Fritz wants to put all sorts of DRM stuff into my PC to safeguard the intellectual property of the RIAA / MPAA crowd. The unspoken assumption is that I want to use my PC as a home entertainment system.
Might I suggest a solution that will satisfy all sides. Produce an external device that connects to my PC (perhaps via Firewire, ethernet, etc.). It will contain the appropriate CODEC's, DRM hardware, keys, etc. Consumers could purchase and download encrypted media with their unmodified PC's and then transfer it to the external box. The box would handle all rights management and would have outputs that only connect to special DRM approved displays, speakers, etc. The box could be built to be tamper resistant (special screws, thermite charges, whatever).
Viola - the media giants, get what they want. Consumers can purchase the device and then purchase and download films and music. And I can ignore the whole thing and use my PC as a PC.
Monday, June 17, 2002 Last updated at 2:06:53 AM PT
By AUDRA ANG ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BEIJING -- Beijing has ordered its 2,400 Internet cafes to close for safety inspections after a fire that killed 24 people in the Chinese capital's university district, state media said Monday.
The owner of the cafe where the fatal fire broke out before dawn Sunday has surrendered to police, said a woman who answered the phone at the district administration office. She wouldn't give her name or any details, and police weren't immediately available to confirm the report.
Mayor Liu Qi ordered Internet cafes in Beijing to close while the city draws up new regulations, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Cafes that can't meet safety and other standards will be shut down and their property confiscated, Liu was quoted as saying.
Those that meet the standards will have to reapply for licenses, although the mayor added that he did not want to encourage an increase in the number of cyber cafes, which are immensely popular in this city of 12 million.
Xinhua said just 200 of Beijing's 2,400 Internet cafes are properly licensed. Many are typically smoky and crowded, located in converted residential buildings or other spaces not necessarily equipped to handle large numbers of customers.
The fire at the 24-hour Lanjisu Cyber Cafe in the lively Haidian university district broke out early Sunday, when most of the customers were students taking advantage of lower Internet access rates.
Neighbors said they were awakened by screams for help.
A survivor, who was identified only by the surname Li, told the state-run newspaper Beijing Times that there were about 30 customers at the cafe, which could seat 100.
"It was around 3 a.m. when I smelled GASOLINE and saw thick smoke coming up from the bottom of the stairs," said Li, who went to the cafe with about 10 other students from Beijing Technology University.
"I told a cafe employee who went downstairs to check. He yelled that there was a fire and we all tried to escape," Li said.
Li said the fire had blocked the stairs and people began yelling for help through the windows, which were covered by iron grills. Neighbors managed to unscrew one grill and Li said he escaped with about seven other people.
Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach versus the record labels. Guess, Milberg, et al ran out of high-tech companies to sue. Tough call - any way they can both lose?
I'd actually rather see a change in the way the U.S. handles civil litigation.
Loser pays - in civil litigation the party with deep pockets can either intimidate or bankrupt it's opponents. This stacks the deck and leads to abuses that are chronicled weekly on Slashdot. Changing the law to require the loser to pay all legal (of both sides) and court costs would level the playing field and elminate much of what is essentially legal extortion.
Penalties for frivilous law-suits - in the U.S. you can sue just about anyone for anything. Some of the frivilous law suits that are initiated in the U.S. would be a crime in other countries (i.e. Britain). A lawyer who knowingly undertakes a frivilous lawsuit is wasting the time of the courts - and should face penalties (such as fines, or even disbarment).
None of this would eliminate stupid patents or bad laws (like the DMCA) - but it would make it significantly harder to use these abusively.
Here's what Bruce Schneier has to say about the subject. On the one hand, Linux code is open and available to the bad guys. On the other, it gets a great deal of peer review (often while still in alpha / beta). Schneier's thesis is that in general expert peer review trumps "security by obscurity". Empirical evidence tends to bear this out.
All the inhabitants of the earth would be brought into one intellectual neighborhood.
... the instantaneous highway of thought between Old and New Worlds.
"We are one!" said the nations, and hand met hand, in a thrill electric from land to land.
