November 20, 2008
We Will Control the Horizontal. We Will Control the Vertical.
Sony has cut off access to Columbia Pictures films for XBOX 360 users of Netflix's Streaming Video Service. The videos ar still on the service and available to non-XBOX 360 users, including users of the Roku streaming box, OS/X and some other Microsoft product called "Windows". I can only assume that Sony is doing this to convince users to buy a PS3 (which doesn't support Netflix streaming at all without a PC and third party software).
This is the next big grab for Hollywood - these videos are DRMed, but that isn't enough for Sony. They now want to be able to dictate the specific hardware that you will be allowed to watch your movies on. I predict the next step will be an announcement that Columbia pictures Blu-Ray discs will only play in Sony-branded players. That is really no more ridiculous than this is.
Posted by edgore at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 2, 2007
iTunes & EMI Drop DRM, Jack Up Prices
Well, it looks like Steve Jobs was not just blowing soke when he ranted about dropping DRM. Sadly, it looks like dropping DRM will be used as an excuse to jack up prices as well, which kind of pisses me off.
I should not need to pay a 30-freaking-percent premium to be able to listen to my music on the device of my choice, even if it is at slightly higher (but still less than CD) quality. Imagine of Sony Music sold two versions of their CDs - a $14 version that only plays on a Sony CD player, and a $18.20 version that would play on any CD player?
At the same time I feel compelled to go ahead and start using iTunes to buy un-DRMed music that I can't obtain from emusic or legal outlets; I want to encourage un-DRMed music downloads. I really hate to encourage the pricing structure though - I am paying extra for them NOT to add DRM that they then have to support, and which does nothing to "protect" their music in the first place.
Ah well, one step at a time. I wonder if, when Apple extends the offer of un-DRMed music to other companies if they will also offer them the option of not increasing the price, or of simply not offering DRMed version at all?
Posted by edgore at 8:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 16, 2005
Parasymbiotic
Over on BoingBoing Cory Doctrow has posted about a talk he gave at the O'Rielly Emerging Tech confernece called "All Complex Ecosystems Have Parasites".
I agree with what he is saying - the more open the ecosystem, the more things that will come to live in it, but I think that he's wrong in characterizing those entities that add value and increase possibility within the CD Ecosystem as parasites. Certainly there are some that are parasitic - a filesharing network that freely distributes Label music while showing ads is parasitic - it lives of it's host (the Label) while providing nothing in return (aside from maybe word of mouth through free distribution to those who might not hear the music otheriwise...that's for another day).
But many of the examples that Cory gives are not parasitic - they are symbiotes. They live with and become part of the organism they attach to, and provide value back to the host in exchange for what they take.
He gives examples of tools that create MP3s, Ringtones, karaoke filters, digital music players etc. These aren't parasites. They are symbiotes that, true, feed off of CDs and could not "live" without them, but they are also increasing the utility of the CD itself. I won't buy a CD that I cannot rip to mp3, for example, so for me the CD/MP3 ripper symbiote is more viable then the copy-protected CD.
It's the one that will survive in my CD ecosystem.
Posted by edgore at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 3, 2005
No Strings Attached
CNet has an article about the new Napster flat fee service, which I have to take issue with.
Now, I could not care less about the Napster service, or really about iTunes either. But I have to disagree with the line in the article that says "Apple's approach is to charge 99 cents for each song downloaded. But you own the music, no strings attached."
Really? Is this some new version of iTunes that doesn't restrict you to only playing the music on a few machines associated with you by their DRM? Is it a new version that sells songs that don't stop working the moment that you decide you don't want to use an iPod anymore? Maybe it's a new version that will let you sell or give a song that you have purchased to someone else?
No? I didn't think so. At least with the Napster service you are getting what you pay for - limited access to all the songs in their library for the duration of your subscription. Apple on the other hand is selling, for an upfront fee of $0.99 the right to use a single specific song, on the hardware of their choice (which you have to buy from them), under whatever limitations they feel like imposing on you - forever. You can't sell your songs to someone else if you decide to get rid of your iPod, you can't even give them away. You own nothing.
Which is fine, since a lot of people seem to be okay with this deal with the devil. Shame on CNet though for claiming there are "No Strings Attached".
Posted by edgore at 2:17 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 30, 2004
Someone to Watch Over Me
There's a new group working to protect fair use rights and other copy-wrong issues. It's called IPAC and I've joined and donated. You probably should too.
We need to have as many groups like this as possible out there in order to provide some kind of balance to the entertainment industry lobbies who are currently trying to make it illegal for you to fast forward through a commercial with your DVR.
If groups like this don't exist, within ten years there will be retina monitors on TV sets that call the police if your eyes don't remain fixed on the TV during commercials. See if there aren't.
