Ryan Greene: DRM

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 03:48:00 GMT

Basically, they have been taking enough of a beating in the market to know that they have to do something if they want to survive. Let's hope this way works out well for the customers.

From [Google Top Stories]

Man Alive This Makes me Angry

Mon, 06 Jan 2003 03:26:21 GMT

It seems that they are at it again...

Entertainment Cartel Gearing Up to Ban Time-Shifting TV. New York Times: Studios Using Digital Armor to Fight Piracy. Lying dormant in virtually every digital cable box in America... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

"We need to put in speed bumps to keep people honest," said Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, which is lobbying federal regulators to require many devices to incorporate technology that prevents consumers from sending digital media files over the Internet. "If we don't, our future is bleak."

Oddly, Jack, the courts found it to be legal for end users to tape programs to watch later, so why do we need speed bumps?

Sometimes I wonder if his middle name is Ass... Regardless, dig this next bit of info:

Gary Merson, who reviews equipment for consumer electronics magazines, found last week that his state-of-the-art high-definition television system would not display several channels, including HBO and WCBS. Instead a message flashed on the $8,000 screen: "Notice — Copy restrictions prevent the viewing of this program in the high definition format. For more information see the owner's manual for your satellite receiver."

DirecTV, Mr. Merson's satellite provider, said no one was available to comment on the company's policy on copy restrictions last week. But Mr. Merson said he was told by a customer service representative that the message was intended for television studios that want to activate anti-piracy measures.

If DirecTV detects that a customer's equipment would allow certain shows to be transmitted over the Internet, the viewer is informed that the material can be seen only in standard format. In Mr. Merson's case, the message appears to have been a technical glitch, which did not make him any happier.

"These copy-protection schemes are a bill of goods," said Mr. Merson, who wrote about the experience in his Internet newsletter, The HDTV Insider. "The program providers get the higher profits and we get stuff that doesn't work right."

I imagine I'd be pretty steamed if I had just spent $8000 on my TV and found out that I couldn't watch the shows I wanted to because of a glitch. How would that make you feel?

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 19:20:22 GMT

Good article from Business Week about DRM, where it stands, and where each interested party wants it to go.

Will Your TV Become a Spy? [Business Week: Technology]

I better order this soon then

Sat, 21 Dec 2002 02:44:27 GMT

Hollywood targets DVD-copying upstart. The movie industry is training its legal guns on a new target: small start-up 321 Studios, which lets people make copies of their DVDs. [CNET News.com]

I Need A Bank of These

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 17:01:26 GMT

Rack mounted if possible. Then again, if the latest copyright buill goes through, they won't work with the newer TVs that will be coming out. Details of what I'm yammering about below:

My TiVo woes continue. Last week, my TiVo lost it's programming guide. All efforts over the past week to reload it haven't been successful. One thing we did find is that without the programming guide, TiVo is essentially useless. It doesn't have simple VCR controls that allow you to pick a channel, a time, and a recording length.

My friend recently set up his Replay TV to connect to his PC over Ethernet. He allocated a 120 Gb drive on his PC to his Replay device. He also spent a couple of hours converting a couple of dozen of his DVDs and tapes he owns over to this PC hard-drive. This now makes it possible to play them on demand.

This is getting closer to what I want: a simple device (and remote control) that connects my entertainment center to my PC. Nothing fancy, just hardware and some light software. This would allow me to easily store all the content that is delivered to my house or any movies/music I play on my DVD/CD player on an inexpensive drive for personal use later. I could select from a variety of extremely low cost programming guides via the Internet (this competition would allow the guides to get better, faster, and more powerful quicker). The interface doesn't have to be that different than a standard PC interface (on HDTV at 1080i, a PC interface is extremely nice and 30-40"!). If this was built into a home theater receiver, that would probably work too (it would only require that a couple of input jacks -- for all three major modes of input -- that route through the computer's PVR hard-drive). [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Dan Gillmor Rocks the Mic

Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:13:01 GMT

My Response to Jack Valenti [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Um, Go Verizon!

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:31:20 GMT

Finally, a Fair Fight with Big Music [Business Week: Technology]

The RIAA and Verizon are going at it hammer and tong over the issue of revealing a users identity, who was accused of trading music files via a P2P network. To Verizon's credit, they won't do it.

In a Sept. 10 "friend of the court" brief filed by the U.S. Internet Industry Assn., the ISPs argue that "what the RIAA is really seeking, at the end of the day, is to shift the burden of copyright enforcement from its own members -- who apparently would prefer not to alienate potential customers by suing them outright -- to an ISP that does nothing more than provide an Internet connection to the customer."

