bruceb news

“It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified [Digital Rights Management] security technologies.”

According to this article in The Register, those are the opening words of draft legislation “obediently proposed by US Senators Fritz Hollings (Democrat, South Carolina) and Ted Stevens (Republican, Alaska) on behalf of their entertainment and software industry patrons.”

“Digital Rights Management” is the code word for technology that would restrict your right to use any media that is capable of being controlled. Using DRM, the recording industry can restrict a song that you download so that it can only be played once, it can’t be played on another computer, and it can’t be used to create an audio CD. […] continued

A timely news article today after my rant yesterday about the copyright wars. Turns out the record industry has been slipping copy-protected audio CDs into stores for a few months now. The copy protection prevents you from making .mp3 files from the CD – your files will be full of audible clicks and pops. So you’re prevented from making a backup copy of the songs on the CD in the event the CD is damaged; you’re prevented from storing the songs on your computer and taking advantage of the features of your favorite jukebox program; you’re prevented from making copies to listen to on a portable .mp3 player. […] continued

Here’s an example of the future as envisioned by the megacorporations that are trying to turn copyrights to their advantage. Imagine that you open the cover of your summer reading and find this notice:

“By opening the cover of this book, you agree to the following license terms: You do not own the book, you are merely licensed to read it. The publisher may revoke the license and take back the book at any time they think you might have violated the license. You may not copy the book or any portion of it, allow anyone else to read the book or any portion of it, nor read it or any portion of it aloud.

[…] continued

The conventional wisdom has been that the record companies would target services like Napster with threats and lawsuits, but they would never attack individuals – for practical and PR reasons.

Forget it. The copyright police are watching.

The new services popping up to replace Napster – Gnutella and the like – do not use central servers. There’s no company to sue, just a lot of individuals sharing files. The record companies, movie studios, and independent bounty hunters are crawling all over those services, taking down IP addresses. Demands are made to the ISPs to reveal subscribers’ names, cut off accounts, and potentially open people up to being sued for sharing files. […] continued

There’s a lot to learn about the copyright issues symbolized by the war against Napster. Copyright owners are waging a concerted battle with a single-minded goal: to make your every exposure to copyrighted material into an event that costs you money. In 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was presented as a benign update to old law, but its horrible consequences are going to reshape our world. The flow of information on the Internet may be constrained in ways that would shock you. Downloaded material – maybe even CDs and DVDs – may stop working after a fixed amount of time unless you keep paying. […] continued

A fascinating article in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses some of the ways that software manufacturers are going to cooperate with the recording industry and attempt to kill the .mp3 format. The competing formats – Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio, Real Networks’ Real Audio, and others – all have more or less effective ways to lock up the files and prevent you from burning CDs, sharing the files, or loading them onto portable devices. The .mp3 format is open, not really amenable to “protecting” the songs in the same way. You’ll be under lots of pressure to use other formats – the kind of insidious, nasty pressure that’s hard to resist. […] continued

Here’s a good article that explains all the issues about file formats and pricing for downloadable music from the record labels – and concludes that they stand a good chance of getting it completely wrong.

Here’s a glimpse of the future according to the recording industry.

Like the announcement with RealNetworks a couple of days ago and MSN yesterday, MTV and VH1 are rolling out a service with the cooperation of the major record labels. It’s routine – Internet radio and the option to buy songs by downloading them. Still no information available on file format or the extent of the restrictions on the use of the downloaded files. But look at the prices! Anywhere from a buck to $2.50 for a single song, and anywhere from ten to eighteen bucks for an entire CD. Think about that! […] continued

Even if Napster survives the court case, it won’t be fun for much longer. In addition to its plans for paid subscriptions, Napster now plans to add a “protection layer” to .mp3 files during their progress from someone else’s computer to your computer. The “protection” would prevent you, for example, from making an audio CD from the .mp3 file. Here’s an article about Napster’s plans.
There will be a period of confusion after Napster either shuts down or becomes annoying, but don’t worry. It’s a safe bet that downloadable music is here to stay.