Slashdot Mirror
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."
I wonder if MediaSentry is aware of the Chinese government's track record?
Everytime I see this company mentioned on Slashdot, they're still referred to as 'MediaSentry (now SafeNet)'. Why? Is it because the MediaSentry name is still so evocative? Just call them what they are and reference the fact that they are in fact that company that used to be called MediaSentry.
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 have a feeling these guys were just waiting for the chance to invoke extreme measures of DRM and are praising the idea that China will let them do anything they want as long as the DRM works..
Defective Logic
... the Chinese Government will blame these idiots for the (inevitable, unstoppable) YouTubing of the Olympics, and have them all beheaded.
Can I point out that the Chinese government make the RIAA types look fluffy by comparison?
Why, incidentally, would anyone want to pirate olympic coverage? The only thing to see in sports coverage is who won. You need only see it once for that. Piracy is for getting a persistent copy that can be viewed over-and-over. Unless the PRC are actively trying to prevent their people from watching the olympics, in which can one would assume that men with guns are the order of the day, not dishonest nerds.
What you say? China concerned about piracy? There will prolly be a "commemorative" DVD of the games available next week.
why someone decided to let the PRC host the 2008 Olympic games.
Seeing as Mediasentry has been breached and is near bankruptcy (This may bail them out?) This is not one of China's smarter moves. Allowing them to provide DRM for the olympics? May as well poke a hole in the Great Firewall, which is likley what will happen.
the DRM is just there for censorship not to stop copying.
China is arguable the largest pirate nation on the planet, who has next to zero respect for intellectual property of other nations.
Now that their money is at stake here, they want to protect their content.
Funny, that.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Without all that pesky "due process" Media Sentry would have a perfect track record!
Jesse Owens never won those gold medals..
Uh.. chinese torture at its finest involves planting bamboo under a horizontally suspended victim. The bamboo grows anyway, and slowly and painfully impales the victim until death days later.
Not a favorite of mine.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
The IOC owns the broadcast rights -- but does the IOC actually produce any broadcasts? do they operate TV stations? In fact, one of the main sources of revenue for the IOC (i.e., one of the main ways they pay for the games) is by licensing the broadcast rights separately for each oountry.
The PRC owns the rights for broadcast in China. This is no different from NBC owning the broadcast rights in the US, or the CBC owning the rights in Canada. Note that the CBC is an arm of the Canadian government.
China fights piracy.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Someone who has reasonable claim to being "the industry leader" based on quantity (certainly not quality) of related work was awarded a government contract. Stop the presses!
Seriously, this is the same reason Diebold (or whatever they're called now) sells so many voting machines in this country, or Windows 95 was chosen in the UK for "Windows for Warships".
Quality is a surprisingly low concern for MANY government contracts. If anything, it impresses me that our countries are so similar.
I take it you have no interest in actually watching sporting events? Well, many people do. If an event broadcast in the PRC but not in Canada, then Canadian viewers would love to watch "pirated" PRC signal. DRM is essential to supporting the IOC's (mistaken, IMO) policy of licensing exclusive broadcast rights separately for each country. This simply doesn't make sense with internet broadcasting. To be honest, locality-based restrictions also help advertizers -- paying per viewer makes little sense when some of the viewers may not be in the right country to buy your product ...
Personaly I think the IOC should license "online distribution" non-exclusively, and separately from the TV and Radio rights (which, being broadcasts, can be meaninfully limited territorially). Online distributors can then specialize by language, by locality, but also by sport or in other ways -- it should be up to them.
Several friends have visited China over the years and all of them have said the same thing: Things just don't fit right. I mean, it all looks modern, spit and polish, but it just not fit in or fit right with what China is. They promote what they call a "progressively minded society" but restrict their citizens on so many levels it does not make sense in any way, shape or form. Their political infrastructure hearkens back to the bad old days after the Second World War, and is so insular in their thinking they do not understand why we wish their people to have more freedom. They think of themselves as the "Middle Kingdom" and believe that they are so above everyone else that their rules do not matter, only theirs. I think it might take a revolution just to kick loose a few basic rights for their people to enjoy. They may have had their Cultural Revolution that happened back in the 60's and 70's, but they still do not grasp the base logic of having a strong nation; it starts with giving the people their basic freedoms to criticize without being prosecuted, to have peaceful assemblies to protest certain issues, to have multiple religions of light, peace and tranquility, and to vote in people to steer the country towards whatever future they may have in mind.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Eventually we will all be Chinese.
