...as consumer DAT recorders with DRM were; that is, not at all.
Hmmmm, Honey, these two TVs look equally good, should we get the one that forces you to watch commercials or the one that doesn't?
I have a DVD player that I'm sure violates some spec by looking for the longest track on the disc and plays that automatically upon insertion - no nasty warnings from INTERPOL or the FBI, no menus which all work differently than the last, just pure plug-and-play.
We want people to impose structure and assess the credibility of the zottabytes of information out there. You can strive to eliminate editorial bias but can't escape it; 'tis the price you pay for not having to read every conceivable source of information.
The "last mile of copper" from the end-office to your home is the expensive part of telco infrastructure. Indeed, developing nations - especially those with harsh topography - are deploying cellular to an extent that copper/fiber may never be laid. Add to this broadband wireless and the digital divide narrows.
Air is (mostly) free. Dragging wires to nowhere is expensive.
I see this going one of two ways. Files are an ingrained but not a necessary metaphor. Files are OS concepts and a new metaphor (e.g. something like a group whiteboard with the structure of a document and changed like a Wiki).
Or, "This file is being edited by someone else for the next 62 hours, do you want to open a read-only copy?"
Unfortunately, I expect the latter.
PayPal, owned by eBay, and mediating many of the eBay transactions has a specific policy that provides NO protection for intangible goods and has a horrific reputation on disputes regarding intangibles. From the PayPal Buyer Protection Policy section 3.b.3
The item sold in the listing must be a tangible, physical item or good which can be shipped. All other items are ineligible for PayPal Buyer Protection coverage, including but not limited to intangible goods, services, quasi-cash, gift certificates, and downloadable or streaming content.
I have a friend who put a DRM hybrid disk into her iMac (Alexander Calder model) to listen to it. Somehow, the code portion of the disk totally trashed her System 9 boot drive, as in restore from factory media type trashed.
Not having made the correlation between the two events, she tried to play the disc some days later. The boot drive was trashed again. There is something severely wrong with this model. When code designed to thwart legitimate use causes loss of user data and much time restoring the computer and the code wasn't even written for the box in question, the labels really are shooting themselves in the foot.
I haven't bought a commercial CD since. Yes, I know a one-person boycott won't kill the industry but I used to buy ~100 discs per year.
Funny, they've been building automated bank teller machines (ATMs) for 20+ years and I can count the number of failures and hacks that have happened on two hands.
It must be that picking a candidate is far more difficult than selecting an accout, validating an identity, contacting a remote bank through multiple encrypted networks, and reliably dispensing currency of varied conditions. Oh, and ATMs have internal paper trails in case of discrepancies. And Diebold manufactures ATMs. Voting must be really hard to get right.
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We want people to impose structure and assess the credibility of the zottabytes of information out there. You can strive to eliminate editorial bias but can't escape it; 'tis the price you pay for not having to read every conceivable source of information.
The "last mile of copper" from the end-office to your home is the expensive part of telco infrastructure. Indeed, developing nations - especially those with harsh topography - are deploying cellular to an extent that copper/fiber may never be laid. Add to this broadband wireless and the digital divide narrows. Air is (mostly) free. Dragging wires to nowhere is expensive.
In the tooth, Bob! Right? [sudden triumphant grin] But I fooled 'em, old buddy! [He opens his mouth wide] NO TEETH'
All I know is that when it does come out, I wanna be one of the nameless landing party guys in the red shirts.
Or, "This file is being edited by someone else for the next 62 hours, do you want to open a read-only copy?" Unfortunately, I expect the latter.
Not having made the correlation between the two events, she tried to play the disc some days later. The boot drive was trashed again. There is something severely wrong with this model. When code designed to thwart legitimate use causes loss of user data and much time restoring the computer and the code wasn't even written for the box in question, the labels really are shooting themselves in the foot.
I haven't bought a commercial CD since. Yes, I know a one-person boycott won't kill the industry but I used to buy ~100 discs per year.
It must be that picking a candidate is far more difficult than selecting an accout, validating an identity, contacting a remote bank through multiple encrypted networks, and reliably dispensing currency of varied conditions. Oh, and ATMs have internal paper trails in case of discrepancies. And Diebold manufactures ATMs. Voting must be really hard to get right.