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Apple's iTunes DRM Dilemma
An anonymous reader writes "Understanding how Apple's FairPlay DRM works helps to answer a lot of questions: why it hasn't been replaced with an open, interoperable DRM that anyone can use, why Apple isn't broadly licensing FairPlay, and why the company hasn't jumped to add DRM-free content from indie artists to iTunes."
Enough of this DRM bullshit
How the hell does this make it onto the slashdot front page? It is not news for nerds, and it is not stuff that matters. The only reason it belongs on slashdot is as an example of a site with consistently worse grammer than slashdot more run on sentences and even sillier illustrations for its content that is poorly written anyway. After reading the article i do not think that I have been meaningfully educated on How FairPlay works -- nor do i believe that the author has presented a dilemma. As the web site name seems to imply, the author of roughlydrafted.com seems to take pride in his inability to write a clear essay or argument. Instead, like a rough draft, the content strays from topic and exudes a sense of being said from the gut, without reflection or contemplation. Yes, it sounds like the incoherent babel of a small child who wants to sound like the grown ups.
Oh shit! I forgot to click "Post Anonymously"...
Agree. that RoughlyDrafted stink of Apple fanboy biased ranting.
You really arent that smart, are you?
1. What's a "paridox"? Did'ja know that google can spellcheck?
2. Is there some sort of subliminal message wIth ranDom smatterIngs Of capital leTters?
3. Do complete sentences?
"The problem with digital music unlike previous forms Records, and Tapes."
4. Thats what we in the know call a factual error. MP3 is lossy. FLAC is not. I dont see much FLACs being traded, other than torrent sites.
"With the Compressed Digital Music now causes a problem where music can be spread rapidly, without quality loss."
There's even much more wrong, but find that out for yourself. Ignorance can be fixed, but stupid cannot.
You sir, are a retard. DRM _is_ encryption. The keys for a DVD happen to be on a DVD _player_. It just happens to be that it is very easy to get those keys. CSS (Content Scramble System) keys are licensed to manufacturers who incorporate them into products, like a DVD player. CSS just happened to be a weak 40-bit stream cipher. The newest version AACS (Advanced Access Content System) has basically been beat to crap as well. Just read some past
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
In a sense, you're right - it is worth a read, but only because it provides a very brief snapshot of how Jobs works behind the reality distortion field.
One - the inevitable 'honestly, it's not vendor lock-in' paragraph in the middle that just shows the intention of the document. He's not concerned with DRM at all, this paragraph and others is merely a tool to try and convince countries like Norway that they're not doing anything wrong.
Two - The guy can see the way the tide is flowing. If he was truly as opposed to DRM as he claims he wouldn't be using it. However it is better to state how much you dislike DRM, no matter how hypocritical and full of crap it is, than be caught out when everything shifts and nobody uses DRM anymore. When that happens, and it is inevitable, he will look like a visionary because he wrote about 20 empty paragraphs detailing how his own business model isn't viable.
Three - He is making no moves himself to convince any of the music companies to move away from DRM. Instead he claims it is governmental responsibility to force the music industry to change how it does it's business - never mind that this is exactly what some governments are doing to Apple in order to get them to open Fairplay up.
You don't even have to read between the lines. The message here is clear; the only way Apple will stop using Fairplay or limiting Fairplay to it's own players is when the market forces them to.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien