I want my MTV - For Free

Good article, going to be interesting to see how far the general public will allow stuff like that to progress before they to get annoyed about it and help us enthusiasts get Microsoft etc to come to a sensible compromise.

Canadian CD-R levies
Got to love Canada for most things, apart from when it comes to buying blank CDs! Every time you buy blank media (cds and memory cards) you pay a nice levy on it. This goes straight to the Canadian equivilent of the RIAA (the CPCC) to be distributed to music artists. But what if the cd is for data backup...... What if the memory stick is for your digital camera...... Tough, you still pay the levy. The proposed levy for MP3 players with non-removable storage was $21 per gigabyte, meaning a 40Gb iPod would have a levy of $840! What a great big bundle of insanity that lot is

What's worrying me is the bit about european countries having the same deal. Help! I am a European!

allofmp3.com is going great so far and I love it to bits.

Edit: Bush and his goons need to be stopped. ASAP.

 

The stuff about "ad revenue dissapearing" and giving away valuable content is interesting.

What you have to keep in mind is that the introduction of copyright laws created this value. Before copyright, anyone could copy any work they wanted to. Because the printing press had not been invented, this was very time consuming. When printing became common and books could be mass produced, the government created copyright laws so that they could control the distribution of books and more importantly tax it. It wasn't actually created to protect the authors of the books themselves.

Perhaps we should think about going back to the old system. No copyright any more, just patrons. Sure, soft porn stars like Britney Spears and The Shiny-Things Channel (a.k.a. MTV) might not be able to make massive profits any more, but the majority of artists and authors will be better off. People will still buy CDs they like to support their favorite bands. They will still go to gigs. They will still want printed books. They will still want to see movies on the big screen, or go to the theater. To make sure artists get paid, the law should ensure anyone charging for content (be it downloads, CDs, dead trees or whatever) has to pay a percentage to the author, but people who don't (P2P users, friends with CD burners) would be exempt.

Under that system, the majority would benefit. Smaller bands without contracts could get heard, unknown authors could publish themselves. Content creation would be about art rather than advertising and hype. As the article points out, the best way to find the content you want is to have free access to it all, and I know I have bought more CDs and felt better about handing over my money since I started with Napster all those years ago.

 

i've done the same thing.none of my CD's get used anymore(They sit in a rack collecting dust) but they are there.

 

Glad to see I've managed to spark a bit of a debate.

The TCPA is now called the Trusted Computing Group now. I've written a feature on the topic for the next PC Pro if you want to read all about how it works. That's if you don't know already - some of you clearly know loads, probably more than I do.

p3n - why can you tape a program and keep it? Because most people will have to use VHS right now and copies of that won't be very good. Copies of downloaded versions will be just as good as the original. As AmiMoJo points out, it's the fact that copying is now easy and perfect that's the problem. When it was hard and imperfect copyright control didn't matter so much.

Kenco UK - antitrust could save the situation, particularly as Trusted Computing is predominately a US organisation. Look at the fine Europe just imposed on Microsoft. That's a good sign. But European companies want to control their assets just as much as American ones. The Draft IP Enforcement Directive is a pretty nasty document.

Don't worry mrplow, no plans to end the deal with Bit just yet. I enjoyed the amazing Orac3 as much as everyone. What an incredible piece of modding!

 

so worried about trusted computing, dont use trusted computing software.

Dont use Longhorn. Dont use Windows Media Player 9. Just dont use the software that takes rights away from you. If some software limits the right you have to use something, its your own stupid fault. Dont use said software.

Hence the reason i still use windows 2000. No DRM. I dont user Windows Media Player. No DRM.

 

I've been opposed to pallidium ever since I heard of it....
but the two groups he spoke of in the article have a larger distance inbetween them than you would imagine.

Sadly enough, the group that isn't as blisful (ignorant) is dramatically smaller than the one who just doesn't care... Although I can see how this would be hell for customer service: "MY BLOODY TERM PAPER JUST GOT DELETED!!! IT WAS 20 PAGES!!"

Other things include just how much both sides care. The apathetic side is outstandingly moreso. I talk to my old roommate about this, and he seems to just shrug his head and say "whatever." If I talk to someone on Bit-Tech, they sound like they're going to go lynch someone.