The above quotes are of course referring to the worldwide deployment of the telegraph in the nineteenth century. (See The Victorian Internet by Thomas Standage). Many writers of the day viewed the telegraph, radio, television, and even the airplace (e.g. H. G. Wells) as technology that would usher in a utopian age. In many ways, the predictions echo those about the Internet, including many postings here on Slashdot. And they were all equally wrong. It's important to remember technology is a tool - just like a hammer. You can build a house with a hammer, or you can whack someone on the head with it. Technology cannot create a new utopia - that is up to the people of this planet. At the moment, the probability seems quite low...
Years ago, I worked for a large telecommunications company (who'll remain nameless, we'll call it 'T'). The particular location I was in, housed an R&D branch, and a large plant located in the back of the building. We had ordered a piece of equipment that 'T' manufactured. In fact, they made it in the plant in the back. They had finished building our equipment (a switch) in the plant, and were ready to deliver it to us. Rather than doing the sensible thing (i.e. rolled through the hall to us), they were required (by the plant's union) to deliver it by truck. This meant that it would be put aboard a truck on one end of the plant, driven around the building to the receiving dock, where they would take it off the truck, and then roll it through the halls to us. To make a long story short, in the process of shipping the switch, they lost it! We ended up with another switch (same shipping procedure) a few weeks later.
As Bruce Schneier has continually pointed out copy protection doesn't work. At some point, the information has to be presented to the user in decrypted form. At that point, it can be copied.
Therefore, allow me to present three proposals that will not prevent copying, but will make it difficult:
Encypted media - encrypt the media (music, video, etc.) using strong encryption. Do not provide a decryption key in the device. Thus, it will be very difficult for pirates to access the content. A minor side effect is that it will be equally difficult for consumers to access the content. I suspect that this will not present a problem to the entertainment industry. An added benefit, is that it will supply interesting challenges to the folks at Distributed.Net.
Switch back to analog - CD's and DVD's are digital and thus perfect copies can be made. The industry can simply switch back to VHS tapes and vinyl records. As a bonus, their marketing departments can cite the advantages of the new analog formats and they can charge higher prices for it.
Mandatory brain implants - the music must be decrypted before it reaches the consumers ears. Similarly, the video must be decrypted before reaching the users eyes. Turn this problem into an opportunity. With mandatory DRM devices implanted into the consumers brain, the entertainment industry can reach new heights of efficiency, productivity, and profit. Just think, if music is playing in a room, only the consumer that is licensed to hear it, will be able to hear it. Other consumers in the room will hear nothing at all. Of course, this solution will require international cooperation - so that eventually, everyone in the world must have a DRM device implanted in their brain. But an industry that created worldwide DVD regions is surely up to this task.
A computer user purchases a stack of blank CD's. She then uses them to periodically back up files on her PC. She use's about several CD's (with compression) each time she does a complete back-up and one CD for incremental back-ups. None of the files contain music. A portion of the cost of each CD she purchases is given to the record labels. I call that stealing.
Just wait for it to get out of committee and have Hollings tack on an amendment that looks amazingly like the CBDTPA. Senator Leahy killed the CBDTPA by refusing to let it out of committee. Hollings could have had a change of heart, and suddenly become interested in individual privacy rights - but I wouldn't bet that way.
William Tyndale of England was executed for translating the bible into English and printing it for the common people. The clergy of the time were somewhat reluctant to give up their control over access to bible.
Core memory is still used in some military applications -- some of the computers I worked on last year had it. Actually works pretty well -- never had a problem with it. But sometimes the programs would get to where they had to be unloaded and the memory had to be cleared and reloaded. It didn't help then, and I'm sure this memory would have the same problem.
Makes sense for military apps - I imagine it would be quite resistant to EMP.
Back at the dawn of time, I was programming a (Data General) Nova II mini-computer which had "core" memory (which is where the term "core dump" comes from). Core consisted of tiny doughnut (ummm doughnuts) shaped magnets with (read/write) wires through it. It was incredibly slow by today's standards, but it did retain memory even when powered down. I'd shut the machine down at the end of the day. The next morning, I'd turn it on, and immediately pick up where I left off.
