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Microsoft DRM To Get Even Tighter
Toreo asesino writes, "Microsoft is tightening the screws on their up & coming DRM platform. First, Windows Media Player 11 removes the right to move music from one machine to another. According to their website, WMP11 'does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses).' Worse, if you rip your own CDs and the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, WMP11 will require you to 'connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.'" The Inquirer has an even more jaundiced take on Microsoft's turn of the thumbscrew.
You don't have to use WMP to rip CDs you know?
This is really a moot issue. I mean I hate Microsoft and all that they are, but seriously, just don't use WMP.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Who the hell still uses WMP anyway?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Even tighter DRM? Wow... tell me again why I should install Vista?
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
This is beautiful. Microsoft goes even further in restricting your rights for material you already own (god knows what purchases will be like). Meanwhile, Apple has been going in the other direction, finally adding a "transfer purchases from iPod" menu option in iTunes 7.
This guy's the limit!
how they still manage to speak of "your rights" when there are virtually none left to speak of...
Also saw "Cannot play back recorded TV that is protected with media usage rights in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 after 3 days". Man this so makes me want to get all tricked out with a Zune and windows break-my-media center, because they all look so nice and they 'just work'. This must be that 'microsoft standard' thingy I keep hearing about all the time. Standard - that's when you get to arbitrarily break things that used to work, right?
See - monopolies really do work better than an open marketplace of ideas.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Between this and the Zune's 3 days/3 plays model of DRM, it seems like Microsoft are trying their hardest to confuse people as to when they can and cannot play their music. It almost sounds like they want to generate bad public opinion.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
The more you tighten your grip, the more music listeners will slip through your fingers.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
You can just direct the WMP11 play back audio stream into an OGG/MP3 encoder via a loopback on the sound card. Virtualy no loss of quality (well provided your not an uber-anal sound freak) and no more DRM
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
I don't really listen to CD's that often, only owning three or four, and I don't download music (except when I get it for my wife, and then I pay for it). But this kind of asinine, punch consumers in the nuts philosphy almost makes me want to make copies of my few CD's to give to everyone I know. If only I weren't so lazy, and didn't still respect the rights of the artist. Will most consumers do anything about it though? Probably not. They will just bend over and ask for more, as Microsoft takes away any concept they might have of "fair use".
Crap. That sure teaches me to keep multiple windows open. This was supposed to be posted in this slashdot article.
Bet this
This is just one more reason Im going to stick to CD's. If I like the artist then I go out a buy there CD. That way I can play it where ever I want in what ever device I need. If it gets to the point the CD are so full of DRM then ill just listen to the radio for free. No DRM via radio waves!
~ Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe ~
Excellent! I knew we could count on the MegaCorps of the world to demonstrate the drawbacks of DRM more effectively than any consumer rights activist ever could. The more they tighten down the restrictions, the more people will be inconvenienced by DRM, and the more people will care. Perhaps, one day, they will even be enlightened about what proprietary DRM systems do to interoperability and consumer choice.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
To what end? Why did they do this? At the behest of who?
I'd call them turd burglars, but that would imply some competence at burgling turds.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I think it's not in the path, however. Oh, and also edit! It barfs on the 64-bit version though.
I've not used WMP much for many years, simply because it's become a resource hog. When I listen to music on my PC, it's for something to listen to while I work. For that, I don't need a huge program taking up system taskbar space, or screen space. I have relied on winamp classic for years, just because of this. It's got all the functions, it plays the music I like, and I don't have to deal with WMPs crap.
{} ------ When I think of a good sig, I'll put it here
Microsoft is trying to kill DRM.
Right now, every Linux distro should be touting "We won't restrict you like Microsoft will, we're more secure, and we're FREE. The more you support us, the better our free software becomes!" as the advertising campaign to get people to migrate from Windows to Linux.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Summary mispelled privileges and missed the last part of the sentence: "you filthy theiving consumer SCUM!"
"Look's like you're trying to backup a CD - I've just informed he RIAA. Would you like me to call you a lawyer?"
Man this so makes me want to get all tricked out with a Zune and windows break-my-media center..
Then, I will hug some snakes... yes. I will hug and kiss some poisonous snakes.
Now that's sarcasm!
The more MS does this, the more LINUX will win! We should encourage this behavior out of the evil empire!
Because it's a Genuine Advantage to do so. HAH!
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large numbers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Without all this DRM everywhere, I don't think we as a society would ever write another line of music. Ever.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
'cos there ain't no justice like angry mob justice.
110100 1101000 1101000 1100110 0 1101111 1101000 1100011 1
....Redmond today announced the final name of Windows codenamed Vista. In final release form it will be called DRM/OS 3. Pundits quipped that Dynamic Recursive Media 3.0 should be called Dynamic Non Recursive Media 3.0, and noted that the EULA requires the end user to send their entire music and movie collection to Bill Gates, the RIAA and MPAA.
> If I like the artist then I go out a buy there CD.
There wolf. There castle. There dictionary.
Won't these changes actually be illegal in some European countries? Some countries make certain restrictions on copying illegal, or at least that's what I've read in many /. comments. Will Microsoft have to release a different version of the software in Europe?
Developers: We can use your help.
This may have made the RIAA happy but it's not going to make customers happy at all. Apple has mastered the art of the latter and that's why they'll continue to dominate. Everyone complains about Apple's DRM but the reality is that mp3s are readily available and they have a decent and fair policy with regards to DRM. Microsoft can't be serious about taking on iTunes by offering less. Period.
I think I'm just plain done with Windows. I'll either defect to Apple or (more likely) go exclusively to Ubuntu and purchase Cedega to run the games I have.
Of course, I say this recalling that, once upon I time, I removed windows from my computer and installed OS/2. I really liked OS/2 but, unfortunately, IBM apparantly did not.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Workarounds can be found here and here.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
Isn't that normal? Isn't that what will eventually provide a market correction? Eventually Joe is going to find that 500$ worth of music he has bought over the last two years is locked into a dying PC or a stolen Zune and he has to pay all over again to get his music back. Then his friend Smartli Nuxuser tells him why he would never have that predicament at the watercooler. Happens repeatedly. Gets retold repeatedly. Joe gets mad
When Joe Sixpacks gets mad, he really gets mad. He sues left right and center. Start class action lawsuits. When CA builds million miles of highways and sues the car makers fo CO2 emissions, why cant Joe Sixpack sue MSFT? It can write all the EULA it wants, but when you get millions of Joe Sixpacks mad, all bets are off.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Who the heck keeps the 'Copy protect music' option on anyway?
'connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.'
... wait, can't be. They're talking about restoring it only a limited number of times. Not permanently.
I never thought I'd see MS advertising Linux. Or
What a scam.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is the typical machiavellian style corporate/political anouncement. They'll tune down a little on the real DRM just before release and then all the dumbass ords will say "No, they changed that. It's not that bad as you say. MS are nice people and they build cool stuff." In the end people will get screwed over .... and they'll probably approve.
Welcome to the world of cyberpunk.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This comment should in no way be taken as an overall endorsement of an Apple-boner worldview but, let's face it, there is something fundamental about music and people that the Jobsian camp "gets" that the Redmonites don't.
