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MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed
Billosaur writes "Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."
The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem
I smell a class action coming along..
"....there are no refunds due to this problem.""
It's your problem, not ours.
Excuse me while I enjoy my NHL feed on YouTube :)
I Like Pie...
I don't think DRM is going to go away until a lot more people get burned by it in this way. Most people don't understand or care, once something like this rears up and bites them in the ass, the outrage machine will start. Thank you, MLB, for being the obnoxious, monopoly-driven organization we've all come to love to hate.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
This is one more reason not to pay money to watch grown men sweat a lot and scratch themselves. A few more of things like this and I am going to just give it up completely.
In a highly litigious culture, about a sport which borders on an obsession, about access perceived as a right...?
I predict the big winners in this one will be the lawyers....
How can you classify speculation as a fact?
You need at least two people to initiate it.
Noo... that's not how it works.
I smell MLB.com launching a defamation suit against the blogger.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
And the answer is always: "FO"
Not the point how many people are affected. The point is that they can take it away from you when they feel like and say, "Suck it". What are you going to do? File a class action lawsuit where the lawyers actually make some cash and you get coupons for 20% expired peanuts at your local teams next away game.
I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to talk about this without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.
duh, this is slashdot. wild speculation of those that clothe themselves in tinfoil is taken as the gospel truth, no questions asked.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Yeah BUT...
If it was 20 CHILDREN then my god something must be done! WHAT about the children?!?!
Depends whether anyone saved a copy of the EULA they signed when they downloaded the videos.
If it favours MLB they'll find a copy. But if it doesn't, it would be quite easy for them to say "We've lost all copies of that EULA but our policy back then was to put in a 1-year time limit" and given the small numbers involved, probably no-one will be able to prove otherwise. I think I'll get in the habit of saving a copy before clicking on "I Agree" from now on.
Is Betteridge's Law of Headlines Correct?
I don't want any product hardware, software, or DRM media that must phone home for permission to work. Too much a risk that the company will go out of business, or decide maintaining the service is no longer profitable.
If this story is true, I think a class action lawsuit is in order...
Think Deeply.
Hmmmmm...I wonder what will happen to all those iTunes songs once Apple moves to a new DRM or non-DRM format in the future and stops supporting their old format???
I just want to say Thank you to MLB for this. The more cases of things like this screwing over the consumer the sooner we can see DRM die the death it deserves. So again...Thank you MLB.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
The unofficial motto of the Amazon MP3 store: http://weill.org/photos/show/recent/photo/1832021825/
It's MLB.
The videos already wouldn't play if it was Cold. Or Raining. Or Night. Or Outside.
MLB should release unlocking software for the old DRM scheme, even if all the software does is apply the new scheme instead. DRM doesn't have to mean that the files you purchase suddenly become useless, if the company actually takes responsibility for it and fixes it. It's ethically their responsibility to rectify any damage their actions do to other people's property. But there's probably some clause saying that the people don't actually own the video, and are thus under no obligation to ensure the playability of the file. What's worse is that people aren't technically allowed to do it themselves, thanks to the DMCA. I think, however, that MLB is going to learn the meaning of the old saying: "those who aren't permitted to do, sue".
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Serves them right. If you support DRM by buying this shit I don't feel sorry for you when it no longer works.
You got what you paid for and everybody told you so beforehand.
[OT] That's like those people who actually buy that viagra spam, because it's impossible to get from the pharmacy.
Fixed the headline for you.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
More of a hypothesis, really. How many people who knew about such a thing would pay money to download a baseball game?
I'm working on a way to allow Goatse to be downloaded and only viewed for 2 hours, after which it will close up and you won't be able to see it any more.
I'll keep you all posted.
It's easy. That's a fact.
do not give a hoot about their customers. If they did, they would understand what DRM means and would protect a consumers property so that it is useful in the future. Companies do not care and people should give them the finger for not caring about those that would patronize their services.
It's "Well...we've got our money...*CLICK*"
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
...to me.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
"The more you tighten your grip, [insert media company], the more [customers] will slip through your fingers."
After the judge sides with the plaintiff, he'll take a printout of the sentence "any rebroadcast, reproduction, or other use of the pictures and accounts of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited" and shove it up Bud Selig's ass.
At least, that's what'll happen in my dreams.
Rob
Apparently, according to this study, not as much as if it were just ONE child:
In another study, Paul Slovic, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, found that people were more sympathetic to a single starving child than they were to two children facing the same plight.
