MediaSentry Hired By People's Republic of China
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "MediaSentry, now called 'SafeNet,' the RIAA's illegal, unlicensed investigator of choice, has been hired by the People's Republic of China to provide DRM for the Olympics coverage. The PRC says it 'owns exclusive rights to the broadcast of all audio and video content via online and mobile distribution channels across Mainland China' and wants to protect it from 'piracy.' I wonder if the Chinese government is aware of MediaSentry's track record — i.e. all the good things it has accomplished so far for the Big 4 record companies."
This is such a crock.
China doesn't own the broadcast rights to the Olympics. The Olympic Committee does.
I wonder what other compromises the Olympic Committee made in Red China?
Besides, Media Sentry is a joke. They will soon be hacked out of existance.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I wonder why anyone would care? Why would anyone want to Pirate the Olympic broadcasts? Do you have to pay to watch the Olympics in China? Is this more a matter of making sure there is nothing broadcast which might undermine the Chinese government? Say for example an athlete making a speech about human rights after winning a gold medal.
Take what ye can. Give nothing back!
If I want to watch people running, I can go to my local park and do so for free.
Out of curiosity, does this kind of fallacy have a name yet?
Try this: Why would anyone pay for WoW? If I want to play a game, I can fire up GnuChess for free.
Although, it would still be more interesting to watch what the athletes do in their time off...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
FTFA: /rant
"Aren't they supposed to be held in the spirit of freedom and openness?
Not in China."
yeah, blame china... The IOC doesn't have a track record for sending takedown notices / sueing to people displaying anything remotely Olympic branded:
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/ioc_sues_website_using_olympics_logos_552593
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7217512_ITM
the IOC are just as bad as the MAFIIA, but they've got a perfect scapegoat to trial DRM this time around because the West aren't big fans of china as it is, so the IOC spin doctors say "we didn't want drm" publicly, while privately supporting the concept.
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
I hadn't thought of it before but realised when I saw the starting time for the Opening Ceremony.
08:08pm 08/08/2008.
8 is a very lucky number in chinese culture. So I imagine they had a very big incentive to "win" the 2008 Olympics. Add this to Chinas amazingly strong economy, and the IOCs......questionable ...ethics in regards to bribes/payoffs then I think you can get the picture of how this one played out.
Based on their compatible corporate moralities, I would expect SafeNet to merge with Blackwater any day now. Then RIAA could have ARMED criminal thugs with international immunity to carry out their agenda. I suspect they would like that.
Why would anyone want to Pirate the Olympic broadcasts?
I'll name one. Compare TV coverage in the United States versus a truly free country like Japan. Exclusive broadcast rights truly sucks, big time.
Are you allowed to change channels if you do not like the particular Olympic event being shown?
Funny that you should bring up Adolph Hitler. This is a replay of the 1936 Olympics and I was in Beijing the week before the Olympic commmittee traveled there to choose it - there was an army of people out picking up garbage and what not. I guess they did not have vacuum cleaners large enough to clear out all the dirty[1], polluted air though.
Indeed, Media Sentry + PRC is a match made in ... well somewhere I'd rather not go.
[1] On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the least polluted air and 10 is max polluted, Los Angeles CA USA, where I lived for almost 2 decades ranked about a 5 when I moved away. Tokyo Japan ranked about a 7 when I lived there 2000-2003, and Beijing in 2001 ranked 10. I hope someone does not die in the marathon, but I won't be watching to find out.
.
Rarely, if ever, do any of these participants return for another try at Olympic glory after they have achieved -or failed to achieve- the brief stardom of the podium
Athletes do return to the games.
That is an extraordinary achievement in itself. It means, among other things, that there is training and financial support for the older athlete who wants to remain competitve in world competition.
Look at the ages of some of these men and women:
John Dale III. USA. 58, Sailing.
The oldest athlete on the American team. His first Olympics.
Libby Callahan. USA 56. Shooting.
The oldest US female Olympian ever.
Dara Torres. USA. 42. Swimming
Her fifth Olympics. U.S. record time in the Olympic. trials. Oldest swimmer ever to qualify for the games.
Hiroshi Hoketsu. 68. Japan. Equestrian.
Retired Johnson & Johnson executive. Returning to the Olympics for the first time since Tokyo, 1964.
Funny that, they think the same for the US. Not that they are not in their own bubble.
They see a highly consumerist country that weilds their power and lays countries to waist.
No they don't. Please ground yourself back to reality.
If you ever been to a modern city in China (Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu..etc), you will find everyone is living a capitalist lifestyle. If someone isn't getting into your face to sell you something, they are at least buying goods for themselves at supermarkets such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart. Even Bestbuy stores are starting to show up. And oh ya, they actually watch movies in the theaters. The behavior is not much different from that of Americans and Europeans.
As for the Chinese people themselves? They're like you and I. They want to live their lives and not be messed with. In fact, most of them don't have any political or ideological preferences. They just know the quality of life has been improving over the years and want it to continue. Obviously political freedom and capitalistic expansion is the answer. However, most haven't figured out why these fundamentals work. They know they do, and just accept it "as-is" for now.
Life is not for the lazy.
I was the first to mod it funny. What did I win?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
What pisses me off is the over-patriotic broadcasting of whichever country you're in. If you're in Sweden- they mostly show heats that have Swedish athletes involved - all the other heats are judged uninteresting - and so they prefer to spend their time building up in the studio to the next time when a Swede appears in a heat. As I recall coverage in the UK was similarly biased to UK athletes - perhaps things have changed more recently. If you want to follow the progress of another country other than the one you reside in - you need to pay for Eurosport or something similar. Why cant they just stream the whole thing free on the web so we can choose what we want to watch and when?
These thugs punish innocent people.
How do Chinese censorship laws differ from American drug laws? If the Chinese "thugs" punish innocent people, the American secret police (AKA "undercover agents" and "plainclothes police") and the masked thugs from the DEA also punish innocent people. I was one of their victimes last year; searched without warrant, made to stand in the July Illinois heat for an hour, and let go because there were in fact no drugs.
Glass houses, folks. If you're American, rather than working to free the Chinese, how about working to free us Americans?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest