Okay, so the title may not be completely true, but the era of DRM-crippled music continues to fade, especially after today's announcement that Sony BMG has dropped DRM.
The label had been the last holdout of the Big 4, and it now joins EMI, Universal and Warner in offering its music catalog DRM-free and in MP3 format.
The first DRM-free tracks will be likely appearing at the end of ... [ read the full article ]
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Quote:HDMI + HDCP + DVI
So you have a television that has a digital tuner and is listed as being 1080i compatible. Congratulations! Are you watching HDTV? The answer is "maybe". As it turns out, the companies that make television programs and movies do not trust you and me. In fact, they think that given the chance you will steal from them and that they must protect themselves in any way they can. To this end the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) specifaction from Intel is a DRM scheme used to ensure that content traveling between HD devices is secure from copying. To connect these HD device you must use digital interconnect cables. Currently there are only two interconnects that can be used: Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or high-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). DVI is primarily used to connect digital monitors to computers and HDMI is the standard used for home theater equipment.
What's The Problem?
The problem is that for nearly a decade now electronics manufacturers have been selling televisions that have been advertised as being HD-Ready, HD-Capable, HD-Compatible, etc. Very few of those televisions have either DVI or HDMI and the Federal Communications Commission approved HDCP as a "Digital Output Protection Technology" on August 4th, 2004. To make matters worse the electronics manufacturers are still making non-HDCP compliant devices and are not warning people about this issue. In fact if you look at the computer graphics industry the two leaders are ATI and NVIDIA. As of this writing there was no card from either of these companies that was HDCP ready.
Quote:Now all they have to do is stop overcharging for individual songs...
One dollar per song is a good deal! ...That's less than the cost of a small soda at McDonalds. It's your dollar, and it's your choice. You can buy a song or a soda... If the song isn't worth a dollar to you, go buy a soda!
In the 1960s & 1970s a scratchy-sounding 45 RPM single (vinyl) cost about a dollar. Now, you can get a much better digital copy for the same price! When you figure-in inflation, the 25 RPM single would now cost about $5.
And, since record companies are loosing money, I wouldn't expect them to lower the prices too much.
The AA's are giving up on DRM cuz basically it's been booty-busted. DRM offerings are basically either ignored or raped like the CSS copy-protection for DVD's. Now it's to digital fingermarks and trying to plug analog holes. How long will their virgin days last?
There are at least 2 vendors that are selling high quality non DRMed music right now. eMusic sells ultra high quality lossy formats 320 BR & VBR extreme. The other I can't remember sells lossless albums for $10.
A large portion of the data in a lossless format is dedicated preserving sounds beyond the human hearing range. It takes 2,000 times the data to preserve a 20 khz note than a 20hz note. Most 20 year olds can barely hear 20 khz note. If they listened to loud music they can't hear the tone at all. As we grow older we can't hear high notes. The average human can only hear about 18khz. Lossless preserves up to about 26khz. 320 BRs and VBR extreme cut out every thing above 20khz. VBR extreme are about half the size of a 320 because it also cuts out sounds you can't hear because they are 'drounded out' by louder sounds. 320 BRs are less than half that of a Flac (the smallest lossless format). Flac files are half the size of an uncompressed file which are about 50 megs for a 3 minute song.
I prefer VBR extremes. What is lost you can't hear so why bother with the extra baggage.
I wonder if Sony is putting the watermarks in their music.
jove, if you are still checking this thread, you will get banned from afterdawn if you continue to suggest the public ought to do something illegal. Using Limewire is not illegal but to suggest persons to download copyrighted material is. Being a newbie gives you some protection but not much.
DVDdoug, your analogy is interesting. However, in the days of the 45 the record companies often made a one time ownership buy out. Maybe the artist would get 10 grand for the rights to the tune. That is why many of the old time artists have no money now. Those tunes have paid for them selves many times over. There is no inflation. There isn't much inflation in the oldies music or any other music except in our own perceptions. I doubt that even in 1990 a music company would sign a contract raising the amount an artist would get each year. Therefore the Media Mafia could afford 4 for a dollar and still make probably keep more than 80 cents of the dollar. eMusic sells HQ music with no DRMs for 4 per dollar and are not going broke. In fact they are doing fantasticly well. It is probably that success that is making even Sony re-conceder. The problem with eMusic is the biggest artest they have a contract with is Johnny Cash. You need to shop through no names to find good stuff.
Lime Wire should be called Virus Wire. That is not safe sailing, although there are good no cost CC (Creative Commons) & CL (Copy Left) tracks to be had there. To get those tracks (most are offered free) I use aMule/eMule because the main websites can be for some reason slower than a sloth with quicktrot!
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Info about alternative Copyright.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft *
Public site with downloadable media (murderously slow in my area:S )
http://www.archive.org/index.php