 

I'm canadian, and I'm very happy with this. Last bunch of CDs I purcharsed(back in November) were $19.95 for 50 blank CD-Rs. Which would be around $12 in US dollars for our american fellows. That's the price I've always paid, and I couldn't care less if they only costed $5 US instead. I'm in my late twenties, single, I have a full time job. $20CND is lunch money to me. In fact, if I burn over 30 CDs in a year that's alot for me, I don't need them. When I buy CDs, I don't even think about levies or whatever.

The only time I DO think about levies, is when I remind myself that thanks to this levy, I'm able to download all the music I want , without fear of reprisal by an RIAA equivalent. Every time I hear this view of our levy as a "bad thing", it makes me smile. If only you knew how well we are thanks to them.

Back on the subject of the article, it was a nice read. Everybody teach the person on their right how to use linux allright?

GO!

 

So you are saying you can download as much as you like and the record companies in Canada really don't mind? It's not illegal and they won't sue you?

That sounds like an nice solution. It might be better to just take the levey out of general taxation and have the government distribute it, and do away with copyright.

MoJo

 

Well it's not that they "don't mind". Of course they don't like it, but sueing 12 year olds won't help stop it. Nothing will ever stop people file sharing. Here's an article of how the CRIA(canadian equivalent of RIAA) is trying to "reform" filesharers, and educate them:

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?co...

If you violate copyright laws, it's illegal. But has that ever stopped anyone from making tapes in the 80s? Or copying VHS in the past? Here's an article about how the supreme court of canada ruled that P2P is not illegal:

http://www.cirpa.ca/mbccore.cfm?Pa...

Finally here's another article speaking about levies. Copyright board of Canada ruled against raising levies for another year. The Canadian group trying to raise them, wanted to have levies put on flash memory, microdrives and memory sticks aswell, but the board said that there's no real evidence that any of these medias are use for music swapping. They talk about an interesting idea, of putting levies on internet connections, that would be included in ISP pricing. It's all the same to me, if my ISP charged an extra 1$ a month, I would be happy to pay if it makes it all the way into the artists pockets. If it means nobody ever getting sued in Canada for downloading music, and letting canadian people just go on living normally, I say go for it.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews...

There you go, that's our way over here. I'm not saying we're perfect either. Just for informing the masses.

Kraft75

 

Problem is, you'll get increasingly sidelined with that strategy. I ran a Windows 2000 system until recently, when it was taken down by an RPC Trojan. I found far less information on sorting out Windows 2000 in this situation than fixing XP. Software was already starting to arrive which didn't run, or didn't run as well, on Windows 2000. You also won't have access to security enhancements like 802.1x wireless encryption.

 

Well What i am guessing is that People will become a lot smarter. Leaving windows to go to Linux.

I can not see this actually happening. Considering That Bit Torrent isn't even Illegal because non of the information is actually kept on the servers.

No one will just sit around and go "OH WELL" If there is a way to make protection, There is always a way to brake protection. And for longhorn The HUGE Clock that sits in the corner put me off using longhorn ages ago.
I think ill stick with XP for another 3 years or so.

Also I like how Microsoft talks about what is illegal and what isn't.
When the first windows that came out was stolen from Mac. and well Mac stole it from Some small company.

I know the Music industry is complaining about loss in sales because of MP3's. But the fact of this is. (well in Australia At least) That Sales of Single's have gone down while sales of Albums have gone WAY up. by 30%. This shows that downloading music off the net has increased sales NoT decreased as what They keep telling everyone.

Anyway I do not think this in built software will last long. Someone will crack it like every other software that has ever come out.

So stop worrying.

 

That doesn't make it legal, it makes it damn hard to shut down. Same with Kazaa, etc. That's why non-users hate peer-to-peer.

"No one will just sit around and go "OH WELL" If there is a way to make protection, There is always a way to brake protection. And for longhorn The HUGE Clock that sits in the corner put me off using longhorn ages ago.
I think ill stick with XP for another 3 years or so."
You'll have to... it's not coming out till at least 2006-2007, maybe even 2008.

"Also, although its not officially supported, UT2K4 (at least the dvd version) will run on linux, and i can only hope other developers follow suit."
Woot!

"The USA isn't a democracy it is a capitalist state - you could get no further from communism.

