*** DRM intro column in the c't magazine - brilliant!

[LigH]

Dear friends,

I just read the 3rd page feulleton in the german computer technology magazine "c't" - simply brilliant! Sven Hansen writes about his future with a DRM chip in his brain... Give me a bit time, I'll translate it into english and post it here.

It is nice to see that even computer magazines are voting against too much copyright control.

Until later!

[Doom9]

I haven't picked up the mag yet but I read what's available from the new issue online.. scary stuff. Is there any known group trying to fight these new copyright laws in Europe?

[LigH]

Here as promised, some kind of free translation. Please no flames about incorrect details (especially the headline)... :cool:

Original by Sven Hansen, editor of c't magazine

Ears wide shut

Somtimes you need to decide: On one hand, I need to take the Spaghetti out of the water to keep them 'al dente'. On the other, my radio is playing this Madonna oldie once again. If I don't switch it off immediately, this song will cost me five cent. I prefer the Spaghetti - cling - five cent less on my account, don't care. My chip for Digital Rights Management is a bit annoying, sometimes, but after all, everything has become so much easier.

Because since we all got that DRM implant, every CD, DVD and all the other media are free of charge. Only watching and listening is expensive - the DRM chip identifies copyright protected material as you are recognising it. The fee is deducted right after. Since that, even exchange boards are well distinguished again. And if I receive lower quality over the Web, the DRM company automatically allows a discount. But that thing is able to do even more.

The built-in Macrovision protection disallows content, which is not meant for me, to be seen or heared. This might be due to overdrawing my account - then I see just flicker instead of content. Therefore, the last short trip to Paris was very annoying: Susanne had no problem with her chip, but mine was a teaser when we visited the Louvre. Though it's well possible that I once disabled cultural content due to the costs - it doesn't matter in the case of Modern Art, anyway. I just pretended to be able to see everything in the museum.

Besides, the market data collected by that chip conduced to product information, streaming all day onto me, picked out exactly to supply my personal need. Nevertheless, I still think of the starting times of DRM sometimes - when it was possible to listen to a CD three times before the playback was disabled. Some day, the developers decided to complete the Copyright Protection - portable players without a headphone plug and such. But finally they found the idea of the chip in the neocortex.

The artists congratulated the new chip as well: No need for entrance fees for concerts anymore. Five percent of the DRM issues go directly into their pockets. That's no small coins when a whole stadium listens to a song - waving to the melody costs extra, of course. I have no idea what the remaining 95 percent are used for. Sometimes it is hard when I didn't file a request for a media break and I'm liable to acoustics involuntarily: The first 20 seconds are counted as free sample, then it means 'run or pay'.

The Spaghetti are saved, but I better switch off the radio now. It's getting too expensive. I still have that song I used to listen so much that I can imagine it with closed eyes - gratis, so to say. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - just frenzy. All I must avoid is to hum it aloud...


@doom9: I think I'll contact him and ask if he knows about such organisations.

[Doom9]

hehe.. now imagine me getting money from the DRM chip each time you visit this forum or my site ;) Makes you all see it from another perspective. But then greed is not my motive to do this and that's the main difference here. Studios are not out to implement DRM to give us something even though they claim so. The don't want to make our experience better and our life simpler... they want to screw us over and over and over again. An example that illustrates how pathetic their arguments for DRM are: Audio CDs all contain a copyright flag. Digital recorders (DAT, DCC, MiniDisc, standalone CD recorders) read that flag and write a similar flag to the recorded content. The Flag on the CDs usually say that this is an original and you're allowed to make a copy of it. The flag on the recorded copy says this is a copy and you may not copy it digitally anymore. So, I can copy my audio CDs to MiniDisc and listen to them when I'm on the road and I can do so digitally to have the least amount of quality loss. However, I cannot give my MD copy to a friend for copying. While he can copy, he can only do so using the analogue output of his MD player, not the digital one. In most countries circumventing that system (called SCMS if I'm not mistaken, serial copy management system) is illegal afaik. However, there really isn't much reason to circumvent it for legal purposes. You own the original CD and copyright laws allow you to make a copies of it for personal purposes. But you can't make a MD of the latest charts, give that to a friend and he copies it for his friends. So effectively this system allows fair use but it makes piracy harder.
the latest audio CDs do not only contain these nasty mechanisms that prevent playback in so many devices, they also contain an scms flag that prevents you from copying them digitally. So.. while you pay for audio CD-Rs, MiniDisc and DAT tapes to make use of your fair use right.. you may no longer exercise it. You're paying good money (part of the recorder goes to the organization in your country that recompensates artists for public display of their work, as does a part of the disc price) but now as copying is no longer possible you're paying too much. Of course.. nobody would care to give you that money back, would they? No.. the motto is: let the customer bend over and ram it up his ...

I say.. they deserve piracy for screwing us like that. In fact I've wondered many times why I even bother to buy music and movies anymore and give money to companies that are only working on ways to screw me even worse.

[trbarry]

There is an interesting application of economics here. Copy protected media or gear will be worth slightly less than unencumbered media because it has somewhat less utility and you can derive somewhat less satisfaction from it.

But pirated media will have had the copy protection removed somehow. All else being equal, that would make pirated media slightly more valuable than the copy protected originals.

When this incremental difference in value grows larger than some threshold value you would expect the public at large to start preferring pirated media over the originals. I'm not sure that is exactly what the IP cartels really hoped for. ;)

- Tom

[Bugs Bunny]

Whooaaa... Total Eclipse of the Heart.. that's mah favorite ditty.. Nicki French I love you.. <runs off to play the MP3 some more, good thing it doesn't wear out>

Hah you know what reading the (translated) bit is kinda like reading "1984". You know it's a burlesque that has little chance of happening, but it does serve to raise your hackles a little about the corporate interests. Great fodder for the techno-paranoids like oh, what's-his-name that goes around and sends mailbombs to people..

BTW, it's one reason why I'll never touch MS Passport or any of its ilk--its lack of security notwithstanding. I'm sure if Ballmer has his way, all newborns would be tagged with user ID chip that sends a micropayment to MS every time we run Media Player.

But before we lambast the corporate suits too much, realize that "fair use" is a battle of self-interests, nothing more. There is no absolute "right" or "wrong" involved, so moral arguments don't apply. It's our self-interest as consumers to have fair use as liberally defined as possible, because we like to pay as little as possible, while it's the suits' interest to restrict fair use, so they can get as much for their products as possible. It's a never-ending battle for the almighty buck. That's about it. Many of us techie types (read: pseudonym for anarchists HAH!) would like to wrap the issue in provocative themes like centralized state/corp control, and while it makes for fun reading, it's basically propaganda. A little "the enemy is evil" rah-rah.

Make no mistake where I stand. I'm a consumer who like to have BROAD fair use rights (at least until I get to be a suit and SHACKLE ALL OF YOU LARCENOUS LOT AND HAUL YOU TO MY SLAVE PITS!!), but I try to see things as they are, rather than be led by a bunch of clumsy propaganda. Remember the tenet for all anarchists: CRITICAL THINKING!

[Bugs Bunny]

Hey what is the deal with royalty payments in Europe? Do ya have to pay a surcharge on all recordable media you buy? Over here stateside I think all analog and all consumer digital media have surcharges, but not the computer CD recordables. Hmm, I'm wondering if the DVD-Rs will be taxed like the analogs.. Anybody know?

And what's the picture in Canada? I hear tell they got taxed on everything just like the Euro blokes.

[TheWEF]

well, if i had this chip in my brain i would download mavens drmStrip and watch for free. ;)

they can't win (i hope).

wef.