DRM ticks me off

[andrewas]

DRM can be cracked easily - if you have a license. Its an encrypted format, so if you have the right software and the license, you can convert it to a good old fashioned .mp3 as easily as you can play it. Ive never been able to locate the software to do it though, then again I've never actualy bought a DRMed track to convert, so I've not looked that hard.

But, converting the file without a license requires you to brute force the encryption, and for that, were talking months or even years for most home systems. The only practical fix at this point would be P2P networks or similar. Youve paid for the music, the fact that the music company is violating fair use on you, is not your fault. So you will wind up uploading the files while you download them .. so what? If the music industry would learn not to screw its customers over, that wouldn't have happened.

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by Link: quote: Originally posted by Felix The Assassin: That has got to be a true bummer! What if anything, can be done to petetion?

Well you're a big help. The guy comes in here to ask a question and all you do is fuel the fire. Sorry, mate, but it seems that everywhere I see your replies they're either about "The army is the only place to be, and I served in the army so give me some kudo's" or this sort of crap. As if we're all waiting for that to happen. [/QUOTE]I did offer help, but you were to predisposed on another vignette to fully see it. "Kudos" That is what my 14 yr old likes for snacks after a 15Km hike!
But, if you feel obliged to jump into the fire, then by all means jump! Just understand, Zebo and I share a vision, thou they were different times and era's, the vision is still the same!

What help have you offered?

[Link]

Originally posted by Felix The Assassin: quote: Originally posted by Link: quote: Originally posted by Felix The Assassin: That has got to be a true bummer! What if anything, can be done to petetion?

Well you're a big help. The guy comes in here to ask a question and all you do is fuel the fire. Sorry, mate, but it seems that everywhere I see your replies they're either about "The army is the only place to be, and I served in the army so give me some kudo's" or this sort of crap. As if we're all waiting for that to happen. [/QUOTE]I did offer help, but you were to predisposed on another vignette to fully see it. "Kudos" That is what my 14 yr old likes for snacks after a 15Km hike!
But, if you feel obliged to jump into the fire, then by all means jump! Just understand, Zebo and I share a vision, thou they were different times and era's, the vision is still the same!

What help have you offered? [/QUOTE]Let me start by saying that I don't give a rat's ass about me making spelling errors. The fact that I actually try to type grammatically correct English as a non-native speaker makes your abbrevations ("thou"?!) seem even worse than mine. I have yet to come across a single American who comes to the Netherlands(*) trying to talk Dutch(*).
(*)=insert random European country and language here.

On our little discussion-topic; I mentioned before that it irks me to see people who glorify the army, the service to their country and the likes. Just two days ago I was watching this program on Discovery Channel about the top-10 of 'Most Powerful War Machines / Weapons". They even bothered to illustrate the destructive force of one of the Apache's missiles (costing over 40,000 USD a piece). Don't take me wrong, though, I don't bear any grudge to you personally. It's just because you are Ironworks shining star when it comes to this matter that I turned to you.
The fact of the matter is (in my opinion, anyway) that your posts seem to contain a black and white vision most of the times, never settling (quite enough) for the large grey area in between. Frankly speaking, I'm beginning to think you don't believe in compromises.

Thought you'd like to know.

[Zebodog]

If memory serves, Felix was in the service of his country for a good many years up until recently. Having been in the US military myself, I can confidently state that the US military (and most any other military in the world, for that matter) is very black and white.

Granted it has been many, many years since I was in their service and I imagine that things have changed considerably, but orders are followed. There is no grey area with regards to orders and there is no compromise. Although I am very hesitant to use the term "brain-washing" it is a very similiar concept.

It can be quite challenging for one who has lived under the black and white umbrella for so long to accept compromise when that word hasn't been in your vocabulary before. Transitioning to a civilian lifestyle isn't easy.

I fully expected Felix to respond as he did, and would be quite surprised had he not given our previous banter in various different threads. Perhaps given that batter, I could see the sarcasm and humour in his original post for what it was; not an insult or intended to be more fuel to the fire but targeted more at my MS-supportive nature. (Of course, I could be way off base on that, but that's what I chose to take it as)

Anyway, I'm still pissed about the whole DRM issue, but I still have no intentions of using P2P to re-aquire the music I have already purchased. Call me stupid or dumb, but I just can't do it.

And Felix, I'm still supporting M$ (see, I can abbreviate ) In this case, they are not the root cause of this problem, merely supporters.