I really want to know how much bogus mail gets delivered to 22B Baker Street, in every major metropolitan area. All of my friends use it, and I'm sure web spiders find it too.
In London, that would be the address of a branch of Abbey National Bank (though there is a brass plaque on the outside wall with an engraving depicting a fictional detective).
IBM has a Virtual Machine OS, that allows you to run multiple OS's on a mainframe. You can run Linux (or even multiple instances of Linux) and still run your legacy apps under OS/390.
Alas, GobeProductive (like the name) is destined to be a niche product. I read the review and looked at the Web site - it looked good - nice design. However, Microsoft maintains it's lock on the (Office) market, not with it's UI, certainly not with it's licensing terms, but with it's file formats. You need to exchange a document, spreadsheet, etc. with another person. Odds are about 99%, that the other person uses MS Office. If an Office Suite doesn't offer 100% compatibilitity with Microsoft's formats (which is pretty difficult - since MS deliberately doesn't publish them) - then you're out of luck. The review doesn't mention compatibility, but Gobe's Web site does - it has limited compatibility with Word and Excel. Unfortunately, that's really not sufficient. Sun (StarOffice) already figured this out. I hope Gobe realizes it too.
1) Drive to local store and buy PC game. 2) Install game on PC, enter 157 digit serial code on back of jewel case. 3) (With great anticipation) Start up game - locks up. 4) Reboot, connect to game Web site, download patchs 1 - 5. 5) Install patches 1 - 5 6) (With anticipation) Start-up game - locks up. 7) Go to M$ site, and download latest version of DirectX 8) Install latest version of DirectX 9) Reboot 10) (With resignation) Start-up game - locks up. 11) Go to Video card manufacturer Web site - download updates to video card driver. 12) Install updates to video driver. 13) Reboot 14) (With great resignation) Start-up game - locks up. 15) Go out to "Gaming" Web site - look through FAQ's, message boards 16) Tweak video card configuration settings 17) Reboot 18) (With fear and loathing) Start up game - it runs!
I recall reading an article about Winston Groom - the author of Forest Gump. He had cut a deal with the studio for a percentage of the profit from the movie. The movie generated revenue of over $600 million, but according to the studio, did not make a profit. So, when Valenti states that only 2 out of 10 movies generate a profit that's probably true. Hollywood's accountants may well be the most creative people in the entertainment industry.
I just mailed Boucher a letter of support, and a campaign contribution. And no, I'm not a VA resident. He and Leahy are about the only members of congress that seem to understand technology related issues.
Slashdot Mirror
Using a different conversion I get:
(Assuming 50 Kg converted to energy)
Conversion factors & Constants
1 joule = 10000000 erg
C = 3 x 10^10 cm/sec
1 megaton-tnt = 4.18 x 10^15 joules
E = mc^2
E = 5x10^4 g * (3 x 10^10 cm/sec)^2
E = 5x10^4 * 9 * 10^20 ergs
E = 4.5 * 10^25 ergs
E = 4.5 * 10^18 joules
E = 1077 megatons-tnt !!!
Fritz wants to put all sorts of DRM stuff into my PC to safeguard the intellectual property of the RIAA / MPAA crowd. The unspoken assumption is that I want to use my PC as a home entertainment system.
Might I suggest a solution that will satisfy all sides. Produce an external device that connects to my PC (perhaps via Firewire, ethernet, etc.). It will contain the appropriate CODEC's, DRM hardware, keys, etc. Consumers could purchase and download encrypted media with their unmodified PC's and then transfer it to the external box. The box would handle all rights management and would have outputs that only connect to special DRM approved displays, speakers, etc. The box could be built to be tamper resistant (special screws, thermite charges, whatever).
Viola - the media giants, get what they want. Consumers can purchase the device and then purchase and download films and music. And I can ignore the whole thing and use my PC as a PC.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP-Asia):
Beijing Orders Internet Cafes Closed
Monday, June 17, 2002
Last updated at 2:06:53 AM PT
By AUDRA ANG
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BEIJING -- Beijing has ordered its 2,400 Internet cafes to close for safety inspections after a fire that killed 24 people in the Chinese capital's university district, state media said Monday.
