News

Digital Rights Management 2005

OpenFlix: Another web site only distributing public domain movies (so download here is fully legal). Old movies indeed, but some of them are quite good.

Record label defends accused file-swapper against the RIAA: RIAA is the Record Industry Association of America, the most powerful association of disk/music industry in the US of A. It is also the one that sues thousands of American consumers for swapping music files on the Internet. The record label is Nettwerk Records (Canada) that decided to pay the legal bills of one family caught in this nightmare of being asked to cough 9000$ to avoid legal action.

You could think this is weird. As a mater of fact, Nettwerk Records explains that this is simply normal and that, opposite to what the RIAA (or its European counterparts), these hurt-the-consumer tactics goes against the interests of the music industry itself. This is what hundred of thousands of Internet users and thousands of artists say: hunting down hundred of thousands of your customers cannot be good for the business, gives ideas to those who did not already thought about downloading and handicap burgeoning legal download business.

DRM #21 (Google): Google announced this week in Las Vegas a new service of Internet video sale. After Apple iTunes, this service may transform the market because Google opens it to all (they merely provide a technical infrastructure, a new DRM-based copyright technology and a 30% fee on all transactions).

Success is not garanteed yet (in front of Apple and Microsoft solutions) but fires up a lot of questions about the consequences of a DRM-based copyright protection system that will - again - reduce the consumer rights to private copy. But Google insists on the fact this technical solution is not compulsory (and some vendors already announced that they would even provide free download of some TV programs in the first 24h before going to pay-per-view).

Jacques Chirac wants P2P but not its software tools: Not very clear that warm declaration from the French President. He joins the debate about P2P and Internet downloads just when the MPs will start talking about music downloading again (a place where he was not expected - he previously misnamed a mouse as a rat or "mulot"). At least, he pushes the idea that the interest of the user should be taken into account.

Public Domain Torrents: A web site where one can find downloadable movies (using a P2P Bittorrent software program) but, this time, they are public domain movies (so download is legal and the MPAA has nothing to look into). Old movies indeed.

Furthermore, they are encoded using DivX, and there special downloads for your PDA.

DRM #20 (Australia): The down under country is considering the legalization of such common practices as recording a TV show or copying to MP3 a CD you bought. This is supposed to be the private copy exception. You can probably expect the music majors to fight it.

DRM #19 (Surprise vote in Paris): The French minister of Culture (M. Donedieu de Vabre) just tried to pass a law to organize and encourage the use of technical means to protect against copy all multemedia data files (in short, DRM tools - Digital Rights Management) in order to preserve the copyright of artists. He got a major surprise.

Two amendements were presented and voted without hesitation (with a wide support including from the governing majority); They legalize the downloading under private copy under the condition of a global licence (see above "Why don't I want DRM #3").

Even better, this morning, while political observers expected a quick reversal when the Assemblée Nationale (in Paris) would open, this escalated into long talks and there seem to be no solution in sight before January 2006.

Maybe some MPs/deputies start to understand what the French social world is. When 75% of the Internet users vote for the global license and so many Internet users are regularly downloading music and video, it may just mean that we are all for the protection of the authors copyrights (paying a licence) but also for a merely simple technical and social solution (easy Internet download), but against imposing DRM solutions like the ugly beasts from Sony BMG and others.

References:

Les députés légalisent les échanges de fichiers sur Internet (Le Figaro)

Droit d'auteur: «Les députés ont pris conscience que c'était un débat de société» (Libération)

Bras de fer sur les droits d'auteur numériques à l'Assemblée (Le Monde)

A peine adoptée, la licence globale est déjà menacée

Légalisation du P2P: le gouvernement exige un nouveau débat

Coup de théâtre: les députés légalisent le 'peer-to-peer'!

DRM #18: The now infamous quote from Sony BMG president Thomas Hesse, in the middle of the recent Sony fiasco:

Most people don't even know what a rootkit is,
so why should they care about it?

Total respect for customers...

Why don't I want DRM #3: Or why nearly nobody wants it... A recent poll in France showed that 75% of the Internet users vote for the global license. As a matter of fact, it is simply a monthly payment of a tax that would let you forget about the matetr and keep downloading freely.Technical details should be polished, but in some places we're not far from it: radios pay in a similar way to put music on the air; In France, the redevance audiovisuelle is paid once to cover the costs of all public TV channels and shared between them; Many European countries apply a tax on empty media (tapes, CD, flash cards, etc.) that is redistributed to artists.

Paid once a month (a few dollars) by all the broadband users, the money collected is given to the artsits and the users can download freely afterwards.

Artists receive the money they earned, users are happy downloading. Only the RIAA is worried because music producers must then modifiy their business model. But it was computed that to ensure the same rights than today for all artists, it is possible to limit this to only a few dollars per month and per broadband Internet user. I'm all for it.