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!
Just the headline was enough to make me laugh.
Of course I didn't RTFA... why would I do that? You really are new here aren't you? Don't let my UID fool you.
Media Sentry is a joke. They will soon be hacked out of existance.
does this control include the ability to edit out all the pollution during the sweeping views of paradise?
Is there a way to hide copyright/RIAA/MPAA/piracy stories? They don't seem to show up under any consistent category or author. I know I can just scroll past them, but then I'm still stuck reading the summary of every blow-by-blow account of the copyright wars. I know, the *AAs are evil, copyright terms are too long, yeah, I get it, I got it ten years ago, I don't need to hear it repeated ad nauseum.
(Cue -1, Cares About Quality Of Slashdot mods)
Visit the
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.
Oh, well, that's ok then.
Wait, what?
In this day and age, competitions like this serve no purpose except to exploit the participants in these 'games'. Many, if not most, of those participating are hoping that they excel -just enough- to 'win the gold' so that they may secure lucrative product endorsement contracts with multi-national firms. 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.
If they do return and win, they may land contracts for a breakfast cereal or two of note and they may appear on the box for a year or two until they have been largely forgotten by the public. Then they go on to write an 'inspirational' book about their 'struggle against all odds' to achieve Olympic stardom. Finally, as their notoriety reaches its nadir, they sign on to do a reality-based television show on the E! channel that exploits their pathetic downward spiral and their life on the lecture circuit 'inspiring' people.
Sig this!
WoW and GnuChess have different content, the only difference between the people running in my park and the Olympics is the speed. People running in the park is like WoW on an old machine.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
No kidding - I've no need of organizations that exploit an ignorant public
I think you misspelled oppress above. People do not chose to live in China, inadequate state education, or to be the targets of RIAA attacks. Please do not insult people stripped of their homes and political prisoners with such trivializations. These thugs punish innocent people.
M$, because life is too short to type icrosoft frequently.
Why do the Olympics need DRM anyway?
Does China make that much of a profit from bootleg DVDs of the Olympics?
WoW and GnuChess have different content
Oh, content is all? Fine, if I want to watch some orcs, I'll watch some WoW videos. Leeroy Jenkins!
the only difference between the people running in my park and the Olympics is the speed.
And the people. (Olympic athletes are in top physical condition -- go read my other link!)
And the actual competition. (Are people in your park racing?)
And the fact that running isn't exactly the only event. People play chess in WoW, but WoW is much more than chess.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
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.
This all kinda reminds me of a Star Wars prequel plot...
Where'd you find that? One of the extras DVDs?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Fallacy of accident?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
But the Olympics is still an utter pile of shit that needs to be exterminated.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
awesome!
...all the pirates are on Hidden Pirate Island, a.k.a. Hong Kong.
This seems pretty last minute to put in a DRM system for Olympics starting in 2 days.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
.
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.
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.'
What? No $1 DVD's of the broadcasts?
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Try this: Why would anyone pay for WoW? If I want to play a game, I can fire up GnuChess for free.
Excellent! All the cerebral exercise without the Barren's chat. Thanks for that.
How do you get epic upgrades for the knight though? I presume he wears plate...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
MediaSentry and DRM: good enough for the Commies!
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Seems that MediaSentry will loose DRM technology to china. Simple answer to protect your own business and technology is not bring it to china, they are professionals to copy and develop better versions (and cheaper etc versions too) of the technology....
The reason to want DRM to all olympic data can be youtube etc others mockups. They might be a fraid that the video or speaks are used as propaganda against them, so they lock users to use it for own purpose.
Well, when you put it that way, I agree with you 110%.
Are you suggesting that Twitter has no right to comment on the actions of the PRC or MediaSentry? If you are, then you are following in the footsteps of the PRC and their wish to control information and suppress free speech.
