Jobs & Gates Speak Out Against DRM

[Robbie]

This would be amusing if it was not such as serious matter. After the
MPAA and the RIAA, Apple and Microsoft are amongst the worst offenders
when it comes to digital rights management abuses.
It is interesting to see the comments that have just been made by Steve
Jobs and Bill Gates.
See:

Quote

Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, has urged the world's largest record
companies to begin selling songs online without security software.

He said the abolition of copy protection software known as digital
rights management (DRM) would be good for consumers and music suppliers.

Copyright protection had failed to tackle piracy, he argued.

End Quote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6337275.stm

And

Quote

Gates: Digital locks too complex
Zune
Microsoft's new Zune has DRM on all Zune store tracks
Microsoft boss Bill Gates has told a group of influential bloggers that
copy protection for digital music and video is too complex for consumers.

End Quote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6182657.stm

 

[Chad Harris]

Why isn't MSFT practicing what it preaches to make DRM less of a problem in
Zune and in Vista? Was Gates not talking to MSFT and Jim Allchin while he
birthed Vista? And yes I've read the blog from Nick White on the Windows
Vista team blog.

CH

 

[Troy McClure]

whats really amusing is how people are making such a big deal about this...
mostly crazy, extreme left-wing types that think everything in the world
should be free to them.

everyone just really needs to get over this. if MS and Apple implement drm,
however they do it, its not by choice. theyre being forced by billion dollar
industries and government agencies. truth be told, if youre doing everything
legally, drm shouldnt bother you at all.

personally im pretty sure that soon the whole thing will go away as we
realize that drm will NEVER be implemented in a bullet proof way and
everyone will finally give up.

until then, go feed a starving child... or send a soldier in Iraq a bullet
proof vest. in other words, do something that matters and stop bitching
about maybe not being able to play your new dvd without first proving that
its not pirated.

 

[Richard Urban]

You think that Apple and Microsoft CAUSED DRM? You are wrong. The record and
movie industry caused it.

Apple and Microsoft have been forced to incorporate DRM in their products or
be shut out of listening to purchased music or viewing purchased HD movies.
Now that their products are so called "compliant" with DRM they can fight
back. I hope they win.

BTW: Did you know that new hardware is going to have DRM built into the
electronics to satisfy the record and movie industry. You should read more
to get a cleaner picture of what is really occurring.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Saucy Lemon]

That's a really good question. I vaguely remember reading that MS feels it
has to, 'else the deals with the content publishers can't be made etc. etc.
But that's a bad reason to include DRM and a bad deal for Microsoft.

It was folly, IMO, for MS to get into DRM at all. It's not their business,
so to speak, to protect the content of the music and movie producers. Their
businesses is to serve the computer user .. not the media marketers. My
computer is mine and I give the honour of the OS to Microsoft. But it
remains my computer to do as I please and no one has any business locking me
out of it .. "my papers" so to speak.

If Times/ Warner wants to put a lock on their media [that is a lock on their
media, not a root kit on my computer etc. etc.] or MTV wants to password
secure their websites, that's their business. But playing cop for whole
other industries doesn't make any sense to me and Microsoft should just
steer clear of that nonsense.

When I bought a Styx album many many years ago, I spend extra to get it.
'Know why? The vinyl came in a translucent goldy yellow, the album has a big
slew of album art and all the lyrics were printed on the inner sleeves ..
and it had a poster, if I recall correctly.

If SONY and Time /Warner and RCA want to sell more CD's, how about including
some posters or somesuch? Eh? Make the efffort? Novel idea, making the
effort? But they don't want to make the effort. They want law enforcement to
bust into houses for them and they want Microsoft to corrupt their operating
systems.

Saucy Lemon

 

[Saucy Lemon]

No, you are taking it too lightly: All this DRM and Digital Millennium
Copyright nonsense are the movie/music companies arrogating government power
to further their own narrow business interests regardless the of cost to the
dignity of the musician and the sanctity of the home .