Why don't I want DRM #2: After Sony's recent big fiasco, I believe that the addition of Digital Rights Management (DRM) on audio discs and DVDs will bring us back to an experience already known to software vendors in the 80's.

Very concerned with the financial losses coming from software copying, software manufacturers (including Microsoft) were starting to include more and more protections. Clearly, without even the help of Internet, this led to a catastrophic situation where it was safer to grab an illegal copy from a friend rather than install the paid copy just to avoid the awful experience of installation and computer crashes coming from incompatibilities between protection systems and the Operating System (or other protected software programs). Pirates didn't mind...

In this context, the editorial from Chasseur d'Image photo magazine clearly states the problem: Only lawful users are annoyed.

In the end, the software industry had to abandon this idea except for a very small number of cases where the price of the program was so high that protecting it really efficiently was paramount.

DRM #17 (Virgin: The pirates are not the ones you thought): You were listening to these messages about Internet users being ugly pirates copying and downloading music to force music majors to bankruptcy. You were merely forgetting who the real big pirates are. Example: France Telecom, Warner Music and Madonna signed an exclusivity contract to distribute the latest hit of the pop singer to Orange mobile phones. But Virgin Music simply hacked the music (Hung up) and put it on its online web site (VirginMega.fr) at the same time, well before the official launch. France Telecom sues for 12 millions euros, Warner Music sues for 2 millions euros. The judge will decide in a trial that looks like a plain copyright infringement.

DRM #16 (Why the Sony fiasco?) : An interesting explanation of the recent Sony rootkit DRM fiasco. A web visitor known as a good old purchaser of Sony products (I, myself, am the proud owner of many Sony products since 17 years?) and brought a possible explanation:

Sony left the reigns to the American business and this company suddenly forgot about the Customer.
Mr. Masuru Ibuka and Mr. Akio Morita would probably not recognize their child.

DRM #15 (Sony BMG steals software to build its DRM): You have to admit that Sony did not miss any error, nor any mistep in the Digital Rights Management (DRM) fiasco. Today, we discover that the rootkit used by Sony is not only a tool routinely used by pirates and hackers, but it happens that by using this rootkit, Sony merely violated authors rights. Yes, this software contains open source code (in flagrant violation of the user licence of this code).

Sony is thus caught red-handed violating copyright (or copyleft) while trying to protect the rights of their artists. One of the arguments of Sony (and the other music publishers) was that they had honesty, legality and good faith on their side. Where is all this gone? Digital rights just appeat to mean that rights only useful when they favour Sony and the music business.

DRM #14 (Sony proves why DRM is bad for the consumer /3): My short chronicle of a simple, clear-cut case of the worst kind of Digital Rights Management gone wrong. After you see how Sony BMG handles its customers, nobody would be surprised if music sales would plumet and downloading would grow even faster.

Latest news:

Two lawsuits (one class action) are started against Sony BMG in the US for this.
A Trojan horse (Stinx-E) was just spotted exploiting the presence of the Sony rootkit to propagate itself.
Finally, Sony published a patch that actually removes the rootkit, but it is as difficult as ever to find it on the Sony web site and it leaves your PC unable to read the mere music CD you just bought.
After more than a week of hot battle around this issue, Sony just caved in and announced abandonning this specific rootkit (of course, you can expect to see the issue to pop up again later under a new face). Unfortunately, the CDs already in the distribution channel will stay there and the poor guys and gals buying them will we left alone (with their lawyers)...

DRM #10 (Free Culture @ NYU Protests DRM at Virgin Megastore): Free Culture @ NYU and friends protest and inform about DRM at Virgin Megastore in Union Square NYC.

DRM #9 (FNAC may open legal music download service): The French department store may soon open a legal downloading service aimed at music lovers. The interesting part seems to be the monthly fee for unlimited use: 15€/month. This is still more a rumour than information, though.

DRM #8 (P2P tactics): The legal attacks of the RIAA or the MPAA against individual downloaders using P2P networks leaded some to choose tactics limiting riscs. In the article from Slyck.com, there is a small set of these summarized as:

Not using Fastrack: The majority(96% in 2004) of those getting caught have been using Fastrack (Kazaa, iMesh etc)
Switching to Usenet
Using Peerguardian or Protowall with a known firewall
Not sharing hundreds of Top 40 tracks or newly released movies.
When choosing mainstream Top 40 stuff, using other ways of getting their music (such as Streamripping Shoutcast etc)
Not leaving your PC on and running P2P application for days or weeks at a time
Avoiding using other people’s networks (College, work, etc) as they are generally well policed and anxious to avoid implication
Using removable drives for archived downloads and keep this away from your PC when not in use
Being cautious against malicious downloads, to avoid downloading a Trojan or a virus by the use an up to date virus checker
Keeping up to date with what is happening in the world of P2P, as what happens to others can equally affect them
And taking independent legal advice if things go wrong

Interesting, a bit bizarre, but probably quite efficient taking into account the actual strategy of the adversaries.