I agree that Twitter is being stupid when he engages in one of his "single-person, numerous-monikas" conversations, but if he wishes to join in an intelligent conversation that he has as much right as you or I to do so.
On the other hand, if you were just informing the GP that Twitter uses a specific monika then I am confused with that fact's relevance to the topic under discussion.
Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
So they "gave up" rights to censor coverage of the olympics and instead claimed rights to all broadcasts. These guys are incredible, or maybe they aren't, since this is the new world. Can't believe anyone is watching this show. Hopefully there will still be something for the non communalists to watch.
And the drugs.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Why?
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
I wonder if the Chinese government is aware of MediaSentry's track record â" i.e. all the good things it has accomplished so far for the Big 4 record companies
No, that news was probably censored in China.
They should feel right at home in that police state. They might even take that experience back home to have Americans prosecuted like dissidents.
How about you ignore the whole Olympic event? I certainly will.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
C'mon, while spectator sports generally aren't all that interesting in their own right, the social experience of a large crowd of people following one event can't be ignored.
You might come close if you got together with your friends to watch people running in the park, randomly choosing a favorite runner.
But you don't really pay for watching the Olympics - except with a little of your time and even less of your attention.
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
DRM is bad and hence SafeNet is bad as well.
No, safenet is bad, because their subsidiary violates the law, is unethical and helps the RIAA, and others, use the court system to bully people, who for the most part, are unable to defend themselves.
They aren't bad because DRM is bad. They are bad because they do bad things.
This isn't to say that slashdot does not have a bit of an echo chamber effect, but you get that anywhere that the majority of people hold many of the same core values.
the only difference between the people running in my park and the Olympics is the speed.
And the drugs
Oddly, runners ARE drug addicts. The drug they are addicted to is endorphins. Endorphins are the body's natural pain killers, and the only reason heroin works is because it fits the body's endorphin receptors.
The only difference between a runner and a heroin addict is that a heroin junkie isn't likely to run out from behind a truck right in front of your car like the idiot runners do, and he doesn't shoot up in the middle of the street.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Because frankly, The Olympics are boring.
Worse, when they come on, it's wall-to-wall coverage with NOTHING but Olympics news. And being a good Slashdotter and "geek" (the computer/networking kind, not the bites-heads-off-chickens kind), I'm not really all that much into sports.
I personally feel the same way about most major sports venues, the Superbowl being a prime target. Just leave it on the Sports channels so the rest of us that don't give a damn don't have to have it shoved in our faces. Of course, no matter what happens, half the people where I work are freaking obsessed with it, so I can't escape it no matter what.
I guess this is a large reason why I don't watch much T.V. anymore. Most of it is marketed to the same people that spend THOUSANDS to watch a bunch of roid-rage millionaires get sweaty for an hour or two. Bleah.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
.
many of the athletes arrive in Beijing knowing that their national team hasn't a prayer of returning home with a medal.
many compete in sports that have little visibility in the states beyond their exposure in the Olympics
You know, because we know what great lengths they've gone through to protect other peoples' IP. Funny, now that they have something the rest of the world actually might want how quickly they decide that copyright is important.
I always thought the Olympic committee owned all rights.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Not just that. Look at air quality there and some big time human rights issues. What kind of a Olympics committee would give it to them? They tried to fix air quality, city quality (by kicking poor out) but this time, Climate kicked in :) It is supposed to be humid as hell and stormy in Hong Kong.
Even for online, if you are using Linux, you won't be watching it already since the company dealt with Microsoft to push Silverlight to users and (naturally) punish non Windows users.
It can be dirtier than any junk reality show if you think about it. At least reality shows doesn't claim World peace etc.
Modern Olympic games (n.):
1. A means for a country to gain prestige and wealth even if it doesn't deserve it. (see also: 2008 Beijing, 1980 Moscow, 1936 Berlin.)
2. A means for corporations to add to their already lucrative profits.
3. A means for the IOC to demonstrate what low regard they have of the ideals upon which they were founded.
4. 20 minutes of advertisements for 15 minutes of tangential stories and 2 minutes of actual athletic competition.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."