"We cannot wrap our minds around two people as well as around one," said Mr. Slovic.
WTF Why the hell is this a troll?
Google Throws Lead Paint on Movie Download Market http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/google-video.html
He said "fact", can't you read? This is the internet, when someone says "fact" it has to be.
For reference, see "obviously".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Seriously....
;)
:(
There must be a mom of one of the players that has lost precious video of her son. Get her out to front the issue for the masses
I hate this kind of trick nowdays. I have a scanner driver that won't work and needs an update that requires being registered...registration page no longer exists
When this stunt works for MLB, resulting in people buying their <2006 videos again in the "new format", they'll finally roll out those 3D baseball cards. Sure, they need special glasses to view, but that keeps people who didn't pay for them from pirating them. Betcha can't wait for 2009, when they upgrade those goggles to the incompatible "widescreen" version!
--
make install -not war
You buy the DRM, you are bending over, giving them money, and asking for this.
and the idiot who tagged it as such needs to read some history. This is BAD DRM, and sucks, and the people responsible are idiots and should be sued. but to equate not being able to watch sports videos with fascism is just immature bullshit that makes you look foolish. Don't cry wolf.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
The change was made sometime during 2006, and its now October 2007, and people are only noticing this!?
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
DRM - Digital Rights Management.
It's about THEIR rights, not yours.
This happened before. And it will happen as long as people buy cripplified content. ANY content that requires you to contact its maker before it plays has the chance to follow this road. No contact, no content.
This will happen again, I'm sure. Whenever some media company goes out of biz, whenever some media company decides that they can make more money by disabling everything they already sold, this will strike again. And more people will get pissed.
Unfortunately at the company that did it, not DRM itself. But given time, people will learn. People are used to "buying" content. They're used to buying a DVD and being able to play it 'til the earth stops turning. Changing this model will not go without resistance. It will take a while for the masses to notice that seemingly minor difference, but they will.
Unfortunately that takes time. Whether it takes too long we'll see. It will sooner or later fall back on them, though. People will stop buying content, fearing that it will some day stop to "work".
So what I started to do was to do some spinning myself. Whenever some friend of mine tries to buy something DRMified, I remind him of the time when whatever DRM crippled content backfired on him. Yes, it's another company, but it also got DRM, it just MIGHT do the same, ya know... Yes, it's a lie. Still, for some odd reason my conscience gives me an A-OK for it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
To make you pay over and over again for the same content? Do you really think that when you lose your MP3 player with the songs locked to the hardware, that you WON'T have to buy those songs all over again? Do you really think that when you buy a new PC, you'll be able to use the licensed software that ran on the old PC? Face it, if it's got DRM, you didn't buy it -- you're just renting it!
Don't give copyright protection to publications that use copy protection. DRM -> PD. Let publishers (and their markets) decide which mutually-exclusive way to go.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Call 866-800-1275 just to be a pain in the ass. I don't even watch baseball, but I called it to protest their treatment of customers. The guy was nice to me, and admitted they have a big problem, they will try to fix.
If that's so, I'm one of those 20. Granted, it was only two games (total cost: just under $8 USD), but it shows the system is fucked beyond reproach.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
Who actually can spend the time watching a baseball game that is over 2 season old? Thats freaking dedication right there. Its one thing to watch a baseball game when you don't know whats going to happen next, but to watch one where you know the outcome... 2 years after the fact just blows my mind
I always thought DRM meant Digital Restrictions Management.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
You mean they don't speed the video up 170% first?
Oh right, that's only on YouTube.
This is why I run the page in the background and refresh every half hour.
"Look. An inning went by."
The Captcha is "bloody". Go Schilling!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
MLB.com has made a lot of mistakes lately, the most recent being their commitment to Silverlight, Microsoft's "Flash-killer". It's really quite annoying and I refuse to download their plugin (is there even a plugin for Firefox?).
I love baseball, but MLB can be so draconian about things. They have a subscription service that I would totally sign up for if everything MLB.com touched didn't eventually rot.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Sue the bastards for stealing back what they're already sold you. Do it as a Class. I expect they'll cave very quickly if they encounter some consumer push-back.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
If it works as they said, anyone affected can request their money back and, if denied, file a wire fraud complaint.
Why hasn't he contacted his credit card company? He paid with a credit card, right? File a complaint with them.
if someone sold you a book, and told you you'd always be able to read it, and then two years later you couldn't -- well, to it bluntly, that's fucked
If you want to make an analogy, at least make a complete one.
