Okay. I understand why Apple wants DRM. I understand why the labels want DRM. I understand why DRM can't be fully open. I hate that Fairplay is a moving target!
I don't want Fairplay to move. I don't want to have to upgrade my copy of iTunes from 6.x to 7.x simply to get songs from the iTunes store without losing the metadata. I don't like losing metadata because I'm afraid I'll lose critcal details: for a while, I had a few songs in my copy of iTunes with no artist listed because I couldn't remember who did them.
If Apple licenses Fairplay to other vendors, it won't move as fast. I think that this will be a good thing.
I tried to publish a story on this yesterday (it's in my journal), but I was either late or too technically primitive. Or maybe the powers that be don't like Yahoo!/AP as a source.
There are consumer groups in six European countries moving to act: first Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; then Finland; now France and Germany.
France and Germany getting involved is important because they are the most influential countries in the European Union. Any decisions they make could affect all of the European Union. Germany is also the second biggest market for iTunes Store purchases in Europe, right behind the UK.
If it is a CD that doesn't have DRM of its own, then you own it when you buy it. You own the shiny disc and the copy of the content that's on that disc. Copyright law does allow the people who created the content to have a say in how you share or copy it, but you own your own copy.
Back-ups, especially first-generation back-ups, are fair use. They should never be prohibited.
I hate to break this to you, but iTunes won't play WMAs on Windows, at least not directly.
It could be much worse, though. It does convert naked WMAs to AACs (leaving the original), and so iTunes can play that music. It only rejects DRMed WMAs.
Unfortunately, all RIAA-approved stores other than iTunes use mostly DRMed WMAs. (Though Yahoo has been experimenting with DRM-free trax.)
To buy a song from iTunes and play it, you must have the iTunes music manager on your computer. You don't need the iPod; you only need a computer that can run the iTunes manager. You do need the iTunes music manager if you intend to play or burn the purchased trax without breaking the DMCA because only it will remove the Fairplay.
The Midwest has been making some moves toward wind-farming. We've a few windmills west of Wichita.
But you ought to know, large amounts of the large amounts of land are used for farming. Corn, wheat, and soy farms probably can't use many windmills--windmills might interfere with the tractors and combines.
Maybe we can arrange that any farm that has an oil well on it should have a windmill.
"maybe we would be better off with musicians who didn't care so much about making a living, and were really just into music"
The RIAA agrees with you, more or less. But at least they keep their artists from starving so long as those artists behave.
I'm for indie artists, but many indies are indies because they want to make a living.
Ah, so that's why iTunes went into version 7!
I am refusing to upgrade the copy of iTunes 6 I have. The UI for iTunes 7.x is ugly!
Ripping does work great for removing unwanted Fairplay, but be sure to write the metadata down first.
"Perhaps, if they had done some tours they would have stayed together. Or, perhaps, they would have had more inspiration from contact from the public to create even better stuff."
Perhaps. It might've helped them make more records, at least. But the Beatles had the most insane fanbase in history. They didn't get much contact with their fans when they were touring because the fans seemed ready to tear them apart. (Room-car-room syndrome.) The fans screamed so loud during Beatles concerts that almost no one could hear the band. Even they couldn't hear themselves sing. This was a problem for most of the band.
The 1966 tours were disasters. A careless snub made the Phillipines stop both unprofitable (they had to pay all those concert proceeds to the government before they could leave the country) and outright dangerous. Careless words from John Lennon turned many Americans against the band, creating the possibility that some of the apparent fanbase might harm them for the sake of it. They almost got killed, or thought they would get killed, several times over--a cherry bomb here, an open-air stage in the rain there. The Beatles had to at least take a sabbatical--touring had become too dangerous.
In 1969, Paul McCartney tried to get the band interested in touring again as part of the Get Back project. These efforts turned the rest of the band against him. True, his efforts likely kept the Beatles together for at least an extra year, but it wasn't simple or painless.
Background: http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/The_Beatles
Thanks for the idea. Every fan has to start somewhere.
True. You can use circumvention devices for that kind of fair use. Unfortunately, the DMCA forbids anyone except the DRM maker from selling or giving you a circumvention device, and it forbids anyone but them from telling you where to find one.
Trust me, even if the established record companies disappear, it will not be simple. If your plan comes to fruition, expect the established labels--EMI at the least--to offer Zune exclusives before they go.
NSA-proof cryptography may be legal in Europe. Breaking the DMCA isn't legal there anymore: that law has been exported. (I think they call it the EUCD over there.)