One significant reason why the iPod -- crippled as it is under its own DRM and Applephilic burdens -- was/is such a success is because it makes the experience of selecting and playing back popular music comparatively easy, even for people with shrunken frontal lobes and/or other severe cognitive challenges (retardation, ADHDADDADHD, neoconservatism, etc.). Even my grandma knows how to rip CDs into her library and stick them on her iPod.
The relative transparency of the process means that my grandma doesn't have to call a geek to help her. This means the obstacles between her and what she wants to listen to are minimal. Basically, it's easy. The rights management is sufficiently flexible that she doesn't know or care that it is there.
This Microsoft DRM scheme, in contrast, sounds very visible.
No matter how smoothly or non-smoothly it works, the visibility in and of itself will intimidate/frustrate/frighten much of the herd. Anything that requires an explanation -- even a simple one -- cuts scads off of the numbers of potential customers.
The perception of simplicity sells Apple products, for good or for ill. Until Microsoft understands this, they'll be playing catch up forever.
Marketshare does not equal mindshare. Evidently.
These stories are free but worth money.
I read recently that 7" vinyl record singles are starting to sell again. I guess people like the idea that they can sell, resell, and re-record their music. It may not be a CD one could rip, but at least it can't infect your computer with a rootkit while you weren't looking. People just want to listen to music they like. They'll pay once for the privilige of owning a recording. However, they won't pay attention to any ephemeral bit of legal nonsense which keeps them from using the recording wherever they might like in their personal lives.
This unilateral effort Microsoft is attempting is doomed. Other OS vendors will eat Microsoft's home PC market away when it becomes clear that they can do what Microsoft will not. The work PC market will continue to thrive based upon inertia of the PHB class of managers.
As for RIAA, their online sales will fizzle as they focus on more DRM, while the very musicians they recruit get disgusted and start voting with their feet.
Once Microsoft puts this thing on the market, I look forward to new lawsuits from RIAA against other OS firms, saying in effect that Microsoft does DRM, and you should too. We can look forward to whole new classes of peer to peer music rips. We can expect RIAA's online sales to fizzle. And over the very long haul, I expect the RIAA to shrivel in to an agency for lawyer welfare once their cash cow has left the barn and she discovered that it really isn't too bad outside.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
...you'd see that this was taken from the BETA ISSUES section of the WMP11 documentation.
We know Microsoft is abandoning their partners and creating their own store & music players. Was this done to hurt their competition? What will Zune's license restrictions be because it doesn't use WMP 11. To me, it seems like this was done for the competition because most of them are subscription services and not to permanently own anyway. That and WMP11 is in beta. Or its because MS can't fix their security holes. Who knows, who cares. I use iTunes for a few songs here and their and rip my music from CD's.
And that, my friends, is why you shouldn't use Babelfish to translate from Farsi.
you get the point.
From Charlie Demerjian's Inquirer article:
..."
..."
..." (I was under the impression that Civil Rights refers to inalienable rights guaranteed by the constitution and its ammendments. Copyright is one such right with constitutional authority, as denoted in Article 1, Section 8, clause 8 - though it is not a civil right as specified by the original ten ammendments.)
..."
:) I just have high standards for professional journalism. And, unfortunately, I must say you haven't met them here. --M
"... if you buy DRM infected media
"... approval of the content mafia
"... nothing less than a civil rights coup
"... you are a wallet with legs waiting to be raped
"... How long do you think it will be before a service pack, masquerading as a 'critical security patch' takes away the optional part of the 'copy protection'?" (I don't know. Do you?)
As much as I agree with the sentiment of the author, this rhetoric damages the credibility of those who might gain the ear of real politicians - attorneys from the EFF, law professors, and such. Charlie, you're not helping here. And for God's sake, take a journalism course!
In the interest of disclosure, Charlie and I grew up together. And, Charlie, I very much still care for you and am glad to see your continued success - even though I'm being a prick here.
I dunno... the DRM in this version of WMP looks half-baked. I think I'm going to wait for Windows Media Player 12 to come out, which reportedly will include DRM that doesn't let you listen to your music at all. All the major recording labels are on board with this format, so we may finally get a realistic alternative to iTunes without the clumsy Mac-like interface. Plus, it won't cost much more per track than the average iTunes song now. There will also be more visualizations included to help you imagine what the music you're playing actualy sounds like. I know that a lot of Slashdotters bash Microsoft over security, but I'm glad to know MS is taking bold steps to protect my music!
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
who uses micro crap anymore. I might be forced to at work but at home options are endless and no longer include a guy name bill.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Zune will sell because most people don't know nor care about DRM.
However, in a couple of years time when the early adopters want to move on to a different player there will be seven kinds of sh*t flying about because they can't move their legal music to the new toy.
"fucking kill DRM", right?
There is a simple method of bypasing this DRM when ripping your music. In WMP go to the Tools menu, select Options. Click on the "Copy Music" tab and ensure that the "Copy protect music" option is not selected.
Man, that was a close one, they almost screwed us this time!
-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
... for Apple and Linux who can only look forward to greater market share. Keep it coming Microsoft.
I read this article and it made me want to reach for my disassembler.
So, let me get this straight. I'm an independant artist with a published and distributed CD, on which it's stated: "Please feel free to copy and use this music however you see fit, share it with friends, put it on P2P, make a mix, or include it into other works. Do not include, encode with, or wrap this work in any anti-copying system or use any technological protection measures upon this work. If you value this work, feel free to contribute. Donation details can be found at (website addresses). Enjoy!".
So, by one of my fans simply playing my content with WMP11, their DRM will be imposed on my copyrighted content without my knowledge or consent, my rights as a copyright holder, content creator/artist are trumped/destroyed, as well as my revenue stream from donations from people who've been given copies of my work is effectively terminated?
Makes me want to reach for a rapid-fire assault-lawyer with a huge assault-class clip of C&Ds, injunctions, and claims for real and punitive damages, as well as possibly motions for class-action status, and do a legal drive-by on their butts firing on full-auto!
Cheers!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Guys, I tried submitting this finding months ago and it was rejected. I downloaded and installed the version 11 beta and found out the stupid thing didn't let you back up your files to your PC anymore. In fact, MS is expecting the digital stores to provide backups instead.
Sensationalism in the media is getting crazy. Next time you bump into Charlie, tell him to imagine his sister had just been raped. Gaged, held down, and forced intercourse. After which she will have severe emotional trauma, anxiety, social issues, and have to deal with the possibility of an abortion or raising a child alone.
After you get it sunk into him just what a brutal act rape truly is, ask him just how appropriate his use of the word was in his wallet analogy.
-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
What WiMP11 represents is one of the biggest thefts of your rights that I can think of.
And for millions of little stupid people will get dinged in their wallet and walk away feeling vaguely violated. But they'll have a passive-aggressive little snit and that will be the end of it because it's not enough money to make a major issue out of it. So MSFT will be able to winnow the masses for a few pennies that will add up to billions for them and the little stupid people won't get anything even if they sued because the click-through EULA probably limits damages to $1.00 even if they win.