"Here's your book. It's encrypted, but cheap. To read it, just come by my house, and use the decoder ring I have out front." (2 years pass.) "Oh, I remodeled my house and lost the decoder ring. Sorry."
Now try applying common sense. If you couldn't view the content unless your computer was connected to mlb.com, and you assumed that mlb.com would stay around with the same content until the end of time, then you're a moron. Yes, they screwed you, but boy did you walk into that one.
Actually, you need a case first. They said no refunds would be given, they didn't say the DRM website won't be resurrected. Alternatively, they could provide a new version w/ the current DRM.
I've actually been a paying customer of the MLB.tv system for a few years now. I've liked the service purely for the streaming games; I'm the type of fan that can have as much fun watching the Royals playing the Angels as I would watching my Mets play.
Those days are over. I'm normally against DRM in the first place, and they almost lost me when they dropped RealPlayer support (and told Linux to fuck itself; I think that was a Microsoft forced hand). This is the final straw. It's too bad because honestly, it's a good service once you take that out.
I'll order MLB Extra Innings instead, and if I need to record something for posterity, I'll break out an old-fashioned VHS recorder. I won't have the archives anymore, but I'll live.
Meanwhile, I'll be looking into that NHL.com Centre Ice package online. Once they get archives, and if they eschew DRM, I'm in there.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
Didn't one of the fair use exemptions passed down by the Registrar of Copyrights involve DRM that was no longer supported?
Or am I totally misremembering?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Hmmmmm...I wonder what will happen to all those iTunes songs once Apple moves to a new DRM or non-DRM format in the future and stops supporting their old format???
This is already happening. It's called iTunes Plus, a non-DRM AAC file at twice the bitrate of the standard iTunes offerings. The price for new songs is the same as for the DRM-d, lower-quality version. But only one of the big record companies will allow it so far.
Upgrades to the new format are currently US$ 0.30 for previously purchased songs My guess is, when/if Steve Jobs gets his way, the old authentication mechanism will be shut down, and you'll either have to pay up, or you'll be limited to playing your old content on the computers you've previously authenticated.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
Probably has to be done within 60 days.
Infuriate left and right
Not any more.
Ever since they canceled the season I just don't have any interest. This from some one who was once an avid fan. My wife and I met while watching an NHL game at a bar, and we used to have season tickets.
Now I'm 100% NFL. Glad that that boring waste of time called baseball is not cluttering up the airwaves anymore. Back to my roots you might say, speed and violence!
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
Take MLB to small claims court. It's streamlined and can't be hijacked by lawyers the same way the normal court system is.
They said no refunds would be given
and Comcast said no lawsuits. Guess what the courts said about that.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Baseball doesn't make you sweat unless so hot that standing makes you sweet...
The fact that people think it is an athletic activity is part of why the US is so fat... An afternoon of playing baseball is no more athletic than an afternoon of golf.
football, basketball, track and field, soccer... those all make you sweat
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
I've not had that problem in the year since I picked up the Series 3. Nonetheless, it underscores the problem with DRM-- even a well-behaved customer who is playing by the rules (connecting his DRM-protected DVR to his DRM-protected TV with an approved DRM connector) is subject to glitches in the DRM implementation. It's not helping anybody, since I'm not likely to have any illegal programs on my Tivo in the first place... but it sure bugs honest people when it breaks.
Claiming that an EULA is not a legal document sounds somewhat hypocritical.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
the system is fucked beyond reproach.
It has been said that there is a fine line between clever and stupid. I'm completely stumped as to which side this is on...
But your comparison is a little off. Is someone sold me a book with a fishy modem and a giant electronic lock strapped to it.
Quack, quack.
If a product has patented devices, the entire spec has to be available. If you want to keep it secret, no patents. You can either trust in secrecy or on the legal profession, but not both.
If that's so, I'm one of those 20. Granted, it was only two games (total cost: just under $8 USD), but it shows the system is fucked beyond reproach.
This is the beauty of the system and the Internet. As people find out what doesn't work, they quit buying it. From your comment "it shows the system is fucked beyond reproach." shows me you are not going to be a repeat consumer. Between online rent-a-song for the Plays for Sure music to retractable email, to Vista Activation, the fact is DRM is killing sales of content as more get the fact the system is broken.
DRM, Activaction, and cost are the main reasons I left Vista upgrades out of my future plans. I have moved to Open Source. As such, DRM is now an incompatible format. I can't use DRM, so I don't buy it. Amazon got it. Apple is just now waking up to the fact.