DRM #7 (recording from web radios): Where exchanging MP3 files on P2P networks is legally challenging, listening to a web radio is still quite normal (the radio has full responsibility to pay the broadcasting rights). A few software tools (including Replay Music from Applian Technologies and Audacity) allow to rip and store songs in MP3 while you listen to them. It is not legally approved (only listening is authorized as for any kind of radio), you do not choose the song that is broadcasted, but this seems quite undetectable.

DRM #6 (Windows Vista goes too far with DRM - retro?): Bizarrely, rumours about the use of Digital Rights Management in Windows Vista seem to go in all directions now. Specifically, it is said (by crypto guru Bruce Schneier) that Microsoft is stepping back and tries to avoid including it in Windows Vista. For a minimalist example, Vista would not ship to the general public with DRM functions enabled. It would be reserved to enterprises. More precise information later.

Why don't I want DRM #1: What's gonna happen to all those that bought music files protected with active Digital Rights Management when the owner company shuts down? In many cases, the purchase will no longer be moveable to another machine (you listened to your music on a PC, you no longer can reformat it without loosing the right to listen to this music, you can't move it to your own MP3 walkman). In some cases, it will be worse. Sony decides to stop ATRAC support and you're stuck with an ATRAC player that can no longer read anything: your music files are just plain junk and so is your player. Nice isn't it?

DRM #5 (Windows Vista goes too far with DRM - bis): A solution found by the Inquirer to make your current monitor PVP-OPM or HDCP-compatible (see DRM #4, below) is a small conversion box installed between the graphics video card and the monitor.

Only problem, but a significant one, in order to use your nice current monitor in the best conditions possible with Microsoft Vista: 400€. It may be better to buy a new screen or forget about Vista.

DRM #4 (Windows Vista goes too far with DRM): Most people interested saw it coming, Microsoft used the worst of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in its new Windows just starting its beta test under the name of Vista.

If your PC isn't of the latest technology equiped with a screen/monitor integrating Digital Rights Management (Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management or PVP-OPM) when you will start a video or a music file, Windows/Vista often decides by itself to reduce its display quality in order to avoid any chance of your taking advantage of an art work that you wouldn't have paid. This is new, but above all it means that if you expected to keep part of your previous investment when moving to Windows/Vista (like keeping your old faithful wide-screen monitor), you were awfully wrong. Worse, there are nearly no monitor currently on the market and compatible with PVP-OPM and even less graphic cards.

You got the message: Not only Vista will stop you from doing what you want to do with your PC, but you'll have to pay a fat price for new equipment (probably a new motherboard, a new graphic card and a new monitor) just for the pleasure of being shackled by your brand new Windows. The old stuff is considered worthless by Microsoft.

We'll see if they keep this line, but it looks like a bad idea from the consumer point of view...

DRM #2 (Pentium D): Intel helps in insuring that our PC will refrain themselves from using proprietary information (be it music or video). It was not told before a presentation in Australia of the double core Pentium D, but now we know that this technology is included in the latest technology product from Intel. It is aimed at restricting access from the CPU level (not only at the Operting System level, as today). Windows Longhorn and a Pentium D make a dream team for the movie/music industry (MPAA/RIAA) and for the companies that really want to keep things secret (Arthur Andersen no longer will need to shred Enron documents to pieces during a public inquiry).

Update: Intel now denies the Australian news and says that no DRM tehcnology is included in the Pentium D.

DRM #1 (Windows Longhorn): Now that Windows 64 is available, we can start and speak about the next version. The official replacement for Windows XP is - as for now - named Longhorn (as a bovine species known for its... long horns).

Let's remember and keep in mind some important things before we start shouting with the Longhorn-expecting crowd: It will use a a technology named Trusted Platform Module (TPM) whose only aim is to administrate the owners rights of documents in order to preserve copyrights. A few consequences are probably arriving with this:

The gradual end of the possibility to copy multimedia data (protected MP3 files, DVD, etc.) from computer to computer.
The ability for a company to limit strictly who will be able to read one Word document (or to insure that it will auto-destruct some time set in the future).

But, in order to function, all this will come with the need to use a fully TPM-compatible platform (even the motherboard and its BIOS will have to be compliant, as - maybe - the hard drive). It may be quite interesting to observe.

1€ MP3 albums: All legal download on the russian web site of AllOfMP3.com.

DVD rental : is developping in an interesting manner in France with permanent rental (monthly fees give permanent access to DVDs without late fees). An example: CineSnap.

The next big P2P: When you speak about file-sharing in P2P mode, it seems that the giant to follow today is BitTorrent. But it has a significant weakness: the trackers are its clay feet (in terms of performance as well as robustness). Here comes a miracle cure, the solution to all problems: Exeem is currently in closed beta-test with 5000 users. The solution?

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