"How is it that sueing the inventers of the CD format suddenly destroys it? All licenses would suddenly be void?"
Perhaps. The CDs out there would still be out there, but the record labels couldn't print any new ones. This is an industry that long ago chose to put its weight behind new releases; again, they're not ready to stop selling CDs yet.
I'll admit, now, that my arguments were bad. But I have remembered another one. CD recorders that are not attached to computers, such as the ones Philips and Sony make, do not accept the data CDs that computers take. They only accept music CD-Rs.
Guess who gets royalties from music CD-Rs?
I think that the RIAA still has some disproportionate influence...
Maybe, maybe not. Every so often I hear a musician admit to getting music by non-legal channels. Paul McCartney actually liked the Grey Album, but EMI still sued Dangermouse on the Beatles' behalf...
Windows XP was written and released when "free films over Bittorrent" were rarer, before Napster Mk. 1 was known. HD content was still being worked on, as evidenced by old HDTVs that can't use HDMI connectors. The RIAA and MPAA couldn't blacklist anything until they had an idea what they wanted to blacklist; once they did know, Vista was their first chance to enforce the blacklist.
Special treatment is given to the MPAA and RIAA for the same reason cities spend zillions to build major league stadiums that will never pay their own way--sentimental reasons. People have sentimental attachments to music and films. If you can't get attached to some sort of music, then you're not a normal human being...
Even people who like Windows don't normally have sentimental attachments to it.
The influence of the computer hardware industry--those who most want to stop DRM--is compromised by all the manufacturing they've outsourced. Congresspeople remember the empty factories and all the jobs moved from their districts to Japan and China. Most RIAA music sold in America is made here; most films made by the MPAA are made in America, or at least in a NAFTA country. The hardware business sells more goods in America, yes; but the RIAA and MPAA employ more people in America, and it's people who vote and fund lobbyists.
"Then why hasn't the RIAA sued Phillips and Sony for producing consumer appliances with BOTH CD PLAYERS AND CD RECORDERS built in?"
First, Philips and Sony invented the CD. Suing those CD players out of business might end all CDs, and the RIAA can't afford to try that yet.
Second, Sony Music is the most powerful member of the RIAA! The RIAA at large will never sue Sony.
Now, if you hear of anyone other than Philips or Sony making machines that have both a CD player and a (separate) CD recorder, tell me.
Chicago removed two cameras from a piece of art because they were ugly, or at the least clashed with the work?
Attention,/. architects! Now is the time to design extremely beautiful and artistic buildings for the next generation, buildings too beautiful to spoil with ugly surveillance cameras on the walls! Get to work on it before someone invents beautiful surveillance cameras!
That would not solve the reality TV problem. Think of Survivor. Those contestants are filmed continually for 39 days, and know they'll be filmed continually for 39 days. They still do many silly and stupid things, and we get to see many of them.
People tune the cameras out, even the ones they know are there. They act as if the cameras aren't there. Then they are surprised when footage is retrieved and used against them.
What if they think you are a bad guy?
Hypothetical example: "McCartneyf, you have been seen shopping at two different dollar stores and an organic supermarket and then eating a fried chicken sandwich with french fries at Burger King. We have flagged you as suspicious. Come with us."
/. did a lot of joking about the size of various football fields when an ice shelf as big as 11,000 of some variety of them (or, in more normal units, 66 sq. km) broke away from part of Canada. http://science.slashdot.com/article.pl?sid=06/12/2 9/1946227
I refuse to use grapefruit for measurements. They vary in size more than you might imagine. I've seen grapefruit the size of oranges, & vice versa.;)
Americans generally use bags of sugar that are two-and-a-half pounds or five pounds. The kg is on there, but we don't always look.
The masses use Kazaa?!
If that's true, why is the iTunes Store getting any business at all?
MS clearly made a few thousand goofs with the Zune, but I'm guessing that they thought they'd make more money if some Zune owners bought tracks from the Zune store than if everyone bought them from Kazaa. After all, MS runs the Zune store. They don't get a cut from Kazaa; hey, the RIAA didn't always get cuts from Kazaa.
Oh, and I think that the wifi, when it works, has got to be more convenient that hooking a cable between two random persons' Zunes. Of course, DRM-free songs through the cable might be a better value, since maybe they'd stay DRM-free that way...
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Okay. I understand why Apple wants DRM. I understand why the labels want DRM. I understand why DRM can't be fully open.
I hate that Fairplay is a moving target!