DRM protects content. DRM kills sales. Some loss due to piracy is an issue. DRM is the answer. Some loss of sales is due to DRM. When that is a bigger problem than piracy, DRM starts to go away. It happened on floppys and came back on CDs. Items with high incidence of copyright violations is the only items with DRM on CDs. Most software CD's except Games and high cost MS products and some high priced music and movies (High Def formats) are free of DRM. Most all my purchased software CDs are DRM free.
The truth shall set you free!
How can they lose? Even if they lose the case, they still get paid, with no refunds.
Sort of like doctors. They "practice" on you, and if they make a mistake, you get to pay for the return trip. If i tried that as a network/pc/sql/etc guy, id be in jail.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
One word: Divx. Not the codec, the video-disc format. Did anyone seriously think that it wouldn't work out that way again?
First rule: Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
When the media companies finally get their way and Joe and Jane Sixpack can no longer freely re-watch "It's a Wonderful Life" to their heart's desire every holiday season, there will be outrage
Who needs a PVR when they already show the damn thing 24/7 on about 15 channels at once for a week straight?
Do they still have the 30 second skip button disabled? There's no button on the remote, but you could manually assign it to an unused button. Apparently my area was (one of) the first to get the button disabled. I don't have Comcast anymore, is the button still disabled?
No, I won't be a returning customer. I just have to decide now if I want the MLB Extra Innings package; on the one hand, it's still giving money to MLB. On the other, there's no DRM involved. Decisions, decisions.
I might just say "fuck it", and tell them to fuck off completely, also considering their horrible deal with DirecTV which did nothing for the consumer.
I wouldn't even be so angry if it wasn't for their "no refunds" policy. They're brutal when it comes to supporting users; you HAVE to use Internet Explorer, and you HAVE to use WMP, or they won't even talk to you. Firefox? What's that? (Note: the preceeding was a question asked to me. Literally.)
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
Anyone remember MightyWords?
"I wasn't using my civil rights anyway...."
That's because MLB got paid a boatload of money by Microsoft to switch over to "Silverlight" (MS needed at least one credible partner - so they basically paid for their new site and infrastructure)
...and as an employee can honestly tell you that this latest DRM snafu is just that, a snafu. When the old DDS system has been taken offline, many people within the company predicted that this would happen, but this project has slipped due to technical difficulties. I for one feel really badly about how we're basically screwing the fans out of their money. As much as this is sad, however, I'd like to ask everyone to bear with us and let us work out a solution to this issue. We're not doing this on purpose, and a solution will be found.
I hope at least some of you would believe me, even though I have to post anonymously. I'm really just another geek working for a big corporation, trying to make ends meet.
Use FairUse4WM to remove the DRM. Problem solved.
How about not agreeing to crap like this ?
I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process or DRM anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed or DRM'd, or buy anything sold or processed or DRM'd, or process anything sold, bought, or processed or DRM'd, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed or DRM'd. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
My word would be that anyone these days that keeps paying for a DRM Encoded file should be waiting for somethiing like this, there is NOT A FUCKING WEEK taht we dont ear a story like this, STOP PAYING FOR DRM FILES, simple.
It seems that a part of you just wants to show off.
Your conscience gives it an A-OK because it's not a lie that DRM might cause a problem. It's within the realm of possibility any time DRM that might introduce an incompatibility or phones home is introduced in to a system. DRM always fails to accomplish the ostensible goal (stopping piracy) and works only to lock out legit customers.
The only way to make the backlash against DRM work is to hold enough users of it accountable that they become afraid of using it. The only way to do THAT is to educate the common folk who don't realize (yet) that they're getting screwed. Keep up the good work, you're doing nothing wrong.
yep, i know we are in minority, but guys like us are not much more into those football/baseball/basketball heroes, we prefer sweating girls over those ladyboys.
but you guys, chose what you like most, i mean, thanks to that i am straight, i am more tolerant since i am minority...
This is usually true in a competitive free market environment, but MLB is a state-supported monopoly. If you're a baseball fan in the US, you don't have much choice but to deal with them, which is one of the reasons they've become so arrogant and anti-consumer. And most sports fans are willing to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse before they stop spending money on their team. This intentional DRM expiration issue was one that people have been positing for a while, and I'm hardly surprised that this horrible organization is the first one to implement it.
