EFF Gets Animated About DRM with The Corruptibles 202
Lurker McLurker writes "An animation from the EFF shows DRM technology as a group of supervillans who aim to invade your home, interfere with your devices and stop you from using your digital media the way you want to, even if it is legitimate. Doesn't say anything about the subject most of us wouldn't know, but a great link to send to your friends as an introduction to the issue."
Everyone understands cartoons (Score:2, Funny)
Analog Hole (Score:4, Insightful)
I think I personally would have visualized the character of "Analog Hole" as a lot older... certainly not a kid.
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
I'm clinging to my turntable and my cassette decks. We might be the only ones left standing.
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2, Insightful)
. . . consumer electronics . .
The ultimate tool in the war, stop being a consumer. Learn to make your own . .
KFG
Re:Analog Hole (Score:3, Funny)
-uso.
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
Re:Analog Hole (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, the concept of analog "hole" only makes sense in the context of trying to stop digital copies. If we say A is an analog copy and D is digital, we started out with:
AAAAAAAAAAAAA = crap
Then we got CDs, but there was noone who had CD burners at the time:
DAAAAAAAAAAAA = crap
Nobody gave a damn that there was an "analog hole", I don't think the concept even existed. Then everybody and their mother got computers and CD burners, and suddenly you got all-digital copies:
DDDDDDDDDDDDD = perfect
Then they started inventing DRM, and got that protected through the DMCA. That was supposed to stop digital copying, with varying degrees of success. However, in those cases where they succeeded you still had the analog hole:
DADDDDDDDDDDD = near perfect
So the concept of an "analog hole" is very young, because it makes absolutely no sense without digital copies and DRM.
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
DDDDDDDDDDDDDA = perfect
As a result, no matter what the protection is or how impervious to compromise it is, you can always:
DDDDDDDDDDDDDADA = near perfect
This is why those selling the concept of DRM to media companies are selling snake oil. Until experiencing media requires an implant, an acceptable quality copy can always be made, stripped of all D
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2, Funny)
That is where you are wrong. My new supa-protect(TM) system (with built-in speakers) can be built-in to all media devices. Then the headphone and line-out ports are removed and the whole thing is sealed.
The supa-protect system adds noise signals to all output from your music player. Any recordings of this mus
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
You're getting "noise" and "music" mixed up. Understandable, really, given the state of the "music" industry today.
Re:Analog Hole (Score:2)
That copy is rarely "acceptable quality", and even a close-to-acceptable quality is very hard to produce using this method. DRM is mostly aimed at stopping casual copying by the general public, and so those applying it are probably not that concerned (comparatively) with this "DDDDDDDDDDDADA" copy
Re:Analog Hole (Score:3, Insightful)
You missed the point of the Analog Hole (Score:2)
CDs are getting increasingly poor mastering and engineering applied to them. Just because something is digital doesn't mean it sounds good.
The point is that new technology will remove rights people are used to and enjoy. My digital copy is just as good as the original but that's just the beginning. I can give you exactly what the big three dumb music companies can. If they make it crappy to thwart copying, the competition can do it better and I can still give you the same crap. Either way, they have
Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:3, Insightful)
The video is very cool and well done. But along the same lines as what you were saying, the video seems to assume that people understand copyright law, including fair use, and then goes on to explain how DRM can prevent you from doing things that are perfectly legal. The thing is, most people don't understand copyright law, and have never heard of fair use. The video uses the example of a kid trying to put a video snippet in her electronic school report. Although that clearly falls within fair use, I think
Re:Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:2)
Re:Great Introduction to the Perils of DRM (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I found the animation to be a little too vague and in the future. I can imagine people watching it and saying, "Oh. that will never happen to me."
progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Wasn't a free market and capitalism supposed to drive innovation and technology? Oh wait, yeah, Microsoft, never mind.
Really, reading some of these proposed laws the clear message from the RIAA/MPAA is, "To ensure our continued hand-in-the-cookie-jar obscene money making machine, we demand the government enact protective legislation." Guess what? They're "gettin' 'er done"! Innovative ideas and extensions and forks of cool, useful, for-the-betterment-of-man technology fall by the wayside by fiat, at the entertainment industry's prompt.
Again, ignoring the thesis for the moment that increased use of all of these digital technologies actually serve the entertainment industry spurring new growth in unexpected demographics, the new and improved technology traditionally has been the keystone of other new technologies. Often, as mentioned in a recent slashdot article, new directions are discovered accidentally. Squelch digital devices and you squelch potential new and rich fields of devices.
