Thing is, if neither Microsoft nor Apple had gone the DRM route, they would still get on board, because the alternative is to get NO money from people downloading with their media online. No... the alternative is that we don't get Itunes.
The media consortiums don't have to give out licenses at all. It's their explicite right to deny them in fact. So if Itunes didn't have DRM, and if Vista wasn't a DRM based OS, neither would be able to use "legally" purchased media, nor be allowed to sell it.
Coming from working on the FRITZ project at Intel, working closely with MS and their "paladium" system I can tell you that MS and INTEL both HEAVILY support (or did at one time) putting any and all DRM into hardware and software, because both of these companies know that if they don't, they are going to get left in the cold by the Media. And both companies are terrified by what that means. (a lack of income to them, to be exact)
Disney and several other major studios have been working with intel and MS for about 5 years now, to develop, market and tie in all the possible media they can sell. Of course, only if it's heavily laden with DRM. Nevermind if the DRM actually works, they have settled for the "it works because we can sue under DMCA if they crack it".
If it were up to the studios, your computer wouldn't run code. It would run only "protected", "signed" and "verified" software and media. Be glad intel got cold feet and scaled back FRITZ.
I'd love to see the RIAA and MPAA given the legal right to hack P2p users computers. The net result would be a huge drop in the number of leaches. And a huge increase in the RIAA/MPAA networks randomly ceasing to exist for long periods of time.
Someone has to ask the real question at hand. Do the police really want to open that particular door? If so, can they hope to match resources and wits against the worlds hackers? Or are they only interested in hacking into Joe User's desktop?
I welcome an effort by a law enforcement agency to break into private computers. I'm willing to bet that the overall result is that the police's network dies. And the so called suspected hacker is more or less untouched. But joe user is in deep shit.
I get tired of seeing this repeated here on slashdot. So I'm going to use your rant to make a point.
I worked for Dell from '99 to '01. Granted, things may have changed there...
Dell hardware is generally not "PROPRIETARY" in the normal sense. When I worked for dell, only 1 thing was PROPRIETARY, that was the power supply connections for the 20pin. Thats it. And any reasonably competent twit with a pair of pliers can make it "standard" again in about 5 minutes.
HOWEVER- it is common that they use stripped down hardware. Motherboards with onboard video, sound and no AGP or PCI-X slots at all. This is what most people complain about, but calling it proprietary is bullshit. It's not proprietary, it's just crap.
Feel free to call it crap, but lets not redefine a perfectly good word like proprietary.
As for TFA. When I worked for Dell. I asked Mr Micheal Dell once why we didn't carry AMD. His answer was very simple. They don't pay enough. AMD wasn't offering the kick backs that intel was, and intel would only offer them while DELL sold only INTEL. Shockingly, this has the affect of stopping Dell from offering AMD beacuse it would actually cost them more than any sales could make up. (it would have also caused intel to renegotiate the per unit price dell was paying)
And if you are wondering why it's "under the table", thats easy. As part of their contract to supply different OEMs, INTEL is required by most of them to disclose unit pricing. So Intel can't just offer Dell 50% off wholesale prices, because then HP and Gateway would be asking for the same thing. By offering it as a kick back INTEL can hide the true price per unit from other people. Shareholders, cometitors and other OEMS. THAT is the singular reason it's done this way. The odd bit is that all the OEMs with exclusive deals do this, and they all know they all do it. Apperently the only people that didn't know about this was the lawyers. Oh, and it's against anti-trust laws. But I'm not sure I've ever seen those laws enforced, so I'm not sure thats a major motivating factor.
I think he was using hyperbole to make a point. A point that inside the games industry, games tend to stick pretty closely to a group of preconcieved ideals. Ideals that are more or less based on Tolkein and Aliens esq sci-fi movies.
Incidently, your sig rather strongly invalidates your own point while validating TFA.
I'll give you a hint. When someone says a certain [i]thing[/i] is over used in the games industry, you should remove ads for such a [i]thing[/i] before you try and call bullshit.
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I'd love to see the RIAA and MPAA given the legal right to hack P2p users computers. The net result would be a huge drop in the number of leaches. And a huge increase in the RIAA/MPAA networks randomly ceasing to exist for long periods of time. Someone has to ask the real question at hand. Do the police really want to open that particular door? If so, can they hope to match resources and wits against the worlds hackers? Or are they only interested in hacking into Joe User's desktop? I welcome an effort by a law enforcement agency to break into private computers. I'm willing to bet that the overall result is that the police's network dies. And the so called suspected hacker is more or less untouched. But joe user is in deep shit.
So what you are saying is that the differance between a valid religion and an invalid one is the differance between fiction and science fiction?
I get tired of seeing this repeated here on slashdot. So I'm going to use your rant to make a point. I worked for Dell from '99 to '01. Granted, things may have changed there... Dell hardware is generally not "PROPRIETARY" in the normal sense. When I worked for dell, only 1 thing was PROPRIETARY, that was the power supply connections for the 20pin. Thats it. And any reasonably competent twit with a pair of pliers can make it "standard" again in about 5 minutes. HOWEVER- it is common that they use stripped down hardware. Motherboards with onboard video, sound and no AGP or PCI-X slots at all. This is what most people complain about, but calling it proprietary is bullshit. It's not proprietary, it's just crap. Feel free to call it crap, but lets not redefine a perfectly good word like proprietary. As for TFA. When I worked for Dell. I asked Mr Micheal Dell once why we didn't carry AMD. His answer was very simple. They don't pay enough. AMD wasn't offering the kick backs that intel was, and intel would only offer them while DELL sold only INTEL. Shockingly, this has the affect of stopping Dell from offering AMD beacuse it would actually cost them more than any sales could make up. (it would have also caused intel to renegotiate the per unit price dell was paying) And if you are wondering why it's "under the table", thats easy. As part of their contract to supply different OEMs, INTEL is required by most of them to disclose unit pricing. So Intel can't just offer Dell 50% off wholesale prices, because then HP and Gateway would be asking for the same thing. By offering it as a kick back INTEL can hide the true price per unit from other people. Shareholders, cometitors and other OEMS. THAT is the singular reason it's done this way. The odd bit is that all the OEMs with exclusive deals do this, and they all know they all do it. Apperently the only people that didn't know about this was the lawyers. Oh, and it's against anti-trust laws. But I'm not sure I've ever seen those laws enforced, so I'm not sure thats a major motivating factor.
I think he was using hyperbole to make a point. A point that inside the games industry, games tend to stick pretty closely to a group of preconcieved ideals. Ideals that are more or less based on Tolkein and Aliens esq sci-fi movies. Incidently, your sig rather strongly invalidates your own point while validating TFA. I'll give you a hint. When someone says a certain [i]thing[/i] is over used in the games industry, you should remove ads for such a [i]thing[/i] before you try and call bullshit.