August Abolins wrote in a message to All:

 AA> But the market isn't ready to choose.

Hah!  More like the market isn't ready to choose to go along with this nonsense...

 AA> Given that consumer interest in media files exploded when files 
 AA> were free, no one really knows how people will react when they 
 AA> have to pay.

Not so.  What's really the case is that people are gonna get pissed off
when they have to pay for what was formerly free.

 AA> The music industry will get a good indication of how well the 
 AA> model-and the software-works when the "Big Five" recording giants 
 AA> put their full catalogs online next year, says GartnerGroup senior 
 AA> analyst P.J. McNealy.

And guaranteed,  as soon as the material is out there,  and *some* software
that people can take apart to see how it works,  somebody or other will
crack it and then people will be able to download more or less what they
want and use it the way they want.

 AA> How it works

 AA> In DRM, rules are embedded into files, which the software then 
 AA> encrypts. Wrapped up in an encrypted "container" with its rules, a 
 AA> movie is then released on the Internet. Consumers who pay for a 
 AA> license receive decoder "keys" from clearinghouses or publishers.

Which will no doubt work only with their software.  Just as DVDs were only
supposed to be able to be used with software that originated with m$... 
Until DECSS came along.

Over and over again I see commercials on the tv for various movies, etc.
and they all say "OWN it".  Not "rent" or any other
word.  Well,  if I OWN a copy of it I should be able to choose my own
mechanism and software platform to play it,  and screw those folks that
think otherwise.

 AA> But even those armed with decoder keys must follow the rules. If a
 AA> consumer pays for five movie viewings, for example, embedded rules
 AA> simply will prevent the movie from playing any more than five
 AA> times-that is, until the license is renewed.

Right...

 AA> Managing the rights for streaming media is a bit different. In 
 AA> video-on-demand trial runs in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and American
 AA> Fork, Utah, Blockbuster used InterTrust Technologies' software to 
 AA> ensure that rented movie files would stream to customer set-top 
 AA> boxes for no more than 24 hours. To prevent videotape recording, 
 AA> the companies used copy protection software from Macrovision, 
 AA> which inserts signals into the file that confuse VCRs but that go 
 AA> unnoticed by televisions. In the Cincinnati trial, Broadwing and
 AA> Intertainment are using Microsoft's DRM software.

Blockbuster,  eh?  I've patronized those people *once*.  And,  since I had
an older tv at the time,  the tape proved to be un-viewable.  Since I'd
rented it over the weekend they tried to charge me both for not returning
it to their drop box on time and for not having rewound it like I was
supposed to.  I've not been back there since.  Copy protection?  Yeah, 
maybe that's what it was. I don't know,  and don't much care.

There are "video stabilizer" and other such boxes out there to
take care of this stuff anyhow.

 AA> In either case, DRM software provides publishers and retailers 
 AA> with a wide variety of options to set rules. If a retailer runs a
 AA> subscription service, as Napster plans to do, it could require 
 AA> subscribers to renew their song licenses every month. A site or 
 AA> music label could also allow consumers to burn a song to a CD, but 
 AA> only for an extra charge. And an e-publisher could allow you to 
 AA> share a book with a friend by making available a single copy that 
 AA> can be passed along but not copied.

Ain't no such animal.

 AA> Significant problems could arise, however. One of the biggest: Not 
 AA> all DRM software runs on all players. After all, the companies 
 AA> that write the software are competitors. And for now, they'd 
 AA> rather fight for market share than make life less confusing for 
 AA> consumers.

Their greed will be their downfall yet!

 AA> If, for example, you buy a song protected by IBM's software, it 
 AA> won't run in Microsoft's Windows Media Player, which only plays 
 AA> Microsoft-protected files. To listen to the IBM-protected music, 
 AA> you'd have to obtain another player. Ultimately, some player 
 AA> makers such as RealNetworks, Liquid Audio, or MusicMatch might run 
 AA> all DRM software on virtually any music-playing device, but such 
 AA> universality would require scores of business deals and an 
 AA> enormous amount of technical work. Beyond that, consumers may be 
 AA> forced to upgrade their portable players to accommodate DRM, 
 AA> something they may be unwilling to do.

