Comments on: Siggraph: Taking on fair use, privacy and DRM

Sony, the Software Freedom Law Center and others weigh in on digital rights management.

[umbrae]

Beautiful take on DRM

"I am deeply suspicious of DRM technology in part because the DRM we see now says that it protects copyright law, but it also prevents legitimate use, for parity, news and education. (It) is overbroad for legitimate use. As the restriction stands now, when public material falls in to the public domain, the DRM tech stays in place and does not fall away. DRM also has the potential to compromise privacy and security," said Sandler.

Just the best wording over the DRM debate that I have seen. *clap clap*

I think it is funny Sony says they want to make content affordable. They have been fighting Rentals forever (until their DRM allows THEM to do; however, they have always claimed Rentals were a breach of copyright), and now Blu-Ray comes which is a severely more expensive process.

[Stan Johnson]

Blu-ray will fail

Blu-ray will fail. Too expensive. It will be a Betamax repeat.

[Musica360.com]

Singer is full of !@#!

"Singer shared an anecdote of how he, too, had been frustrated by regional coding. He took the question as an opportunity to point out Sony's support of interoperability for content--an approach that would allow movies or music to be played on more than one type of device, according to Singer. He was critical of Apple Computer's iTunes when it came to interoperability, something he said he believed was going to be the key to the future of content."

I know this is not Sony talking...
1. creators of the atrac format
2. the company whose first digital audio players wouldn't even play the mp3 format.
3. The company know for the Rootkit fiasco....

No, this couldn't be a representative of Sony talking about interoperability, could it??

[Philips]

Farce

> Sony's support of interoperability for content

That's just plain stupid. When with whom Sony is/was interoperable? Is it BD v. HD? Or is it Atrac v. ISO MPEG4/AAC? MemoryStick v. SD? Was interoperability the goal of licensing terms on SACD? MD? Beta? Memory Stick? All the great Sony's ideas sunk because of greedy behaviour on part of Sony. And that costed Sony (as well as consumers) lots of money.

On average, from my experience, since Apple has no dominating powers, it used to accept existing standards (ISO/MPEG4 being good example). Not like Sony - to challenge the standards with some proprietary locked-down technology (Atrac).

[Russell McOrmond]

Sony executive doesn't understand what he is promoting...

Like Hillary Rosen, this executive vice president of the digital policy group at Sony Pictures Entertainment is unaware of the technical details of the technology that he is promoting.

Mitch Singer said, "The problem with DRM now is that we have no interoperability."

The way DRM works is by encoding digital content so that it is only interoperable with "authorized" access devices. These "authorized" devices are devices where the manufacturer, not the owner, is in control of the device. I consider the legalization of allowing manufacturers to put technical measures on devices that consider the *OWNER* to be the attacker of the device to be state-sponsored theft.

Not being interoperable isn't a side-effect of DRM, it is the entire point. Contrary to the myths promoted by specific DRM vendors, there is and can never be interoperable DRM. While it is possible to make all the software based on Open Standards, and even implement it in Open Source if you want (What Sun Microsystems proposes), at the end of the day you will have cryptographic keys which lock content to authorized devices, and thus this scheme will by design not be interoperable with "unauthorized devices".

Note: If you are a Canadian and believe like most people that it should be the owner, and not the manufacturer, that decides what software can be install on hardware, then you should sign the Petition to protect Information Technology property rights http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

[Klimax]

DRM

It looks like nobody in the industry noticed,that more restrictive DRM means more income to happy illegal sellers.When nobody can do with his own copy anything,they just drop buying expensive original and go buying pirated ones.Or just stop buying at all.

[genethomas2095]

SRM

DRM will only get worse for the consumer paying the bill.

PAC groups "influence" the Congress with millions of dollars the consumer groups do not have.

Soon everything will be controlled, what you record, can share, can back up, what order it can be played back, how many times, retention periods etc etc etc.

Great example, Look at the MAC DRM. You are stranded on the IPOD. You cannot back it up, copy it to YOUR CD or anything. You are in a FORCED DRM island.

You will seee all electronics f\device that no longer have audio/video/TV OUT or IN connects to prevent copying etc.

My new DVD recorder dooes not have Time of day capabilities so I can record somethng from 1200 to 2PM and watch it later like the old VHS machines.

The consumer has lost we are doomed to a rigid and narrror usage hell by the industry including the MPAA and RIAa etc etc etc

Count on it.

[Musica360.com]

Let's get it striaght...

"Great example, Look at the MAC DRM. You are stranded on the IPOD. You cannot back it up, copy it to YOUR CD or anything. You are in a FORCED DRM island."

1. It's not the "Mac DRM", it's Apple's DRM running on Macs and Windows

2. You CAN back it up AND burn it to CD. (Where do you get your information from?)

3. Apple's Fairplay is A LOT less stringent than Windows Media DRM with one rule applying to all.

It's amazing how people post such crap without even doing a little homework........

[PhillyBoy919]

Good points but flawed example...

There is no such thing as "MAC DRM", it is Apple's FairPlay of which you speak. I'm not a big fan of restricting any consumer use of a media format. If you're paying for it I think you should be able to presonally use it however you see fit. Your particular example, however, is total nonsense. You can absolutely burn a CD of any music you have in iTunes. I have a physical, burned CD of every single album I have purchased through iTunes. This then gives me portability. I have many of those albums loaded onto my Xbox 360 as well as my cell phone in MP3 format. I ripped the music from the CDs to a WAV file, cut it up, and created my own ringtones. All from music purchased via iTunes. I also back up my entire music directory (among others) nightly to a Network Attached Storage device.

I am in total agreement with your underlying point, however, that the PAC groups are basically buying our freedom from the government and handing it to the RIAA and MPAA.

Then again, you're technically not supposed to be able to rip a DVD into another format and I have several movies and TV shows on my iPod, PSP, and Moto Q. So if you're willing to put in the time, there is bound to be a way around any kind of restriction.

[Musica360.com]

Your Point...?

This is true of all DRM, Fairplay AND WIndows Media.

[Musica360.com]

okay but...

Let's not act like they're doing this out the kindness of their heart. The only reason they're so intent on licensing their format is because THEY want to be the format of choice and the only way they can currently compete IS TO license.