Slashdot Mirror


Chinese Users Get Nokia Music Service Sans DRM

angry tapir writes "Nokia has launched a version of its Comes With Music download service without digital rights management (DRM) for the Chinese market. Currently, the service is available in about 30 countries, but in those countries the music, unlike in China, is copy-protected."

20 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It doesn't make any sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    DRM is pure retardation, where ever it is.

  2. Re:It doesn't make any sense by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Interesting

    >>>Why would Nokia waste time implementing a non-DRM scheme just for China?

    I would think it would be quite simple to dump songs online without DRM. Adding the DRM is the major PITA. So - Why doesn't China have copyright laws? Sounds like the US in the 1800s - copyrights didn't apply to foreign nationals like Charles Dickens. His works were widely distributed by US printers without giving a dime to Mr. Dickens for his labor. (Perhaps that's why 1800s US literacy was 99% - lots of free, cheap books available for reading.)

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. Re:They don't have DRM, but what is there instead? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    China is willing to go the extra mile (e.g. far beyond the US) in monitoring / enforcing their policies against their own citizens.

    Excuse me, but do you realize that copyright violation is a nationalized industry in China?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. It's like drugs ... by Skapare · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The US pharmaceutical companies overcharge the US market for their drugs because they know they can get away with it, with all their lobbying power with the government (both in the Whitehouse and in Congress). You think the music industry and movie industry is any different? They pay more than we can, so they get a government more to their liking. Then they can gouge us for the money to buy even more of our government.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  5. Re:It doesn't make any sense by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

    (Perhaps that's why 1800s US literacy was 99% - lots of free, cheap books available for reading.)

    Also, TV was a lot less popular then.

  6. ./ != researchers! by anarche · · Score: 2, Informative

    wtf are you all on about

    nokia are doing this because they realise that China pirates as much as possible and it is difficult to make money Western-ways in China: "an acknowledgment of the difficulty in monetizing music sales in a region overwhelingly (sic) dominated by piracy." http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2010/04/10/nokias-comes-with-music-service-hits-china-drm-free/

    this is an attempt by nokia to make some money in china in the face of overwhelming piratanical odds.

    --
    Wait! Whats a sig?
    1. Re:./ != researchers! by Skapare · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So what you are saying is, if we were to increase our level of music piracy in "Western" countries, then we, too, could end up without having to deal with all that DRM.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  7. Re:It doesn't make any sense by Aladrin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    [citation needed]

    On the other hand, there are lots of "free, cheap books" today, too. Many, many more than there were in the 1800s. Why has literacy gone done, if all that was needed was free books?

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  8. Hypocrisy and showing their true colors... by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If DRM is supposed to combat piracy, then why no DRM in the country with one of the highest piracy rates in the world?

    Perhaps because DRM has nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with screwing every last cent out of law abiding customers. Seems the chinese are smarter than that and simply won't stand for being screwed like that, so they are forced to actually offer a better product at a competitive price.
    So what the west needs to do, is follow china's example, pirate more and eventually the record labels will be forced to stop treating us with such utter contempt.

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    1. Re:Hypocrisy and showing their true colors... by gzipped_tar · · Score: 2, Interesting

      For the corporations it really doesn't really matter if piracy is fought or not. They exist for profit, and if there's profit in fighting piracy (or screwing customers, if you say so), they'll do it. As you've pointed out, given the high piracy rate in China it is probably too costly to fight piracy right now, and going drm-free is likely to yield richer profit margins.

      Corporations are not naturally the enemy of our rights. They don't screw us for some ideological stuff like "rights". They screw us (or lick our asses) because there's a profit motivation in it, and for them everything else is just manifestly non-existent.

      --
      Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  9. Ah, China... by Erikderzweite · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Land of the free and home of the brave!..

  10. Re:It doesn't make any sense by gzipped_tar · · Score: 2, Informative

    > Why doesn't China have copyright laws?

    We do, and I've met ppl punished for copyright violations. Heck, "severe" copyright violation is even a criminal offence in China (I believe this has something to do with WIPO treaties, but IANAL anyway).

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  11. Re:It doesn't make any sense by magarity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pirates are offering much more convenient non-DRM files, and they are winning in the Chinese market. In order to compete
     
    They are winning so well that Chinese consumers now expect it. I was in Beijing last year and at the major electronics mall it wasn't possible to find a something that DIDN'T already have a bunch of copied games and movies loaded onto it, even at the brand name booths.

  12. China represents the DRM-free future by dcavanaugh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Piracy is readily accepted as a fact of life in China. Just about anything that is sold on CD or DVD media is available in pirate form. Small pirate vendors outnumber legitimate stores by a wide margin. It's actually harder to buy legitimate media than the pirated stuff.

    Knowing this, Nokia anticipates total rejection of DRM by Chinese consumers. Using DRM to compete with pirates is business suicide. So they don't do it.

    For whatever reason, Nokia thinks they can get away with DRM in other countries. Because consumers are stupid. If they don't need DRM in the world capital of piracy, why do they need it anywhere else?

    How dumb are western consumers? Spam exists because a tiny percentage of morons are still opening the messages and buying herbal Viagra. DRM exists because a tiny percentage of morons is willing to by crippled products.

    The copyright industry has made it clear: Only by adopting piracy on the scale of China will DRM will go away.

    1. Re:China represents the DRM-free future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually Nokia has Decleared that it plans to drop DRM in every country. Nokia is just implementing its new "no DRM" strategy to all new markets it is now entering. Nokia will probably drop DRM away from other countries soon enough:

      more on this:
      http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=Nokia&id=411983

    2. Re:China represents the DRM-free future by Krneki · · Score: 2, Interesting

      PS3 is so far warez free, yet I don't see any promised price drop.

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  13. Re:It doesn't make any sense by SpelledBackwards · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Where's your 99% statistic coming from? I doubt many slaves and former slaves had much access to education.

  14. Re:It doesn't make any sense by gzipped_tar · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are WIPO treaties with the goal of recognizing copyright across jurisdictions, but they're more about diplomacy & political bargains than about judicial cooperation between member counties. My feeling is that the USA is perfectly fine with trading IP loss in China for other things such as Chinese credit/investment/whatever.

    --
    Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
  15. Re:They don't have DRM, but what is there instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What he is saying is that the harshness and invasiveness of American copyright law is a political tool for the government.

    Using "police investigation of copyright infringement" they get to spy where they previously didn't, and using "copyright infringement" as an excuse, they can throw dissidents in the can when it is convenient.

    What he is saying is that, with dissent itself being a felony in China, the government doesn't have an incentive to impose a harsh copyright policy.

  16. Re:It doesn't make any sense by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Also, TV was a lot less popular then.

    Funny. But the "TV" of the day was the cheap thrill stories that could be bought or traded, and that meant reading.
    Also kids got their ass whipped for fucking off or behaving like morons. Even in the depression era, my Dad went to a one room school for the first 6 grades. If you messed around they punished you then and there in front of the whole class... that meant every kid in town, basically. And then when you got home the real punishment began... because the whole town knew you had embarrassed your family.

    The end result was you payed attention and studied. If you really didn't want to be schooled then there was work waiting for you, not pay (the parents get the pay), just work, until you run away, become an adult and move out, or finish school. My Dad ran away at 15.

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office