The reason the USA is in this state, and therefore leading the rest of the world into their own drone populated hell is because your government only listens to money, cold hard cash, not your consitution, not your consituents, jsut money, the sickening sham of the US government is reposable for a hell of a lot of bad - and the US public just keep letting them do it!"

That's what I meant, I just suck at types of government. However they are definately slowly taking away our rights, and as far as I know, that's communistic. Again... that's AFAIK so feel free to replace communism with whatever it should be.
FYI, we don't let them do it. People in florida don't know how to vote, and everyone else doesn't get that the candidates lie about what makes them seem good to get into office and then do whatever the hell they want. And once they're in power, there's no stopping them.

As for music, I download to sample and then if I like it I buy the hard copy. Something that you don't have to redownload when your RAID array fails. And if it was in a different thread where I said it, I only pirate software if it's overpriced and/or not worth the money. I'm all for buying it if the publisher is worth supporting. I wouldn't even mind paying for windows (although the person who I got it from did pay) if it wasn't so overpriced, all things considered (bugs, hacking/virus/etc target, stability, microsoftness, etc).

 

Actually, it does. The reason Napster lost in court was that Napster servers kept a list of everything available. Kazaa does not, meaning that Kazaa itself is probably okay but people using it sharing copyrighted material are not (assuming the copyright holder chooses to defent their right - it's not automatic). Bittorrent is an interesting one because although a server is needed to co-ordinate downloads, it does nothing more than provide lists of peers. Bittorrent was not designed for that kind of thing really, it was supposed to help people release large software (like Linux distros) without their servers melting.

Not 100% accurate but along the right lines. I think the biggest problem in America is that Americans are idiots. They have the power to sort things out, but because they are bombarded by biased media (don't kid yourself that CNN is impartial, or that CBS gives you a fair and balanced view) they vote for stupid things. There should have been a massive civil revolt when Bush rigged the election.

Every candidate should be require to submit and manifesto, and be legally binded to it. That way, people would know exactly what they are going to get.

Some states have a system where an individual can force a referendum bu collecting a certain number of signatures (say, 250,000 in a state of ten million). If we had been able to do that in the UK, we would never have gone to war in Iraq. The fact that two million people marched against it didn't seem to have much effect because it had no legal weight.

 

Ladies and Gentelmen,

A war is aproching, and it rides on the wings of technological "progress".
I have been aware of the Trusted Computing concept for a long time, and from day one it has scared me. The only use i can see for this is the abuse of Corperations power over the consumer. No one has owned a peice of software for a long time (ever read that EULA?). Basicaly what you get when you purchase your software/music/movies is a copy that you are being granted permission to use by the company that made it, as long as you play by their rules. The infastructure to enforce those rules was never realy able to keep up. However with more and more household items becoming web enabled, how long will it be befoire your VCR notices a copied movie you put in, makes note of the company or studio that produced it, and then from then on wipes any tape you put in thereafter that is from the same company/studio? It may seemed far fetched. Now think farther on. Network enabled Refrigorators (i know i cant spell sorry). Place a milk carton in the 'fridge that you have removed the label from, what happens next? Does the 'fridge notify the company server and the server then tells your 'fridge not to allow you to open the door untill you have payed a fine for defacing the product? Yes i know that example is a bit far fetched. But who is to say it wont get to that point?
The laws we have and use today were never ment to handle the technology that we are blessed with today. The laws are outdated and unable to cope with the rapidly changing technological enviroment. I feel that that no good can come of the Trusted Computing Archatechture untill laws have been crafted that clearly outline the use of the technology. Trusted Computing? Trusted by whom? Not I!

The consumer is leftwith a choice. Upgrade to be able to use the latest technology but be heavly restricted with what they can and can not do with the equipment and software they have paid for, or run the older harware and not be able to run the newest software and get left in the dust?

This is the time for us to make a stand, before this TCA is alowed to take root. It has been said before for other issues "Write your local [insert political office here], and let your voice be heard". Un fortunently I dont feel that this is doing any good. Look at the DMCA. It pass without political opposition. Those people that we have elected to make these decisions dont even know what it does when they vote on it.

