It's still about the means of production, you see — but in the overdeveloped world, at least, it's not about the production of goods and services anymore. Today's virtual revolutionary is happy to leave all that to capitalists. The virtual revolutionary wants to control the production of meaning — representations of herself and her world as she wants them to seem. Or be. Or whatever.
That's all she asks.
Or, rather, takes.
Thomas de Zengotita welcomes the big world of the small screen. Peter Bogdanovich, instead,
still mourns that last picture show.
posted by matteo
on Mar 26, 2006 -
22 comments
Oh, the irony. This season of
Survivor (premiering tonight!), CBS will offer $1.99 video downloads of each episode on its own site, bypassing middlemen such as iTunes and Google Video. The catch? Your download "survives" only 24 hours after you buy it. Remember how well
DIVX did?
posted by mkultra
on Feb 2, 2006 -
35 comments
Make your own DRM CD! Nothing says "Merry Christmas" (or Happy Chanukah, et al) like a homemade CD with the same crippling DRM technology that
Sony and BMG use. Let a friend or relative you know that you care enough to prevent them from stealing music you've already stolen, even at the expense of enjoying the CD at all.
It's what the holidays are really about.
posted by FeldBum
on Dec 16, 2005 -
8 comments
Below is a press release announcing a partnership between Weedshare and Magnatune. I tried to hit the DRM issue head-on in the release, as that's likely the most contentious issue with our existing Magnatune fans.
Bottom line: this is an alternative way for people to buy Magnatune music, in a scheme where they can themselves make money by sharing their bought files with other people, in what is typically referred to as an "affiliate network." We absolutely will continue to sell DRM-free music through the magnatune web site, but for those who wish to make money by sharing their files, that option is now there.
posted by zouhair
on Dec 13, 2005 -
21 comments
Sony steps in it again. In the midst of the uproar about the
Sony rootkit previously mentioned
here, J. Alex Haldeman found a
second sneaky piece of work in Sony CD's.
It's pretty clear now that the only safe way to listen to music from Sony is to steal it. [
via]
posted by pjern
on Nov 12, 2005 -
72 comments
Do you play Sony DRM-protected CD's on your computer? If so, you might be wide open in terms of security. It seems that
Sony is installing an almost-impossible to find rootkit on the computers of purchasers of their music. Their
EULA doesn't mention the fact that their "small, proprietary" program goes much too far, managing to bypass security software, firewalls, etc. You might want to do
this, anyway.
posted by pjern
on Oct 31, 2005 -
60 comments
Can you hear the future? Sunncomm can, and it's called copy protection. Sunncomm's Mediamax
DRM, which blocks the purchaser from copying any files from the CD, is included on the latest
Dave Matthews Band CD,
Stand Up (as well as CDs from some
other artists). The good news? It includes pre-ripped versions of the songs. The bad news? They're
.WMA files.
Apparently, Dave Matthews Band decided to
help out all those iPod lovers who were getting hosed (perhaps in response to
this) by posting instructions on how to bypass Sunncomm's copy protection. Of course, the
last time somebody did that, he nearly got
sued into oblivion. DMB's probably OK, however, because it seems that
business is booming. Of course, that may not
last long.
[via] and [via]
posted by MrZero
on Aug 17, 2005 -
48 comments
Think you're in full control of your computer?
Think again.
Intel has just quietly added one of the necessary components of Microsoft's (and the TCG/TCPA's)
DRM
technology, Palladium, to the PC platform. Some say this is a move against
rampant Chinese software piracy,
others think it's a power grab by the
content producers. Left unchecked, content and software producers will
have the final say in how you use your computer,
fair use be damned.
posted by id
on May 28, 2005 -
55 comments
Darknet Blog - Interesting articles about what is shaping technology today, and how the industry is playing nice with the government to legislate drm into our lives.
posted by sourbrew
on May 28, 2005 -
4 comments
It's the equivalent of "You can play the CD on three designated CD players that support the DRM. Like,
it will play ONLY on xyz brand cd player and only three of those that you pick. Yes, you have to stick to that brand of cd player (the iTunes player, the supported OS of iTunes, no unix support in sight) and too bad if you have a fourth one in the bedroom. It's not gonna play in your second car's player either. Nor in the kitchen. Nor on your neighbor's player. Nor can you trade it on the used market when you're tired of listening to it. "
"They finally found a way to sell you some wind. Even better, they will restrict the direction and force in wich the wind will blow, how often and where it will happen..."
As "DVD-Jon" Johansen goes to
retrial, a
backlash is rising in the media & community towards Apple's DRM (digital rights management), a week after this same kid created an open-source
program that lets users copy the songs that they bought onto other sources.
posted by omidius
on Dec 2, 2003 -
28 comments
Jon Johansen of DeCSS fame has made a program that
strips iTunes ACC files of DRM.
