Tag: DRM

A note to the HD DVD folks: You can’t just pick up mercury with your fingers. It breaks into dozens of little pieces. Sort of like this:

Thanks to DB for pointing out a particularly funny post.

I’ve been having a conversation with Andy Beard on a post of his entitled “Google are killing the future of RSS“. For some reason, my most recent comment has not appeared on the page. I can only assume that he did not appreciate its tone. So, I have decided to post the comment here:

The task list examples are bogus. It’s the user’s personal information, not the publisher’s. The user should be able to do what he wants with it, even accidentally share it with the world.

The financial information and marketing examples do have some merit. (Why someone would subscribe to a feed full of marketing speak is beyond me. But whatever.)

However, I don’t think any of these cases are strong enough to warrant adding a no-sharing restriction to feeds. (I’m taking back the “more power to you” statement in my last post. That was an incredibly stupid thing to say.) I’ve come to the realization that what we’re really talking about is a DRM scheme. We’ve already seen the kind of damage that can be done with DRM in the music, film, and ebook industries. Adding it to RSS for some short-term gain would be a disaster.

There’s another programmatic way you could solve this problem. Simply prevent applications that allow for sharing to access your feeds. Very easy to implement. It would also help you with your goal of having less readers.

David Berlind has created a good video explaining why DRM is C.R.A.P. (via Scobleizer). It’s a good intro to DRM for people who aren’t aware of the problem.

From Tristan Louis (via Make):

NPR is not renewing its contract with Audible and is working on a new strategy relating to podcasting. This is pretty big news.

It certainly is. I think that NPR sees that the time of non-portable media is coming to an end. People want to listen/watch/play/create/etc. when and where they choose. Why else would notebook computers, PSPs, iPods, and phones with mp3 players and cameras be so hot?

The only time I listen to the radio is when I’m in the car. But only NPR or the classical station. And only for short trips. For any trips longer than about thirty minutes, I plug the iPod into my car’s stereo.

Hopefully, NPR will do podcasting right. By that, I mean I want to be able to select segments from programs and put them on my iPod. Without DRM. Maybe their decision not to renew their contract with Audible is a sign that they have rejected DRM.

I wonder what the local NPR stations who pay for this programming think of all this.

Cory Doctorow wrote:

People working with early versions of the forthcoming Intel-based MacOS X operating system have discovered that Apple’s new kernel makes use of Intel’s Trusted Computing hardware. If this “feature” appears in a commercial, shipping version of Apple’s OS, they’ll lose me as a customer — I’ve used Apple computers since 1979 and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep, but this is a deal-breaker.

…

So that means that if Apple carries on down this path, I’m going to exercise my market power and switch away, and, for the first time since 1979, I won’t use an Apple product as my main computer. I may even have my tattoo removed.

As much as I love OS X, I have to admit that having DRM baked into the OS might cause me to start looking for alternatives. However, it doesn’t appear that anyone else is making a unix notebook that’s relatively affordable and relatively hassle-free. Does anyone know of a notebook that fits that description?