Despite the fact that it is the only e-mail client that can sync with my PDA, I finally lost temper with M$ Look Out. The error messages, lack of stability and horrendous UI went on for too long, and I have switched back to Mozilla Thunderbird. I can now proudly say that (except for Doze) I do not use a single Micro$uck$ product. Not one. Remember folks, open source software is not only more ethical, but generally better than proprietary products.
In the MGM Vs Grokster case (now in the US Supreme Court) the basic argument has been that Grokster facilitated copyright infringement for their own commercial gain (more people infringing copyright —> more users —> more ad revenue). Ignoring that argument for now, if it wasn’t for DRM then there wouldn’t be any commercial basis for P2P. The networks we’re talking about here are the ‘proprietary decentralised’ ones- there is no central server on the network but you still need a particular program to connect to it (e.g. KaZaA, Grokster, Morpheus etc.), and said program can then be packed full of spyware to bring ad revenue. Since only BitTorrent (which is open source, with no adverts and therefore no possibility for commercial revenue) is realistically usable for transferring larger files like films and software, most of the traffic on Krapzaa and the like is music files.
Has anyone stopped to think of the likely reason for this? To be honest, if you are just wanting to download a particular artists’ work without paying for it, BitTorrent is a better option as it has the full albums (rather than having to hunt-and-peck for each song individually) and very few fake files. The real reason that is fuelling the likes of Krapzaa is the limitations placed on CDs. The whole reason for the explosion of iPods and their ilk was the ability to listen to any of your songs, when you wanted and in whatever order you wanted. In other words, the same idea as burning a compilation audio CD, but with a hard disc instead of round shiny plastic. Now that DRM is de rigeur for the major labels, the chances are that if you do what is in the labels’ interests (ie buy a CD or a ‘legal’ download), you get lumbered with endless DRM- limitations on the number of devices you can have it on, an attempt at blocking any CD ripping even if its for backup purposes (legally protected by UK law), and if your hard disc gets formatted/you buy a new computer then its your own bloody fault and you just have to buy your property all over again.
Instead of spending 5 minutes finding out how to bypass a particular label’s digital rackets management, I can download the track in question from P2P in less than that (81 seconds if my broadband is in decent form). This is surely what gets a lot of people into P2P in the first place- they go on trying to exercise the legal rights that the labels have blocked with DRM, and notice that as well as the track they own, there are a whole load of other tracks on ‘this P2P thing’ and just stop buying CDs. It’s no coincidence that the amount of music being downloaded via P2P has increased at the same rate that DRM usage has increased. If the labels just stopped embedding such viruses (virii?) in audio CDs, a lot more people would probably be a lot more willing to buy their product.
See Also
DRM as a Key Point to Competition (Displacement of Concepts, by University of East Anglia)
DRM (Graham’s Weblog)
DRM is Not Protection From Piracy… (Robin Good)
We always here the rantings of the cartel about online infringement of intellectual property priviliges, and gasp sales were flat last year. Yes, flat. Despite all the lawsuits, bribes (sorry, campaign contributions) to politicians to get new laws and smear campaign against peer-to-peer filesharing they didn’t increase their overall sales. The poor souls only made $33.6 billion last year. Aww, bless!
I just had great fun manually removing MediaAccess from my computer. And I actually mean fun. Spybot hadn’t detected it (there’s all sorts of rumours that the spy-sweeper manufacturers have been slipped envelopes of cash to leave out particular spyware, but I doubt if that’s happened here), but I knew the two .exe files that were responsible, and it was a simple case of restarting in Safe Mode, using XP’s default Administrator account and deleting the offending programs along with a single registry key. That’s it. Honestly, you’d think that if they’re putting this stuff on your computer illegally they’d at least make an effort, I’ve had M$ software that’s harder to remove than this!
I have just added an ICRA label to the site. Basically its another META tag, this time designed for filtering software- NetNanny and other such wonders (sic). Since these filters are notorious for being crap, organisations like the ICRA allow webmasters (like me :P) to label sites with these tags, which tell the filters what the site contains. This allows the software to more accurately filter web content based on the preset wishes of the user (or their parents). It promotes choice, not censorship