Hollywood saddles the DRM horse. Again.
p2pnet news view | Movies:- Unlikely as it may seem, Sony seems hell-bent on getting back into the DRM business. And many (most?) of the big Hollywood studios are apparently playing along.
DRM —- Digital Restrictions Management consumer control —- has never worked, and it never will.
It can’t. Because if you can see it or hear it, you can copy it and DRM has been all-but dropped by even its most ardent supports, the major record studios.
“DRM, digital rights management is quite possibly the holy grail of the music and movie industry, allowing them to control exactly how DRM protected content is used, distributed and above all can be tracked right down to the individual end user,” we quoted Sander Sassen as saying.
We went on, “It might be more accurate to say the entertainment industry wishes DRM allowed it to control how content is used, but as things stand, it’s a largely unfulfilled dream.”
Nothing has changed since p2pnet posted that in 2004, but Hollywood just won’t give up and now a new DRM “initiative” that’s been “tentatively” dubbed Open Market, may be on the way, says TechCrunch.
It is, of course, axiomatic that whenever Hollywood or its MPAA, or anything connected to it/them, says ‘open,’ it means the exact opposite.
Open Market was first proposed last year by Sony Pictures and, “all of the major studios” are, “already on board,” says the story, although, “notably absent” is Apple and the various Walt Disney studios which are, “strongly backing the iTunes/Fairplay scheme”.
You’ll remember Sony’s disastrous attempt at DRM through its rootkit spyware program. It concealed consumer management software on its music discs. When buyers played the music, the spyware, which was also dangerous to their computers, was automatically planted without their knowledge or consent
Sony is still suffering fall-out.
And Apple’s in-house ‘Fairplay’ (same applies to ‘fair’ as it does to ‘open’) DRM has probably caused it to forfeit more custom and customers than it’ll ever know.
Partners in crime
Open Market (.pdf here), “is a set of policy decisions and a software and services framework that will allow interoperability of various formats and DRM schemes that are currently splintering the market,” says TechCrunch, continuing »»»
A key part of Open Market will be a neutral third party to manage device registrations and movie purchases/rentals to ensure interoperability. This “domain” provider will manage services that let users register devices (PCs, televisions, mobile devices, etc.). Any movie purchased from any service provider can then be watched on a registered device.
Supposedly a whole slew of companies are supporting the effort. Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Time Warner are on board. Retailers like Amazon, Target, WalMart, Comcast, MovieLink and CinemaNow are also said to be participating.
However, by the time Sony and its partners in crime get their act together, argue about who gets what, sign contracts, accuse each other of reneging, sue each other for breach of contract, come up with counter-projects, sue each other for again, and so on, their former ‘consumers,’ now transformed into customers with free choice and the will to exercise it, will have taken off over the horizon and out of sight.
Meanwhile, people will always be able to use one analogl or digital means or another to copy anything they can see or hear.
Period.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
Los Angeles Times – xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, August , 2008
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August 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am
The number of people I talk to that are completely apathetic to DRM is surprising; they don’t seem to understand it nor care about their rights. Hence, I don’t think that the fact that DRM doesn’t absolutely stop people from copying something is that big an issue.
I always felt that the reason DRM failed for Big Media, is because of all these incompatibilities, showing up the DRM demon in its worst light. I think that if this “interoperable” poison is introduced, together with a low enough fee to exercise rights you previously had, then the vast majority of people will simply pay the extortion fee required and be done with it.
I believe this version of DRM might set the bar high enough that the sheeple will finally just pay the extortion fee. What with the way that laws are getting changed around the world in favour of the Big Media mafia (think France and the new internet 3 strikes rule) , I think that their DRM dream will largely come true.
I hope I’m wrong and once again, only time will tell.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I wanted to add: once/if this is established, then I think that they will try to introduce DRM back into music under the same scheme.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:40 am
@FreeThinker
Most people don’t know it exists untill they get bit in the arse by it. Usually thinking the electronics are physically damaged.
Speek to some older ‘technophobe’ (or pre computer people), and you’ll quickly hear the same comments spoken by the ‘techono-nerd / pirates’. Well the tone is a bit different; disbilief, not anger
“It’s music .. like a record .. I should be able to play it anywhere .. shouldn’t I?”
“I paid for it .. it’s mine .. and I’ll do what I want with it”
And like true hackers “There’s a way to fix that, right?”.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
“It’s music .. like a record .. I should be able to play it anywhere .. shouldn’t I?”
“I paid for it .. it’s mine .. and I’ll do what I want with it”
And like true hackers “There’s a way to fix that, right?”.
The difference that I’m trying to point out here, is that everything will have compatible DRM. Therefore, you’ll be able to exercise all your old rights – for a fee. I just think that the great unwashed will bite.
Of course, the hard-core techies/enlightened people like us will not buy into this. Heck, I won’t even use the *free* internet TV catch-up services, because they are infested with DRM. Unfortunately, we are vastly outnumbered by the pig ignorant great unwashed.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
It’s not a neutral third party just because someone says it is. More than likely the third party will be in corporate employ.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am
“You’ll remember Sony’s disastrous attempt at DRM through its rootkit spyware program. It concealed consumer management software on its music discs. When buyers played the music, the spyware, which was also dangerous to their computers, was automatically planted without their knowledge or consent”
The rootkit was only placed on the computers of people dumb enough to leave Micro$oft’s auto-run enabled. Any time I’ve installed a CD/DVD drive in my system, the first thing I do is disable that “feature”. Nothing runs on my system unless I want it to. Of course M$ tried to prevent this in XP, since the damn auto-run “No Action” choice doesn’t work, but you can still disable the auto-insert notification and prevent it from auto-running anything.
“Most people don’t know it exists untill they get bit in the arse by it. Usually thinking the electronics are physically damaged.”
Most people don’t even know what region codes are.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:49 am
@ Rekrul.
Oh, listen to you, the world reknown expert. Everyone should know what you know and be interested in what you’re interested in. You’re so great.
Tell me, why does EVERYONE need to know what region codes are? Condescending prick.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:32 am
sunking: Only pig ignorance buffoons dont know about region codes. It’s commons sense stuff that EVERYONE should know, don’tya know???
F* idiot.