Yep,  until such point as the linux hackers have at it.  :-)

 AA> And no one really knows if DRM software can actually secure files.

Probably not.  There's no such thing as an unbreakable copy protection
scheme, the software publishers found that out a long time ago.

 AA> Few DRM-encrypted digital downloads have been available for long, 
 AA> so hackers haven't had much of a chance to find weak spots. 

They'll get there.

 AA> Why bother?

 AA> On the other hand, hackers may not even bother to crack DRM 
 AA> encryption because it's so easy to pirate songs and movies from 
 AA> DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes, says Forrester Research analyst Eric 
 AA> Scheirer. Twelve-year-olds can easily "rip" songs from music CDs 
 AA> to distribute far and wide. And better compression and cheaper 
 AA> bandwidth will make movies an increasingly attractive target. 
 AA> Scheirer argues that such end runs by consumers will eventually 
 AA> kill the retail prospects of DRM. Instead, publishers may use it 
 AA> to syndicate content or to retain control over retail pricing. In 
 AA> the end, DRM may prove more useful for protecting certain medical 
 AA> records, legal documents, and sensitive corporate memos.

 AA> Nevertheless, publishers seem confident that DRM will solve the 
 AA> piracy problem. 

In other words they're pinning their hopes on this bit of technology saving
them from what other technology can do...

 AA> Blockbuster and Enron's video-on-demand trial program 

Enron?!

 AA> would never have drawn participation from studios such as 
 AA> Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer without DRM technology, says Blockbuster 
 AA> spokesperson Liz Greene. "DRM is vital," says David Bishop, 
 AA> president and COO of Home Entertainment at MGM. "We can make 
 AA> [piracy] difficult enough that someone won't spend 150 hours of 
 AA> their life breaking into something that they could have purchased
 AA> for $3.99 or $4.99."

They get the prices down that far,  and do away with the copy protection
crap,  and maybe I'd buy into it.

 AA> The industry's confidence in DRM, of course, makes perfect sense. 
 AA> No sizable company would do business without an army of lawyers, so
 AA> why not enlist an army of virtual ones, too?

Right...

 AA> Sensitive Secrets  
 AA>  
 AA> Doctors, lawyers, and drm. Digital rights management technology 
 AA> can do more than just control who listens to a Radiohead track; it 
 AA> can also control who sees and edits sensitive business documents 
 AA> such as budgets, medical records, and even trade secrets. 

 AA> For example, McGuireWoods, a national law firm based in Richmond, 
 AA> Va., uses DRM software to ensure that opposing lawyers do not 
 AA> misuse the documents they obtain during litigation, says Rodney 
 AA> Satterwhite, the firm's general counsel for knowledge management.
 AA> "We get paid to worry," Satterwhite says.

 AA> Rather than rely on blind faith that its opponents will act in 
 AA> good faith, the firm protects trade secrets with Authentica's 
 AA> PageRecall software, which converts documents into specially 
 AA> encrypted Adobe Acrobat files. 

Just what we need,  another proprietary format!  :-)

 AA> Using PageRecall, McGuireWoods can ensure that only the opposing 
 AA> lawyer herself can open the file. Meanwhile, the firm can block 
 AA> her from copying or printing it, say, for her client's product 
 AA> development team. The firm can make the documents totally 
 AA> unreadable after the litigation ends, Satterwhite says.

What,  no records?  Nonsense.

 AA> Protecting business information with encryption is not new, of 
 AA> course, but DRM presents a more versatile set of options than 
 AA> encryption's simple, "Joe can open this budget plan but Phil 
 AA> cannot." DRM also enables more precise use and distribution of
 AA> information.

 AA> Certain parts of a protected medical record, for example, would be 
 AA> visible to everyone who has access to it, but sensitive sections 
 AA> could be read only by the patient and his doctor.

 AA> Versatile as it is, DRM may never be a really big hit in business, 
 AA> says Forrester Research analyst Eric Scheirer. It may be more 
 AA> trouble than it's worth unless privacy and security are absolutely 
 AA> paramount.

Somebody with a little sense there,  anyway.  

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