Here is what he has to say about it. Maybe I will give iTunes a try after all.
posted by epimorph
on Nov 26, 2003 -
16 comments
You thought web standards were bad, how about PC, DVD and Recorder standards too? Well, the FCC has officially mandated that vendors making devices such as dvd players, recorders, pc's, must include (by July 1, 2005) copy-protection mechanisms which will prevent sharing of most digitally
broadcast content. Broadcasters will have the option of adding a 'flag' to data streams which will prevent users from sharing digital content ala mp3's. Yes, there will be ways around this;yes, old systems will still work (maybe), but in the end, the FCC has just established a new technological standard which will end up in all of our new computers, dvd players, tivos, post 2005. Want to do something about it? Sorry. Too
late.
posted by jeremias
on Nov 5, 2003 -
29 comments
Student sued after revealing CD copying secret. Apparently SunnComm Technologies is under the impression that mentioning that using the "shift" key on your computer will override its program's installation is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And also, the company's lost $10 million in market value since the story aired. Which may also have something to do with it.
posted by jscalzi
on Oct 10, 2003 -
21 comments
What is the Darknet? Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Darknet is. Okay, actually, it's a term that some Microsoft computer scientists came up with to refer to all the different ways that internet users can swap copyrighted materials.
In a paper they authored [DOC] for a
workshop on Digital Rights Management (DRM), these engineers predict that the Darknet will grow ever stronger and more efficient while DRM technologies will make legal right holders
less able to compete with Darknet and are ultimately "doomed to failure."
posted by boltman
on Nov 24, 2002 -
38 comments
Its the end of Online anonimity as we know it. Intel announces that its next generation of CPUs will have Digital Rights Management hardwired onboard the chip. See also Microsoft's Palladium, an OS-level identity and rights management scheme.
(is this Wintel's idea of how to jump start anemic computer sales?)
posted by BentPenguin
on Sep 10, 2002 -
28 comments
WHAT IS THE CBDTPA? The law would force all new personal computers and digital home entertainment devices sold in the United States to have government-approved "policeware" built-in.
This policeware would restrict your use of copyrighted material on these devices -- including music files and CD's, video clips, DVD's, e-books, and more.
posted by Niahmas
on Jul 18, 2002 -
6 comments
Homer Simpson: Hack your DVD player. It seems in countries in which the DVD Copy Control Authority doesn't own the government, even the giants of corpmedia don't like the "protection" features the platform foists on consumers. On Fox's Simpsons UK DVD release FAQ page, Homer himself says "I have no idea whatsoever what regional coding means. But it is essential that you buy a multi-regional player. Do it now." Is the DVD region-coding system really only relevant in the United States?
posted by Vetinari
on Jul 11, 2002 -
25 comments
Harry Potter released unprotected. In a move that makes me say both "Wha?" and "Kickass!", Warner Bros chose to release the Harry Potter DVD and VHS home versions sans the Macrovision copy protection. It could stand to be quite an experiment, or quite a blunder on their part.
posted by mathowie
on Jun 15, 2002 -
14 comments
You too can be a felon! Last year, the SDMI Foundation made a
public challenge to see if
anyone could crack 6 proposed protection mechanisms for digitally-encoded music. All six turned out to be feeble and all six fell. Since then, the SDMI Foundation has been relying on lawyers to cover up for the incompetence of their engineers. They're trying to suppress this article, so everyone reading this has a duty to make and store a copy of it. (Everyone should also own at least one copy of DeCSS. I have the 442-character C version printed on the back of my personal card.)
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Apr 21, 2001 -
15 comments
Microsoft to cripple MP3 capabilities I don't think anyone has posted this yet; Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system is set up so as to cripple MP3 copying, in order to nudge users into using Windows Media Player format for all their music files. Of course, the latter is a proprietary format with copy protection built in. Not only does the built-in software not copy MP3 files at a higher sampling rate than 56kps, but third-party MP3 software apparently does not work properly. --As usual, this will not stop knowledgeable users from finding workarounds, but the goal is to make unprotected copying too difficult for the average Joe.
posted by Rebis
on Apr 12, 2001 -
45 comments
If you choose to accept
this music file, Mr. Phelps, it will self-destruct after one listen. If you attempt to tamper with or share this file, it will also self-destruct. Thank you for your attention. End of Line.
posted by aflakete
on Aug 1, 2000 -
4 comments
Sony to introduce new CD format. No, it's not DVD-Music. It's a new double-capacity CD format that Sony says "will be able to prevent illegal copying." I'm assuming the new format will require all-new hardware to read and to write. So my question is, what's the point? Won't another music format just increase consumer confusion and make them more reluctant to buy? Why come out with a 1.3GB format just as recordable DVDs, with much larger capacities, are becoming practical? Do they really expect people to buy all new hardware to support what is obviously a dead-end format?
posted by daveadams
on Jul 5, 2000 -
12 comments