I don't want Fairplay to move. I don't want to have to upgrade my copy of iTunes from 6.x to 7.x simply to get songs from the iTunes store without losing the metadata. I don't like losing metadata because I'm afraid I'll lose critcal details: for a while, I had a few songs in my copy of iTunes with no artist listed because I couldn't remember who did them.
If Apple licenses Fairplay to other vendors, it won't move as fast. I think that this will be a good thing.
The Nordic consumer rights people have banded together to fight Fairplay. It was a while ago, but they did.
I tried to publish a story on this yesterday (it's in my journal), but I was either late or too technically primitive. Or maybe the powers that be don't like Yahoo!/AP as a source.
There are consumer groups in six European countries moving to act: first Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; then Finland; now France and Germany.
France and Germany getting involved is important because they are the most influential countries in the European Union. Any decisions they make could affect all of the European Union. Germany is also the second biggest market for iTunes Store purchases in Europe, right behind the UK.
If it is a CD that doesn't have DRM of its own, then you own it when you buy it. You own the shiny disc and the copy of the content that's on that disc. Copyright law does allow the people who created the content to have a say in how you share or copy it, but you own your own copy.
Back-ups, especially first-generation back-ups, are fair use. They should never be prohibited.
I dare you to rip music off an irreversably corrupt harddrive.
I hate to break this to you, but iTunes won't play WMAs on Windows, at least not directly.
It could be much worse, though. It does convert naked WMAs to AACs (leaving the original), and so iTunes can play that music. It only rejects DRMed WMAs.
Unfortunately, all RIAA-approved stores other than iTunes use mostly DRMed WMAs. (Though Yahoo has been experimenting with DRM-free trax.)
To buy a song from iTunes and play it, you must have the iTunes music manager on your computer. You don't need the iPod; you only need a computer that can run the iTunes manager. You do need the iTunes music manager if you intend to play or burn the purchased trax without breaking the DMCA because only it will remove the Fairplay.
The Midwest has been making some moves toward wind-farming. We've a few windmills west of Wichita.
But you ought to know, large amounts of the large amounts of land are used for farming. Corn, wheat, and soy farms probably can't use many windmills--windmills might interfere with the tractors and combines.
Maybe we can arrange that any farm that has an oil well on it should have a windmill.
"maybe we would be better off with musicians who didn't care so much about making a living, and were really just into music"
The RIAA agrees with you, more or less. But at least they keep their artists from starving so long as those artists behave.
I'm for indie artists, but many indies are indies because they want to make a living.
Ah, so that's why iTunes went into version 7!
I am refusing to upgrade the copy of iTunes 6 I have. The UI for iTunes 7.x is ugly!
Ripping does work great for removing unwanted Fairplay, but be sure to write the metadata down first.
The MPAA still wants MS to use DRM for its HD discs.
"Perhaps, if they had done some tours they would have stayed together. Or, perhaps, they would have had more inspiration from contact from the public to create even better stuff."
Perhaps. It might've helped them make more records, at least. But the Beatles had the most insane fanbase in history. They didn't get much contact with their fans when they were touring because the fans seemed ready to tear them apart. (Room-car-room syndrome.) The fans screamed so loud during Beatles concerts that almost no one could hear the band. Even they couldn't hear themselves sing. This was a problem for most of the band.
The 1966 tours were disasters. A careless snub made the Phillipines stop both unprofitable (they had to pay all those concert proceeds to the government before they could leave the country) and outright dangerous. Careless words from John Lennon turned many Americans against the band, creating the possibility that some of the apparent fanbase might harm them for the sake of it. They almost got killed, or thought they would get killed, several times over--a cherry bomb here, an open-air stage in the rain there. The Beatles had to at least take a sabbatical--touring had become too dangerous.
In 1969, Paul McCartney tried to get the band interested in touring again as part of the Get Back project. These efforts turned the rest of the band against him. True, his efforts likely kept the Beatles together for at least an extra year, but it wasn't simple or painless.
Background: http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/The_Beatles
Thanks for the idea. Every fan has to start somewhere.
Fairplay is built into the iTunes store & manager. That's why Apple can change how restrictive Fairplay is, on occasion retroactively.
True. You can use circumvention devices for that kind of fair use. Unfortunately, the DMCA forbids anyone except the DRM maker from selling or giving you a circumvention device, and it forbids anyone but them from telling you where to find one.
Trust me, even if the established record companies disappear, it will not be simple. If your plan comes to fruition, expect the established labels--EMI at the least--to offer Zune exclusives before they go.