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Ryan Greene, Cash Nazi*

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 16:39:57 GMT

Sony Proudly Rolls Out Spyware/Restrictions System [Slashdot]

I've spent over $7,000 on hardware this year alone, including a VAIO PC, CLIE PDA, LCD screens, and a stack of memory sticks. But guess what? Sony isn't getting another dime from me. No Video cameras (planned on $3k this year), still digital cameras ($1,500 minimum), music or movies (~$1k), nothing. Ever again. No PS2 for me, or games, either rented or purchased. I already have a GameCube, and now, I have less reason than ever to switch.

I am the unquenchable consumer, I want to be amused whenever and wherever I am, to get Seussian for a moment:

I want my movies on a plane
I want my movies on a train
I want to rock out on a bus
I want to game with Mr Gus

If you deny this thing to me
My cash and I will have to flee
And keep another's company
That lets my stuff travel with me

So Sony, it's been fun, but you get nothing from here on out. Good luck, so long, bye bye!

*This is a Seinfeld reference/twist, to the Soup Nazi character.

It's Late, I'm Tired, and What better Time to Ramble?

Fri, 09 Aug 2002 03:51:28 GMT

Consumer Friendly (or Disney Hostile) DVD Players? [Slashdot]

OK, the writer is looking for a DVD player that will let him skip trailers as well as the FBI notice on DVDs. Someone suggests VideoLAN as an option. So what is VideoLAN?

VideoLAN is a project of French students from the École Centrale Paris and developers from all over the world. Its main goals is MPEG streaming on a network, but it also features a standalone multimedia player. The VideoLAN Server can stream video read from a hard disk, a DVD player, a satellite card or an MPEG 2 compression card, and unicast or multicast it on a network. The VideoLAN Client can read the stream from the network and display it. It can also be used to display video read locally on the computer : DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and DivX files and from a satellite card. It is multi-plaform : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX, iPaq... The VideoLAN Client and Server now have a full IPv6 support.

VideoLAN is free software, and is released under the GNU General Public License.

Pretty sweet. Now, if you have the scratch, imagine setting this up with a server that has some large, fast hard drives. The server watches the folders of your machines that you ahve set up with PVR cards, and grabs the show once it's taped. You also set up the server to snag a stream of a DVD as it's played, so that you have an archived copy in your system. Since you own the DVD and would never, ever tell anyone about this, you don't have to worry about getting busted for it.

Now, the cool thing is, you can have the server multicast, so you can effectively program your own TV channels. I know that for me, alte nights when I can't sleep, the best thing I can do is sit down with a quart of milk, a box of cookies, and watch some horror films, preferably Hammer Studios Dracula series. Puts me right out (and explains a lot, really.) Now, if you could tie this in with your personal assitant/Major Domo, Higgins, you'd be onto something.

Higgins: "Sir, you have insomnia?" (Higgins has noticed that you are stirring, and have just gone from the kitchen to the living room, and are now aimlessly channel surfing.)
User: "Yes Higgins. Anything good on?"
Higgins: "Mostly infomercials on broadcast. HBO 12 is showing ''My life in Bhutan'', which is one of your favorites..."
User: "No thank you Higgins, Que up some drive in horror, bugs and vampires please." (User has just used some keywords to describe what he's in the mood for. Higgins will now search through his archives for what the User likes, hasn't seen recently, and that matches the search terms used)
Higgins: "How about, The Giant Mantis, Them, and Dracula's Brides, sir?"
User: "Perfect. On the headphones, and theatre lighting."
Higgins: "Done and done." (Higgins switches the audio channel to the user's wireless headphones, and the changes the lighting to the theatre preset for the room.)
User: >belches
Higgins: "Excuse me sir?" (Higgins is in the headphones how)
User: "Nothing Higgins, I'm all set, goodnight." (This is a voice cue to put Higgins into standby unless he is addressed by name)
Higgins: "Goodnight sir."
User: (Kicks back and drifts off watching the film.)

Obviously, Higgins could be configured differently, to either respond with tones and text displays, differing genders and colloquialisms depending on region and user preference, etc, etc.

OK, Cool, Naaaw, Fuck.

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 20:17:51 GMT

FCC pushes digital TV adoption. CNET Aug 8 2002 12:22PM ET
FCC requires all-digital TVs. MSNBC Aug 8 2002 12:30PM ET...
FCC to add anti-copy tech on digital TV. ZDNet Aug 8 2002 12:50PM ET...
FCC pushes piracy-proof, digital TV. ZDNet Aug 8 2002 1:04PM ET...

... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Broadcast flags, bad, Beeer Gooood.

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 17:29:43 GMT

Get ready to buy a new TV [USA Today : Front Page]

The gist of the article is that the FCC is going to require that all TVs be digital signal compatable, which is fine by me, as long as the it caries over to VCRs and DVR machines as well, and there is no steenking rebroadcast badges incorporated into the technology.

In advance of Thursday's decision, Jenny Miller, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association, had said, "We believe there's going to be a mandate for the inclusion of a digital broadcast television tuner in all television sets."

But she also said she felt the manufacturers might challenge such a ruling in court, if necessary.