Thoroughly disgusting.

Saucy Lemon

 

[william.hooper]

DRM Nonsense? Madness. I would say DRM is going to be one of the most
important technologies of the 21st centuary. Unfortunatley both Apple
& Microsoft Zune have closed systems which makes no sense in the long
term view. Apple justify this by saying any other system woould be
unsafe... but it's nonsense. Within a few years we will have proper
DRM... smart cards (like a GSM SIM card) which are device and OS
independent and extremely secure. If Microsoft had introduced Zune
with a smart card so that you can play music on any device with the
card inserted or any device within range on the Zune that can talk to
it we would be getting excited about the technology. I just bought and
am currently scanning 500 Cds for my state of the art Olive Opus Hifi
750Gb hard drive player. Do you know how long it takes to scan that
many CDs into a lossless digital audio format? I would welcome DRM.
Jobs stop moaning becuase you technology is rubbish and designed to
lock consumers into to product! Jobs, admit that the iPod has a
terrible DRM as well as terrible sound quality and you are stuck how
to comply with the new EU legislation. Anyway, for me, the upside is
that once I have ripped the 700+ Cds onto my hard drive I can copy
them to my family and friends Once DRM takes off CDs will be
killed and that won't be possible.

 

[Saucy Lemon]

It seems strange to me that the music industry is working hard so people
cannot play / invent / swap and have fun. It's like they envsion a world
where the act of listening to music is a strictly defined and constrained
utterly individualized legal/money exchange event. It's enough to gag a
maggot, yet they have most everyone on their bandwagon.

Other than the principle of the thing, it doesn't affect me much, not at all
really. I rent videos from Blockbuster .. I don't buy nor copy them and I
don't buy music except at Christmas time as gifts for others. I rarely
receive CDs as I don't ask for them, as I already have a big collection of
vinyl and CDs and it would take me years and years to get through it if I
decided to attempt to listen to it all.

But that said, it makes me sick to think of SWAT teams busting in on private
homes just because the teen there is unbeknownstly a bit naughty and file
sharing tunes. It's revolting. If the music industry wants to make more
sales they should make the effort. I paid extra (over regular album prices),
many many years ago, for a Styx album. Why? The vinyl was a translucent
goldy yellow, the album opened and had extensive art, the inner sleeve had
all the lyrics and the thing came with a poster of the band. If the music
industry wants to turn sales around they should get off their laurels and
make the effort. Just like everyone else has to. They could include posters
and other what-have-yous and make their CD packages worth buying. But they
choose not to make the effort, and rather the police bust all over people's
homes. I hate it.

Saucy Lemon

 

[Troy McClure]

and why should it be possible? you do realize that you "shouldnt" be able to
buy something once then distribute it freely to the rest of the world, dont
you?

 

[Saucy Lemon]

It doesn't matter, though. If I buy an album, should be expected to listen
to it in complete solitariness? But according to copyright, essentially, if
I play "a copy" and someone else happens to listen to it while I do, that is
a copyright violation. The other person should have bought "their" copy.

But all this is silly nonsense. If the record/CD producers want to sell
more, then they should improve the quality of their products. Everyone else
has had to improve over the years .. but they don't want to go to the
effort. They want a free ride behind the barrel of the state's gun and kick
boot. It's disgusting.

Saucy Lemon

 

[Chad Harris]

The only crazy thing is the broad brush stroke you're using "mostly crazy,
extreme left-wing types that think everything in the world should be free
to them."

I know a lot of right wing chilluns and adults who download free music and
movies like little sailors in a whore house when there's no tomorrow.

The crazy right wing conservatives in the Senate who are blocking a debate
on Iraq to a man and a woman with the exception of the rubber stamp McCain
have no skin in the game. Their kids steal/download music, movies, and
software in droves. Their elite Republican white ass children aren't going
near Iraq until the pending Middle East Civil War when a draft will be
instututed and to avoid that they will then bring 'em home.

CH