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DRM(Digital Rights Management)Alternate acronym
meanings: |
Lawmakers Monkeying Around With DRM
I'm really enjoying the latest news from the world of DRM, the search for a way to sell music and still retain some kind of control over how it is used after the sale. U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require DRM for webcasting and satellite radio and, at the same time, the record labels are announcing that they may have already given up on DRM. They're giving a bunch of lame reasons without admitting that a) everyone hates it; b) they've wasted billions to trying to develop it because c) none of it works. Meanwhile, Norway, France, Microsoft and Universal Music are all pissed at Apple because Apple's DRM works too well. The "works too well" thing is pretty funny all by itself since most species of primates know how to get around it. But it's even funnier when people accuse Apple of suddenly monopolizing the music industry because they delivered exactly what the labels asked for -- a format that you can't copy to other devices. If he hadn't, the RIAA would have called Steve Jobs a pirate for making something that only played evil mp3 files. Music with Microsoft's DRM won't play on the iPod. Music from the iTunes store won't play on the Zune. For that matter, music with Microsoft DRM won't play on the Zune. But Apple is the bad guy because people with iPods are the only ones buying music this year. I could see where there would be a legitimate complaint if the iPod ONLY played music with their DRM. But it doesn't. You don't HAVE to buy music from iTunes just because you have an iPod. The iPod will play plain old mp3 files. The record labels don't want to sell plain mp3 files because, oh wait, now maybe they do. But only because they're on the ropes. They've been fighting the mp3 since the day it was born. Selling unprotected mp3s is the last thing the RIAA wants to do. With any luck, it will be. Newsweek Grasps the Incredibly ObviousNovember 21, 2006 -- I know this will come as a shock to many readers, so I suggest you sit down and not be taking a sip of something when you read the next paragraph. Ready? Most music fans don't like DRM. I'm speechless. Astonished. I had a Oprah "light-bulb" moment. Overlooking the Obviousby George Ziemann -- October 26, 2006 Jon Johansen, aka DVD Jon, is getting a lot of press this week because he has, according to the Guardian, "managed to sidestep Apple's Fairplay management system and trick iPods into thinking they are playing tracks bought from the company's online iTunes store." First of all, Jon is getting a bad rap here because everyone identifies him as a "hacker." Not just in this particular story, but almost every one source that has mentioned this. That seems unfair. Jon is a software developer. The Guardian's article contains a flaw so massive that it cannot be ignored and leaves me wondering about the qualifications needed to become a "technical correspondent" at that publication. "The iPod is only able to play music taken from CDs or bought directly from iTunes." The iPod also plays garden variety mp3 files. It doesn't matter where they came from or whether you paid for them. It can also play songs which have never appeared on a CD. It will also play anything you find at dmusic or emusic or even the stuff you downloaded from Kazaa. What Jon has done is create a piece of software that allows music already tainted with some sort of DRM to appear to the iPod as if it was infected with Apple's DRM. So if you listen to mp3 files, you have no use for DVD Jon's software. You only need it if you bought music from RIAA members in the last three or four years online from someone other than Apple. Since Apple has somehow sold substantially more downloads than all of the record labels combined, I don't know why Jon ever bothered. October 2006 -- MPAA Exec Says DRM Increases Piracy March 8, 1999 -- SDMI Begins Portable Device Working Los Angeles, CA More
than 50 companies involved with the Secure Digital Music Initiative
(SDMI) gathered in Los Angeles on Friday for the first meeting
of the Portable Device Working Group. Top executives from the
music and technology industries presented their ideas and recommendations
on how best to ensure that portable devices enable new opportunities
for the secure distribution of digital music. The meeting is
the second milestone within a week that has brought the inter-industry
effort closer to achieving its goal to bring SDMI compliant products
and services to consumers for the 1999 year-end holiday season. June 26, 1997 -- Recording Industry Seeks Data Hiding Solution For Fight Against Piracy In The Digital Age The RIAA and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) issued a Request for Proposals seeking a technology to inaudibly embed data in sound recordings. The evaluation process will be carried out by the MUSE Project, which is jointly funded by the recording industry and the European Union. The IFPI and the RIAA are partners in the endeavor. The RIAA itself has developed a technology that will be evaluated along with the others by an independent laboratory, TNO, based in the Netherlands. January 31, 1997 -- RIAA Develops Breakthrough Copyright Protection System Washington, DC - At a meeting of the multi-industry DVD Copyright Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) in San Jose today, the RIAA unveiled a prototype software module to prevent the unauthorized copying of copyrighted CDs on computers. The RIAA's system is designed to work with a CD-ROM recorder and implementing software to read the copyright flags already present in prerecorded CDs, thus preventing unauthorized copying, but can be easily adapted to work with other types of devices such as a DVD recorder coupled to a computer. "In an environment where access to copyrighted materials is expanding as quickly as the means and opportunity to copy these materials, we intend to be aggressive and creative in seeking solutions to protect the rights of our member companies and their artists," said David Stebbings, RIAA senior vice president, technology. "Today we have shown that prerecorded CDs can be protected from unauthorized copying on a CD-ROM recorder." |
by George Ziemann