Actually, that's before the FBI warning, IIRC. What it says about licensing is that "the propriator has licensed this disk..." well, I didn't get a license agreement and my commercial relationship is with the merchant, NOT the propriator of the movie. So if I have no license to break, I just have use. If I use the disk in a public broadcast, maybe the propriator can sue the merchant because they weren't licensed to sell it to someone who would do that, but not me.
Unfortunately, DRM bypasses that because the code decides what you do, not you.
no text
HAHA aHA Hahaha
...
...
HahAhaHahahAhaha
Hahahahaaa!!
Bruahahaha
Oh my stomach
Sorry guys. But this is such a ridiculous story.
Don't let anybody sell your memories as a service.
until people learn not to buy any DRM media?
Tom
'rounders' for grown men. haha
Hmmmmm...I wonder what will happen to all those iTunes songs once Apple moves to a new DRM or non-DRM format in the future and stops supporting their old format???
Nothing will happen to them. iTunes doesn't phone home when you want to play your music. It DRM's the song specifically for your iTunes account, then sends you the song. You can listen to it whenever you want, with or without Internet access. You can even select those songs and convert them to DRM-less MP3s, or burn them to CD and reimport them in DRM-less format, and then you don't have to worry about DRM at all.
Heck, even if your hard drive crashes and you lose all your music, you can boot up iTunes and re-authorize it to the same account. Then contact Apple, and they'll let you re-download all the music you bought on the account, at no extra charge. Officially they only let you do this once per account, but there are many reports of people doing it two or three times -- for example, their hard drive crashed but then they bought a new computer and wanted to transfer iTunes to it.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
see "The right to read" on the GNU site..
What legal requirement to keep legal documentation for 7 years? Source, please?
As far as I know, there is no overarching requirement to keep business or legal documentation for any period of time. Certain types of business records need to be kept for different periods of time, but not in general for all "legal" documentation. Tax records, financial records, employment records, health care records, business entity records - yes, all of those have retention requirements, from 1yr to permanently. Regulated industry? Even more rules.
Currently in, or even anticipating, litigation? Extra rules on preservation of potentially discoverable material.
But a mandatory 7 year period for "legal documentation"? Doesn't exist.
...they'll simply stop re-authorizing copies of XP. WGA will occasionally demand to call home, and will shut down Windows if it can't connect, or if it connects and doesn't get permission from Steve.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
It has only been about 10 years since the distribution of major Hollywood films on 8mm stock pretty much dried up. A little over a decade ago, the small independent video rental shop near my home still advertised and would fill orders for 8mm prints. I have a few, but then again I still have a few 8mm "loops", as they were called in the trade. There's something cool about buying a film for roughly the same price as anyone pays for other media, then having giant screen playback (as big as the side of your house, if you wanted) for just the cost of a $200 projector. To me, films need to be shown on big screens. It's just part of the package. Along with popcorn. Oh, yeah, popcorn!
Films on film and sound recordings on reel-to-reel - two things I *really* miss.
Screw class-action... that takes years, and you won't get anything back, anyway.
Just call up the credit card company you used to buy it, explain that they stole it from you and that you'd like to charge it back.
Credit card companies might be evil, but they are occasionally useful...
Any chance that they can do this to my neighbors vacation movies?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Allow DRM only if a non-DRM version is made available (say, via a deposit with the Copyright office), but still allow copyright for both. Much more likely to be adopted: corporate copyright holders (think Disney) are not just going to roll over that easily.
If you're a baseball fan in the US, you don't have much choice but to deal with them, which is one of the reasons they've become so arrogant and anti-consumer. And most sports fans are willing to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse before they stop spending money on their team.
In the first part "If you're a baseball fan in the US, you don't have much choice but to deal with them," I disagree. If you watch baseball on TV, you are dead on. But if you take in local, not national games, there is lots of school sports that have nothing to do with the national organization. I have been to several school and church league games and enjoyed them.
The next part is the problem.. "And most sports fans are willing to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse before they stop spending money on their team." Put down the remote and get out. I have dropped pay TV over 15 years ago. I could care less who the MLB teams are. On the flipside, I know the standing and schedule of some of my foster kids teams.
The truth shall set you free!
I think many "experts" mis-identify this behavior..... It is a economic one..... when people see one child they can identify it as an individual problem.... when you have more than one "individual" you have a systemic problem (That you as an individual can not effectively confront).. It is the same reasons Communisms and Socialism don't work well, One the individual is no longer responsible for doing the right thing they can pawn the duty off to another or the government. The government does not have an incentive to act because it also, does not see the problems of the individual, but as a member of a larger block of what it sees as its dependents or clients. Government and its employees have vested interests in not decreasing their client base by solving their problems and obsolescing their function. Thus, no one with a problem is seen as a person in distress, but as a group and charity that results from compassion for the individual is lost.
please pick up the white courtesy phone...