No good can come of TCA. Like the artical stated, the DRM system deleted songs he had already downloaded, and im assuming (i know what they say about assumin but bear with me) paid for. To me that is the same thing as a record Exec. breaking into my home and stealing all the CDs i own that were put out under their label just becasue they now have a problem with the company that actully produced the CD media itself. It is theft plain and simple.

As the people that help shape the future of technology I feel it is our duty to make sure this doesnt come about. Content producers, create your content, find some way to secure it without using TCA or DRM. Just because the new technology CAN and WILL support TCA and DRM doesnt mean that what it is running must use these systems. Information has been around since the begining of time. It has never been controled. It never should be controled. Information is a free forming ever evolving and mutating thing. It finds new ways of propegation. It finds ways to continue to spread. But that doesnt mean it can do it without help. Information is the life blood of civilization.

Make no mistake this is a problem that we must face.

these are only the ramblings of one person (who cant spell).

 

people get your upgrades in now before the friz chip becomes a standard motherboard component.

 

having read some more of the arguments here i think a link to Hackthissite.org is in order as although its another one of these sites that teach you about simple web protection etc it also has more interesting documents about what has been said in this thread and also about rigged elections etc (here for the election stuff)

well worth a read if your at all interested in this and/or think bush is a monkey . . . well he does LOOK like one

 

first off i think we need a better explanation of the napster issue before we all begin to believe this and that. the feeling i had picked up was that it was a subscription service allowing you to listen to whatever you wanted while you were subscribed, you just downloaded it to stop your listening from being streaming. whatever i think, though, i know it needs to be better explained before we take the liberty of fully contorting it to suit our needs. i'm not ripping anyone, but that's exactly what happens [like gossip].

i think that DRM is wrong because our forefathers fought for a new government and wanted it to have a loose network between the states, a weak national government. they thought that having the national government be to strong, and thus having one power preside over the people, was a definately bad idea. unfortunately they had a few problems and mde it stronger, and it turned into what it is today.

yes, i hate the media. my utter disapproval of what we fill ourselves with was spawned from Bowling for Columbine, not that it is in any way a perfect, untwisted story, but it made me think a little. We hear so much about death and destruction in our news because it is what sells. Like Mr. Clinton said in an interview the other day, reporters cared nothing for his family and his relationship, that he had put strain on with the affair, when they tore apart as much of him as they could. i was thinking of starting a website about the media a few weeks ago, but i have no job so i cant pay for it.

yes, americans are idiots. lets all drive fast cars and die our hair blonde. however, this is where i live, but i definately dont want to be like that.

i watched time machine last night. in it a question was asked "do you think we will ever go to far...with this?" *points to a drawing of a metropolis in the future.* As the main character goes ahead in time, civilization gets better and better. in one year in which the main character stops in, there is a colony on the moon. some company is going to set off something like a 40 megaton bomb to make space for more development. As the character moves just a little bit forward, the world around him turns into chaos. it seems that the explosion broke up the moon. the character, escaping the police evacuating him, gets on his machine, but knocks his head and rides very far into his future, tens thousands of years at least, and the civilization is not metroplin anymore. they have some metal weapons, but not much.

now i'm not trying to say that digital rights management will take us into the stone age, that's far fetched, but maybe we need to be careful with what we let go on

we think that technology makes our life easier, but perhaps we're worng. i heard somewhere that if you go before the middle ages, recreation time was much higher. i dont know anymore

too much for brain

no more overclocking

 

great article!! ive been thinkin bout this fact for half a year or so by now. Ive reached my decision: im not going to allow anyone to control what i do with my parts, if entertainment industry finds a way to control their stuff, that we cant break/crack, good for them. (not very likely to happen) ) . But i should be able to ride my bike on open roads without feeling stalked, right! Like surfing; weve got the water(web), and the board(comp), i dont want anything following me around, that is not allowed in real life then why should it be allowed on the net?

 

interesting thought there . . . shame the people in power arent geeks they might see it the same way but i doubt it will happen with politicians at the moment

and firehed

try researching types of government just look them up on the net this might help this might sound a little harsh (tho i dont mean it to be) but if you dont know something try and find out. It makes you start to learn things people dont or wont teach you

 

The moon keeps the earth on a tilted axis. WIthout it we'd either hot or cold, constantly. So much for life on earth. Interesting point though, technologies bound to get us to blow something that large up someday.

Hopefully it'll just be Rosanne.