The details of how an SDMI player could ever stop playing MP3s is very vague -- how would they ever be able to communicate with and get their "stop working" message to a CD-ROM player? For anything that uses a open interface for storage (ISO CD-ROMs, or Flash RAM that is writable using non-MS/Apple OSes) it's impossible.
The answer could be in watermarking. If they can get inaudible or low-key watermarks in audio which can be detected in the MP3 stream and are difficult to remove, they can surely embed a code in the watermark.
More probably, the magic bullet will be fired when there is a new "signed" audio standard; perhaps an additional copyright/license chunk. Encoders will write the chunk, embedding user info, date/time and the like. After a specified date, the RIAA could require all encoders (and you can bet that anything capable of writing such a chunk won't be open-source) to put in the kill code.
Or they could simply require players to fuse a "no unprotected MP3" switch after a specified date, or after a file with an encoding time after a specified date is loaded. It doesn't have to be transmitted from RIAA Headquarters in realtime.
There were noises a while ago about BMG (one of the big 4 record companies, with a record of ruthlessness; people who've had dealings with them often call them the Big Mean German) deciding whom to buy next, now that their acquisition of EMI has been thwarted. One of the options raised was a "lateral move", buying MP3.com.
Could it be that this lawsuit may be just as much calculated to reduce MP3.com's stock price, allowing them to be snapped up more easily? Given that they are the public face of unprotected "pirate" technology such as MP3s, a BMG acquisition would no doubt neutralise this, turning them into another tool of big-4 oligopoly. Beam-It could well go ahead, only with more Orwellian tracking and security, and everything would be phased over to a SDMI-based system that runs only on Windows and gives the middlemen control.
Do you know how many hardware mp3 players there are in production today? Do you know how many WILL be in production? At comdex in Fall 1999, there were TONS of mp3 player manufacturers peddling their wares.
And most of these are committed to SDMI compliance. Which means that the RIAA fires a magic bullet and all your MP3s are gone. (They haven't finalised that, but they intend to.)
Once SDMI is on the market, you can bet they will aggressively sue anybody who peddles anything that does not comply. A company will no more be able to make a non-compliant audio player (like the old Rios) than they will be able to make and distribute a non-zoned DVD player.
Phase 1 SDMI is nothing, and I'm not planning to ever download an SDMI Phase 2 file to trigger Phase 2 protections,
Is anybody planning to download one? I don't think there'll be a nice "download trigger" option (like those "UPLOAD VIRUS" buttons in bad computer movies of yore). Chances are, the trigger will be encoded in commercial sound files you buy over the Net. (Removing it will, of course, not be an option.) If you make your own sound files, chances are the SDMI-compliant encoder software will be obliged to put in the trigger after a certain date.
If you use sound files made after a certain date, chances are you will download the trigger.
Which burners degrade sound? I want to know so that I may avoid them like the plague.
I compose music, and wish to make CDs. I have an old track-at-once CD-R writer, though would want to buy a disc-at-once unit at some stage. Since I intend to use it for recording music of my own composition (and on which I own the copyright, not the Big 4 or the RIAA, damnit), I will be royally pissed off if I am prevented from doing this by those thieving corporate dogfsckers who purport to own all digitally encoded sound.
There will never be Linux support, on principle. Everybody knows that Linux is a virtual Mos Eisley of pirates who have no appreciation of intellectual property, and who by supporting efforts such as DeCSS, have declared war on civilised commerce.
Besides, with Linux you can compile your own kernels, which makes hardware level security really difficult (unless such copware runs as root and preferably patches the kernel, which binary-only software cannot legally do). As such, companies aren't exactly hurrying to port their precious players/decryptors onto a platform where they may be easily reverse-engineered.
(Aside: Chances are that in a few years' time, a licence will be required to legally possess ICE debuggers, akin to locksmithing licences. The comments of the judge in the DeCSS case seem to suggest that in the New World Order, "encryption research" is legally only for approved parties.)
Non-SDMI players will go the way of the dinosaurs soon; once SDMI is finalised, making players which do not implement strict controls will be just asking to be sued into oblivion.
Buy your Rios now while they still play MP3s.
P.S. If you want a DVD-ROM that ignores zone protection, look around for secondhand ones, because all recently manufactured units are obliged to enforce the CCA's rules.
