen observation from the lawyers in the company. Many of the features that you, in your sweet heart, KNOW are there are disabled. Recording and then copying are severely restricted. Getting music onto the damn thing takes the effort equivalent to climbing a mountain.
Long story short, it's a gallant horse with strong legs in a tight and painful harness. Severely limited in its movement, the animal withers.
The wireless component of the Zune give it immense potential to dethrone the Ipod. But, we all know that DRM and MS's history will give us a scenario much like the one I consistently experienced as a Minidisc fan.
That's why I have an Ipod.
"Sued for millions?" You have to prove damages. What are the damages here in monetary terms? Zero.
It's quite sad that you guys are calling for lawsuits that would result in one of two things: 1. Removing the sharing feature altogether (many of you would love that just to stick it to MS, but you'd be screwing over Zune's users in the process); 2. much more likely, MS would just add a disclaimer telling the user, "The sharing feature is NOT to be used to share CC files" (like the various DVD/CD copying programs have a disclaimer, "This software is not to be used to violate the copyright of protected works").
You guys will accomplish nothing significant with this ridiculous "suit".
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
That sort of "one generation only" DRM is just as broken as all other types of it; it suffers from the same terminal flaws, namely that you can't well restrict the copying of data once it's been moved into the digital realm, where copying is inherent to even the most basic manipulations of the data (i.e., moving it from one place to another).
Just because it doesn't prevent all copies doesn't make it any less flawed from an inherent information-theory and cryptological standpoint, and in the long run I think it's doomed to failure. The only question is whether, in failing, it manages to take down a few otherwise-good formats with it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
With wireless devices becoming more popular everyday, it's only a matter of time before there's an MP3 player with wireless adhoc network capability to transfer files. As it stands, I can already with my wired connection and my archos player transfer files via wire to other players without lame DRM or other interference. Which is really neat when you want to share something with someone who has a MP3 player that is classified under USB mass-storage. It's only a matter of time before free wireless sharing between 3rd party players emerges. I was almost 100% certain MS would screw this up somehow, and it looks like they did quite a job of it. The possibilities are cool, but with the DRM, very limited. And you can bet I'd be looking elsewhere for my next player.
I suppose it's to be expected, these are the same people that went out of their way to store Media Center files in a proprietary format making it almost impossible to watch on Linux or just about any other computer. What a shame.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
Perhaps I could then send a legal blackmail letter to microsoft offering to settle for $3700 and if they don't accept, I can recover up to $150000 for each violation? Regardless of what the actual loss is, it seems the precedent set by the RIAA would declare that each copyright violation for a song is worth more then actual damages.
That should read: Zune's Music Sharing Features Will Allow Users to Violate Creative Commons.
The Zune is an inanimate object. It isn't doing anything. It allows the USERS to share music in a DRM'd format. It is the user's responsibility to know that THEY are violating CC by distributing a piece of media with out complying with that media's license.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
They're called statutory damages. You know, like the RIAA sues for. You don't think they are claiming that the damage to them caused by someone uploading a single song is really $150,000 do you?
Ah, just like that disclaimer (almost verbatim) protected p2p vendors from getting their pants sued off. Oh wait: it didn't. Oh well, maybe MS need to just obey the law that they're so keen on getting others to obey.
Pirate Party UK
"If a tune has any texture, any depth, any insight at all, it can take a lot more than three listens to develop an ear for that song. Too bad. Clearly this is not the era to be exposing listeners to Beethoven or Mozart."
,to see the tits and ass, to appreciate modern music. What if the person who sings/performs the tune is not beautiful... hires some dancer/models..."Ears" are entirely optional.
That is why these players need video screens. You need "Eyes"
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Actually, according to Microsoft's Zune Insider, Zune WILL allow you to share music that hasn't been purchased through the Zune Marketplace:
e .html
http://www.zuneinsider.com/2006/09/answers_to_som
Here's what he says in answer to a question about this:
"I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?" Good question. There currently isn't a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can't tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding. And besides, she'll come see you three days later. . "
Anyone can zip and password protect a CC file. Does this mean Zip is a problem or the Zipper?
Is Zune the problem, or the guy who put the CC file on his Zune player?
So who broke the law, the guy who translated it, the guy who paid for the translation, or the guy who bought the translation.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
1. Create crappy song with Creative Commons License ...
2. Get Microsoft to force user to violate license
3.
4. PROFIT!!!!!!
Sometimes step 3 is easy to imagine.
Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
The Zune Looks like a complete POS to me. I wouldn't have one given to me...
-- Fuck Beta
I download a file on P2P, I listen to it three times, decide it's crap and don't bother to buy a copy - that's illegal...?
Am I the only one who sees the hipocracy here?
Maybe the RIAA will sue Microsoft but I'm not holding my breath. The last thing the RIAA wants is somebody to actually go to court and fight their trumped up charges.
No sig today...