The RIAA and MPAA, what a bunch of fucktards.
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:5, Informative)
Wasn't a free market and capitalism supposed to drive innovation and technology?
I think that's old-school thinking. It's what I heard when I was growing up, but I haven't heard industry spokespeople argue that in many years.
Nowadays the reasoning seems to be that "free market" indicates an intrinsic right to do whatever you can to make money, period, good or bad. They don't even bother with a how-it-helps-society argument anymore. As a citizen, you're supposed to just suck it down and shut up.
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Corporations don't see people as "citizens" anymore. We're not even their customers -- we're consumers. Language always gives one away.
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
This is very true. It's always a good idea to see what a corporation calls you.
If you are a client, then they think of you as an integral part of the process. You are involved in the development of whatever they are selling to you, and it is built around your needs. Outsourcing companies, good hotels, and lap dancers think like this.
If you are a customer, then they think of you as an individual who makes a take-it-or-leave-it decision about their product. They will attempt to make as many people as possible want to take it, but won't worry too much about missing a few around the edges. Still, they need to keep you happy and won't do something that's bad for you without a really good reason. The good ISPs and expensive high street stores think like this.
If you are a consumer, then they think of you as tied up, prone, on the floor, while they defecate their products onto you and then send you an invoice. It doesn't matter what you think, you don't get to make a choice. The big media companies think like this. So do the telephone carriers, and most other monopolies.
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:2)
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:2)
And that is something most of the hardcore greedmongers don't support. They want to be able to do whatever they like to make money - and screw everybody else's rights.
Capitalism and the free market have driven most innovation.
Wouldn't it be the actual smart and creative people who do that? Capitalism is just an economic framework. It does not cause people to be smart or inventive. How abou
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:2)
Yes, and it does. Bittorrent, warez, mp3s are all products of the market. But the RIAA/MPAA doesn't want to compete and decrease their profit margins, so they push for laws that make their competitors illegal, thus resulting in a market that certainly is not free. If you want an example of how things go when the cartels can't legislate their competitors away, look at China where they had to drop their prices to compete with pi
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:3, Insightful)
How many american households owned a computer before MSDOS and Windows? How many after?
The commodity PC running Windows has had an extraordinary impact on technology.
The buyer at entry level expects to see networking, a 3 GHz CPU, DX9 level graphics, multichannel HD audio, 100 GB of hard disk storage, and read-write optical drives at $500 or less.
In system bundle complete with monitor,
Re:progress stops at the cost of capitalism (Score:2)
You have to realise that when a capitalist is talking about 'innovation' they mean 'greed'. Not new things that are good for you - new ways for the plutocrat to acquire your money.
Excellent! (Score:3, Interesting)
Now what I would really like to see is it broadcast on the major tv channels. Let me know if hell is freezing over.
Subtitles (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this is a good idea, but I really wish more people would put subtitles on their flash videos, the EFF no exception.
Seriously, how hard would it be to spend some 10 minutes adding subtitles?
I do like the idea, though.
Re:Subtitles (Score:2, Informative)
Do you mean like this? [gprime.net]
Sorry I couldn't find a flash version in a hurry.
Re:Subtitles (Score:2)
Well, at least they were cool enough to provide an MPEG4 option.
Re:Subtitles (Score:2)
Why does it have to play within a browser window? I'd rather have it just start another instance of mplayer (or whatever) and play in that.
Re:Subtitles (Score:2)
Re:Subtitles (Score:2)
The mplayerplug-in actually does sound like the trick for the job. Pity it doesn't have wider use.
It does... (Score:2)
Or, in other words, it's what everyone should've been using anyway. Just throw an mpeg in there, it'll play in at least as many places as Flash, but without all of the Flashy crap.
Don't forget... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't forget... (Score:2)
Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with DRM as a technical solution is that it uses my computer against me. My computer works for me. It doesn't work for anyone else without my permission... and that's why I don't use DRM.
DRM isn't "evil" until people no longer have the choice of refusing it.
That is why the EFF's campaign is important. It educates people about it, so that the market will make the right decision before DRM becomes an inescapable de facto standard.
Re:Don't forget... (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that these people want to sell the things they own and still own them afterwards.
And y'all DID notice.... (Score:2)
Re:Don't forget... (Score:2)
I'll wager that the EFF campaign will have less public visibility than any single Disney title added to the rental shelves this weekend. Which is the minimal requirement for political effectiveness.