MSFT isn't satisfied on having the Windows tax applied to new computers, they're trying to apply it to your data.
Nice world we've built for our kids, isn't it?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
if this is not a bad choice of words, then every time the system has to be reloaded, rebuild, etc, etc, you will get to 'relicense' your music. i would expect the outcry from this alone to bite them in rear end when (if) it happens.
one of the questions i've always had is about insurance. if the data is tied to specific hardward and that hardware is lost/destroyed/damaged and the data is unavailable, is the insurance industry ready to cover the cost of 're-buying' the data?
eric
Okay, it would seem pretty natural that the RIAA is behind what Microsoft is doing. The question is why? Are they getting paid? Are they getting threatened? What's the motivation?
And assuming it's not Microsoft's idea, what would be the ramifications of one monopoly organization using the monopoly powers of another? Is there a name for this?
Assuming it is Microsoft's idea, what would be their motivation? To somehow control musical content? (not likely since most of the origins of the content is from CD or others.)
I think you're buying the stereotypes a bit too much there.
I shall use myself as a textbook example. I'm a reasonably informed guy when it comes to IT. I write software for a living, build my own PCs, and all that jazz.
I run a Windows XP machine by choice. The disadvantages of Linux currently outweigh the advantages for me. (If you're curious: at the time I bought the machine, several of the hardware components didn't have good Linux support, and while they now do, I don't see enough benefit to mess around with a working configuration just go get a dual-boot system set up. My next machine will probably be dual-boot from the start, but that's a different question.)
Now, I use Firefox as my web browser, and Thunderbird for my e-mail. I have seen enough damage done to various people by IE and Outlook Express to last a lifetime, and have no desire to become the next casualty. I use OpenOffice for basic word processing and spreadsheet stuff. That's not because it's better than MS Office -- IMNSHO, it's not, by a long shot -- but simply because I don't want to pay for MS Office and as a matter of principle I won't rip it illegally.
For media, however, my needs are limited. Up to this point, WMP has met them just fine. Moreover, unlike the browser or office apps markets, there doesn't seem to be a well-established, tried-and-tested, free-as-in-sensible leading alternative for media jobs. For a long time the Serious Alternative(TM) was Real Player, which was even worse. I've tried a few free alternatives to Media Player, and I've yet to find one that lasted more than an hour, due to stupid UI flaws, bugs, and other rubbish that life is too short to tolerate.
This may well be the thing that convinces me to give alternative players another look. I strongly disagree with the ideas behind DRM, on both ethical and practical grounds. I have downloaded a grand total of one DRM'd song in my life, and that was just an experiment to see how the system worked. There is no way I will ever pay lots of money to download lots of songs if I can't do reasonable and legal things with them.
But please don't assume that because I use WMP, I'm a stoopid luser. I'm simply bored of trying to find more open alternatives, when WMP has (to this point) met my limited needs, and the alternatives I've tried have all been crap. To borrow an expression, media software has yet to find its Firefox.
(If you think you have found a genuinely good media application, that can do things like ripping/burning CDs, converting video formats so I can import data from my PVR and digital camcorder, building DVD menus and burning DVD-Rs, then please suggest it here. Bonus points are available if it's not tied to one specific platform.)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
One of the major hassles of downloading music from alternative sources is gettings songs that are badly ripped. Unfortunately, secure ripping, proper encoding (with a decent encoder) and complete tagging takes a fair bit of work, and the average PC user evidentally doesn't want to go through that. So we have a huge bunch of crummy MP3s floating around.
By limiting the ability of a clueless user to rip CDs, the average quality level of pirated MP3s should go up nicely. And that is a good thing for all of us.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
And one of them was me. I've been building and admining systems for close to 10 years now, and I didn't even know it was there until a few nights ago. And it is on by default. Granted, I don't use WMP to rip stuff and I was looking for some other option at the time, but I found it on accident. At least half the people that use windows will not know it is there and on either.
I hope everyone here knows you can rip CDs at 8x with winamp for free, and get OGG/FLAC and other plugins to rip them to...
You're right- it's not moot. Here's another reason- there's been so many times where I've pulled data off a fried compy for a friends and guess what? WMP-DRM is enabled by default- unless we can get Windows to boot and back up licenses they have the pleasure of reripping their entire CD collection. Headache. Now that license transfers are encumbered- yeah well, I'll start by says "sorry, your music is gone."
On the other side of things it also means that every time a friend installs iTunes I get the question can I put all my stuff from WMP into iTunes. By default Microsoft makes that answer no. I think there's an MP3 option in WMP now but it's not the default (maybe I'm giving MS too much credit) but in any case DRM is on by default. "Protect My Music" ???? Protect it from me maybe.
I think it's just a case of MS wanting to make it a headache fro anyone to switch away from the WMP cartel. At least in iTunes (iTS aside) the default encoder in non-encumbered AAC. There's many devices that play unencumbered AAC and anyone can add it with a simple codec (no headaches!). More proof that the music industry isn't pushing MS to do this- they just want it to be a pain for you to switch to iTunes.
Ed Palma
DRM is a big colossal waste of time and money from the consumer standpoing, it does the consumer no good, it's essentially a tool to make more money for large media companies.
Okay. Got it. Makes sense. It think it's dumb, but I *get* why media companies like it.
But nobody has ever asked what the purpose of applying your own DRM to your own media this way. It has all the disadvantages of DRM with no upside for anybody! So the question is, why does microsoft include it? What possible use is there to have this option? It's not new, either; I think the ability to DRM your own music has been there since WMP 9, if I'm not mistaken.
So why doesn't any of these newspapers or reporters call up Microsoft and ask them (a) why is this option included (b) give us a realistic example of why someone might choose this option.
I mean, being a cynic, it looks like it's included to (a) fool non-technical users ("protect my music? Oh yes please!) (b) Show it off to the the media companies as an example of what MS could do for them. Which begs the question (another one for Microsoft!): (c) Does MS have any plans on their WMP roadmap which either turns on this option by default or make it mandatory to "protect" your songs with DRM?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
You actually purchase DRM laden files? I have about 4,300 songs in the old library (i wasnt smart enough to back my collection up before and the HD died) and WMP seems to work fine as long as there is no DRM involved. I get most of the music I own from e-music which I found through a mention of it on /. WMP isnt that bad but its not the best. I did however make the mistake of buying a song once through msn music...after that experience i said never again. One thing that is annoying...suddenly my portable device (ipaq 6315) has become obsolete and cant sync music? Come on Microsoft...its annoying to pop out the SD card and put that into the slot to sync when it goes to the same place.
-those people who tell you not to take chances, they are all missing what lifes' all about-
This sounds crazy, but if Microsoft manages to piss off enough users, the chances are more people will wake up to the issue of DRM. For the moment most people seem blissfully unaware of what DRM and what it means. Make listening to music how they want, where they want complicated and you will hear the noise from what used to be people who didn't care.
At the moment trying to explain DRM to the average Joe, without looking like some sort of extremist, ain't easy.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
You can never make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious.
