Sony, like the other disc producers/distributors, finally figured it out: Consumers are actually ready to pay MP3 files to Apple and Amazon if the protection is not included (or very limited). Instead of staying behind (and off the sales increase for online music) disc producers come back to reason.

About Sony, I don’t know yet if the move will immediately cover the full catalog or a part only, but this is already going far enough to say that this is only a matter of time.

The door is opening wide onto the online sales of legal MP3 files but without silly protection.

Source: Business Week.

EMI and Universal had already gone this way. The only big one missing is still Sony BMG (Do you remember? They were the authors of the famous rootkit installed on some of their CD to protect them and that breaking havoc on their customers’ PC machine).

Complementary information: With this annoncement, Amazon will reach nearly 3 million DRM-free MP3 files (up to now, the record was held by iTunes with -only- 2 millions).

Also, Deutsche Grammophon (a subsidiary of Universal Music) has decided to open its DRM-free online music store.

And in a parallel thread, Amazon and Pepsi are teaming up to give away 1 million DRM-free songs in 2008.

Then, we learned that Paramount started selling DVDs at a bargain price (3 US$) in China in an attempt to reduce the impact of rampant piracy in this country. Cheap discs mean that consumers may buy more (you have to admit that pricing the discs at the same level as the bootleg copies easily available makes a good selling point).

It could be a marketers’ last attempt, but there is a near simultaneous announcement that has shed a significant light onto this issue: UK-based music store 7 Digital tells us that DRM-free MP3 tracks outsell their DRMed counterparts by a factor of four to one. This should help music producers understand that the market is requesting DRM-free products. But will they hear?

For the first time, they use a virtual machine technology that allows to load code at the same time as the video data. It is thought to be a way to run code that would check if the BluRay players has been hacked. However, the discs do not play on Samsung’s BDP-1200 and LG’s BH100, and most other players (including the PlayStation 3) have longer-than-usual load times (up to two minutes). Samsung’s BDP-1000 also has problems of stuttering and error messages.

Some of the manufacturers announced software updates, but remember that now that DRM is on us, we may have to upgrade the player firmware just to play a DVD…

SpiralFrog

Did I speak about its legal status? It is legal. However, everything is protected by DRM, you need to use Windows and Windows Media Player 10+, and if you don’t watch the ads at least once in 30 days, the movie and the music is out…

As if this had any impact on pirates. As if it was good practice to annoy 100% of your customers.

This is a new example of why I am against copy protection and DRM. Pirates will obviously not notice the event and won’t even be annoyed. But legal customers of Microsoft are stuck waiting for the repair of these servers in order to come back to normal use of their software. Clearly, copy protection is not a customer service, only a mean to a sales end.

The game is using SecuROM protection. Unfortunately, on top of requiring an active Internet connection, it limits the number of installation or re-installations on a machine if you change the hardware. It started by allowing only two installations (if you have to upgrade your PC to run the game, you’re quickly out of legal installations; You must uninstall before upgrading your PC!).

Furthermore, AMD and nVidia had to publish last-minute patches and new versions of their drivers.

Finally, it seems that the management of wide-screen 16:10 displays is insufficient: You get black bands on the side of your lovely LCD display. 2K Games says that a patch/correction will come soon.

All that leads to two comments:

• Even if most video games run to the market with bugs in them, Bioshock is just not ready yet. It is probably better to just wait for it coming out of beta-stage.
• When I buy a $50 video game, I expect it to work onto my machine without having to call secuROM to explain that I am the rightful owner. This is not a $2 song for my Sony MP3 player (and I already consider that DRM on MP3 songs is a pain in the neck). This is just going to push legal players to downloading unprotected versions from BitTorrent or DirectConnect. When copyright-minded marketoids push users to illegality, things must have gone too far…

Update: If that was not enough, it seems that SecuROM is having trouble running when you use AVG antivirus (one of the vest free antivirus software programs for Windows, that I also happen to be using) or Mircosoft’s own Process Explorer (info from The Inquirer who suggests that you should avoid Bioshock like the plague for those problems – I am no longer decided to buy the game; Maybe later…).

First, the Internet users start to find again -in Europe- some protection since a decision from the European Justice Court: the ISPs will not be obligated to deliver the name of Internet users associated to an IP address when merely requested by copyright owners like we see in the US of A (the case was opened when Telefonica denied this right to deliver the name and address of some of its subscribers accused by a Spanish copyright owner of using Kazaa to exchange MP3 files). It means that the legal actions to attack indelicate Internet users copying songs, music or videos will be limited far below the level reached in North America where tens of thousands of such actions have been started. There will be the need to open not only a civil case, but a criminal action.

Furthermore, BitTorrent, the most easily recognized software program running on the BitTorrent network, will no longer be free. This is most probably a consequence of the intent of its developers to entter a new phase where they want to reap benefits from more commercial activities (including less risks of legal actions, too). Nothing new under the sun, since many Internet users already prefered BitComet, Azureus or uTorrent.

