p2p news / p2pnet: “Hey, you guys over in Corporate Dreamland, if you can see something or hear it, you can copy it.

“Period. End of sentence. Finito. Full stop.

“And when we’ve paid good money to buy something, we own it. So enough with the DRM.”

That’s message consumers have been sending since the first time the Big Four Organized music labels tried, and immediately failed, to add Digital Rights Restrictions to ‘product’.

Now Sony Corp is apparently trying it on with a DRM effort through which its hand-held games consoles would, verify a disc as legitimate, register the disc to that particular game console, then wipe out verification data so the disc would be rendered unreadable in other PlayStations, says the Los Angeles Times.

In one debacle after another, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG have released so-called copy protected product, the culmination of their ignomy coming when the latter crassly tried to sneak music CDs loaded with spyware onto customers’ computers. It wasn’t only an insult to the people who keep the company fat and happy, it actually endangered the integrity of their systems.

And speaking of contempt for customers, no company has expressed (and continues to express) it more adequately than Apple with its so-called FairPlay iTunes DRM downloads, for which it has the effrontery to charge $1 and more and which, amazingly, some people willingly pay.

iTunes marks are very much in the minority. But still ….

Nor are the labels alone. Hollywood had hopes Blue-Ray and HD DVD would be part of the answer and as Heise Security revealed, “For fear of piracy, Hollywood had the developers install a cornucopia of copy prevention mechanisms on them”.

But sadly, the long security chain has a giant hole which ultimately meant not merely cracked, but totally trashed DRM.

Meanwhile, not content with its terrible music spyware phk-up, Sony Corp is to the fore in the games world as well with technology that would, prevent its PlayStation consoles from playing used, rented or borrowed video games – raising questions about whether the electronics and entertainment giant may attempt to redefine what it means to own something in the digital age, says the LA Times.

It had, of course, already tried to do that with its hidden spyware. Now, speculation over Sony’s plans has sparked a furor online as game fans and consumer advocates fret that the company may incorporate it into the upcoming PlayStation 3 console, due to hit stores this fall, says the story. They worry that it would wipe out the $1-billion-a-year market for used games and could even prevent someone from playing their games at a friend’s house.

Game industry analyst Michael Pachter is quoted as saying he thinks Sony probably might not tighten software locks on PlayStation 3 games, instead using bolstered copy protection on other forms of entertainment downloaded to the console over the Internet.

“Maybe they’ll copy protect movies or music downloads,” he said, according to the story.

The new Sony DRM attempt, illustrates the changing nature of ownership as millions of people accumulate vast collections of digital entertainment, the LA Times, states, continuing:

Few people realize that when they buy software, music or movies, they are actually buying a license to use, listen or watch. That’s why it violates copyright laws for people to sell copies of their music collection.

Really?

Sony’s latest DRM idea also threatens another industry resales, says the LA Times, adding:

Used-game sales are a growing source of irritation for game publishers, which receive no proceeds from the resale of games. Executives privately complain that cheaper secondhand games are available for sale shortly after a new game’s release; publishers, which give retailers marketing money to promote games, end up competing with discounted versions of their own titles.

Stay tuned.

Digg this.

Also See:
Los Angeles Times – Furor Over Sony Patent, July 10, 2006
giant hole – Blu-ray, HD DVD DRM busted, July 8, 2006

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 9:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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