So basically, if you buy your computer for home use and still have limited or non-existent internet connection, or simply wish not to go on that scary virus/worm/pop-up infested land of the internet, you cannot play your music?
I wonder if Microsoft will pay for my 10 minutes dial-up internet connection to their webpage which will explain me why I can't play the music off the CD I bought because I have a brand-new computer with great speakers, including by default a media player that should allow me to play my CD.
All DRM things aside, internet is still not available to everyone everywhere. It might be time for 'software providers' to take that into account when they create their applications.
...because Microsoft, who makes both Windows and WMP, has made us wonder in what other ways we're going to be told to get bent.
It boils down to trust, and Microsoft has repeatedly broken it.
Unlike a pussy this is bad.
I haven't seen this problematic example posted yet:
What if you buy a new PC to replace your old one? It appears you will not be able to move your DRM'd media files onto the new PC.
When I installed WMP 11 it was turned on by default. not that I use WMP for ripping CDs anyway.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers..."
This actually works in our favor, IMO. (Erm, "our" refers to opponents of ubiquitous DRM.) Casual users don't switch tools until properly motivated to do so, and at this point why should they? They have a tool they didn't have to pay extra for or research or install, it's easy to use, and for the time being it does what they want it to. However, losing the ability to do what they could in the past can provide the motivation to switch, and that's where "we" come in (if you're willing to put some effort into this issue, that is).
I see this as a three step process. Right now, just go ahead and be a MS shill. Make people aware of how easy it is to rip, burn, and transfer music in MP3 format using WMP; promote the habit of using and relying on those features. Show them how to make mix CDs for their car. Regarding ripping, make sure they know that MP3 can be used on multiple brands and types of devices, and point out good values in non-WMA portable players. Step 2... ______________. Just kidding; step 2 is to create awareness of other free, easy tools that are more powerful & do more than WMP. This isn't about getting them to switch, this is about name recognition. These folks need to have a vague concept in their heads that geeks and enthusiasts use "EAC" where novices use WMP, and that it is free, safe, and can do things which WMP cannot.
Step 3 takes care of itself when MS cripples WMP. When the patch goes out to all those auto-updating fools, they'll be mentally prepared for your advice to switch. Without preparation, telling them to switch to "EAC" will sound like alien speak. With preparation, this action will follow naturally when they discover that their PC (arguably) isn't broken or infected, but that MS intentionally crippled one of their favorite programs.
Grokster & eMule & LimeWire thrived in the wake of Napster's demise, right? When a frequently-used tool stops working, people find alternatives. If they already have a positive opinion of a certain alternative, then the switch will be all the faster when WMP "breaks." EAC is more complicated for a novice to configure than is WMP, but I'd lay odds that having prior "warm fuzzies" about it would motivate them to figure it out when the time came, and all the more so if you're willing to help them.
Pi Ran Out
Right now if you buy a DRM'd WMA file from ANY online store, the DRM itself gives you certain permissions, such as the number of computes you can have it play on. Right nOw I think its 5 for Music Match. The Microsoft source clearly statest that this will still work perfectly. Its talking about not being able to back up the licences. Which for most "idiots", who everyone here seems to be so concerned about, shouldn't affect them at all. THEY WILL NOT NOTICE ANYTHING CHANGED. Every thing will be exactly as it was before, except now the people who don't like DRM are even more upset because the people who use it lost an option they will NEVER notice.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
If there was a car that could only be driven on one highway, would you buy it? If there were books that could only be read twice, would you buy them? If you had a computer that had to be re-purchased if you moved it from your bedroom to your home office, would you want it in the first place? If TVs were sold such that you were paying only for the right to use them and not their ownership, would you still buy them? If you had digital pictures that could only be looked at a fixed number of times, would you pay for them?
If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, then DRM is right for you! (You're probably also content to sit back and let major corporations decide your life for you, too.)
C'mon, folks... any system that seeks only to restrict your access to that which you have legally acquired on the open market is ludicrous. Why are we putting up with it? There can be only two possible explanations: ignorance or apathy. Either you don't know, or you do and don't care. It is those two explanations that keep big corporations in business.
How long before all non-DRM media is "degraded" by windows for the purpose of presenting DRM media as "superior quality media"?
Say any non signed application that uses sound can only output sound in a "degraded mode" (say 16khz or 8 bit or both). Same goes for any non-DRM'd file that is played by the signed apps.
I don't see how Microsoft can DRM media they do not have copyrights to. The purpose of DRM is to protect the copyright holders rights against illegal copying by others. It doesn't allow others to DRM material that they don't own copyrights to.
If I have a music CD that I want to backup, and Microsoft puts their DRM in front of that music not allowing me to listen to it where I please, I beleive they are in the wrong. Unless they have the copyrights to that music or sign agreements with the copyright holders, they shouldn't be able lock that music up behind their DRM for their players DRMed format. They don't have the right to DRM the music and trying to say they are only DRMing their format is just the same as DRMing the music they don't have the legal authority to do.
I'm not a lawyer but if Microsoft goes ahead with this DRM format to lock media they don't have copyrights to or legal authority over, to a single computer or lock the playback of that media, they should be sued.
Zune (pronounced zee-yoon) - Hebrew colloquialism for fornication; also getting screwed.
It is all out in the open -- if you just speak the right language...
[OT: Kia, the Korean car company, pronounced kee-yah, in Hebrew means vomit. Guess why I'm not buying one?]
This is why my Apple notebook is in the mail right now...
Ever since an enterprising company called Diamond Multimedia combined a flash memory chip and an MPEG audio decoding ASIC (and other hardware) to create the first mass-market digital audio player, the recording companies have done everything they can legally do (and a whole bunch of things that are only legal because the RIAA paid big bucks to make things that way) to stop or restrict these players. The biggest "fear" of the RIAA and the record companies is people using digital audio players as a transfer medium to transfer copies of music to other people who dont actually own it (i.e. rip a CD to a digital audio player and then copy it off onto someone elses PC or digital audio player).
This is just the latest step. Having windows media player rip CDs to a DRM'd format (that can only play on the PC it was ripped to and possibly certain digital audio players) by default (unless you specifically go to a hard to find menu option to turn it off) helps the RIAA with this since these ripped files wont play if you copy them off the digital audio player onto another PC or onto another digital audio player.
maybe because you like to play games - like i do -, which will sooner or later reuquire directx10?
for the love of all that is holy to anyone! don't use that stupid directx!!!
I installed Vista Pre-RC1 and used it for a few weeks. Everything works ok, for the most part. I loved the glass, hated that I couldn't use any right-click commands in IE. When RC1 came out a couple of weeks ago, I reinstalled (upgrade disabled). Any videos that I had watched in Pre-RC1 would no longer play on RC1. Viral DRM. I have plenty of other pr0n, so I haven't looked into this much... but I'm not sure if I'll be able to recover those files or not. M$ is going to be both loved and hated much more than they are right now as they keep implementing these changes.
