Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Copyright

• The Broadcast Flag and TiVO

  The EFF already defeated the Broadcast Flag once, but it's one of those things that Hollywood is not going to let go of. I noticed on Dave's site that DRM support was added to TiVO last year . This DRM allows content owners to specify how and whether TiVO users can record a flagged show: they either can't record, can keep it for seven days, or - as the case with this obscure, 40-year-old movie - can keep for 7 days but only have 24 hours to watch once they start. This is one isolated incident, and we can definitely look elsewhere for our DVR needs. (My DVR provided by Time Warner doesn't have DRM restrictions, nor does a Media Center PC). The danger of the Broadcast flag, though, is that it mandates these restrictions, giving the content providers complete control over how we can consume their content. I am not suggesting that we ignore the rights of the copyright holder, but we also can't ignore the rights of the consumer. Copyright is, of course, not an absolute right and there are necessary... Posted Aug 24 2006, 08:07 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Gadgets, Copyright

• Commercial Skipping

  There's been a bit of discussion on two patent applications filed by Philips on what the author of this NYT article refers to as "pay to surf" technology. Part of me hopes that they patented this simply to prevent others from using the invention, but somehow I don't think that's the case. ( Aside: Why the over-the-top rhetoric? I'm not exactly sure that the right to channel-surf during commercials or fast-forward through recorded is an "inalienable right". ) The principles behind copyright are meant to encourage expression, not protect business models. William Patry sums it up nicely in his discussion on the fourth fair use factor : The fourth factor analysis of harm to the market for the copyrighted work was a bunch of hoo-ha in [Sony]. The fourth factor concerns ways in which copying of the work itself damages similar or otherwise relevant markets for the particular type of copying done by defendant. The fourth factor most certainly does not concern harm to advertisers, nor does it reach... Posted May 10 2006, 04:20 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Gadgets, Copyright

• MPAA, P2P and digital downloads

  The MPAA has launched a massive attack on P2P sites, but one of the sites is fighting back . TorrentSpy is a search engine for torrent files - it doesn't host the torrent files or the underlying protected material. In their response, they said that the MPAA might have just as well sued Google . Fred von Lohmann said , "on closer examination it looks more like a wholesale attack against Internet indexing generally." Fred questions whether copyright can (or should) make the distinction between a good index and a bad index. I guess TorrentSpy's main problem is that they haven't struck a deal with the MPAA . In related news, seven major studios will begin selling movies through MovieLink and CinemaNow. The downloads will be released at the same time that the DVD is released and will $20-30. Unfortunately, the studios still don't get it - you have to wait until the DVD is out, pay MORE than the DVD, and not get the physical media? (You can't even burn a copy). This would make a hell of a lot... Posted Apr 09 2006, 04:37 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Gadgets, Copyright

• Converting from protected music formats to unprotected MP3s

  Neowin points to another piece of software that allows you to "convert" protected AACs and WMAs to unprotected MP3s. Like other programs, they've taken an intersting approach to bypassing DCMA concerns: instead of decrypting the underlying media, they capture the (unprotected) output from the sound card. (In other words, they are technically not bypassing any TPM). With the DCMA issue effectively avoided, it's pretty reasonable to make a fair use argument here. After all, all we're really doing is format-shifting - and as we saw in Grokster oral arguments the music industry considers this fair use. Posted Oct 31 2005, 05:51 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Gadgets, Copyright