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A Copyright Cop In Every Zune
Mike writes "As if the Zune wasn't already crippled and unpopular enough, now comes a story indicating that Microsoft may build a 'Copyright Cop' into every Zune. A future update of the software for Microsoft's portable media player will likely include a 'feature' that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it. The president of digital distribution for NBC, J. B. Perrette, said the plan is to create 'filtering technology that allows for playback of legitimately purchased content versus non-legitimately purchased content.' Of course there's no way to tell legitimate content that you create from 'non-legitimate' content, so this looks like just another nail in the coffin of the Zune." Update: 05/08 20:50 GMT by T : From Microsoft employee Cesar Menendez comes this categorical denial of any such filtering mechanism.
This is a demonstration of Microsoft's new media-compatibility standard. They're calling it "Plays? Yeah sure!"
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Its not so much the nails in the coffin you need as stakes in the heart. Unfortunately Zune's can only be killed by legitimately purchased stakes.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
There are people who enjoy getting their nuts stepped on too. To each his own I guess.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Not to mention that the extra processing needed for the wiz bang water marking technology will reduce battery life.
How much? Who knows, but extra design constraints always create compromises and battery life is one place it is likely to show up.
OK Microsoft-faithful and Apple-haters - listen up. This is why everyone says that Microsoft is 'uncool'.
In spite of a few missteps as of late, Microsoft is still the biggest, richest, most powerful company in tech today. And yet, they have their tongues so far up the record and movie industry's *ss that it isn't even funny anymore. No one respects an obsequious brown-noser. If they had any spine at all, they would tell the record and movie execs the Truth (that they're living on borrowed time) and that the only way to continue to make any money at all is to trust their customers.
Apple was upbraiding the record industry execs for a good three years during and through the Napster debacle. Apple was telling them that customer-hostile DRM that took away obvious and visible consumer rights wouldn't work, they were telling them that the bottom would fall out of the CD business, and they were offering Apple's services as a customer-friendly alternative to some of the loser businesses the record industry was trying at the time (like PressPlay). It's not like the folks at Apple were geniuses for recognizing all of these things - it's just that they have their own protected platform and they're in the software business so they know full-well how futile copy-protection really is.
When the record execs finally realized that everything Apple had been saying was right, they had lost a good fraction of their business and they were desperate to try something new.
The guys who run Microsoft will never have the balls to tell a potential business partner that. They have enough money in the bank to BUY any one of the record companies that they're sucking up to, and yet they behave like the record companies' servile bitch. And that's why they'll never be considered 'cool'.
I'm sick of hearing about this. Lets dispel some myths.
1: You can copy music on and off an iPod with great ease. There is no magic DRM preventing this *at all*.
2: Apple are quite happy to let you rip their music to cd, and then to mp3. It's no different, and sounds no different from ripping a bought music cd.
3: The iPod only has DRM on it because Apple new they would get sued to fuck if they didn't, or if they went around allowing direct circumvention. By allowing copying to audio cd they avoid this via the fair use claim.
4: A *lot* of available iPod content is not DRM'd anyway.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
An iPod does not require using iTunes. You can put Rockbox on an iPod and simply drag the music files directly onto the iPod mounted as a drive. There's also plenty of other programs that can read and write to an iTunes database.
Finally, a reason not to buy a Zune.
Game... blouses.
I've been doing that for years on my SanDisk MP3 player
.flv files, only buy a player that will play it.
Consumers are good at finding what they want and the features they want. Some folks will be fine with the player and it's subscription service. The rest of us will find players that will play our content ripped from DVD's, shared, and downloaded from YouTube.
I often get asked "What computer should I buy?" I always tell them "Find the software you want to run and then buy the haredware that will run it.". With portable media players, this is still very true. If you want to play MP3's and
If you want a player that plays music purchased from the Zune site, you may wish to consider one, but remember, it won't play songs from iTunes. It looks like it also won't play YouTube rips.
You can vote for DRM with your wallet, or you can vote against it. Vote wisely.
The truth shall set you free!
To the publishers these are features, not bugs.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Maybe you shouldn't be annoyed with Twitter, in this case. His extremely negative evaluation was only as negative as that of the New York Times. Quote:
"If you like to download the latest episodes of "Heroes" or other NBC shows from BitTorrent, maybe you shouldn't buy a Microsoft Zune to watch them on. [my emphasis]
"A future update of the software for Microsoft's portable media player may well include a feature that will block unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos from being played on it."
Consider this: Someone bought a Zune, believing that he understood the features of the product. But later, Microsoft, in an "update", changes the way it works. That's nasty. It teaches customers that they can't trust Microsoft or a Microsoft product.
http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2008/05/07/just-so-no-one-gets-the-wrong-idea.aspx
They say this isn't coming or planned.
Your polarised view of people that use flash vs HDD players is a little narrow.
I wouldn't take a HDD based player jogging and I sure wouldn't listen to 80 gb of music between dockings in day to day life. I would only consider a HDD player if I were to travel for 2 years without a PC.
"Yeah Tommy, before Zee Germans get here
Microsoft has already denied this: http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9938650-56.html?tag=nefd.top But since this is slashdot, let's just ignore it while there is an opportunity for MS bashing.