[robertthebard]

Agreed, Microsoft isn't responsible for the need for the technology, they are merely on the bandwagon, along with everyone else. The root cause would be people like the original Napster, and any of the many "get this music for free" sites. While I agree with, and wholeheartedly support people being able to use the stuff they buy as they see fit, I do not hold with the "steal it instead" sites. For any that think musicians should not be paid for their work. As an artist, I can tell you, people need to be paid. That said, I strongly disagree with the methods that some of these companies are using, such as Sony, in the link that Timber provided. This is bs, in the grandest since of the word, and the same goes for DRM's in general, anything that denies fair use of the product is wrong.

[shamrock_uk]

Are they any legal pay-for-music sites that allow you to download content that isn't DRM'd?

[Iron Greasel]

The music industry has gone beyond demanding money for Cd's. And that you can't copy the music you buy tells me that they have gone beyond demanding money for information, the music itself. You purchase a licence to own a music track. a licence you already own. Download the music. You already own it.

[shamrock_uk]

A Reg article pointing out that removing Sony's DRM software actually cripples Windows. Read to the bottom of the article and the scope of the changes it makes to your OS is actually quite appalling.

Apparently they are releasing a patch that will uncloak the files (but will still leave the rootkit on your system). If you have anti-spyware programmes that pick this up, don't remove it or you could lose access to your drive. Linux and Macintosh users are, of course, unaffected.

Also a few letters on the subject.

[ 11-06-2005, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Zebodog]

Some interesting links, but I doubt it'll be going anywhere soon.

Take a look at Software protections such as Star-Force, Safecast et al. Star-Force actually installs hidden drivers on your PC, and uses system level access. Any trojan/virus/bad stuff could just piggy-back in, and Safecast IIRC actually writes to your boot-sector.

The scary thing is that the EULA doesn't enlighten the user to any of this.

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by Link: Let me start by saying that I don't give a rat's ass about me making spelling errors. The fact that I actually try to type grammatically correct English as a non-native speaker makes your abbrevations ("thou"?!) seem even worse than mine. I have yet to come across a single American who comes to the Netherlands(*) trying to talk Dutch(*). (*)=insert random European country and language here.

Far from it for me to be the one to ridicule anybody, anywhere on spelling. Be it in public, in class, or on an International forum. The word you used has dual meaning. You used it to the pretext of an accolade, I used it as the name of a snack bar.

On our little discussion-topic; I mentioned before that it irks me to see people who glorify the army, the service to their country and the likes. Just two days ago I was watching this program on Discovery Channel about the top-10 of 'Most Powerful War Machines / Weapons". They even bothered to illustrate the destructive force of one of the Apache's missiles (costing over 40,000 USD a piece). Don't take me wrong, though, I don't bear any grudge to you personally. It's just because you are Ironworks shining star when it comes to this matter that I turned to you.

Sadly, a 40K missile can hit and destroy the wrong target. Where as a $1.99 RPG, may hit and destroy the correct target!

The fact of the matter is (in my opinion, anyway) that your posts seem to contain a black and white vision most of the times, never settling (quite enough) for the large grey area in between. Frankly speaking, I'm beginning to think you don't believe in compromises.

You are SPOT ON. I will allow, my last 10 evaluations all stated, from 10 different supervisors, almost the same thing. He has an uncompromising can do attitude!
That is me, unless I'm jesting somebody, I mean what I say, and say what I mean. Take it, or leave it, that's it! That's probably why I hate Liberal politicans the most, because they cannot for the life of them, say the truth!

Thought you'd like to know.

Well thanks!
Again, if you took it wrong, my apoloigies, for I would never accuse anybody for incorrectly spelling a word or phrase on this forum.

FYI:
Now, Zebo and I have a certain understanding, and if the roles were to be reversed, I would expect no less of an outcome.

Sadly as his last post states, e-commerce has become more the problem of late, than an actual direct attack from a spammer.

I too have noticed a lot of traffic on my rig before prior to it being initiated. I did a scan from within my firewall (corporate) to see who was doing what.

Under my new configuration, I installed XP (digital darkroom) and that was it. I re-registered through the phone, and did not install the XP chipset driver, therby XP cannot connect to the internet. (Darn, that sounds like an uncompromising statement).

I run multi boot XP, Linux Kbuntu & Ubuntu (Debian based), and that is where my internet connection is. Amazingly there is no traffic until it is initiated!


Zebo, what else might there be to do?