I think you're confusing Diamond's interests with the RIAA's. The RIAA wants to crush MP3. Diamond wants to make money from selling the Rio. If they stop playing MP3's, people will stop buying them, as most people have their music in MP3 format. Also, an MP3 is not "illegally copied SDMI music". It is not SDMI music, period, and thusly, is not affected by the transition from Phase I to Phase II. I mean, Diamond could program their Rios to stop playing MP3s when/if you upgrade to SDMI Phase II software, but why would they? That would destroy the demand for the product. Further, there is no Phase III or IV of SDMI. Phase II is simply when the anti-pirating stuff kicks in.
I agree with you -- SDMI is bad, but it's looking to be pretty much harmless. People aren't just going to up and stop using MP3s, and companies that refuse to support it are losing their market. SDMI is an overrushed, ill-concieved attack by the music industry on something that is tearing away their monopolistic stranglehold on the music market. It is doomed to failure.
Ok. How about "The only content SDMI-compliant devices will not play is illegally copied SDMI music beginning in Phase 2." It's answer 7, paragraph 1, sentence 2. Don't misunderstand; I dislike SDMI as well. I find it outrageous to be expected to pay $15 for a product that costs under a dollar to press and package. It's doubly offensive when you consider how little of that profit margin actually goes back to the artist -- most of it stays firmly in the hands of the artist's label. MP3's are a huge threat to this style of extortion. Diamond's not so dumb as to totally pass up this market by disabling the very feature that the product was built around in the first place.
Your take is in error. In ~18 months, Phase 2 of SDMI will begin, and your [insert PMP here] will stop playing any SDMI-secured files that have not been legitimately distributed. All your favorite old MP3's will still work just fine. You might want to check out the SDMI FAQ for more information.
There appears to be a large number of misconceptions here regarding the nature of SDMI and the ramifications of the Rio supporting it. Wah's take in particular is in error. In ~18 months, SDMI's "Phase 2" will begin. After this point, SDMI-compliant players will no longer play copied SDMI-secured audio. There's nothing to stop it from still playing all your favorite MP3's, illegally obtained or not.
Don't misunderstand, it's not good that Diamond supports SDMI with the Rio. By doing so, they help to create a market for SDMI, and thus legitimize it. I'm sure they also paid in quite a bit of money to the RIAA to support SDMI. However, SDMI doesn't mean squat if you don't use it. Even if the only format you can find a particular piece of music in is SDMI-secured, there's nothing stopping you from converting it to MP3.
Badmouthing M$ for their software is perfectly valid. While you may personally find most of their software excellent, do keep in mind that other people may look for other qualities in software than you do, and that there are plenty of arenas in which non-M$ software absolutely wins out over M$ code.
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I think you're confusing Diamond's interests with the RIAA's. The RIAA wants to crush MP3. Diamond wants to make money from selling the Rio. If they stop playing MP3's, people will stop buying them, as most people have their music in MP3 format. Also, an MP3 is not "illegally copied SDMI music". It is not SDMI music, period, and thusly, is not affected by the transition from Phase I to Phase II. I mean, Diamond could program their Rios to stop playing MP3s when/if you upgrade to SDMI Phase II software, but why would they? That would destroy the demand for the product. Further, there is no Phase III or IV of SDMI. Phase II is simply when the anti-pirating stuff kicks in.
I agree with you -- SDMI is bad, but it's looking to be pretty much harmless. People aren't just going to up and stop using MP3s, and companies that refuse to support it are losing their market. SDMI is an overrushed, ill-concieved attack by the music industry on something that is tearing away their monopolistic stranglehold on the music market. It is doomed to failure.
Ok. How about "The only content SDMI-compliant devices will not play is illegally
copied SDMI music beginning in Phase 2." It's answer 7, paragraph 1, sentence 2. Don't misunderstand; I dislike SDMI as well. I find it outrageous to be expected to pay $15 for a product that costs under a dollar to press and package. It's doubly offensive when you consider how little of that profit margin actually goes back to the artist -- most of it stays firmly in the hands of the artist's label. MP3's are a huge threat to this style of extortion. Diamond's not so dumb as to totally pass up this market by disabling the very feature that the product was built around in the first place.
Your take is in error. In ~18 months, Phase 2 of SDMI will begin, and your [insert PMP here] will stop playing any SDMI-secured files that have not been legitimately distributed. All your favorite old MP3's will still work just fine. You might want to check out the SDMI FAQ for more information.
There appears to be a large number of misconceptions here regarding the nature of SDMI and the ramifications of the Rio supporting it. Wah's take in particular is in error. In ~18 months, SDMI's "Phase 2" will begin. After this point, SDMI-compliant players will no longer play copied SDMI-secured audio. There's nothing to stop it from still playing all your favorite MP3's, illegally obtained or not.
Don't misunderstand, it's not good that Diamond supports SDMI with the Rio. By doing so, they help to create a market for SDMI, and thus legitimize it. I'm sure they also paid in quite a bit of money to the RIAA to support SDMI. However, SDMI doesn't mean squat if you don't use it. Even if the only format you can find a particular piece of music in is SDMI-secured, there's nothing stopping you from converting it to MP3.
Badmouthing M$ for their software is perfectly valid. While you may personally find most of their software excellent, do keep in mind that other people may look for other qualities in software than you do, and that there are plenty of arenas in which non-M$ software absolutely wins out over M$ code.
Given how little MFC code MVC++ actually lets you write when you generate an app, you might as well consider it an application. :)