PS: That is what part of the alphabet would look like if the letters "Q" and "R" were removed.
aka the "super CD stealer 9000" version!
stuff |
I am going to say something unpopular. :-) After all, what's so wrong about owners controlling how their work is used? Today many niche genres aren't produced because they have too few aficionados and, with the so-called "piracy", artists would not be able to cover expenses. So the only products that are published are those which appeal to large audiences. Just imagine how much more niche music, or niche games, would be produced if piracy were impossibile (I am thinking about old-style adventure games and classical music, but I'm sure you can think of many more examples). And I also believe (I know this is still more unpopular) that the Free Software Movement would get a boost also, since people would not be able to use pirated programs anymore.
I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) for all my audio ripping & burning needs. As far as free players with strong privacy, a small footprint, and really good library / playlist management, I'm still waiting. Meanwhile, I use MMJB (which I bought long, long ago) as my main music player & library manager.
For video conversions, I tend to use Nero tools. Having a Media Center PC with ~ 2TB of RAID storage, I really don't burn DVDs much anymore; I just store MP4s. VirtualDub is *almost* where I need it to be, but I don't have time to get a PhD in codec internals. I've had trouble finding a simple tool for XVid encoding, while Nero overcomes my lack of knowlege admirably.
The other non-free tools I use often are VideoReDo and ConvertXToDVD. VLC is a best-of-breed player with an improving set of transcoding features, and I use that for playback of the MP4 files I make with Nero Recode (MCE chokes on `em). Between all those, I have no unmet video needs. Well ok, Shrink and Decrypter might *occasionally* be required; despite having a completely legit CSS-compliant DVD codec on my system (nVidia), I still get occasional CSS errors when trying to play commercial DVDs in MCE. Decrypter's iso capability is the simplest way I've found to play the disc when that bug rears its ugly head. (As a matter of principle, I treat the iso as inseparable from the physical disc, and if it was a rental, I delete the iso when the disc goes back to Netflix).
In the "free transcoding tools" category, one probably should mention Gordian Knot (especially AutoGK), MediaCoder and MeGUI, all of which are on my system but rarely used anymore given the above.
Pi Ran Out
From TFA, on restoring licenses:
"If you obtained the file from an online store, contact the store to find out if it offers media usage rights (license) restoration (some stores refer to this procedure as computer activation, computer authorization, or license synchronization)."
I'm not versed in iTunes specs, but could this be one (of many) avenues to make it more difficult to use iTMS? Or at least cause FUD against Apple?
Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but given M$'s past behavior...and they are releasing their own version of an iPod soon... hmmm....
Who put this thing together? Me, that's who.
Perhaps the real reason for this change is to encourage a slow and painful death for all of it's PlaysforSure partners so that the Zune can take on the iPod by itself.
I scratch my head every time I think about how WMA because a relevant format. It was a solution for a problem that didn't exist, as hard drive are so large an extra 500k of space savings per song really doesn't matter.
This is why I stay away from any and all microsoft media formats.
I wasn't aware iTunes recorded DVDs. Thanks for pointing out to Apple and all us /. readers that iMovie is redundant.
Before you mention how WMP does more than burn DVDs... wait! WMP burns DVDs? Thanks for letting us know that, too!
Oh, and before you bring up how "WMP" isn't jargon itself, about how WMP does less but it easier, etc, notice a couple of things:
1. MPlayer plays media very simply, too.
2. The parent of your post was talking about doing something that WMP does not do. Recording a DVD does involve more knowledge than playing one, hence the additional terminology that you're calling "soup of jargon".
I've read some of your older posts, so it's clear to me you're not an MS astroturfer. That wasn't clear just from reading your one response here, though. Point taken that perceived complexity chases away some users. However, the post to which you were responding was talkign about something that is necessarily more complex than playing a DVD or a single media file.
...he'll roll over easy for this. I mean, if he's glad to pay $2-$4.00 for a little snippet of some crappy song to represent each one of the entries in his phonebook, that only annoys other people and can't even be transfered to his next phone, what will piss him off?
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
"depending upon where your protected files came from, you might be able to restore your rights over the Internet."
This language sounds to me like an acknowledgement that Microsoft has deprived you of rights that you legally possess. You can't "restore" something that you never had.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
It's my personal belief that average non-technical persons won't tolerate this. I don't say this because I believe people will feel a sense of outrage that most of us feel over Digital Restrictions (thanks RMS) Management but for more practical reasons.
Consumers have become accustomed to using restrictions free media. The prevalence of MP3 and other unencumbered formats have created enough of a precedent that end-users know damned well the "extra restrictions" aren't something that have to be there. Microsoft have become too accustomed to believing that the customer will always eat what they're fed: That is an old Microsoft mindset that won't work for them anymore. Given a choice between having it and not having it people will simply chose not to use it -- it's that simple. The good news is they simply don't have to, there are just too many other alternatives and many of them are legal.
Oh, and the other technical people will react with the normal sense of outrage and not use it. Some of them ("the Johansens") will simply create technology to bypass the nuisance brought on by DRM.
Anyway, back to my point -- it's a good thing because once people seek alternatives the unwanted technology will simply fade away from non-use.
Does anyone remember DIVX (not the video codec, the "other" DIVX)?
Yeah, me neither.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Select Use external compression [User Defined Encoder]
Point EAC to the latest version of LAME,
In the same tab, use the following Additional command line options:
--preset extreme --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tc "[Your comment here]" %s %d
Uncheck [Add ID3 tag] from EAC (lame will do it for you).
Whats the point in crying over this?! Theres a MILLION(almost) different little apps for free or trial use that will rip CD's into whatever format you want ,minus draconian DRM. Anybody with a FULL version of winamp will not need to look very far for DRM ripping plug-ins...sooo if your not interested enough to stand up for your rights AND TAKE THEM, then being technologically oppressed will suit those who ignorantly accept it just fine...
The End
With the plethora of USB devices, external HDD and VPN mapped as drive letters, I'll soon run out of alphabet. My question might be a bit innocent (the only feeling not yet copyrighted), but what if I store that plagued data on a flash drive? Then I could carry it away along with the songs, right? I could "restore" the rights one another machine and enjoy the beautifully manufactured crap created by big music business? I have to say that the paradox is perplexing; on one end, they want to make your artists more known, making it as easy to buy a song as to buy a candy bar, and on the other hand, they wish to strangle legitimate users who walk all the way to a record store, spit a yuppie food stamp (20$ bill), and walk away with a high-tech freesbee with some songs on it. I think I'll buy a 8-track cassette player. I don't think ther have the mark of Sauron on them... yet. Oh, and a lamp-powered amplifier. But I fear they'll put GPS in them. Talk about ease of use...
If you want to criticise a journalist's choice of words, you have to offer an alternative.
Since the article referred to a Digital Restriction being added to unrestricted material and poisoning further use, "infection" looks like a well chosen word.
As I stated here on the Zune price story, it's all about positioning the Zune to work closely with partners. They are going to be pushing content through partners to the Windows Media Player (and related media software for home entertainment) that is also portable on the Zune.
They're working to compete with Apple's iPod by getting deals with music and video distribution partners, who want a zero leniency DRM.