I suspect that the purpose of that law wasn't so much to register users of cryptography, but to provide a law which said users are virtually guaranteed to have broken, and thus allow for the arrest of people they can't prove to have leaked "state secrets" (a term which includes virtually anything the government wants it to).
Of course, it'll only be used to round up the bad people. And those who get on the wrong side of The Powers That Be.
Canada, AFAIK, is part of the international signals intelligence cartel that spawned Echelon. In fact, I recall reading that the British use Canadian spooks to spy on their local dissidents.
because cannabis will be extinct in a few decades time. The U.S. Government is investing billions of dollars in research into biological agents (genetically engineered fungi, viruses and the like) to wipe out drug crops such as cannabis, coca and opium. Once these are developed, it is only a matter of time before said species are wiped out worldwide. (It would not take much effort for a DEA operative to procure a light plane and drop a few spores over most foreign countries.)
A disproportionately high number of high school dropouts and criminals do use drugs.
Well, technically, the 100% of drug users (excluding drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, &c) are criminals (though, in this imperfect world, only a fraction have been convicted as such), which makes the second part of this statement meaningless.
(Before you flame me for saying that the WoD is a good thing, please read what I'm actually saying in this post.)
One of the main reasons the War on Drugs will not end anytime soon is because it creates the conditions that justify it. Drugs are criminalised, which, by driving the price up and already labelling users as criminals, makes users more likely to commit property crimes to buy drugs; since dealing is illegal, drug distribution is handed over to organised crime, which can afford to protect its networks. This leads to an increase in crime, and an increase in demand for action against crime. Furthermore, the increase in incarceration due to anti-drug laws swells the prison population (already extremely high in the U.S., and growing) and creates industries dependent on anti-drug laws, which oppose any liberalisation and push for tougher laws. (In California, for example, the prison warders' union has emerged as an influential lobby group.)
It is because of these factors that the War on Drugs will not end anytime soon. In fact, it could very well last as long as the United States of America exists in any recognisable form.
I must agree with you here. Jeff Noon's writing has a lyrical quality reminiscent of Gibson at his finest, and manages to mix ultra-gritty realism with amazing flights of fancy, and make it all credible. (One particularly apt word I've seen used to describe Noon's writings is kaleidopunk.)
In particular, Vurt and the Pixel Juice story compilation are essential reading. Though they're definitely not hard sci-fi.
Back in 1992, I did a philosophy subject (Metaphysics) at university. We were handed a booklet of photocopied essays and writings. One of these (which we covered in the "nature of identity" part of the course) was Gibson's The Winter Market.
There were also two stories about time travel -- one by Bradbury and one by Heinlein -- showing the wrong and right way to cover such a concept.
I beg to differ. Of his mainstream fiction I've read The Wasp Factory and Walking On Glass, both of which I have found excellent -- gripping, entertaining and impeccably crafted. I've read one of his scifi books, Consider Phlebas, and while the scenery and concepts were impressive (the megaships, for example), the story itself seemed too much the standard space opera to be very interesting.
You definitely want to impliment the digital-audio portion of your digital-audio application in C or C++, but why can't the UI be in Python or Perl or Guile?
Because it's easier to implement it in C++ rather than gluing two languages together. And the application is not really an end-user product that will benefit from being scriptable.
Given that Johansen is accused of a crime against US laws (not Norwegian laws), it is possible that he will be tried in a US court. Will the Norwegian government pay for a lawyer? And will a state-funded lawyer stand any chance against the sort of star team that the MPAA could assemble with petty cash?
I meant in terms of performance. If one is writing, say, a digital audio application, one needs to use C/C++.
As for Gtk's other language bindings, they tend to lag behind the C. You can, for example, pretend that Gtk is a C++ class library, but if you do any deep delving, or defining of widgets, you need to start doing pseudo-OO in C, which is always an ugly job.
C++ is a hideous language, but at least it can do OO and some neat abstractions without burdening the programmer with the details. In a sense, it's not so much a language as a code-generation tool. And STL rocks.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know about you, but if I was to go to a nightclub I'd rather the gender ratios didn't resemble those of slashdot.
What about the spinning-compass easter egg Netscape showed when pointed at jwz's page? Should be nicely obscure.
Given jwz's goth/industrial/angstcore leanings musicwise, a bat may be a good icon.
The details of how an SDMI player could ever stop playing MP3s is very vague -- how would they ever be able to communicate with and get their "stop working" message to a CD-ROM player? For anything that uses a open interface for storage (ISO CD-ROMs, or Flash RAM that is writable using non-MS/Apple OSes) it's impossible.