Re:Don't forget... (Score:2)
Devil's advocate? (Score:2)
What good is it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What good is it... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What good is it... (Score:4, Insightful)
Post the link on your blog. Email it to your family members. Print the link on business cards and hadn it out to strangers on the street.
Really cool cartoon! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Really cool cartoon! (Score:4, Informative)
If only they could get it shown in cinemas (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If only they could get it shown in cinemas (Score:2)
Just before the warning about how piracy is putting the movie industry out of work.
Or another way to look at it is that the movie industry is price fixing and the market is balking. Resorting to extorting it's paying customers to keep prices artificially high is just alienating it's customers.
While the big companies like Sony, BMG, MGM and others are behaving like this, smaller more efficient and creative upstarts are happening all over the place, outside of the USA. It will not be long before this bre
Re:If only they could get it shown in cinemas (Score:2)
Many people just dont get it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Talking about HDTV, mixing down from Digital Radio, and Digitizing commercial products for school projects is not the way to appeal to the mass consumer market.
Recording TV shows and making a favorites CD out of your music collection are more accessble principles to the mass market, and these are what should be highlighted.
Re:Many people just dont get it! (Score:2)
HDTV (actually DTV) is what everyone is talking about migrating to, and the FCC is mandating. Existing analog broadcasts would be gone. And using a DVR is exactly about recording TV shows. VCR's certainly wont be useful, since big media wouldnt let anything digital have an unprotected anlog output.
And while you could certainly make a mix CD from existing current standard CD's, big
Re:Many people just dont get it! (Score:2)
I could spent hours or days producing a compilation CD.
Or I could simply type out a playlist for use with Rhapsody or Y! Unlimited.
Drawing on a library of professional rips 100-500 times the size of my personal collection and offered to friends as a one click download for their home networks and portable players, and, of course, my own.
Tell
Re:Many people just dont get it! (Score:2)
The point is that you don't have to buy anything. I took a look at the time I was spending on BT and the P2P nets. It didn't make any sense when the all-you-can-eat buffet from Netfix is $20-$30 a month.
I'll say this very slowly... (Score:2, Insightful)
Fight the laws and bad applications of DRM, not DRM itself.
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:2, Informative)
I sure as hell wish the EFF was around during all those stupidass copyright extensions.
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:2, Interesting)
Almost every isn't every. Document dissemination by governments/companies where you want to absolutely verify that either they sent it to you, or you are the only one who can manipulate/read it are one case where well implemented DRM would be beneficial. Or, any place that the artist(not the publisher) wants to protect their work. Companies internal documents, to aid in ensuring that they don't get "leaked".
DRM wi
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:3, Insightful)
DRM can never be open, becuase if it were, it would be defeatable.
DRM isnt about protecting rights, its about taking yours away so that big media can prevent you from moving from
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:2)
Absolutely wrong.
You have Public Key Crypto on one side with GPG as the prime open-source implementation. You communicate to somebody else and can guarantee documents are not tampered with. If you're trusted, you have complete control over YOUR content. Fair.
Then you have DRM, a PKI system in which you are the receiver and the attacker. They give you the key to decode and the cyphertext (and you watch/listen) to
To view but not reproduce or modify (Score:2)
Define "open". Given DRM that permits viewing but prohibits copying, it's impossible to implement such DRM in free software as defined by the Free Software Foundation [gnu.org] or by the Debian project [debian.org] because an attacker can edit the source code to tee(1) [hmug.org] the work to a file, build the program, run the program, and make an unencumbered copy.
Encrypting a me
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:3, Insightful)
That doesn't take DRM, it just takes a digital signature
or you are the only one who can manipulate/read it are one case where well implemented DRM would be beneficial.
Re:I'll say this very slowly... (Score:2)
Agreed. At the moment, however, all uses of DRM count as "bad". And I use that universal quantifier deliberately, not sloppily.
If you are too slow to catch on, the same rhetoric
Interesting choice of words... Starting a comment about effective speaking/writing ability with an ad hominem.
the same rhetoric that you, and every other anti-drm the technology people spew, can be said about ANY technology.
Can it?
"All uses of [computers] count as b
What DRM needs... (Score:2)
Re:What DRM needs... (Score:3, Insightful)
And if I have a Mac or Linux box?
Re:What DRM needs... (Score:2)
It's probably just me... (Score:2)
... but I read that as "indoctrination to the issue".
