Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Diamond spins off Rio

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the things-get-nutty dept.

mykey2k writes "This story tells that Diamond is going to spin off Rio as a new company and the new Rio will have anti-piracy built-in. "

1 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Anti piracy? How? by substrate · · Score: 4

    Whether they hate the RIAA or not really isn't an issue. As one poster pointed out portable MP3 players won't really take off till Joe Average has access to bandwidth. I'd amend that with they won't take off till Joe Average has convenient access to music. One way to get this music is by downloading it as a lot of us do now. Another way would be if you could go to a music store and upload it from their server. This is where Joe Average normally gets his music. Getting downloadable digital media into record stores across the country would be a big win for RIO. This won't happen unless record companies feel secure in releasing mainstream music through this means. Anti-piracy measures would be one means to help this.

    The Sony Walkman succeeded because it was a portable device that enabled the user to listen to music of their choosing, and their was a wide range of music readily available. Of course a lot of this music wasn't bought and payed for, this annoys the RIAA. Now they've got a jihad against anything that is capable of recording or deploying user recorded music. It's dumb and pointless, but its there, witness the backlash against CD recorders etc.

    If RIO is smart they'll make sure it can still play ordinary MP3. If not they'll be in the running for the shortest time from IPO to Chapter 11 protection. Let the RIAA bandwagon deploy music in their protected format, which Joe Average will eat up, but make sure that the device is happy playing regular MP3.

    Also make sure that any competing company can build compatible players for a reasonable fee, otherwise you'll have a format fight which will kill the technology.