Defective by Design kicks off its anti-DRM campaign with a demonstration in Seattle today. The action had the protestors dressed in hazmat suits (images at http://defectivcebydesign.org) to bring home the point of the dangers of DRM.
“An interesting article over at C|Net claims that playing DRMed music can reduce battery life up to 25 percent. Yet another reason to stick with plain old MP3 files.” From the article: “Those who belong to subscription services such as Napster or Rhapsody have it worse. Music rented from these services arrive in the WMA DRM 10 format, and it takes extra processing power to ensure that the licenses making the tracks work are still valid and match up to the device itself. Heavy DRM not only slows down an MP3 player but also sucks the very life out of them.”
Don’t buy DRM.
“I really want you to understand what’s going on with the video industry’s push towards HD. They are engineering a complete removal of the concept of fair use.”
US government officials are considering introducing legislation if companies continue to distribute copy-protection measures that compromise computer security.
Just say no to DRM.
While developing a data persistence plan for my own customers, I came to a realization: The RIAA wants my hard drive to crash. In the past, the recording industry enjoyed substantial gains from changes in content delivery medium, but can they count on another physical medium shift in the digital age?
We have the means to make exact copies of digital content, and that scares the crap out of the RIAA. They hate the fact I can rip my Coldplay albums to mp3 and enjoy it on my iPod without coughing up any additional money for the change in medium. Now, without some sort of all encompassing DRM that will prevent me from converting my mp3s to new formats, I will be able to enjoy my entire music collection for the rest of my LIFE. That’s it. That’s the kicker.
DRM is not so much about preventing privacy as preventing interoperability. If you sell music through a multitude of delivery services that all have different DRM schemes, you have the possibility of making some of the music obsolete by default. How long do you really think we will have devices that play Apple’s “FairPlay” or Microsoft’s PlayForSure? I’m sure they can figure out a way to make those schemes obsolete; especially if trusted computing ever comes to be.
As far as the recording industry is concerned they’ve reached the end of the line for content delivery: Digital. Do you know anyone who owns a DVD-A or SACD? Few people own these new formats because the perceived benefit is not great enough to warrant a change in medium. DVD-A is capable of sampling audio at 192 KHz compared to the 44.1 KHz a CD offers. The problem: The audible frequency range of the human ear is roughly 20 Hz to 20 KHz. How can you attract consumers to a new medium when 98% of them can’t hear the difference?
CD rippers and recorders put a real dent in the RIAA’s master plan of planned obsolescence. If customers can make a physical or digital copy it reduces the likelihood of destruction and reacquisition. Copying for personal use in itself is not appealing to the RIAA, but add on top of that the ability to digitize and retain content indefinitely and it becomes down right scary. Imagine being able to inherit a music collection that you can actually use!
The fears of the recording industry are evidenced by the introduction of aggressive copy protection mechanisms in current CDs such as Sony’s XCP. No one really believes CD copy protection will prevent piracy. It merely prevents honest users from enjoying a product they paid for on multiple mediums. In my estimation, the next step for the RIAA is to push for a transition away from CDs and into some sort of secure digital format to which they hold the key.
I’m hoping every bit of my customer’s data is retained for at least 50 years while the RIAA is hoping my hard drive will crash every year.
Oh yeah, Mitch Bainwol is a loser.
A Senate committee held hearings today on the broadcast flag for TV and digital radio. Testimony came from those on both sides of the issue. There seemed to be a “slight bias” towards the flag, but encouragingly, some senators seemed to have a grasp of the issue and understand what’s at stake.
Here is the link to the C-SPAN coverage of the hearing. It’s a bit long, but worth a look if you have the time.
If the FCC gets the go ahead from congress to enforce the broadcast flag, say goodbye to recording TV programs. One feature of the broadcast flag would be a delete buffer on all broadcast content that would only allow for content to be stored for 90 minutes.
I was hoping my senator, who resides on the committee, would make an appearance, but no such luck. Having a voice like Senator John Sununu (R-NH) on this committee makes me feel much better about the outlook of digital media in our country. Without his presence the committee would’ve been susceptible to misleading comments by RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. Even though Mitch knows next to nothing about music, he was selected for his RIAA position in 2003 due to his noteable political career.
Excellent rant on DRM from one of the guys over at The Inquirer. This pretty much sums up the current state of DRM. The short of it: current DRM schemes fail to protect content and generate more costs and headaches for consumers.
A good read.
Is your anti-virus or anti-spyware technology warning you about the Digital Rights Management software on your computer? If not, it should be. It’s a Trojan horse of the worst kind.Earlier today, after describing to a close friend the rock and the hard place that I’m between since I can’t easily play the 99 cent songs […]
Looks like the RIAA is in talks with XM and other digital radio providers about adding DRM to broadcasts. This makes me want to go out and record my SIRIUS streams. Why, you ask? I pay twelve bucks a month for a vastly superior broadcast that I have little or no control over. There are music services that offer unlimited downloads for less than twelve bucks a month. The real issue here is content delivery. The RIAA wants me to pay a fee to SIRIUS for broadcast medium and another fee for download / CD medium.
Remember when tape cassettes were supposed to kill radio? Remember when VCRs were supposed to kill Hollywood? Remember when TViO was supposed to kill TV?