But let me ask you just one thing: if people are so disinterested and/or uneducated that the have to be introduced to the rights they are about to lose... how does that portray democracy?
From where I stand, I just see sheeple... all the rest of us only differ in the power we wield or do not wield. But most people, sadly, don't really give a damn.
I do hope EFF will bring more people to their senses... it's just the fact that this is the method needed to
Re:It's probably just me... (Score:2)
I can envision what will happen in the future if these laws pass. No one will believe that anything is
Re:It's probably just me... (Score:2)
Ignorantia legis neminem excusat, if my Latin serves me.
As long as there is a silent minority which not only cares, but actively passes laws which restrict other people who are, at the time, completel
To complete the collection (Score:3, Informative)
Propagandhi? (Score:2)
Re:Propagandhi? (Score:2)
You mean kind of like that inane 'Matrix' themed cartoon that the RIAA put out a couple years ago?
Re:Propagandhi? (Score:2)
Don't forget to Digg The Corruptibles too (Score:3, Informative)
Obligatory Simpsons (Score:2)
OK, I just made that up.
I don't like it (Score:4, Insightful)
1. It presents too many things too fast. Everything happends too fast. I showed it to someone unfamiliar with the issue, and who had only vaguely heard some of the terms used (analog hole, fair use, and the like). Her reaction was in the lines of "Huh? What the...? Can you play that again?"
2. It uses a foolishly cartoonish "superhero" style. When I see those overly comic-style "superhero" images with sharp lines, simple colors, and dumb logos on their chests, I find them stupid. They look stupid. This gives the whole video a comic feel, taking away any seriousness it might have wanted to imply. It fails to shock the unsuspecting viewer with what should be a shocking revelation. Don't get me wrong; the problem is not any crude drawing, but the adherence to the "comic superhero" style. Even the voice-over sticks to it...
3. It doesn't explain anything. What's going on? This is the most difficult one to get right, but a video has to at least try to explain part of the issue. You could say it only tries to turn your attention to the issue, but it doesn't... the video, as it is, requires one to do some serious background reading. How many people, who have never bothered with the issue before, are going to just stop what they were doing and start reading about DRM?
Number 2 is the biggest flaw in my opinion. Most people would oppose DRM if they knew about it, but if I send the link to anyone who's even a little sceptic about the importance of opposing DRM and the magnitude of its danger, that person would laugh at me. One already did, saying "What the hell is this bullshit?". The question was about the cartoonish guys, not the issue presented. I love the idea though, and hope they will come up with something better next time.
Re:I don't like it (Score:2)
And as long as these estimated hundreds of millions of people are ignorant of the issues, they're going to ignore what their congresscritters do, as long as they keep them thar homosexuals from getting married and keep sho
Remind you of anyone? (Score:2)
Is this clown on? (Score:2)
---
Go, go, go New Justice Team
Go team, go team,
Team team team
Who's that newest Justice Team?
The New Justice Team
Captain Yesterday is fast
Also he is from the past
Not just fast but from the past
Captain Yesterday!
Super King has all the powers of a King
Plus all the power of Superman,
Also he's a robot.
Ain't it cool? Super King you rule!
Clobbarella beats you up
Clobbarella beats you
Re:Captain Copyright (Score:2)
Captain Copyright: Ma'am, you can't buy that used CD, the artist doesn't get royalties from it!
EFF: Don't worry Ma'am, buy the CD, I'll PROTECT YOU!
Captain Copyright: Oh you're mean EFF! Meanie! Don't make me throw lawyers at you and this woman!
Re:Nice link (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nice link (Score:2, Insightful)
I tend to agree. Simplified, hyperbolic, and in the end, unengaging. I think the talk Cory Doctrow gave to the Microsoft Research Group [craphound.com] about DRM is a much better way to introduce friends and relatives to th
Re:Nice link (Score:3, Insightful)
The cartoon was uninspired and not worth forwarding to anyone I know, I agree.
How do you let someone know that there is a new law that will let someone walk in your front door and change your television channel? its very hard to convince anyone of that because its so preposterous. People will think you are just exaggerating. The cartoon does not seem to understand that.
Re:Nice link - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Score:5, Interesting)
Given their druthers, these people would have your brain or body micro-chipped, and if you believe otherwise, many here would think you are not playing with the full deck.
Decent copyright, and decent IP is understandable and even desirable, but when these SOB's enter every part of every transaction and sanction what I can, or cannot see, and monitor my every trivial activity - I keep hearing the soft bell of a Certain Story.... 1984... O'Brien: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever."