The answer could be in watermarking. If they can get inaudible or low-key watermarks in audio which can be detected in the MP3 stream and are difficult to remove, they can surely embed a code in the watermark.
More probably, the magic bullet will be fired when there is a new "signed" audio standard; perhaps an additional copyright/license chunk. Encoders will write the chunk, embedding user info, date/time and the like. After a specified date, the RIAA could require all encoders (and you can bet that anything capable of writing such a chunk won't be open-source) to put in the kill code.
Or they could simply require players to fuse a "no unprotected MP3" switch after a specified date, or after a file with an encoding time after a specified date is loaded. It doesn't have to be transmitted from RIAA Headquarters in realtime.
There were noises a while ago about BMG (one of the big 4 record companies, with a record of ruthlessness; people who've had dealings with them often call them the Big Mean German) deciding whom to buy next, now that their acquisition of EMI has been thwarted. One of the options raised was a "lateral move", buying MP3.com.
Could it be that this lawsuit may be just as much calculated to reduce MP3.com's stock price, allowing them to be snapped up more easily? Given that they are the public face of unprotected "pirate" technology such as MP3s, a BMG acquisition would no doubt neutralise this, turning them into another tool of big-4 oligopoly. Beam-It could well go ahead, only with more Orwellian tracking and security, and everything would be phased over to a SDMI-based system that runs only on Windows and gives the middlemen control.
Do you know how many
hardware mp3 players there are in production today? Do you know how many WILL be
in production? At comdex in Fall 1999, there were TONS of mp3 player manufacturers
peddling their wares.
And most of these are committed to SDMI compliance. Which means that the RIAA fires a magic bullet and all your MP3s are gone. (They haven't finalised that, but they intend to.)
Once SDMI is on the market, you can bet they will aggressively sue anybody who peddles anything that does not comply. A company will no more be able to make a non-compliant audio player (like the old Rios) than they will be able to make and distribute a non-zoned DVD player.
One would have to be careful, or else have a good lawyer on retainer, as LinuxOne would be obliged to sue to maintain any shred of credibility.
Yes, if it were truthful they'd probably lose. Though in any case it'd still cost the defendant considerable time and money to fight the lawsuit.
Phase 1 SDMI is nothing, and I'm not planning to ever download an SDMI Phase 2 file to trigger Phase 2 protections,
Is anybody planning to download one? I don't think there'll be a nice "download trigger" option (like those "UPLOAD VIRUS" buttons in bad computer movies of yore). Chances are, the trigger will be encoded in commercial sound files you buy over the Net. (Removing it will, of course, not be an option.) If you make your own sound files, chances are the SDMI-compliant encoder software will be obliged to put in the trigger after a certain date.
If you use sound files made after a certain date, chances are you will download the trigger.
Which burners degrade sound? I want to know so that I may avoid them like the plague.
I compose music, and wish to make CDs. I have an old track-at-once CD-R writer, though would want to buy a disc-at-once unit at some stage. Since I intend to use it for recording music of my own composition (and on which I own the copyright, not the Big 4 or the RIAA, damnit), I will be royally pissed off if I am prevented from doing this by those thieving corporate dogfsckers who purport to own all digitally encoded sound.
There will never be Linux support, on principle.
Everybody knows that Linux is a virtual Mos Eisley of pirates who have no appreciation of intellectual property, and who by supporting efforts such as DeCSS, have declared war on civilised commerce.
Besides, with Linux you can compile your own kernels, which makes hardware level security really difficult (unless such copware runs as root and preferably patches the kernel, which binary-only software cannot legally do). As such, companies aren't exactly hurrying to port their precious players/decryptors onto a platform where they may be easily reverse-engineered.
(Aside: Chances are that in a few years' time, a licence will be required to legally possess ICE debuggers, akin to locksmithing licences. The comments of the judge in the DeCSS case seem to suggest that in the New World Order, "encryption research" is legally only for approved parties.)
Non-SDMI players will go the way of the dinosaurs soon; once SDMI is finalised, making players which do not implement strict controls will be just asking to be sued into oblivion.
Buy your Rios now while they still play MP3s.
P.S. If you want a DVD-ROM that ignores zone protection, look around for secondhand ones, because all recently manufactured units are obliged to enforce the CCA's rules.
("watch hot Linuxxx babez code naked!")