You could have said the same about Apple, but it's not about CD's. The CD is dead. Computers are moving to DVD-+R(W/RAM), and everyone and their brother has an iPod now. It's about sales of downloadable music, tv, and movies. It's all about download sales, and Microsoft is going to try to do to the iPod what the XBox did to the PlayStation (2/3). Undercut price, get content people want (especially exclusive deals), and spend a lot of time and energy on version 1, and even more time on version 2 to get a "WOW" effect when people see it on display at Walmart, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.
Of course, I don't see MS getting into the content game as much as they did on the XBox, but of course, they have DRM license partners now, and they'll probably roll out a more aggressive program later on to expand their scope and the $$$-per-download they get in return.
I8-D
Microsoft won't be applying the DRM... then end users will be. They're the ones who received the music, are bound by it's license, and acted in a way that violated the license.
Can you argue that Microsoft is providing a system *intended* to break a CC license? (And what law would that break?) I wonder.
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
. . . and then reverse a quarter turn.
This signature is far too complex to have been created by chance.
We need to dictate how the market should go. If you don't like this, don't run Windows Player 11. Better yet when Vista
gets rolled out the same restrictions will apply to other media. So what do you do? Dump Microsoft! Run Linux!
"DVD Xcopy Xpress " did that for the masses, and were shut down in legal battles. I don't know if you've ever used an Apple, (Okay, u don't own one and you're not a fanboy, no reason to get defensive) but I'd bet that they will make movies easier to use. A device nicknamed iTV is coming out in 2007 from Apple. It looks like an TiVO killer! I find it already easier to edit and play various video files in OS X, but I guess you wouldn't know about that. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
thppttt.
=)
Ripping CDs is not an OS issue.
Yes it is. Ripping a CD, in it's purest form, is just disk I/O, which is most definitely an OS function, and it should be as simple as "Open mounted CD. Copy tracks to wherever you want them."
Transcoding those to MP3 or your format of choice is not an OS issue, and shouldn't necessarily be done in the same step as ripping the raw data off the disk. Not that I'm philosophically opposed to the creation or use of programs that do this in one step... but that shouldn't be the only, or even the default (i.e. built into the OS), way of getting music tracks off a disc.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Sorry, but that's bullshit.
MS's DRM allows the content provider to set the DRM settings that he wishes to deploy. He can make the settings as draconian as he wants or has light as he wants, and can make them equivalent to Apple's FairPlay settings (which is in between the two extremes). (I think Microsoft's own MSN Music Store uses DRM settings that are roughly equal to FairPlay (except that songs bought from MSN can be used by many brands of players rather than just one).)
As for WMP11 lacking the ability to transfer licenses from one machine to another (if this is even true):
WMP has had the ability to transfer licenses between computers without contacting the content provider's server (if the content provider set DRM settings to allow this), but that feature was always clunky. Most people just copy the files from the source machine to the target machine, then redownload the licenses on demand when playing the files on the target computer. This is the same behavior that iTunes has. iTunes has NEVER allowed for transfering licenses from one computer to another without phoning in to iTMS, so Apple fanboys can't badmouth WMP11 over this.
Lastly, nobody uses WMP to rip CDs with the DRM setting turned on (and the setting is off by default), so that's another moot point.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
I just autoclave everything before I eat it :-)
That just pretty much kills anything that lives (including the spinach).
I buy from Magnatune. No DRM. Quality music. 50% goes to the artist. Contributes music to ccMixter etc.
It seems to me that your reasoning leads inevitably to the conclusion that Magnatune (and the other few hundred labels like it) doesn't exist and will never exist.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
'does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses).'
Until all storage is solid state(*) and nothing is hard-disk based, locking play rights to one device is going to lead to some seriously unhappy people.
(*: and, not necessarily even then)
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Anyone who has some brains left nowadays doesn't use any Microsoft crap anymore. My entire family is using Linux now and it is worlds better. What a relief!
"every time you pay the RIAA guys for a piece of music, God kills a kitten." My neighborhood is almost overrun with those cute little %^#%^-ers. RIAA ftw.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Obligatory link to the poster. And it's "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
What this means to the general user is "buy a new computer and you lose all your stuff". That's going to hurt Dell and HP (both of whom are already hurting big-time).
We've already had this happen with TV sets. The HDMI/HDCP debacle is interfering with big-screen HTDV sales. Anyone who bought a HDTV screen and discovered it wouldn't work with a Blu-Ray player has been badly burned already. HDTV adoption has been much slower than expected, and botched DRM is partly to blame. The display DRM, the set-top box DRM, the broadcast DRM, and the PVR DRM all have to work together seamlessly, and they don't.
DRM Sucks; but so does having to lock your house, lock your car, passing through borders, passwords on accounts, having to sign checks, jails, police, and all the little hassles we have to live with because not everyone is honest.
A perfect world would have no DRM.
Utopia is impossible.
If you go to your 3rd PC at 7:15am on Thursday morning, with no recording devices attached to any of your external audio ports, and your Zune in a completely different room of the house (we know cuz it's got wireless built in) - then you can listen to (3 times only) your copy of Mmmbop that you got from your mother's cousin's kid's Zune. Do not attempt to use headphones, we will know that too.
3 M$
I'm investing in cassette tapes. They "just work."
You did leave the "copy denied" flag cleared when you mastered your CDs, didn't you?
Didn't you?!
I still prefer Windows to Linux because Windows is crappy in areas that are easier to understand and deal with than the areas in which Linux is crappy. If you don't want to spend an inordinate amount of your life learning computer stuff, you're better of with Windows or the Mac.
That being said, Microsoft is still in a real bind. The current versions of Windows are simply "good enough" for everything most people want to do. It's hard to imagine a really compelling reason to upgrade to Vista. Sure, new machines will come with it, but if the DRM, phoning home, forced upgrades and the like get too onerous even people who think Linux was the kid with the blanket in Peanuts are going to start asking if there are alternatives to Windows. As arcane and unfriendly as Linux is now, it will only get better over time. If Microsoft overplays its hand retailers like Walmart will revisit the idea of avoiding the Microsoft tax by selling machines with Linux pre-installed.
In related news, I just saw on the Walmart site that they've finally gotten hip to the idea that monitors outlive computers and that a lot of people want to buy a new computer without paying for a monitor they don't need. They're offering 16 machines with no monitors. Hmmm. Letting people buy computers without making them pay for things they don't want and don't need. What a concept!
Insert witty sig here.
I noticed that too, and what's *really* sleazy about this (other than "No known workaround to resolve this issue exists at this time") is that "protected with media usage rights" is a completely fictional construct invented by MS. There is NO DRM on those shows to begin with, as almost any other timeshifting / TV-recording software will show. MCE makes analog recordings of cable shows through S-Video. If you record them with a VCR, DVD recorder, or any other software package, they're yours to use as you please. Only if you record them with MCE are they "protected with media usage rights."
I'm starting to wonder if MS is embarking on a long term surreptitious anti-DRM campaign. Their marketplace saturation is not invincible, and this tightening of the DRM noose is exactly the sort of thing that's liable to spark a larger user exodus than they're used to seeing. Maybe they're growing weary of all the hoops they have to jump through to court the favor of the rights holders, and think that if they make their DRM draconian and brutal enough they can prove a point & force the Hollywood goons to at least partially capitulation to open formats.
