The [very] ugly side of DRM
p2pnet.net News Feature:- "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,” writes Sander Sassen in a Hardware Analysis post.
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 for the studios and labels.
However, it does work on occasion, as Sassen – who says he’s convinced the “whole idea of p2p-ing music and movies has hurt sales tremendously is simply a misrepresentation of the truth” – discovered when he experienced, “the ugly and very user unfriendly side of DRM” via Artisan Home Entertainment’s T2: Extreme DVD.
It’s a double DVD set with a digitally optimized version of the Terminator 2 movie on one disk, and a high definition version of the same movie on the other, encoded in WMV9 format.
Sassen says he already owns a ”legitimate” T2 and bought the two-disk set because, “I was looking forward to playing back the hd version, which promises the very best image quality and a great way for me to enjoy the full potential of my, hd capable, home theater installation.”
His Hardware Analysis write-up continues that he double-checked the cover for requirements and found, “no warnings of the content being protected or only playable in certain regions”.
So he bought T2.
Then the fun began.
“Unfortunately, after trying to play the dvd back with Windows Media Player 9, I couldn’t get it to work, as I needed to install a 3rd party, InterActual Player, application that was required to play back the content,” states Sassen, continuing:
“I was a bit surprised as to why I needed to install InterActual Player as it says Windows Media Player 9 on the cover, why can’t I simply play the content back without having to install yet another application? But then it became quickly apparent that I did not only have to install and download an update for the InterActual Player in order to facilitate playback, but would also need to acquire a license. So obviously the WMV9 content was protected by DRM and could only be unlocked after connecting to the license server to obtain a license, which it failed to do. I was surprised to find that it failed to give me a license as it had determined that my physical location was not in the US or Canada, as apparently the content was only to be played back in either one of these countries and nowhere else. After routing my IP address through an anonymous proxy server in the US I however managed to unlock the content just as well and was presented with a license agreement I had to agree to prior to being able to play the content back.
“That agreement, amongst other things, stated that I could only play back the content for a period of five days, on the computer I installed the InterActual Player application onto, after which I had to re-acquire a license. To be honest that really pissed me off, I spent about an hour trying to play back a disc I legitimately bought and went as far as installing and updating a 3rd party application to my system that would allow me to do so, and now I’m only being given a temporary license, where’s my rights as a consumer? If this is how future DRM protected content will be distributed I have strong objections to the use of DRM, as this is a prime example of how to quickly alienate any prospective consumers. If a license is given and the content decrypted isn’t it clear that I’m the rightful owner?
“Can’t I decide for myself when and where I want to play this content back on? Obviously Artisan Home Entertainment Inc. has other ideas about that, ideas they should clearly communicate on the dvd cover, instead of simply omitting them to prevent people not buying this two-disk dvd set. Shame on you Artisan Home Entertainment Inc. and may this serve as a prime example of DRM at its worst.”
(Thanks, Milo ; )
December 22nd, 2004 at 4:38 pm
Well, the ugliest side is the transmission of information about the usage of the content. Kinda freaky especially from MS and Majors…
The saddest side is that if this kind of DRMed content is widespread, it will be cracked (I’d say it will be widespread when it will be cracked;).
So why bother to spend money in DRM’s that obviously discourage the consumer and that won’t be effective. Answer: the fear of the piracy and the marketing of MS.
December 22nd, 2004 at 5:07 pm
“If a license is given and the content decrypted isn’t it clear that I’m the rightful owner?”
I believe if the license agreement is read carfully you will find that it reads like a lease. You are not buying the right to own a piece of media and it’s content, just the temporary right to watch/listen to it. Now THATS the ugly side of “DRM” as they call it. I call it pay to play…
December 22nd, 2004 at 6:38 pm
The letters WMV would have been enough for me not to bother buying it.
December 22nd, 2004 at 7:49 pm
EXACTLY!!!! thats why only stupid people buy dvd’s!
December 22nd, 2004 at 8:49 pm
That is precisely why i don’t buy dvds.
I like that one response about when you supposedly buy a dvd you really don’t own but are merely being leased the content by the entertaiment industry.
The only thing i have to say about your incredibly naive letter is :
HOW DOES IT FEEL GETTING BUTT FUCKED ?
you say that you are a canadian citizen and you don’t have a clue how as far as intellectual property is concerned how fucked up it is in the united states.
You are really a naive fool.
Ever since the dmca was ratified and passed into law by then president (communist) bill clinton people lost their fair use rights to legally bought medium a long time ago.