Or failing that, watch hot Poser-generated babez overclock naked.
Oh, the rampaging hormones...
I suspect that the purpose of that law wasn't so much to register users of cryptography, but to provide a law which said users are virtually guaranteed to have broken, and thus allow for the arrest of people they can't prove to have leaked "state secrets" (a term which includes virtually anything the government wants it to).
Of course, it'll only be used to round up the bad people. And those who get on the wrong side of The Powers That Be.
Canada, AFAIK, is part of the international signals intelligence cartel that spawned Echelon. In fact, I recall reading that the British use Canadian spooks to spy on their local dissidents.
because cannabis will be extinct in a few decades time. The U.S. Government is investing billions of dollars in research into biological agents (genetically engineered fungi, viruses and the like) to wipe out drug crops such as cannabis, coca and opium. Once these are developed, it is only a matter of time before said species are wiped out worldwide. (It would not take much effort for a DEA operative to procure a light plane and drop a few spores over most foreign countries.)
A disproportionately high number of high school dropouts and criminals do use drugs.
Well, technically, the 100% of drug users (excluding drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, &c) are criminals (though, in this imperfect world, only a fraction have been convicted as such), which makes the second part of this statement meaningless.
(Before you flame me for saying that the WoD is a good thing, please read what I'm actually saying in this post.)
One of the main reasons the War on Drugs will not end anytime soon is because it creates the conditions that justify it. Drugs are criminalised, which, by driving the price up and already labelling users as criminals, makes users more likely to commit property crimes to buy drugs; since dealing is illegal, drug distribution is handed over to organised crime, which can afford to protect its networks. This leads to an increase in crime, and an increase in demand for action against crime. Furthermore, the increase in incarceration due to anti-drug laws swells the prison population (already extremely high in the U.S., and growing) and creates industries dependent on anti-drug laws, which oppose any liberalisation and push for tougher laws. (In California, for example, the prison warders' union has emerged as an influential lobby group.)
It is because of these factors that the War on Drugs will not end anytime soon. In fact, it could very well last as long as the United States of America exists in any recognisable form.
I must agree with you here. Jeff Noon's writing has a lyrical quality reminiscent of Gibson at his finest, and manages to mix ultra-gritty realism with amazing flights of fancy, and make it all credible. (One particularly apt word I've seen used to describe Noon's writings is kaleidopunk.)
In particular, Vurt and the Pixel Juice story compilation are essential reading.
Though they're definitely not hard sci-fi.
Back in 1992, I did a philosophy subject (Metaphysics) at university. We were handed a booklet of photocopied essays and writings. One of these (which we covered in the "nature of identity" part of the course) was Gibson's The Winter Market.
There were also two stories about time travel -- one by Bradbury and one by Heinlein -- showing the wrong and right way to cover such a concept.
I beg to differ. Of his mainstream fiction I've read The Wasp Factory and Walking On Glass, both of which I have found excellent -- gripping, entertaining and impeccably crafted. I've read one of his scifi books, Consider Phlebas, and while the scenery and concepts were impressive (the megaships, for example), the story itself seemed too much the standard space opera to be very interesting.
Maybe LinuxOne will be providing their Linux implementation? They have a good buzzword-compliance record.
Or they could always go with Harrix; it'd make a smashing OS for a purely theoretical product.
You definitely want to impliment the digital-audio portion of your digital-audio
application in C or C++, but why can't the UI be in Python or Perl or Guile?
Because it's easier to implement it in C++ rather than gluing two languages together. And the application is not really an end-user product that will benefit from being scriptable.
"Mr. President, sir! The Chinese have painted the moon red."
"Well don't just stand there. Send someone up with some white paint and put up the Coca-Cola logo."
Given that Johansen is accused of a crime against US laws (not Norwegian laws), it is possible that he will be tried in a US court. Will the Norwegian government pay for a lawyer? And will a state-funded lawyer stand any chance against the sort of star team that the MPAA could assemble with petty cash?
I meant in terms of performance. If one is writing, say, a digital audio application, one needs to use C/C++.
As for Gtk's other language bindings, they tend to lag behind the C. You can, for example, pretend that Gtk is a C++ class library, but if you do any deep delving, or defining of widgets, you need to start doing pseudo-OO in C, which is always an ugly job.
C++ is a hideous language, but at least it can do OO and some neat abstractions without burdening the programmer with the details. In a sense, it's not so much a language as a code-generation tool. And STL rocks.