Its a disturbing read, and for who're BRAVE enough to download (free from Australia) it, you may see the very similarities in the book and what DRM is.... the ability to "re-write history" the ability to make un-people or un-events (revoke DRM to your demographic/country/voting area).....
This is not a political issue, but a human freedom. Its a form of pseudo fascism, as in 1984... the owners of the content will be The Ministry Of Truth.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four [wikipedia.org]
Re:Nice link - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Score:2)
The fact is, not all DRM is bad, and to paint the issue in absolutist terms does a disservice. Far too much is made over DRM on Slashdot. If DRM is too draconian on a product, customers simply won't buy it and will choose a different product. Rights aren't being violated, and society isn't being m
Re:Nice link - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact DRM is wonderful, great and there should be more of it. What is bad is that the makers of DRM, with the DMCA, have gotten the law on their side in cat and mouse game of breaking all DRM. Let Sony and whoever wants to come up with the most draconian DRM they can pay someone to invent, but then allow someone even more clever come up with and legally distribute tools to break the encryptions.
All content creators have to realize that the easier it has become
Re:Nice link - IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (Score:3, Interesting)
If anti-piracy groups released a video portraying pirates as supervillians who invade your home and take your money and never give it back, we'd all be making fun of it.
And in turn, it's the anti-piracy groups' good right to be making fun of this. I don't see the problem. Besides, don't tell me you've forgotten all those anti-piracy educational messages and videos depicting copyright infringers as the worst scum of the earth, or the ones suggesting what happens to your analog hole in prison once their l
Re:Way too dumbed-down ! (Score:2)
Well, it was a cartoon. But so are South Park and Oruchuban Ebichu. It doesn't mean the content is in any way aimed at the under-fives.
I think it's a nice follow-up to the Creative Commons promotion tool that was released last year some time. I can't remember what it was called, but it was a nice, public-friendly rendering of the ideas that CC stands for. Unfortunately when I just watched the video for this EFF animation my sound wasn't working, so I don't know if it had funky sounds or amusing commentary
Re:Way too dumbed-down ! (Score:2)
Re:To One Side (Score:4, Insightful)
DRM IS WRONG. In any form ever for anything. It stifles the advance of human progress, be it technologically, in the arts, or even politically. Advocating DRM ever for anything is like advocating AIDS ever for anything. Sure occasionally some real fucktard like Dick Cheney might get AIDS and that would be great. However, AIDS itself still sucks, and I'd advocate taking him out another way.
Specifically in this case prison time for purjury and election rigging until his pace maker gives out. Over all AIDS is still bad. Just like DRM.
Re:To One Side (Score:2)
Re:To One Side (Score:2)
It is if you do not hold the private keys. In the case of an employer using it, then the employer better have the private keys.
Re:To One Side (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:To One Side (Score:2, Insightful)
The real problem is that it is almost impossible to constrain piracy while not infringing on fair use. These same types of things were brought up with the advent of VCRs and there has been no companies that have gone bankrupt (to my knowledge) because of VCRs. In my opinion, DRM is not necessary, and companies could make even more profit witho
Re:To One Side (Score:4, Insightful)
Well DRM does not constrain piracy. It only hurts the
Zip. Nadda. Not one bit.
If a pirate wants to copy something or get a copy of something, he already has the tools to bypass whatever DRM you throw at him. Those who end up being hurt all the time is Joe Six packs who buy a copy and then the company that sold him the media goes bankrupt or his drm copy goes bad and he couldn't make fair use backups of it.
The "truth" about DRM is to make people buy media twice when they already own a licence for it.
And guess what happens to DRM when the copyright expires in 100 years from now? You still have DRM and may heaven help you if you are a historian trying to research early 21st century history and can't seem to find tools to read archaic DRM schemes (although I'll give our descendants the benefit of the doubt with computer skills by 2100.)
Not to mention this media is supposed to go into public domain once the DRM expires... But DRM is cheating the spirit of copyright law by making this impossible.
Factual Inaccuracy (Score:2)
I agree that piracy is bad: it undermines the natural sense that we should respect the terms of a contract, however to say that it hurts the economy and business, at least in the case of 'cultural works' turns out to be false [slashdot.org]: the advertising effect cancels out the displacement effect almost exactly, at least when the pirated work isn't payed for.
The real sin then is to charge for pirated work: this causes a re
Re:That's not an animation! (Score:4, Informative)