Posted by edgore at 4:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2003
DMCA Update
Well, it looks like The law suit and prosecution are not going to go forward. While I am glad for the student, I am kind of dissappointed at the same time, it would have been an interesting test case.
Posted by edgore at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DMCA - Dumb Moronic Copy-Protection Asses
Hopfully this will finally make courts realize how stupid the DCMA is. A student wrote a paper explaining how to get around the copy protection on a recently released Anthony Hamilton CD. In it he gives several methods of getting around the protection, everything from a removing a driver that is auto-installed on your PC when you insert the disk, to simply holding down the shift key when you insert the CD. SunComm, the creator of the protection scheme, is now threatening to sue him, and he could face felony charges for simply pointing out these two rather obvious ways of disabling the protection.
If this case goes forward, it basically means that a record company could put a label on a CD that says "This CD is copy protected! It is impossible to copy! Do not try to copy it!". If you published an article saying "If you put the CD into a PC and use any program to copy the audio tracks it will work just fine", well, you will have commited a felony for detailing how to circumvent a copy protection scheme (the label that told you it could not be copied).
Dumb, huh?
Posted by edgore at 9:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 4, 2003
Just a reminder
That everyone that has ever taped a T.V. show, made a copy of a CD they owned to take along in the car, or made a mix-tape to give to a girl (or boy) they like really needs to join the EFF so there is some possibility they will still be able to do these things 5 years from now.
The EFF is really the best way that you can fight against media companies that are trying to make it illegal for you to copy programs from television, and make MP3s from CDs that you own. They are also the voice of reason in the fight over filesharing.
It's not that expensive to join, and even if you don't feel that you can afford to join, you can certainly take 10 minutes to go to their Action Center, where you can send free faxes to your government representatives letting them know how you feel about the crummy job they are doing protecting your rights. And the crummy job you will do protecting their jobs next election.
It's free, and you have nothing to lose (unless you don't act).
Posted by edgore at 1:05 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
April 25, 2003
Oh my god. SOmeone gets it!
Judge: File-swapping tools are legal | CNET News.com
Hopefully this will also speed the end of other stupid restrictions on technologies with significant legal appliactions. This could be the start of something good.
Posted by edgore at 3:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 28, 2003
More DMCA Madness
A Mod-Chip site got closed down yesterday, and the person running it faces up to five years in prison - plus the U.S. Government has seized the domain name.
This is another example of why the DMCA and media companies attempting to over control the use of their products through over-reaching laws is a very bad idea.
The argument on the part of the law and the media companies (or in this casae actually video game hardware manufacturers) is the this site did two things - one it provided a forum in which people could discuss methods of circumventing copy-protection, and it sold Mod-Chips - add-ons that allow user to play both copied and imported video games on a system.
And they have a point. Copying games that you do not own is wrong, and bad and nobody should do it. If you do do it, you should be fined, go to jail, whatever depending on the scope of your copying.
BUT, and this is a very big but, it should not be against the law to have a site that allows discussions about copying, nor should it be illegal to sell devices that circumvent copy protection. Why? Because there are perfectly valid reasons to do both.
When I had a Playstation I had a mod-chip installed in it. How many games did I copy? None. Not a one. I used it to play games that I had imported from Japan - games that were not playable on the U.S. Playstation, and that were never going to come out in U.S. versions because they were "too japanese" for the American market.
Right now I have a technically illegal DVD player that allows me to play both U.S. and Japanese DVDs. Why? Because there are movies that are only avialable in Japan that I want to see, and because generally I prefer both the English subtitling and the English dubbing that is on the Japanese releases to the "Americanized" version taht come out here. I'm not copying anything, not am I stealing anything from anybody - I'm actually spending more than I would otherwise - but I am also breaking the law.
Until the DCMA was passed, a consumer had the right to make a back-up copy of a piece of software that he had purchased, or to buy a piece of electronics hardware, open it up, and do whatever they want to it, though they might void the warrenty.
Not so anymore. Now the manufacturer of the hardware is able to dicate what you are allowed to with it, and the maker of a piece of software is allowed to tell you who and when you are allowed to use it.
We need to carefully examine what media companies are trying to do and question it. Our government doesn't seem to be very concerned with consumer rights - instead they seem to be bending over backwards to allow corporations to decide how we will be allowed to use the products we have purchased.
This has to stop. We need to punish people who are copying software and not outlaw legitimate discussion and uses of technology. Entrenched corporations have never understood the new opportunites provided by technology and have always tried to stop them and control consumers. The media companies said the VCR would put them out of business - now it's where they make most of their money. Are these the people we want making these decisions?
Posted by edgore at 6:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