You may also remember that AllOfMp3, a Russian web site distributing MP3 files without any trace of DRM protection, had to stop its activities a few months ago after police action and the beginnning of legal procedure. It appears that Denis Kvasov, founder of AllOfMp3, has been cleared by the Russian justice (he was insisting on the fact that his sales were including author’s right compensation even if some Euopean and American companies were after him for selling at low prices and without DRM).

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Add to it that PirateBay (BitTorrent files search site) have been authorized a few months ago by the Sweedish justice to restart their activity and that they now want to give a new life to the SuperNova web site that closed a couple of years ago, I would try to say that the pendulum is swinging back toward the side most favorable to the Internet users. During months, it seemed that the media producers would be able to force anything they wanted into our throats under the pretense of protecting artists rights. Now, they start experimenting with low-cost without-DRM legal alternatives for music download (even in always-easily-scared France, Neuf-Cegetel intends to start an ISP offer including that kind of possibility: unlimited music and triple-play (Internet+TV+telephone) for 29.90€). Even better, the development of Video on Demand should help film producers and distributors to think in a parallel line.

There is only to find a way to balance the ease of use (requested by Internet users) and artist earnings (naturally expected by the authors). We should find this middle way for the best of consumers and artists, even if it measn suffering for some producers and distributors.

This is so abnormal, that I start to kick the paranoid mode in. One of the explanations I heard is that if Microsoft is unable to go into details and does not bring a solution is because this is not a bug but a side-effect of an intended feature. The most probable thing coming to mind: Windows Vista includes an extension to the file system that allows to handle more directly Rights Management (DRM and similar). In order to do this, they have to pay a price in performance whenever we want to access to a file.

So, is the long-copy/long-delete bug actually an intended feature of an Operating System hiding more and more anti-user devices? It is the more possible if you remember that before Vista launch Microsoft touted the feature allowing to add a peremption date to files (”file auto-destruct on 31st December next year”) or to limit access to only a limited set of users.

See also: The Register.

I admit easily that I am not surprised to see a politician posturing as is expected from his image and adopt an attitude that is based on perceptions but ignoring technical and commercial realities. Nicolas Sarkozy is playing his part in the show as a right wing leader decided to fight all kinds of illegal activities. Nobody should be surprised here. But I contend that this is already an echo from the past and he is missing the light of the future.

Exactly on the opposite, Amazon recognized the commercial reality: Customers do not want those technical anti-copy measures. They go against the legal user (the illegal one does not even see this in the illegal but free MP3 files, of course); They do not stop industrial copy and intense distribution on the P2P networks for example, but they stop the buyer from playing the music title on a player that is nto pre-aprpoved or on the PC of the son’s bedroom, or on the CD-player of Mom’s car, etc.

Amazon, understanding this reality -and certainly also aware that online stores without DRM have better sales/user figures than the others- decided to go and fight directly the current leader of eMusic, Apple iTunes.

Wish them luck! If there will always be poor teenagers ready to sacrifice quality, ease of use, ease of purchase, elegance of the package, etc. (didn’t we copy LPs on dirt cheap tapes when we were young?), a good product will always be a hit.

And if some people insist on telling that the competition of a free product (illegal downloads) can only kill paying products (online music stores), I invite them to consider the tough/relentless competition between a product with a (very very high) price as bottled water and a product (nearly) free like tap water available in nearly all homes (at least in the developed countries). As far as I know, Perrier, Dasani, San Pellegrino, Vittel, Volvic et al. do not petition for a law prohibiting tap water. Those companies and brands offer a product with very notables advantages and make a nice profit out of it.

The MPAA tries to ban this famous key number from the Internet while it keeps popping up everywhere. This week, it’s the rage all other the web: Let’s publish the key.

09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0

Internet users visibly do not want to be stuck again with one of those technical measures that do not (and cannot) stop real pirates and are creating more problem for loyal users/buyers. So, this is quite a large movement we are participating to.

One of the sources: The Inquirer.

That could quickly become one of the most interesting development in video games for Windows this year.

Cody Brocious official Project Alky blog.

From the Inquirer.

Coming from a company that is living from the sale of legal MP3s, it has a lot of weight. Up to now, that was repeated in many circles, but the music major producers where denying it or downplaying it. Now, it comes from one of the inner circles.

We told you that DRM is annoying (or more) the legal-minded user who bought a DRM-infected file, but leaves the pirates able to plainly use the files in the most usual and natural way. More than one user decided to download the file from P2P just to get rid of the annoyance.

I have at home an “English patient” DVD that repetetively refuses to start in my Home Cinema PC (I don’t have any other DVD player). Maybe I should download a copy from BitTorrent, leave the DVD box on its shelf and watch the movie.

My suggestion is not “go and pirate!”, but it’s call to arms for the marketing departments of these music producers. The customers want music, they are ready to pay for it (look at iTunes and MusicLoad, to name two), but they don’t want the hassles of those protections. Being blind to customer needs is a doomed approach to business. Start listening and P2P will become less of a problem (being free is not an overwhelming advantage: Perrier is selling bottled water and does not complain about the virtually free water on tap).

The solution (according to Steve): A re-inforced fight against piracy and a stricter WGA system. It’s only the beginning…