Miller said the requirement would cost $250 for each set, amounting to an annual "TV tax" on the industry and consumers of about $7 billion. She said that with most consumers receiving television signals by cable or satellite, putting the tuner in all TVs would make people pay for a device most won't use.

Economy of scale - if the chipsets are put in every TV, VCR etc as I described above, it simply can't cost that much to implement, as someone will be either designing or making them for cheap.

Doc Knocks Another One Out of the Park

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 16:59:12 GMT

Memorializing one of the few times that copyright paranoia lost the day

You gotta read Jack Valenti's testimony against the VCR back in '83. That's when Jack famously said, I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.

But there's more. So much more...

But now we are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape. And it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore. This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend, on which film people depend, on which television people depend and it is called copyright...

Because unless the Congress recognizes the rights of creative property owners as owners of private property, that this property that we exhibit in theaters, once it leaves the post-theatrical markets, it is going to be so eroded in value by the use of these unlicensed machines, that the whole valuable asset is going to be blighted. In the opinion of many of the people in this room and outside of this room, blighted, beyond all recognition. It is a piece of sardonic irony that this asset, which unlike steel or silicon chips or motor cars or electronics of all kinds -- a piece of sardonic irony that while the Japanese are unable to duplicate the American films by a flank assault, they can destroy it by this video cassette recorder...

Now, I don't have to tell anybody in politics -- I have spent most of my adult life in politics and you learn one thing. Nothing of value is free. It is very easy, Mr. Chairman, to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else's property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled. That is what it is all about...

And my favorite exchange:

Mr. VALENTI. Now, let me tell you what Sony says about this thing. These are not my words. They are right straight from McCann Erickson, whom you will hear from tomorrow, who is the advertising agency for Sony and here is what they say. They advertise a variable beta scan feature that lets you adjust the speed at which you can view the tape from 5 times up to 20 times the normal speed.

Now, what does that mean, Mr. Chairman? It means that when you are playing back a recording, which you made 2 days or whenever -- you are playing it back. You are sitting in your home in your easy chair and here comes the commercial and it is right in the middle of a Clint Eastwood film and you don't want to be interrupted. So, what do you do? You pop this beta scan and a 1-minute commercial disappears in 2 seconds.

Mr. RAILSBACK. Is that all bad?

What got me started on all this was a signature in an email this morning:

Jack Valenti is to the American film viewer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.

Heh.

[Doc Searls Weblog]

Anyone have an opinion on the HRRC?

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 15:56:26 GMT

More Remote Control? Try a Dish. While cable companies try to exercise as much control over their content as possible, satellite companies like EchoStar and DirecTV give the consumer more options. But that kind of freedom might not last. By Brad King. [Wired News]

Here's hoping the FCC doesn't mess this up for DVR owners. Aside - 1996 Telecom act was supposed to get cable companies to open up their networks, in terms of allowing conumers to buy their own cable boxes, much like you can do with satellite. That hasn't happened. But if I could have bought a DVR/cable box, I'd probably have both digital cable and an iMac with a superdrive right now, as well as the software that would let me burn the full length movies that I had recorded. Not to sell, or give away, but so that I could archive my favorite shows and flicks that I recorded, which, last time I checked, is legal.

Hmmm, reading the above link, according to Nov 1991 legislation, your digital cable box is illegal...

Wed, 07 Aug 2002 11:41:29 GMT

TiVo Might Rue Arrival of DTV. Hollywood's latest attempts to prevent consumers from copying shows takes place in the arena of digital TV. Owners of TiVo and ReplayTV might want to pay attention. By Brad King. [Wired News]

More FUD From Valenti -

If Hollywood gets its way, recording won't be as easy as it is today.

Jack Valenti, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, has said that without proper security measures, the industry won't allow its movies to be broadcast. The reason: Digital signals create perfect copies that won't degrade. Executives fear they would deliver perfect copies to millions of viewers.

Just like VCRs destroyed the movie industry, right Jack? Because why would anyone go to the movies when they could watch them at home, Right? Riiight. And God forbid that the end user have a perfect copy of a film that they ahev the right to record, because, well, that's the first seal that will open the apocolypse, Right Jack? Just like selling movies for less than $89.95 will lead to massive piracy, Right Jack?

The Death of Internet Radio

Thu, 01 Aug 2002 18:30:40 GMT

Doc rocks the keyboard with a scathing piece on the role that legislation has played in killing internet radio.

Bitter Irony Stikes RIAA, film at eleven

Tue, 30 Jul 2002 03:24:22 GMT

RIAA Web site disabled by attack. A denial-of-service attack rendered the site unavailable over the weekend after the group endorsed legislation to allow copyright holders to disrupt peer-to-peer networks. [CNET News.com]

I'm not saying I endorse it, I'm just saying live by the sword, die by the sword.

Weinberger on DRM

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:40:51 GMT

David Weinberger has an excellent set of rules for DRM. Must add a DRM category...