Most people who have purchased affected CDs will never know, and never find out, that sticking a bit of tape on the CD will prevent the DRM affecting them.
This actually doesn't matter, as the vast majority of people won't actually be aware that there's any issue at all, and won't have heard of DRM. If they have heard about DRM from the tech guy at work, they probably won't care too much, figuring that it's only designed to prevent 'criminal' activity, and they're not criminals, so why should they care?
So, even though the DRM is 'crackable', it doesn't really matter as most people won't ever be aware of this CD mod.
Here's the reply I got from Liz Lynne MEP (MEP for the West Midlands, UK) when I sent her an email via faxyourmp.com.
I was quite impressed that the reply came within two hours, but I guess it might be a standard response. This might be seen as encouraging, however, as it perhaps shows that many people are writing to her on this subject.
-----------------
Dear Mr. Hogan,
The European Parliament voted its first reading on the proposal in September 2003 where amendments were adopted to strictly limit patents to new inventions only. The Council of Ministers adopted its Common Position on 7 March 2005. Although the Common Position clarifies the boundaries of what can and what cannot be patented when software is involved, it does not extend current practice; nothing will become patentable that is not currently patentable. Importantly, non-technical software, mathematical algorithms, and business methods are all specifically excluded. My own view remains that EU legislation is needed to bring legal certainty into what is at the moment a highly unclear and unsatisfactory situation for firms of all sizes.
It is now for the European Parliament to react. I have no doubt that our reaction will be critical, particularly in the area of the scope and definitions in the Directive. As the measure potentially could go all the way to a Conciliation committee of the Council and the Parliament, it is difficult at this stage to foresee the likely outcome. Clearly, several Member States appear to be unhappy with the common position, and the Commission appears to be flexible.
If the EU were to fail to enact a law, it would effectively be left up to the Court of Justice to try to build a coherent body of case law in the field. That would take time, and a consistency of jurisprudence that backed a permissive approach to software inventions could not be guaranteed. In the meanwhile the European Patents Office in Munich would continue to dish out patents to computer programs.
Liberal Democrats will wait to see what the Rapporteur, Michel Rocard, proposes in the Legal Affairs Committee. Your views have been a helpful contribution to the advice we are receiving on the potential impact of the Directive and we will take them into account. I wish to assure you that Liberal Democrat policy is clearly against allowing the patenting of software and that this principle is guiding our consideration of these matters.
The Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for a fair and legally sound outcome on this very important issue.
I've been non-MS for about 2 years now, ever since I finally was able to kiss the Windows partition at work goodbye. I use a Mac and Linux at home.
My girlfriend needed to do some wordprocessing for her coursework - a Mandrake laptop with Openoffice presented no problems to her. I was trying to explain why I was all proud of her for being a Linux user, but she couldn't see what the fuss was about - it did exactly what she wanted without it being operationally different to the Windows she had used before.:-)
I find I can advise others people more effectively, having been completely non-MS myself. People seem to be surprised I can get by without Windows - I explain that it's not a case of getting by and there are few occasions where compatibility problems occur, escpecially with the Mac. I've now got to the stage where using Windows is an alien experience - not a bad one, just a bit unfamiliar.
I now find Windows to be rather fiddly and inelegant (admittedly W2K - not played with XP much), but I also feel happier using F/OSS which has been written by people who care and is released under licenses which don't create lock-in and all that bad stuff.
I'm about to move jobs, from a technical role where Linux is a great fit, to a less technical role where Windows is 100% used. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can use Linux in this job, and what the new challenges in a more 'everyday' job might be.
1) Found a Mac SE in a skip at the local University. I think it had been there for several days, sitting at the bottom of the skip in a pool of water, completely waterlogged. Took it home, dried it out in a warm place for a couple of days and it worked fine. Shouts of joy when it went 'Dong' the very first time it was turned on!
It was then sprayed blue with car paint, stencilled with yellow cheese motifs, named 'The Cheese Machine' and used for comedy sounds efects at gigs, but that's another story.
2) In my innocent youth, tried cooling the CPU in my 6502 BBC micro by putting a plastic bag of ice on the overheating-prone ULA. Bag wasn't watertight and water spread over the PCB. Micro kept going, amazingly.
3) Within 20 minutes of receiving a new Thinkpad laptop at work, somehow had managed to get the power cable caught in my swivel chair and when I spun round to talk to someone, swept the (running) machine off the desk and onto the floor. It never missed a beat and no probs reported on the disk.
