DRM in tatters: first HD-DVD rip posted
Even before Microsoft's onerous Vista operating system hits the shelves it's whole raison d'etre is in tatters. As I reported earlier, Vista treats every user as a potential pirate, checking 30 times a second that you're not trying to rip off High Definition (HD) content - even when your PC's sitting doing nothing. Now with the posting of the first ripped HD-DVD movie the whole exercise looks like a waste of effort, time and money;
| The
pirates of the world have fired another salvo in their ongoing war with
copy protection schemes with the first release of
the first full-resolution
rip of an HD DVD movie on BitTorrent. The movie, Serenity,
was made
available as a .EVO file and is playable on most DVD playback software
packages
such as PowerDVD. The file was encoded in MPEG-4 VC-1 and the resulting
file
size was a hefty 19.6 GB. [link]
|
| Microsoft
has been forced to acknowledge that a substantial number of
PCs running the new version of its Windows operating system will not be
able to play high-quality DVDs.
The Vista system will be available to consumers at the end of the month. However, in an interview with The Times, one of its chief architects said that because of anti-piracy protection granted to the Hollywood studios, Vista would not play HD-DVD and Blu-ray Discs on certain PCs. Dave Marsh, the lead program manager for video at Microsoft, said that if the PC used a digital connection to link with the monitor or television, then it would require the highest level of content protection, known as HDCP, to play the discs. If it did not have such protection, Vista would shut down the signal, he said. [link]
|
Or maybe not. It seems the Recording Industry Associaton of America (RIAA) are now using SWAT teams to bust potential pirates. Gulp!
| Last
night, a federal SWAT team assisted the RIAA in a raid on the studio of
Atlanta musician DJ Drama.
This local news report says the locally famous mixtape DJ is under investigation for piracy. But Drama's supporters say the DJ is a mix artist, not a bootlegger. They say news footage of the raid shows RIAA officials boxing up only recordable CDs filled with mixes, not bootlegs of retail CDs (the local news reporter seems to conflate the two as well). Assuming for a moment that RIAA and federal officials do indeed know the difference between a mash-up DJ and a bootleg operation, and that they did find evidence of actual piracy in the bust, there's still the problem of why RIAA officials were participating in a police action, and why a SWAT team was used to raid a professional studio under investigation for a nonviolent, white-collar crime. [link]
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Comments
Since just about all public offices in the USA from the President, Governors, Judges etc down to Sheriffs, District Attorneys and Dog Catches are all elected officials and therefore politicians, why is anyone surprised if they are less than scrupulous. They need cash, media coverage and support from others to win their elections and keep their jobs, all of which companies and industry/lobby groups are willing to provide in return for favourable policies or other considerations. The more powerful the elected position the more clout the official and the more clout their financial backers. Retired politicians are then employed by big business to become lobbyists to make sure sitting politicians know what their backers want and to exert pressure and influence as required. It’s a very corrupt system that the US calls democracy and freedom. The frightening thing is that through globalisation, treaties and trade deals these same business organizations are now able to exert influence in many countries. Political power and very deep pockets is a formable combination and gives those who have it not only a competitive advantage but also the ability to skewer the so called free market into something that is not free and smacks of protectionism and corruption, but is of course strictly legal. They then use laws, treaties and all the force they can muster to beat the rest of us into submission and make freedom illegal. I’ve a bad feeling about where all this will end in the future.
Posted by: Adam Skinner | January 21, 2007 6:08 AM
Under Homeland security and the patriotism act, every USA citizen is a terrorist, and enemy of the state and therefore guilty of anything any official major or minor dreams of for any reson.
They no longer have protection under the constitution.
Posted by: Barbara Duckett | January 19, 2007 6:00 PM