No, I said the white phone.
What?
Us old guys can easily beat you on that one... let's see. How 'bout Chicago V? Since 1973, I've bought 2 albums, an 8-track, a cassette and a CD. Maybe 2 CDs; I'm so damn old I can't remember anymore... BTW, "Dialogue" on that album is an antiwar, anti-apathy song that couldn't fit any more with today's mood than if it were written yesterday.
Title says it all...
Source?
Well, I read it on Slashdot.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
I was expecting a nicely done HTML version. I figured it was a helluva lot easier to click on hypertext links than to reference page after page. Besides I could easily print off interesting pages for my project binder instead of getting up and running to the copier.
What I got was some weird DRM scheme which worked a couple of times, then when I used another machine, it never worked again.
So much for giving me stuff electronically. I wish I could subscribe to technical magazines electronically, but the lure of DRM to business types renders their product unusable. Its much like going to some restaurant, only having the Maitre'D lording over me to see I dine in strict accordance to their rules.
And the suprising thing is - it was a damm catalog! A sales tool! Why would any businessman in his right mind encrypt a friggen catalog? It seems as stupid to me as mass mailing expired coupons - all of the expense of printing and distribution, with none of the benefits of the sale.
I ended up throwing that sorry disc away. Never bought another. Neither will I install any software that some ad-head comes up with which is prerequisite to viewing a vendor catalog.
If its beyond their capability to make a simple HTML catalog, viewable on ANY browser, then its useless - and I won't have anything to do with it. Anyone passing a community college HTML course should be able to lay out such a disc.
I continue using the paper version, because I know it will sit on the shelf - for years if need be - then work when I need it. I can't even begin to come close to this compatibility with electronic media. There are businessmen executive types out there who don't really care if they create junk, and there are developers out there who are really good and finding out who these executives are. That's why we have such a mess out there. All sorts of incompatible crap, viruses, and stuff that flat doesn't work. There is always someone who will pay to have it made.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
I received the following e-mail from MLB.com today (I purchased a game in 2006, which still works!):
MLB.com Fri, Nov 9, 2007 at 7:36 AM
To: me@gmail.com
Dear Valued Customer,
It has come to our attention that a small subset of our MLB.com Digital Download customers are unable to access and watch certain games that they purchased prior to 2007. MLB.com is committed to ensuring that all non-functioning MLB.com Digital Downloads that were previously purchased are again made available at no additional cost to our customers.
If you are unable to view any MLB.com Digital Download game that you purchased prior to 2007, please contact MLB.com Customer Service by either (1) sending an e-mail to customerservice@website.mlb.com listing the games that are no longer accessible, or (2) by calling 1-866-800-1275 to speak to a representative.
We will then send you an e-mail containing information on how to re-download and access these games. Please note that all Regular Season games will be available, in the originally purchased format, and all Postseason games will be made available, in the same format currently used on mlb.com/downloads.
We regret any inconvenience, and value your continued support.
Sincerely,
MLB.com
Does anyone know or care that MLB came clean and has made all old videos purchased under their DRM valid? Much ado about nothing. My 2004 ALCS videos worked without any problem. Of course, this is 2-day old news and no one cares anymore -- MLB and DRM are just evil. Point made, case closed. But it's not as simple as that.
What would it take to make this front-page Slashdot material again, with a complete retraction?
Email from mlb.com:
Dear Valued Customer,
It has come to our attention that a small subset of our MLB.com Digital Download customers are unable to access and watch certain games that they purchased prior to 2007. MLB.com is committed to ensuring that all non-functioning MLB.com Digital Downloads that were previously purchased are again made available at no additional cost to our customers.
If you are unable to view any MLB.com Digital Download game that you purchased prior to 2007, please contact MLB.com Customer Service by either (1) sending an e-mail to customerservice@website.mlb.com listing the games that are no longer accessible, or (2) by calling 1-866-800-1275 to speak to a representative.
We will then send you an e-mail containing information on how to re-download and access these games. Please note that all Regular Season games will be available, in the originally purchased format, and all Postseason games will be made available, in the same format currently used on mlb.com/downloads.
We regret any inconvenience, and value your continued support.
Sincerely,
MLB.com