The owner of the cafe where the fatal fire broke out before dawn Sunday has surrendered to police, said a woman who answered the phone at the district administration office. She wouldn't give her name or any details, and police weren't immediately available to confirm the report.
Mayor Liu Qi ordered Internet cafes in Beijing to close while the city draws up new regulations, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Cafes that can't meet safety and other standards will be shut down and their property confiscated, Liu was quoted as saying.
Those that meet the standards will have to reapply for licenses, although the mayor added that he did not want to encourage an increase in the number of cyber cafes, which are immensely popular in this city of 12 million.
Xinhua said just 200 of Beijing's 2,400 Internet cafes are properly licensed. Many are typically smoky and crowded, located in converted residential buildings or other spaces not necessarily equipped to handle large numbers of customers.
The fire at the 24-hour Lanjisu Cyber Cafe in the lively Haidian university district broke out early Sunday, when most of the customers were students taking advantage of lower Internet access rates.
Neighbors said they were awakened by screams for help.
A survivor, who was identified only by the surname Li, told the state-run newspaper Beijing Times that there were about 30 customers at the cafe, which could seat 100.
"It was around 3 a.m. when I smelled GASOLINE and saw thick smoke coming up from the bottom of the stairs," said Li, who went to the cafe with about 10 other students from Beijing Technology University.
"I told a cafe employee who went downstairs to check. He yelled that there was a fire and we all tried to escape," Li said.
Li said the fire had blocked the stairs and people began yelling for help through the windows, which were covered by iron grills. Neighbors managed to unscrew one grill and Li said he escaped with about seven other people.
...
Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach versus the record labels. Guess, Milberg, et al ran out of high-tech companies to sue. Tough call - any way they can both lose?
None of this would eliminate stupid patents or bad laws (like the DMCA) - but it would make it significantly harder to use these abusively.
Here's what Bruce Schneier has to say about the subject. On the one hand, Linux code is open and available to the bad guys. On the other, it gets a great deal of peer review (often while still in alpha / beta). Schneier's thesis is that in general expert peer review trumps "security by obscurity". Empirical evidence tends to bear this out.
All the inhabitants of the earth would be brought into one intellectual neighborhood.
... the instantaneous highway of thought between Old and New Worlds.
...
"We are one!" said the nations, and hand met hand, in a thrill electric from land to land.
The above quotes are of course referring to the worldwide deployment of the telegraph in the nineteenth century. (See The Victorian Internet by Thomas Standage). Many writers of the day viewed the telegraph, radio, television, and even the airplace (e.g. H. G. Wells) as technology that would usher in a utopian age. In many ways, the predictions echo those about the Internet, including many postings here on Slashdot. And they were all equally wrong. It's important to remember technology is a tool - just like a hammer. You can build a house with a hammer, or you can whack someone on the head with it. Technology cannot create a new utopia - that is up to the people of this planet. At the moment, the probability seems quite low
Years ago, I worked for a large telecommunications company (who'll remain nameless, we'll call it 'T'). The particular location I was in, housed an R&D branch, and a large plant located in the back of the building. We had ordered a piece of equipment that 'T' manufactured. In fact, they made it in the plant in the back. They had finished building our equipment (a switch) in the plant, and were ready to deliver it to us. Rather than doing the sensible thing (i.e. rolled through the hall to us), they were required (by the plant's union) to deliver it by truck. This meant that it would be put aboard a truck on one end of the plant, driven around the building to the receiving dock, where they would take it off the truck, and then roll it through the halls to us. To make a long story short, in the process of shipping the switch, they lost it! We ended up with another switch (same shipping procedure) a few weeks later.
Therefore, allow me to present three proposals that will not prevent copying, but will make it difficult:
Hope the above list of suggestions helps.
A computer user purchases a stack of blank CD's. She then uses them to periodically back up files on her PC. She use's about several CD's (with compression) each time she does a complete back-up and one CD for incremental back-ups. None of the files contain music. A portion of the cost of each CD she purchases is given to the record labels. I call that stealing.