DRM IS THE BIGGEST SHERMAN ACT LIKE MONOPOLY AND ANTI CONSUMER FRAUD AND SCAM THAT EVER WAS.
That can also be said about people like bill gates that would swindle a customer out of $100 or so for a copy of windows xp.
As you well know bill gates is quite paranoid about piracy so this means a customer cannot make a legal copy of a very expensive cd rom.
Every time people in the entertainment industry or any other powerful business interest feels threatend by other business competition they will shamelessly go to the us congress and ask for legislative “relief” from thier business competitiors.
This amounts to things that are anti consumer and smacks of stifling business competition by a sherman act type of business monopoly.
It is bad enough that people in congress today will shamelessly take kickbacks and bribes from their crony friends in the entertainment industry but it is even worse that the average citizen in the united states is too ignorant and fucking stupid of the issues or most of them are too fucking apathetic to care.
Most people did not get upset when the mpaa ran 321 studios out of business and how the riaa was bragging about in the los angeles times in how they defeated H.R. 107 The congressional proposal that would have legalized dvd copying for personal use.
The united states is one of the few civilized countries in the world that copying a dvd is illegal.
To me that is a bigger travesty than the mpaa and the riaa suing people for illegal downloading.
I really don’t feel sorry for people like is because you don’t have a clue about life in america and the incredible greed in general in american business.
LIKE W.C. FIELDS USED TO SAY “THERE IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE.” !!
DUMB FUCK……
December 22nd, 2004 at 8:56 pm
That is precisely why i don’t buy dvds.
I like that one response about when you supposedly buy a dvd you really don’t own but are merely being leased the content by the entertaiment industry.
The only thing i have to say about your incredibly naive letter is :
HOW DOES IT FEEL GETTING BUTT FUCKED ?
you say that you are a canadian citizen and you don’t have a clue how as far as intellectual property is concerned how fucked up it is in the united states.
You are really a naive fool.
Ever since the dmca was ratified and passed into law by then president (communist) bill clinton people lost their fair use rights to legally bought medium a long time ago.
DRM IS THE BIGGEST SHERMAN ACT LIKE MONOPOLY AND ANTI CONSUMER FRAUD AND SCAM THAT EVER WAS.
That can also be said about people like bill gates that would swindle a customer out of $100 or so for a copy of windows xp.
As you well know bill gates is quite paranoid about piracy so this means a customer cannot make a legal copy of a very expensive cd rom.
Every time people in the entertainment industry or any other powerful business interest feels threatend by other business competition they will shamelessly go to the us congress and ask for legislative “relief” from thier business competitiors.
This amounts to things that are anti consumer and smacks of stifling business competition by a sherman act type of business monopoly.
It is bad enough that people in congress today will shamelessly take kickbacks and bribes from their crony friends in the entertainment industry but it is even worse that the average citizen in the united states is too ignorant and fucking stupid of the issues or most of them are too fucking apathetic to care.
Most people did not get upset when the mpaa ran 321 studios out of business and how the MPAA was bragging about in the los angeles times in how they defeated H.R. 107 The congressional proposal that would have legalized dvd copying for personal use.
The united states is one of the few civilized countries in the world that copying a dvd is illegal.
To me that is a bigger travesty than the mpaa and the riaa suing people for illegal downloading.
I really don’t feel sorry for people like is because you don’t have a clue about life in america and the incredible greed in general in american business.
LIKE W.C. FIELDS USED TO SAY “THERE IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE.” !!
DUMB FUCK……
December 22nd, 2004 at 9:31 pm
BILL CLINTON DIDNT RATIFY THIS BY CHOICE, IT PASSED THROUGH A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS BY ENOUGH OF A MARGIN TO NOT ONLY OVERRIDE A VETO, BUT TO BECOME A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT IF THEY WANTED IT.
December 23rd, 2004 at 8:30 am
That is precisely why i don’t buy dvds.
I like that one response about when you supposedly buy a dvd you really it don’t own but are merely being leased the content by the entertaiment industry.
The only thing i have to say about your incredibly naive letter is :
HOW DOES IT FEEL GETTING BUTT FUCKED ?
you say that you are a canadian citizen and you don’t have a clue how as far as intellectual property is concerned how fucked up it is in the united states.
You are really a naive fool.
Ever since the dmca was ratified and passed into law by then president (communist) bill clinton people lost their fair use rights to legally bought medium a long time ago.
DRM IS THE BIGGEST SHERMAN ACT LIKE MONOPOLY AND ANTI CONSUMER FRAUD AND SCAM THAT EVER WAS.
That can also be said about people like bill gates that would swindle a customer out of $100 or so for a copy of windows xp.
