Archive for the ‘issues’ Category

MPAA stealing intellectual property

February 18th, 2007

As if the MPAA's (Motion Picture Association of America) credibility wasn't eroding quickly enough, in a recent stunt reported on reddit, they were busted cold for taking free blogging software, deliberately removing all references to its origin, thereby violating its user license.

iTunes illegal in Norway

January 25th, 2007

bwahahahahahahaha! :howler:

Apple was dealt a blow in Europe on Wednesday when Norway’s powerful consumer ombudsman ruled that its iTunes online music store was illegal because it did not allow downloaded songs to be played on rival technology companies’ devices.

The decision is the first time any jurisdiction has concluded iTunes breaks its consumer protection laws and could prompt other European countries to review the situation.

The ombudsman has set a deadline of October 1 for the Apple to make its codes available to other technology companies so that it abides by Norwegian law. If it fails to do so, it will be taken to court, fined and eventually closed down.

So says the Financial Times. I am greatly amused by this, because it's no surprise at all. The issue was raised a long time ago, and there has been a lot of back and forth with the authorities. Apple would not budge and so it was bound to come to this eventually. It's poetic that Apple's strong arm tactics have failed completely.

Technology pundits are saying the writing is on the wall for DRM, I'm not so sure myself. But this is a nice and clear sign that some actually do take offense to consumer rights being trampled on. Countries where the government isn't in the pocket of the industry perhaps (or at least not to that extent)?

Bring it on, Europe!

welcome to DRM

November 29th, 2006

It's all over. Russia apparently caved into US pressure over trade deals and agreed to shut down allofmp3.com. That means the last site that sells non-DRM mainstream music is now gone. So if you want that latest Moby cd (and who doesn't ;) ), you have two options.. a) buy the cd or b) buy it from a DRM store.

If you buy the overpriced cd, paying for 18 tracks while you'd only pay for 2 if you could cause the rest stink, you can rip the cd and put the mp3s on your mp3 player. Media companies have tried various things to cripple cds so you can't rip them, but none of the methods have gained a foothold cause they've all sucked so far.

If you buy the album (or selected tracks) online, you might get it cheaper, but the media is crippled. If you buy through iTunes and you want to put the music on your iRiver, Apple's message is fuck you for not buying our iPod. You could burn the music to a cd and then rip it, but again iTunes decides if you can (which can change at any time), how many tracks you can burn per month etc etc. Not to mention that it's a complete hassle.

To put a new spin on things, Microsoft released their Zune mp3 player and it has some exciting new features. First of all, it's not compatible with Windows Media Player, so all the music you have there you can throw away, you're not gonna use it on the Zune. Secondly, obviously it's not compatible with anything like iTunes, so if you use iTunes and you have a collection of music bought through iTunes, and you want this music on your Zune, you can re-buy it. Isn't it convenient?

Before file sharing took off, the only way to get music was to buy cds. Almost ten years later, with the giant stir that file sharing has caused, the only real way to buy music is to buy cds. Apparently the technological revolution is blazing fast, but the ability of the music industry to leverage the internet to its advantage (that is, without completely alienating its customers) is zero.

Lots of people don't realize why DRM is bad. Yet. But once Zunes become popular and the inability to combine iTunes with Zune becomes a real practical problem, we should hear a bit more noise about it.

why software patents are idiotic

November 23rd, 2006

If there ever was a case that illustrated why software patents are idiotic, it is a story from today's slashdot. In a bold move, a company has filed a patent claim for linked lists.

Just to recap for a moment - patents are meant to protect new inventions, so that when you make a brilliant new discovery, like say, the light bulb, and someone wants to take that idea and get rich you can say "hang on, I was first, if you want to use the idea you'll have to license it from me".

Linked lists are as old as computer science itself, however. No, scratch that, they're a fundamental principle, in fact. They are what the Pythagorean theorem is to mathematics. The patent claim in this case is not for linked lists in general, it's for lists linked in more than one direction, which is just a common variant of linked lists. But here's the kicker, the patent was granted. That means the data structure I was taught in college (and which every comp sci student is taught) is now to be considered hands off. :( So if I write an application using linked lists, I am liable for patent infringement. It's a good thing patents are not backwards enforcable, or my old assignments in college would come into question. :lala:

Software patents, of course, are only applicable in the one country crazy enough to accept them, the United States. The idea was rejected by the EU some time ago, but another round of lobbying over patents in Europe is on the cards.

The point of a patent is to protect innovation. In this case, the holder of the patent is able to sue any company or individual for using linked lists, but that kind of case would be completely useless, because of the prior art principle. If a patent is granted and it is then proven that someone has used the idea before the patent was issued, then the patent is invalidated.

Other ideas already patented are Adobe's tabbed window panes (as used in Photoshop) and Amazon's one-click shopping.

Unlike DRM, patents are not such a big consumer problem, they apply more to developers. But it means that if a company is granted a patent for "lossy compressed music files" (mp3), and uses this idea in a program (Windows Media Player), then anyone else wanting to play back these mp3s can't, in any way, make this happen. Because the limitation isn't on the format itself, it's on the idea that such a format can exist. So noone can even come up with a different format for music files, the whole thing is restricted. This is not a good example, because a) there's lots of prior art for music compression and b) I took this from thin air, so it may not be that realistic or representative. Nevertheless, this is how the mechanism works and so for open source software, which often strives to provide alternatives for common commercial software, software patents is a minefield.

iriver, you rock. again.

November 22nd, 2006

I mentioned the scourge of DRM in the past and it's interesting to see that things are developing. For one thing, I've really taken to Magnatune after Amarok added the plugin and the other day I purchased this album (apparently 10% of the sales through amarok go to the amarok project, neat). Defectivebydesign.org publishes a list of non-DRM music stores which is very handy. Apparently, eMusic sells songs for 25c to iTunes's 99c and without DRM, I might just register over there and look around.

Another most welcome development is iriver deciding to abandom the DRM on their mp3 players, which places them back in my good graces. Their newest players state the system requirements as Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, no more Windows Media Player baloney. Which means that when the time comes to replace my ifp 895, I probably will go with a third iriver. And that's five sales in all, including recommendations I've given to other people.

And here's a very well written article about why DRM is bad, including an instructive video by the people at Defectivebydesign.org. Last but not least, Lawrence Lessig's lecture on free culture and the evolution of cultural freedoms.

If you're more into books than music, Telltale Weekly has a collection of cheap audiobooks you can download in mp3 format. Some are indeed free, and if you read my impressions on Kafka's Metamorphosis on this blog in the future, you'll know why.

Finally, this isn't a DRM issue, but it's closely connected to it. Record companies lament about losing money lately, and they try to make you care about their profits by saying that the artists you love are not getting paid for their work. Well apparently, it's true that artists aren't being paid, but that this is not a recent development, and has little to do with profits and all to do with their corporate policies. In contrast, Magnatune (and possibly others) pay artists 50% of every sale, so for those who care about artists, it's a pretty good incentive to shop there instead.