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User: ufoot

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  1. Re:Would be nice, but.. on Sun's Open Source DRM · · Score: 1

    Encryption of an e-mail and protection of an MP3 file with DRM are complete different stories.

    When you read an encrypted e-mail, well, you want to read it, and you get a "clear" copy of it. The one you read. Of course, the AB23B45B5B3BB1B2BBBA9078979ABF junk has to be somewhat transformed to "Hello, World!" for you to read it. Once you get the "clear" copy, you're free to forward it as is (that is, unencrypted) to anyone, copy it a bazillion time on your hard drive, and so on.

    If, I say, if, we should ever see an Open Source DRM capable of reading a protected "MP3-like" file, then we would get a "clear" copy of it. At least if the software is Open Source. You somehow need to have, at some point (unless the hardware speakers handle encrypted content), the "clear" copy of the song, something that makes sense for your music player, your operating system, your hardware. At some point you'll have a "clear" succession of bytes which could be fed right into /dev/dsp and produce sound. Maybe it would require byte ordering or something, but honestly, it's hard to produce digital sound without handling this kind of "clear" succession of bytes (unless you use DRM-enabled hardware). This is absolutely unuvoidable with an open source DRM. It's in fact unavoidable on any DRM that operates on a non-100%-locked proprietary OS. Having a free software audio driver should be enough to capture the audio stream.

    Then I just wonder: what is Open Source DRM but bullshit marketting? Since with Open Source the user is enpowered to bypass the DRM and capture the "clear" stream, it's of absolutely no use for the music industry... It has IMHO no more value than simply encrypting the MP3 with any standard encryption system. If an Open Source reader exists, people using it will be able to transform the file to any other format, and send it to all their friends. Does anyone uses an Open Source encryption system which lets you read files without showing you the decrypted content???