Slashdot Mirror
The Register seems to think that people just don't care and that Sony has emerged unscathed from this episode: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/analysis/
Most people who have purchased affected CDs will never know, and never find out, that sticking a bit of tape on the CD will prevent the DRM affecting them.
This actually doesn't matter, as the vast majority of people won't actually be aware that there's any issue at all, and won't have heard of DRM. If they have heard about DRM from the tech guy at work, they probably won't care too much, figuring that it's only designed to prevent 'criminal' activity, and they're not criminals, so why should they care?
So, even though the DRM is 'crackable', it doesn't really matter as most people won't ever be aware of this CD mod.
Here's the reply I got from Liz Lynne MEP (MEP for the West Midlands, UK) when I sent her an email via faxyourmp.com.
I was quite impressed that the reply came within two hours, but I guess it might be a standard response. This might be seen as encouraging, however, as it perhaps shows that many people are writing to her on this subject.
-----------------
Dear Mr. Hogan,
The European Parliament voted its first reading on the proposal in September 2003 where amendments were adopted to strictly limit patents to new inventions only. The Council of Ministers adopted its Common Position on 7 March 2005. Although the Common Position clarifies the boundaries of what can and what cannot be patented when software is involved, it does not extend current practice; nothing will become patentable that is not currently patentable. Importantly, non-technical software, mathematical algorithms, and business methods are all specifically excluded. My own view remains that EU legislation is needed to bring legal certainty into what is at the moment a highly unclear and unsatisfactory situation for firms of all sizes.
It is now for the European Parliament to react. I have no doubt that our reaction will be critical, particularly in the area of the scope and definitions in the Directive. As the measure potentially could go all the way to a Conciliation committee of the Council and the Parliament, it is difficult at this stage to foresee the likely outcome. Clearly, several Member States appear to be unhappy with the common position, and the Commission appears to be flexible.
If the EU were to fail to enact a law, it would effectively be left up to the Court of Justice to try to build a coherent body of case law in the field. That would take time, and a consistency of jurisprudence that backed a permissive approach to software inventions could not be guaranteed. In the meanwhile the European Patents Office in Munich would continue to dish out patents to computer programs.
Liberal Democrats will wait to see what the Rapporteur, Michel Rocard, proposes in the Legal Affairs Committee. Your views have been a helpful contribution to the advice we are receiving on the potential impact of the Directive and we will take them into account. I wish to assure you that Liberal Democrat policy is clearly against allowing the patenting of software and that this principle is guiding our consideration of these matters.
The Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for a fair and legally sound outcome on this very important issue.
Yours sincerely,
Liz Lynne MEP
My girlfriend needed to do some wordprocessing for her coursework - a Mandrake laptop with Openoffice presented no problems to her. I was trying to explain why I was all proud of her for being a Linux user, but she couldn't see what the fuss was about - it did exactly what she wanted without it being operationally different to the Windows she had used before. :-)
I find I can advise others people more effectively, having been completely non-MS myself. People seem to be surprised I can get by without Windows - I explain that it's not a case of getting by and there are few occasions where compatibility problems occur, escpecially with the Mac. I've now got to the stage where using Windows is an alien experience - not a bad one, just a bit unfamiliar.
I now find Windows to be rather fiddly and inelegant (admittedly W2K - not played with XP much), but I also feel happier using F/OSS which has been written by people who care and is released under licenses which don't create lock-in and all that bad stuff.
I'm about to move jobs, from a technical role where Linux is a great fit, to a less technical role where Windows is 100% used. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can use Linux in this job, and what the new challenges in a more 'everyday' job might be.
1) Found a Mac SE in a skip at the local University. I think it had been there for several days, sitting at the bottom of the skip in a pool of water, completely waterlogged. Took it home, dried it out in a warm place for a couple of days and it worked fine. Shouts of joy when it went 'Dong' the very first time it was turned on!
It was then sprayed blue with car paint, stencilled with yellow cheese motifs, named 'The Cheese Machine' and used for comedy sounds efects at gigs, but that's another story.
2) In my innocent youth, tried cooling the CPU in my 6502 BBC micro by putting a plastic bag of ice on the overheating-prone ULA. Bag wasn't watertight and water spread over the PCB. Micro kept going, amazingly.
3) Within 20 minutes of receiving a new Thinkpad laptop at work, somehow had managed to get the power cable caught in my swivel chair and when I spun round to talk to someone, swept the (running) machine off the desk and onto the floor. It never missed a beat and no probs reported on the disk.
4) There must be more... I can't remember now!