Nah, I'm dreaming. Sorry.
At any rate, I run Windows Media Center 2005 (for now), so thank heavens I have Winders Update turned off & do frequent disk image backups.
Pi Ran Out
I stand corrected! :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
Mod parent down: see the many responses pointing out the post is in factual error.
Does no one else here avoid iTunes and WMP simply because neither can be trusted to do exactly what I want them to and nothing more. No one? Just me then? Okey doke.
... I wonder how the rank and file Redmond programmers can stomach adding "features" that are so clearly harmful for users, crippling for the OS, and just simply *evil*.
I fully understand that the need to pay the bills and provide for your family can lead to some pretty heavy rationalization and denial. However, I gotta think that the urge to add some sort of back door into the stuff would be pretty damn tempting.
I like the windows mplayer frontend MPUI, very clean and simple.
I'm just tired of all this crap. Aren't you? I refuse to be an indentured customer to a specific music store and a specific computer and a specific portal device.
- Just because you can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't
Microsoft has already stated that Zune WILL NOT be compatible with PlaysForSure. Ironic, I know.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
I take it you never read the Inquirer before.
It is a very tongue in cheek techy news source. They have pet names for most companies. Graphzilla, Chipzilla, Chimpzilla, Great Vole...
This is pretty much what regular readers expect. Read the Wall Street Journal if the style makes you uncomfortable.
Personally I love the Inq. Your tastes may vary.
Will you be critiquing "The Daily Show" for levity next?
If you buy DRM data format D from company A that only works on Devices X and Y.
You DRM media expires when:
- Devices X or Y dies and company A went away.
- Devices X or Y dies and format D is not supported on the new players.
- Devices X or Y dies and format D is not transferable on the new players.
- You buy device M to replace X or Y, and format D is not supported.
This is the disposible razor model.
DRM is only here to stay if people keep buying it.
Once people stop buying it, all the DRM expires, and we are only left with non-DRM media.
Say I have a 50 CD collection, which I dumped to a couple DVDs, and I bought 200 DRM media which I also tried to dump to DVD. In 10 years, assuming the DRM was really good, my DRM backups are now just piles of bits, as they stopped making those players years ago.
All I would be left with is non-DRM data. The old DRM possibly has less useful data than 8-track tapes.
Do you know what he did... burned it all to WMV.
A code monkey from my old job once commented that iTunes was crap because it would not play his ripped CDs.
Apparently "because it's the default option of the dafault auto-launch program" is a good reason to burn to WMA, according to him.
You can't take the sky from me...
And I am in the MSWin camp, as a user.
I have an iTunes library with about 11,000 tracks in it. Every single one of which I ripped using CDEX. When I got my iPod for xMas last year it was given with a $10 iTunes gift card which is still sitting unused in my wallet almost a year later. Since the inception of iTunes, et al, I have bought (leased/rented/borrowed) exactly 1 track. And I used the free code from a slurpee cup to get it. I like CD's as a format, I've still got every CD that I ripped for my collection, just in case (god forbid) I ever have to re-rip them.
I use Windows Media Player to watch TV Shows that I recorded using Snapstream on another machine. I've got a 6 tuner box, that I use to grab every show I'm even thinking about watching someday. Straight MPG files. They play just fine in WMP, so that's what I use.
So go nuts w/ the DRM stupidity MS. You're not gonna lose me as a customer, since there was never any danger of getting me as one.
And if you happen to piss off some existing customers, and build more demand for non-DRM solutions. In the meantime, I'll just keep on cruising along w/o all the annoyances.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Nor is it a problem for the 5% of the public who will never upgrade their machine.
But most of the other 92% of the public isn't gonna find out about their problems for a year or two. By that time, they'll have all their music locked up in a Windows-only format, and it'll be illegal for them to listen to it with, say, another operating system. (DMCA rules!).
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Not everything, though - some bacteria can live inside an autoclave.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
The Xbox 360 and PS3 will have it. (Processors that have hardware encryption to only boot a signed kernel.) So when you pop in an mp3 CD and try to play a file, it will say, "Cannot play an unprotected file."
Microsoft and the RIAA are just waiting until the masses have more DRM media than non-DRM media. Then they will send out the "Critical Update."
I don't know diddly, and I care even less about WMP, WMC, and friends.
As an intellectual curiosity, however, I wonder if you ran the whole Windoze OS as a virtual machine under something like VMware, would the DRM system be able to tell if you moved it to different physical hardware? And would doing so violate the EULAs you've presumably signed?
Obviously, this doesn't do anything to prevent the rape and pillage of Joe Sixpack's rights, but I can't help but wonder if virtualization is a partial answer to the backup problem.
Hopefully, Microsoft and VMware will continue to hold each other at arms length.
I'm not trying to be a smart *ss, troll or get flamed or anything - but I've only heard about a few key differences for Vista - The new interface, extreme security and locked now media. The interface may end up being kind of cool (haven't personally seen it), but it's just an interface - I would upgrade if it were free (aka Linux stuff) otherwise it's not that big of a deal. With the security, they are locking out the guys who have and are securing their current systems because they are apparently really bad it - I would rather stay on XP -with- the guys who have proven to be able to secure it, as oppsed to upgrading and crossing my fingers that M$ finally got it right. Now with all this DRM stuff going hog wild, and them restricting the hell out of it - what is going to be the point of this new system?
Unless I'm missing something really ground breaking - all Vista is going to be is XP (relatively speaking) with a new interface, supposedly really tight sercurity that nothing can harm it, and any and all media locked down so much that it is going to seem like big brother just to listen/watch something.
Is there ANYTHING that is going to be worthwhile in Vista?!?!?! I am being serious - it doesn't sound like it will be worth...
Did anyone here read TFA? You can restore a liscense by going back to the online store and re-authorizing your computer. All this article states is that Microsoft isn't keeping a database of who has rights to what.
I'm no fan of wrapping my purchased music up in DRM, but this article is pointing out that Microsoft isn't tracking liscenses from non-Microsoft stores. Why is this bad?
No, I will not work for your startup
I don't need a huge program taking up system taskbar space, or screen space. I have relied on winamp classic for years, just because of this. It's got all the functions, it plays the music I like, and I don't have to deal with WMPs crap.
Sooner or later, M$ is going to restrict access of "third party" software to your audio device. When that happens, every program that plays music will just be another face on WiMP and all of the restrictions will apply. Just look at how AOL ended up using IE as their browser even though they owned Netscape. Windoze is M$'s platform and what they want will happen there.
The free software world has what you want now. You can run WinAmp's grand kids or several others just like it. KDE's got Noatun, Gnome has Rhythm box, even Enlightenment has a beautiful and simple media player. Noatun also gives you sftp access to files so you can share with yourself and it plays videos, so you can put your home movies in a random list to give you some distraction every so often. Nothing makes me smile like watching my little girl run around in the surf. Larger clients don't have to eat desk space either. Amarok, which rivals any music player for function, goes to single icon on your application bar. You right click it to pause or skip songs and left click it to get the full interface.
