Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Was DRM-free music an Apple innovation?

  Some people have tried to paint the recent announcement by Apple as example of Apple innovating and Microsoft following . Headlines like " Microsoft changes tune on selling DRM-free songs " are simply misleading - none of the technology companies truly wanted DRM, but they were a necessary evil in selling music that they did not own. As I've discussing in previous posts , Microsoft, Real Networks, and Yahoo! were all instrumental in the anti-DRM movement. Most labels seem to get it - these decisions and stratregy are more often coming from the corporate parents, not the labels themselves. In fact, Gates criticized DRM months before Jobs' manifesto a month ago, and EMI had been reportedly been considering releasing DRM-free tracks in MP3 format for awhile. This initially-exclusive deal with EMI simply demonstrates Apple's significant marketshare for purchased music and influence in the market. The mere fact that Apple was lucky and/or powerful enough to convince a major label to do something... Posted Apr 09 2007, 12:59 PM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Things that bother me, Things that amuse me, Copyright, Microsoft, Apple, Law, Audio, DRM

• More on the Music Industry's Slow Death

  This letter from a former customer further illustrates how the music industry is alienating its customers. While I would like to say I responded with something witty, I must admit to being completely flummoxed. There I sat, a loyal music fan who has shelled out actual money to a business that is supposed to be having financial problems, and the best they can do is tell me to wander the streets of Seattle looking for different internet providers who might allow me to download the music that I have already paid for, music that I have spent the better part of three house trying to listen to, and which is still unusable?” As I said before, sometimes piracy isn't about getting it for free . Given the choice of paying for crippled digital music in two months or downloading free, unrestricted music today, is it really any surprise that they choose the latter? You have record companies paying major labels for airtime, but putting arguably their best promotional vehicle out of business by jacking... Posted Mar 22 2007, 07:48 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright, Law, Audio, Social Behavior, DRM

• Streamburst offers innovative DRM for video

  I've already discussed the German music store using watermarks to discourage piracy , and now it seems another service is applying the same principle to video . Instead of handcuffing viewers who want to view films they purchase on multiple devices and otherwise use content legitimately in ways DRM blocks - Streamburst takes two steps to prevent movie piracy. The first is that every film begins with a 5 second display of the name of the person who purchased that copy, as it appears on their credit card. The second step is that Streamburst eliminates an undetectable but unique series of bits from each copy of a file downloaded. That idea is that the psychological barrier of being named will stop many people from illegally distributing the files and those whom it doesn’t stop can be identified by the unique series of bits stripped from whatever copies make it into illegal file sharing networks. These techniques are just as effective at preventing the bad guys as "real" DRM (that is, they... Posted Feb 28 2007, 01:46 PM by Tim with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Security, Innovation, Video, Social Behavior, DRM

• FairUse4WM cracks PlaysForSure DRM

  The big news last week was that the Windows Media DRM was cracked . Derek also thinks this isn't entirely a bad thing, and in fact this benefits both the consumers and the online music services . As Grant puts it, "DRM doesn't protect content in any meaningful way. DRM does however present an encumbrance to legal uses of media purchased by legitimate customers." This is, ultimately, the paradox of DRM : it keeps the 'good guys' from using works that would fall under fair use, but doesn't protect against the "bad guys" determined to steal anyways. Peter Rojas, in an open letter to Microsoft , implores the company not to kill the FairUse4WM project. Rather than being an incentive for people to steal music, he suggests that many friends and readers have actually expressed an interest in signing up for these services. I tend to agree with this assessment. Until iTunes offers a subscription plan , this means that nearly nearly 80% of all digital music players are excluded from subscription service... Posted Aug 28 2006, 08:41 PM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Music, Copyright, DRM

• DRM can have a significant impact on battery life

  Tommy Perkins posts yet another reason to hate DRM . According to this CNET article , it can have a significant negative impact on your device's battery life - as much as 25% as you can see below. Creative Zen Vistion:M: 16 hours with MP3s, 12 hours with only WMA subscription tracks Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder: 11 hours with MP3s, 9 hours with DRM tracks iRiver U10: 32 hours with MP3s, 27 hours playing subscription tracks The iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, "underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent." This isn't terribly surprising, of course, given the additional processing required to validate and decrypt, but it's surely off-putting. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, RIAA says future DRM might "threaten critical infrastructure and potentially endanger lives . Posted Mar 21 2006, 04:12 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Security, Gadgets, Music, Copyright, DRM