NSA-proof cryptography may be legal in Europe. Breaking the DMCA isn't legal there anymore: that law has been exported. (I think they call it the EUCD over there.)
"How is it that sueing the inventers of the CD format suddenly destroys it? All licenses would suddenly be void?"
Perhaps. The CDs out there would still be out there, but the record labels couldn't print any new ones. This is an industry that long ago chose to put its weight behind new releases; again, they're not ready to stop selling CDs yet.
I'll admit, now, that my arguments were bad. But I have remembered another one.
CD recorders that are not attached to computers, such as the ones Philips and Sony make, do not accept the data CDs that computers take. They only accept music CD-Rs.
Guess who gets royalties from music CD-Rs?
I think that the RIAA still has some disproportionate influence...
Maybe, maybe not. Every so often I hear a musician admit to getting music by non-legal channels. Paul McCartney actually liked the Grey Album, but EMI still sued Dangermouse on the Beatles' behalf...
Windows XP was written and released when "free films over Bittorrent" were rarer, before Napster Mk. 1 was known. HD content was still being worked on, as evidenced by old HDTVs that can't use HDMI connectors. The RIAA and MPAA couldn't blacklist anything until they had an idea what they wanted to blacklist; once they did know, Vista was their first chance to enforce the blacklist.
Special treatment is given to the MPAA and RIAA for the same reason cities spend zillions to build major league stadiums that will never pay their own way--sentimental reasons. People have sentimental attachments to music and films. If you can't get attached to some sort of music, then you're not a normal human being...
Even people who like Windows don't normally have sentimental attachments to it.
The influence of the computer hardware industry--those who most want to stop DRM--is compromised by all the manufacturing they've outsourced. Congresspeople remember the empty factories and all the jobs moved from their districts to Japan and China. Most RIAA music sold in America is made here; most films made by the MPAA are made in America, or at least in a NAFTA country. The hardware business sells more goods in America, yes; but the RIAA and MPAA employ more people in America, and it's people who vote and fund lobbyists.
"Then why hasn't the RIAA sued Phillips and Sony for producing consumer appliances with BOTH CD PLAYERS AND CD RECORDERS built in?"
First, Philips and Sony invented the CD. Suing those CD players out of business might end all CDs, and the RIAA can't afford to try that yet.
Second, Sony Music is the most powerful member of the RIAA! The RIAA at large will never sue Sony.
Now, if you hear of anyone other than Philips or Sony making machines that have both a CD player and a (separate) CD recorder, tell me.
Chicago removed two cameras from a piece of art because they were ugly, or at the least clashed with the work? /. architects! Now is the time to design extremely beautiful and artistic buildings for the next generation, buildings too beautiful to spoil with ugly surveillance cameras on the walls! Get to work on it before someone invents beautiful surveillance cameras!
Attention,
That would not solve the reality TV problem. Think of Survivor. Those contestants are filmed continually for 39 days, and know they'll be filmed continually for 39 days. They still do many silly and stupid things, and we get to see many of them.
People tune the cameras out, even the ones they know are there. They act as if the cameras aren't there. Then they are surprised when footage is retrieved and used against them.
What if they think you are a bad guy?
Hypothetical example: "McCartneyf, you have been seen shopping at two different dollar stores and an organic supermarket and then eating a fried chicken sandwich with french fries at Burger King. We have flagged you as suspicious. Come with us."
/. did a lot of joking about the size of various football fields when an ice shelf as big as 11,000 of some variety of them (or, in more normal units, 66 sq. km) broke away from part of Canada. http://science.slashdot.com/article.pl?sid=06/12/2 9/1946227 ;)
I refuse to use grapefruit for measurements. They vary in size more than you might imagine. I've seen grapefruit the size of oranges, & vice versa.
Americans generally use bags of sugar that are two-and-a-half pounds or five pounds. The kg is on there, but we don't always look.
The masses use Kazaa?!
If that's true, why is the iTunes Store getting any business at all?
MS clearly made a few thousand goofs with the Zune, but I'm guessing that they thought they'd make more money if some Zune owners bought tracks from the Zune store than if everyone bought them from Kazaa. After all, MS runs the Zune store. They don't get a cut from Kazaa; hey, the RIAA didn't always get cuts from Kazaa.
Oh, and I think that the wifi, when it works, has got to be more convenient that hooking a cable between two random persons' Zunes. Of course, DRM-free songs through the cable might be a better value, since maybe they'd stay DRM-free that way...