Just wait for it to get out of committee and have Hollings tack on an amendment that looks amazingly like the CBDTPA. Senator Leahy killed the CBDTPA by refusing to let it out of committee. Hollings could have had a change of heart, and suddenly become interested in individual privacy rights - but I wouldn't bet that way.
William Tyndale of England was executed for translating the bible into English and printing it for the common people. The clergy of the time were somewhat reluctant to give up their control over access to bible.
Core memory is still used in some military applications -- some of the computers I worked on last year had it. Actually works pretty well -- never had a problem with it. But sometimes the programs would get to where they had to be unloaded and the memory had to be cleared and reloaded. It didn't help then, and I'm sure this memory would have the same problem.
Makes sense for military apps - I imagine it would be quite resistant to EMP.
Back at the dawn of time, I was programming a (Data General) Nova II mini-computer which had "core" memory (which is where the term "core dump" comes from). Core consisted of tiny doughnut (ummm doughnuts) shaped magnets with (read/write) wires through it. It was incredibly slow by today's standards, but it did retain memory even when powered down. I'd shut the machine down at the end of the day. The next morning, I'd turn it on, and immediately pick up where I left off.
I really want to know how much bogus mail gets delivered to 22B Baker Street, in every major metropolitan area. All of my friends use it, and I'm sure web spiders find it too.
In London, that would be the address of a branch of Abbey National Bank (though there is a brass plaque on the outside wall with an engraving depicting a fictional detective).
And he'll no doubt travel into the future where he'll find a utopia based on the principles of Be excellent to each other and Party on dudes!.
$78 million PLUS the cost of the cat and the monocle.
IBM has a Virtual Machine OS, that allows you to run multiple OS's on a mainframe. You can run Linux (or even multiple instances of Linux) and still run your legacy apps under OS/390.
Alas, GobeProductive (like the name) is destined to be a niche product. I read the review and looked at the Web site - it looked good - nice design. However, Microsoft maintains it's lock on the (Office) market, not with it's UI, certainly not with it's licensing terms, but with it's file formats. You need to exchange a document, spreadsheet, etc. with another person. Odds are about 99%, that the other person uses MS Office. If an Office Suite doesn't offer 100% compatibilitity with Microsoft's formats (which is pretty difficult - since MS deliberately doesn't publish them) - then you're out of luck.
The review doesn't mention compatibility, but Gobe's Web site does - it has limited compatibility with Word and Excel. Unfortunately, that's really not sufficient. Sun (StarOffice) already figured this out. I hope Gobe realizes it too.
Tech boom - right! That must be why I got laid-off last week, along with about 500 other folks in my company.
So, if ICANN becomes a totalitarian government, does that make them the fourth member of the Axis of Evil?
Anyone notice this in the description of TV-OUT:
Integrated Macro Vision 7.01.
1) Drive to local store and buy PC game.
2) Install game on PC, enter 157 digit serial code on back of jewel case.
3) (With great anticipation) Start up game - locks up.
4) Reboot, connect to game Web site, download patchs 1 - 5.
5) Install patches 1 - 5
6) (With anticipation) Start-up game - locks up.
7) Go to M$ site, and download latest version of DirectX
8) Install latest version of DirectX
9) Reboot
10) (With resignation) Start-up game - locks up.
11) Go to Video card manufacturer Web site - download updates to video card driver.
12) Install updates to video driver.
13) Reboot
14) (With great resignation) Start-up game - locks up.
15) Go out to "Gaming" Web site - look through FAQ's, message boards
16) Tweak video card configuration settings
17) Reboot
18) (With fear and loathing) Start up game - it runs!
Compared to this "Painstation" is for WIMPS!!
I recall reading an article about Winston Groom - the author of Forest Gump. He had cut a deal with the studio for a percentage of the profit from the movie. The movie generated revenue of over $600 million, but according to the studio, did not make a profit. So, when Valenti states that only 2 out of 10 movies generate a profit that's probably true. Hollywood's accountants may well be the most creative people in the entertainment industry.
I just mailed Boucher a letter of support, and a campaign contribution. And no, I'm not a VA resident. He and Leahy are about the only members of congress that seem to understand technology related issues.