The sooner you migrate, the better off you are. If you can't, I'm sorry.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
After that every file I've tried has worked... maybe someone knows of a way to get mplayer to read the redirector?
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
the last DRM update was cracked within hours
also how is W(i)MP11 going to stop people from moving files to a different location if they're using a file browser and W(i)MP11 is turned off? this can only stop dumb people who don't know how to move files manually...
how is it with creative commons music? I think if WMP doesn't allow people to move CC music then the EFF should go to law with MS as tough as MS goes to law with people who infringe THEIR copyrights...
lastly: this "no ripping without asking MS servers" policy will lead to one result: noone will use this program anymore...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Just look at how AOL ended up using IE as their browser even though they owned Netscape.
Through a business deal.
KDE's got Noatun
Noatun is a POS. Sorry. It never worked properly for me, barely recognising ID3 tags let alone anything else. If that's a competitor to WMP (and Amarok actually is) then give me WMP any day.
Noatun also gives you sftp access to files so you can share with yourself and it plays videos, so you can put your home movies in a random list to give you some distraction every so often. Nothing makes me smile like watching my little girl run around in the surf.
Never mind that WMP can play and shuffle movies and read over a network share...that's GOT to be exclusive to Noatun! Or that Winamp can too! Or that Media Player Classic can as well!
Amarok, which rivals any music player for function, goes to single icon on your application bar. You right click it to pause or skip songs and left click it to get the full interface.
Like iTunes does. And WMP gives a little control bar in your taskbar (I think there's a KDE panel applet that does the same for XMMS/Amarok as well, the name escapes me). Winamp does too. Rhythmbox, Foobar2000, MediaMonkey...shall I stop yet? All of them do that.
I wouldn't be any better off migrating. My PC is fast, stable, supports all my hardware and software and basically runs the way I want it to. The reasons you gave for moving to Amarok/Noatun are pretty poor as it stands.
(note: I don't use WMP, I use iTunes.)
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Journalists are not supposed to advocate for either the ruling or the opposition party. That's a fundamental rule of journalistic ethics.
The author did not discharge their duty, but it had nothing to do with writing style or party politics. The journalist's first obligation's are to the truth, the reader and the publisher. Pointing out how DRM usurps the reader's rights is the only ethical thing anyone writing on the subject can do. DRM has the potential to curtail far more than entertainment and any research quickly shows how. Failure to frame the issue is a much greater failure than the use of colorful language in an entertainment article.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
A donation based revenue stream relies heavily on the unfettered distirbution of the work. When a third-party, such as MicroSoft, arbitrary applies DRM to any copy, the distribution chain is temrinated and any potential additional users for that copy are lost. These lost users do not exerience the work and are therefore highly unlikely to contribute donations. Therefore revenue is lost. DRM harms donation-based artists.
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...but isn't the "not being able to locally back-up licenses" under the Known Issues heading? And just what's so bad about being able to restore your licenses over the internet? I would wait around to play with the final version to pass judgement.
Where this will ultimately end up is you will have to pay for every time you play a song.
All you have to do is lower the ingested dose below the ID50 (infectious dose for 50% of the population), which is actually quite high. If you rinse your spinach leaves in water, even if there's a bit of E. coli left, it won't be enough to cause any problems (as long as you don't give it enough time to grow back to high enough concentrations - at least several hours at room temp with sufficient nutrients). If you do a quick rinse, as long as you do wet the entire leaves, there won't be any appreciable health hazard, even with remaining low levels of bacteria.
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
give it time, it'll be cracked in a couple of days
I'm getting tired of this assertion that the ipod is "crippled" with drm.
It merely "supports" it.. the music purchased from the store is what is crippled.
The ipod itself will take unprotected versions of all the formats it supports.. this does not include wma for obvious market reasons, but it does include mp3, wav, aac, aiff, and a few others.. and if you grab some open firmware for it.. which you'll notice apple does not sue out of existance... you can also get vorbis and flac support.
Apple hashes the songs into the ipod's directory structure.. presumably to optimize searching and save memory at the same time.. this is why you can't see the folder the songs are in without viewing hidden folders.. but there is nothing stopping you from copying the music over once you can see those hidden folders.. and apple does not sue anyone who makes tools to remove music from the ipod into another computer.
So.. long rant over.. ipod is not crippled by DRM.. the itunes music store is..
(additionally.. a case can be made that since the store was put in the itunes program itself --but not the ipod-- lost several major functions as well.. thanks RIAA!)
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Look up Vista Output Protection Management
d ownload.microsoft.com/download/9/8/f/98f3fe47-dfc3 -4e74-92a3-088782200fe7/TWEN05006_WinHEC05.ppt+Mic rosoft+OPM+secure+path&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2
I'm sorry, but its not not your computer anymore. Its a Microsoft Appliance. You have no right to complain when you know that your new computer runs Windows XP/Vista. Deal with it.
Have a DRM quote from Microsoft:
Enable the PC to play premium content in 2006 and beyond
Have a link:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:hr1bH0lVtt0J:
Again, it's not your PC, its Microsofts.
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
This is really a moot issue. ... just don't use WMP.
I agree, but it won't be long until the only way to avoid WMP is to not use M$ at all. This is a death by a thousand cuts kind of thing, but the goal is clear: universal control of all media. The choice given is between your freedom and your culture, but you will lose both. Let me outline the steps:
The only way to avoid it is to continue to avoid DRM and to promote free culture. The sweet deal is a raw one for you, artists and a free society. Only the biggest of publishers will win anything and they will use the winnings to lock you out of your own culture. They will dictate what that culture is by controlling what is played, what news you hear, what advertisements you see even what mail gets through. If you don't want to play, you will be locked out of it all. Free culture gets around this by taking money and power from those who would enslave you.
It all starts with your computer, right now. It's your post, press, public library and entertainment, in short it's your link to the world and your culture. Everyone is on the same long curve that ends where your computer is the tool you use to enjoy and contribute to your culture. It's pretty obvious that most works are already composed on computers. Everyone of you needs to take control of that machine and never let it go. There is no better time to liberate your computer and own your culture. It's only going to get harder. People who provide you software you can't control or modify are the people who will strip you of that control and lock you out. They need you more than you need them.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Microsoft never blocked Netscape from functioning on Windows. AOL used IE because AOL was bloody stupid. It's as reliable as the dawn. Every time somebody thinks they have the killer app that will break Microsoft's power, they screw up. AOL devoured Netscape, then stuck with IE in their flagship product. Be neglected their OS to chase the ever-lucrative Internet Appliance market. (How many functioning Sony eVillas are left in the world, anyway?) And don't get me started on Palm/PalmOne/PalmSource/Handspring/ACCESS. West Virginia family trees aren't that twisted.
This is one of the things that will allow Linux, and FOSS in general, to win in the long term. The multitude of voices and opinions tend to be self-correcting, with benelovent dictators like Linus Torvalds keeping the focus on building up their own products, not tearing down the opposition.
The easiest way to beat Microsoft is to not beat yourself.
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From http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/docs/HOWTO/Advoca cy
short.