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Posted by Bob on 11/17/05 21:51
On 17 Nov 2005 12:21:37 -0800, omarenoryt@aol.com wrote:
>Oh no, are thieves throwing temper tantrums because media companies are
>fucking them over from being able to steal? Their hysteria is even more
>funny than their utter cowardice.
You are one sick top posting retard.
>Bob wrote:
>> Copyright =A9 2005 MarketWatch, Inc.
>>
>> Commentary: Sony faces 'spyware' backlash
>> By John C. Dvorak
>>
>> BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Content theft is here to stay and
>> the big media companies are going to have to get used to it.
>>
>> Attempts to manage content with protection tricks simply antagonize
>> the consumer and can become a long-term public relations nightmare.
>>
>> Over the past few weeks such a PR nightmare unfolded for the Sony
>> Corporation music division as the company attempted to protect its
>> music with a Digital Rights Management tool that consisted of what is
>> considered onerous spyware. And it was the worst kind of spyware --
>> the dreaded "rootkit." It makes a computer vulnerable to all sorts of
>> other forms of malicious software.
>>
>> Numerous geeks and nerds discovered this and became alarmed. Within
>> hours of the discovery of the Sony malware, the intertwined mesh of
>> blogs and websites went berserk and the situation forced Sony to
>> recall all the discs. Now Sony is seen as some sort of evil villain.
>> Its reputation tarnished.
>>
>> Here is probably the most elaborate explanation of what this onerous
>> software is all about.
>>
>> http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights=
>.html
>>
>> It tells the whole story followed by a massive public denunciation of
>> Sony by way of added reader comments.
>>
>> Thinking you are going to trick an audience filled with technologists
>> who hate to be tricked is folly. From my perspective all DRM schemes
>> have to be out in the open and people need to be warned in advance
>> about what they do and how they work.
>>
>> It seems that the marketing folks know that this sort of thing will
>> actually hurt sales and thus you have attempts to fool the public in
>> hopes that nobody figures it out. One day someone will realize that if
>> DRM is hurting sales, then perhaps it's not such a good idea after
>> all.
>>
>> The idea behind DRM is that content in electronic form is so
>> effortlessly copied and distributed with computers and networks that
>> some tool is needed to keep tabs on the content itself. It needs to be
>> managed somehow in the wild.
>>
>> This means mechanisms not dissimilar to the copy-protection schemes
>> designed to keep commercial software from being copied. These began to
>> appear in the 1980's resulting in the growth of commercial companies
>> such as Central Point Software which specialized in devices that could
>> defeat these systems.
>>
>> Back then there was a real fear that not having backup copies of
>> software could be a disaster. This was a legitimate argument.
>>
>> But the rationale for defeating these systems has changed.
>>
>> Today the users and buyers of content who dislike DRM mechanisms
>> believe that once they own a copy of the content they should be able
>> to listen (or watch) it on whatever device they choose and make as
>> many personal copies as they want. This is a massive change in
>> rationale for cracking the protection mechanisms.
>>
>> This change in mentality I believe evolved from the cassette tape era
>> when people legally copied music from record to tape. Each blank tape
>> had a copy fee attached to it paid to the record companies who
>> factored this into their finances. Once this model was established it
>> became common (and acceptable) to copy.
>>
>> It is not possible to reverse this mentality. Any attempt to do so
>> brings with it a backlash, as we've seen with the Sony situation.
>>
>> Once computers were able to read data from CD's and DVD's it was
>> inevitable to everyone (except those who did not understand computers)
>> that copying would run rampant. Worsening the situation was the
>> Internet that allowed the data on the hard disk to be transferred over
>> a network to anyone. Thus an actual sale was lost with each transfer
>> and the industry saw this as a theft -- not of physical property but
>> of a virtual sale whether real or imaginary.
>>
>> From here it gets fuzzy and debatable with the concept of "sharing"
>> suddenly appearing.
>>
>> There is absolutely nothing that can be done about this problem.
>>
>> Content management will never work. If it did work then nobody would
>> buy the products. The fact is that content producers are going to have
>> to rethink their business model and make less money, the way print
>> folks have had to do.
>>
>> Writers like myself and my editors make 1/10 the money people can make
>> in the movie or music business for doing about the same amount of work
>> (content generation). Our value is lessened by the fact that we cannot
>> protect the written word from rampant copying. It started with the
>> printing press, bootleg publishing, plagiarism, Xerox machines, email,
>> online pilfering, cut-and-paste, etc., etc. We simply got used to it
>> and live with it.
>>
>> Sony and all the other big media companies are simply going to have to
>> live with what writers and editors have lived with for some time: a
>> big cut in pay.
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> BOYCOTT SONY!
>>
>> SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!
>>
>> HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!
>>=20
>> YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
>
--
BOYCOTT SONY!
SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!
HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!
YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
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