As you well know bill gates is quite paranoid about piracy so this means a customer cannot make a legal copy of a very expensive cd rom.
Every time people in the entertainment industry or any other powerful business interest feels threatend by other business competition they will shamelessly go to the us congress and ask for legislative “relief” from their business competitiors.
This amounts to things that are anti consumer and smacks of stifling business competition by a sherman act type of business monopoly.
Of course the united states belongs to the wto and they make trade agreements with the chinese and tiawan not to flood the us with pirated movie dvds and as soon as the ink is dry on the fucking worthless piece of paper the very said same people will flood places like wal mart with pirated copyrighted material by the box full.
It don’t take a fucking genius to know why the united states is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology.
most people in the united states are too stuffy too old fashioned too fucked up in the head and they look at the rest of the world with horse blinders.
There are a lot of people in the united states today who wistfully yearn for “the good ole’ days ” when american businesses did not have any global business competition.
Look at the dates.
IT’S ANCIENT FUCKING HISTORY……
It is bad enough that people in congress today will shamelessly take kickbacks and bribes from their crony friends in the entertainment industry but it is even worse that the average citizen in the united states is too ignorant and fucking stupid of the issues or most of them are too fucking apathetic to care.
Most people did not get upset when the mpaa ran 321 studios out of business.
The united states is one of the few civilized countries in the world that copying a dvd is illegal.
To me that is a bigger travesty than the mpaa and the riaa suing people for illegal downloading.
I really don’t feel sorry for people like you is because you don’t have a clue about life in america and the incredible greed in general in american business.
LIKE W.C. FIELDS USED TO SAY “THERE IS A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE.” !!
DUMB FUCK…………
December 23rd, 2004 at 1:21 pm
This is why DRM will fail. While the geek may be willing to fiddle about, figure out how to use proxies to fool the licence server, and install new software, the vast majority of ordinary buyers will simply return the disc as faulty, and will eventually stop buying them.
If you make the product so much hassle to use, people will simply stop bothering, and will find other things to spend their time and money on. As ususal, the greedy conglomerates underestimate how much grief the customer will put up with, and alienate their user base.
December 23rd, 2004 at 4:35 pm
This is because this is not what it is designed to do: it is designed to insert the DRM vendor as an intermediary in the communication between the creator and their audience. DRM is and will always be under the control of the DRM vendor, nobody else. If DRM obeys the copyright licenses of the recording industry it will only be because it is in the private interests of the DRM vendors to do so.
DRM does not vest control in copyright industries!
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/4285
December 25th, 2004 at 7:01 am
HA! I’m just glad that they don’t have DRM in Kraft Dinner!
Can you imagine??…Only have one bowl. If there are leftovers, DO NOT give the remains to the guy next door! Do not consume the leftovers at a later date. Do not put in compost pile. Do not share your dinner with the squirrels.
DRM is a very broad description of a technology that WILL be hacked. The ’suits’ might feel comfy cozy with it all, and lets let them keep their grin….
We know better.
As the consumer, we will win. And the suits at the desk will eventually see this.
Until that day, the ‘people’ shall rule.
The Lounge
December 27th, 2004 at 9:06 pm
Despite what many in the mainstream press might say, Linux is gaining. Linux is gaining because people are FED UP with paying a lot of money for a little bit of functionality. Linux is free, and so is the music from independent bands such as the “Dead Roses”, You people running these cartels, DRM or not, your days are numbered. If you try to choke out fair use on the Internet, people can still pass out CD’s or record from audio out to audio in.
RIAA and MPAA take note, because of your bullying tactics, I quit buying CD’s and DVD’s. I encourage other people to do the same. I say it is time to find the real talent out there. I have heard garage bands that sound much better than the likes of Creed, Metallica, and other overpaid artists. I download music which is given away by the artists themselve, and yes, if I like it, I will send money if there is a place for me to do so.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Actually my friend D.F. it was P.T. Barnum not Dub C Fields that said “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Ever hear of P.T. Barnum of Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus? That’s where the “sucker” part comes in sucker.
Fred
January 25th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I bought this same dvd now in 2008 and no matter what i do it errors . Even downloading the new Interactual player it tells me to, it will not play. And looking all over the dvd it doesnt even have a big enough file to contain the movie ,just some small few MB files that are menus. so i figure I guess the real 1080p movie must streamed off the internet ? anyway even the updated player will not work and directs me to their page trying to SELL me a copy of a paid version of software to play it in 1080p…….I’m so pissed I will never ever buy a movie with Interactual Player crapola again!!!!