Category — Copy Restrictions

  Podcast Episode 73 Transcript
Episode 73 of Steve Gibson's Security Now podcast with Leo LaPorte has a terrific primer on the intertwined history of advancements in technology making it easier for consumers to copy content, fair use, the lobbying efforts by the content industry that resulted in U.S. copyright law amendments up to and including the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty, the DMCA implementing the treaty, and the detrimental effects these new laws have on consumer fair use rights.

  Click here to listen to Episode 73 of the Security Now podcast. (This will download an 8.0 MB MP3 file that your default media player should load and play). For a higher quality version of this podcast click here (32 MB).

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When you buy DRM’d Music, someone else decides what devices you can play it on.

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Text of Proposed Perform Act
The PERFORM Act (“Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006“) was introduced into Congress yesterday. The bill prohibits satellite radio from offering its subscribers devices capable of recording off the air unless royalties are paid and content is locked with DRM. The catalyst for the bill was new devices XM Radio is bringing to the market that allow customers to save songs on the receivers. Sirius had already made deals with the major record companies that compensate them for downloads on its S-50 receiver.

Also in the bill is a provision that would effectively require music webcasters to use DRM-laden streaming formats, rather than the MP3 streaming.

Sources: EFF Deep Links | ars technica | BBC | TMCNet | Reuters | Billboard | CNet | Tech News – HRCC’s response | Red Herring | Hollywood Reporter | Washintgon Times | Techdirt | PublicKnowledge | Cathy Kirkman

Dale’s Comment: Aspects of this bill have merit. I agree that anyone wishing a permanent, transferable copy of a song broadcast through XM or Sirius should pay for it. If, however, the device does not permit the user to copy the song to an external device, then the concept is more akin to a PVR such as TiVo and fair use rights should allow the user to enjoy the song within the specific device for a reasonable period of time without an additional royalty payment – remember, XM and Sirius subscribers already pay compulsory royalties via their subscriptions to these services. To the extent an additional royalty payment is made to purchase a song, the user should have the right to copy/transmit the song off the XM/Sirius device to any other device owned by the user and, of course, all the other incidents of fair use for purchased music that I advocate for on this site should apply – the right to of the owner to transcode it to any other format, the right to play it on any device owned by the consumer, the right to sell/give-away/alienate the purchased copy (without retaining a copy) etc. If, however, this bill results in an obligation to pay for music that can’t be removed from the device or otherwise fairly used by the user, it should not be adopted.

Related Posts:

• Music Labels Sue XM Over its Inno/Helix Recording Capabilities (May 17, 2006)
  
• RIAA Negotiates DRM with XM and Other Digital Radio Operators (January 16, 2006)
• Sirius S50 has been (siriusly) crippled by the RIAA (December 2, 2005)
  

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Amidst growing complaints of potentially harmful security breaches and the recent filing of a class action lawsuit, French publisher Ubisoft has officially ceased its use of Starforce copy protection.
 
Sources: GameIndustry.biz  |  ars technica  |  MoneyControl.com  |  PALGN  |  afterdawn.com  |  Legit Reviews  |  neo seeker

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Princeton Professor Ed Felton, famous for revealing that SunComm’s DRM for music CDs could be defeated by holding down the shift key while inserting the music CD into your computer, says completely breaking/cracking High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is “eminently doable”. HDCP is the DRM standard developed by Intel to control access to high definition content as in travels across DVI and HDMI connections (eg: between your HD set-top box or HD-DVD player and your HDTV).

Sources: Prof Felton’s Freedom to Tinker Blog | Prof Felton’s Freedom to Tinker Blog II | Engadget

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We’ve all known this was coming but this Disney-backed, MovieBeam service is the first account of a service down-res’ing HD content when the subscriber’s TV does not have an HDMI input. Lesson to be learned: Do NOT buy an HDTV without an HDMI connection or you won’t be watching the HD content you pay for.

Sources: Washington Post (2nd page) | Technology Liberation Front | Freedom to Tinker

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So says the content-related industry in its joint reply as part of the triennial review of the effectiveness of the DMCA.

Source: ars technica

Commentary: Cathy Kirkman | MIT Tech Review

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation is continuing its crusade against CD copy protection. After having participated in legal actions against the two vendors of the technology used by Sony/BMG Music, it is now going after the third major supplier in this market: Macrovision, whose CD copy protection technology is used by EMI.

Sources: DRM Watch | EFF

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Last year, the RIAA began proposing a broadcast flag type system and now they are in negotiations with satellite radio companies, such as XM about controlling what their listeners can do. According to the music industry, if consumers are given the opportunity to record music from digital radio, they will likely start recording songs
instead of purchasing them.

Sources: CD Freaks | ZDNet | CNet

Related Post:

• Sirius S50 has been (siriusly) crippled by the RIAA (December 2, 2005)

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New technology on music CDs limits the number of copies you can make–and gets in the way of putting tunes on an iPod.

Source: PC World

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As it had said it would, Apple Computer is forcing customers using older versions of iTunes to upgrade to recent versions if they want to purchase music online. The company quietly disabled support for iPodDownload, a program that let customers copy music from an iPod into their iTunes library.

Source: ZDNet

Related Posts:

• Law Review Article – Microsoft's War Waged with FairUse4WM (November 13, 2006)
• Microsoft Sues Viodentia – Viodentia Responds with a Software Update (September 26, 2006)
• Microsoft Issues Takedown Notices for Sites Hosting FairUse4WM (September 17, 2006)
• Microsoft & Viodentia Play Cat & Mouse with DRM-Circumvention Tool FairUse4WM (September 14, 2006)
• Hymn is Back with QTFairUse in an Ongoing Tit-for-Tat with Apple Over iTunes DRM (September 13, 2006)
• Microsoft's PlayForSure DRM Successfully Hacked (August 25, 2006)
• iTunes Locks out DRM-Free Purchases – Breaks PyMusique (March 21, 2005)
• Apple Brings Discord to Hymn (January 13, 2005)
• Apple Blocks Music Sales to Older iTunes – Forces Upgrade to Copy-Degraded Version (November 3, 2004)
• Hacker Takes Bite out of Apple's iTunes (August 12, 2004)
• Is Real's Hacking of iPod Legal? (July 30, 2004)
• RealNetworks Breaks Apple's Hold on iPod (July 26, 2004)
• iTunes DRM Cracked Wide Open for GNU/Linux (January 25, 2004)

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