DVD-R/RW/RAM will never be cheap. Why would the MPAA be dumb enough to allow us bastards to get hold of cheap writers and start bloody copying DVDs like they were CDs? The fact that CSS would be cracked was unforseen when they (the MPAA and All their SONY et.all minions) started their mass campaign of world domination a few years ago.
DVD is _HARDLY_ a killer app like the CD was.. its all locked up in law-suits and legal rights, its capacity is only a few times larger than CD (where as CD was several hundred times larger than 1.44Mb floppy, and there are no cheap writers around for it. In short, it sucks the monkeys ass.
Moving on.. as a video replacement format, it sucks even more of that ass. The resolution is higher than VHS, but still doesn't satisfy anyone wanting HDTV (i've heard that on a clear day, you can even spot the cheap compression artifacts. Even 50 years or so after TV formats were adopted, DVDs are still encoded to PAL, NTSC and SECAM thus making everything nice and incompatable... just how that monkeys ass likes it. OHHH i almost forgot the layers and layers of pointless (and cracked) copy-protection technology that comes free with everydisk... oopps.. no... you have to pay the royalties to Macrovision and all.. oh well.
Infact, the only thing that has sold DVDs is the hype.
What we really need, is not cheap writers, but a new format created by someone who isnt going to close-source and copy-protect it (except from the MPAA who won't be able to feed their Crack habbits and fuel their Lear-Jets anymore.
(those monkeys have very clean asses by now)
-tfga
I assume there are ways to detect if a file contains an mp3 stream or if it is just zip'ed or if its encrypted. Therefore, Napster will just bar anything that isn't mp3 data, if people try any of these tricks. (only of course if all this is done server side). If the whole system is done on the client software, it will be hacked in minutes. This is gonna turn out to be a constant battle which is probably what the RIAA wants.
As to the record companies - why can't they just accept the fact that they cannot win. There are more ways of making money off music other than selling cd's. They sell all sorts of merchandise and get paid millions from tv/radio/film for royalties. They could offer their songs for download on their own (very fast) servers for free and put advertising into the files. (someone will hack that too but...). Its the same with all intellectual property. Software, movies, music its all the same. The big corps. know they have a good thing going - they can come up with something dirt cheap. Master it to cd and print as many copies as they want for nothing and sell them for a massive profit.
Some of the artists out there do what they do because they enjoy it, some want fame, and others fortune. But lots of people want both, and don't want to put the effort in to get it.
The open-source revolution has proved that some of us are willing to do something they love for little or no money, and share it with everyone. I say, good for them.
Slashdot Mirror
DVD-R/RW/RAM will never be cheap. Why would the MPAA be dumb enough to allow us bastards to get hold of cheap writers and start bloody copying DVDs like they were CDs? The fact that CSS would be cracked was unforseen when they (the MPAA and All their SONY et.all minions) started their mass campaign of world domination a few years ago. DVD is _HARDLY_ a killer app like the CD was.. its all locked up in law-suits and legal rights, its capacity is only a few times larger than CD (where as CD was several hundred times larger than 1.44Mb floppy, and there are no cheap writers around for it. In short, it sucks the monkeys ass. Moving on.. as a video replacement format, it sucks even more of that ass. The resolution is higher than VHS, but still doesn't satisfy anyone wanting HDTV (i've heard that on a clear day, you can even spot the cheap compression artifacts. Even 50 years or so after TV formats were adopted, DVDs are still encoded to PAL, NTSC and SECAM thus making everything nice and incompatable... just how that monkeys ass likes it. OHHH i almost forgot the layers and layers of pointless (and cracked) copy-protection technology that comes free with everydisk... oopps.. no... you have to pay the royalties to Macrovision and all.. oh well. Infact, the only thing that has sold DVDs is the hype. What we really need, is not cheap writers, but a new format created by someone who isnt going to close-source and copy-protect it (except from the MPAA who won't be able to feed their Crack habbits and fuel their Lear-Jets anymore. (those monkeys have very clean asses by now) -tfga
I assume there are ways to detect if a file contains an mp3 stream or if it is just zip'ed or if its encrypted. Therefore, Napster will just bar anything that isn't mp3 data, if people try any of these tricks. (only of course if all this is done server side). If the whole system is done on the client software, it will be hacked in minutes. This is gonna turn out to be a constant battle which is probably what the RIAA wants.
As to the record companies - why can't they just accept the fact that they cannot win. There are more ways of making money off music other than selling cd's. They sell all sorts of merchandise and get paid millions from tv/radio/film for royalties. They could offer their songs for download on their own (very fast) servers for free and put advertising into the files. (someone will hack that too but...). Its the same with all intellectual property. Software, movies, music its all the same. The big corps. know they have a good thing going - they can come up with something dirt cheap. Master it to cd and print as many copies as they want for nothing and sell them for a massive profit.
Some of the artists out there do what they do because they enjoy it, some want fame, and others fortune. But lots of people want both, and don't want to put the effort in to get it.
The open-source revolution has proved that some of us are willing to do something they love for little or no money, and share it with everyone. I say, good for them.
-tfga