willyhoops;198844 Wrote: 
> Of course the answer is that although in general hard drive storage of
> music dramatically increases one’s appetite for music, CD sales are
> down because of increasing piracy.
So we're told by the record labels, but I don't think there's been much
evidence shown for that.

willyhoops;198844 Wrote: 
> So I think the record companies need to 
> 
> (a) Create a new DRM standard that is truly platform independent and
> that customers feel safe with – eg using a SIM card. If the customer
> looses his sim and his hard drive, he must be able to get another and
> download the music again.
And would I have to buy a new SIM card for every device I wanted to
listen on?  My laptop, my SqueezeBox, my portable music player?

And what happens when a record company goes out of business and will no
longer supply me with a replacement SIM?  What if it refuses to sell me
a replacement because it doesn't believe I've lost the old one?  What
if I tire of an album and want to sell it to somebody else?

I don't think it's possible to create a platform independent DRM
standard without locking down the hardware (Palladium, "Trusted
Computing" and all that).

willyhoops;198844 Wrote: 
> (b) Make sure the audio is at least CD quality and possibly even better
> (eg 24bit).
> 
> (c) Fill the new standard with text and images – eg the words of every
> song, at least a pic for each track etc etc.

High quality and good metadata (including lyrics and artwork): agreed.

willyhoops;198844 Wrote: 
> (d) Create a new HDCP equivalent path for digital audio connectors to
> protect the content from piracy.
Determined "pirates" will just capture the analogue signal and
re-encode it to MP3.  The majority of people who want to copy music
without paying for it will be quite happy with that.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have to buy new hardware to use these new
connectors.  Garage start-ups (like SlimDevices) will likely not be
able to support the new connectors with first-gen products when
licensing agreements and fees start to get in the way.
willyhoops;198844 Wrote: 
> (e) Push Governments to support their efforts by making encryption
> breaking tools illegal.
I strongly disagree that record companies have such inalienable rights
to their business model that (more) over-general legislation should be
introduced to artificially protect it.  There are lots of reasons one
would want to break encryption; why stop all of them just to deal with
this one problem, which is already illegal?

Actually, when I read this item I started to wonder if this whole post
was satirical (maybe it is).  It's already illegal to violate copyright
by distributing, say, a copy of a Beatles CD.    Who's going to worry
about that encryption-cracking prohibition if they're already breaking
the law?

Answering my own question: people will worry if the penalty for one is
made higher than the other.  Of course, the DMCA in the US already does
this: it's illegal to bypass a copy-protection mechanism, even if you're
doing so to exercise fair use rights.  It adds more penalties to selling
knocked-off DVDs, but also prevents a lot of people doing things they
would otherwise be able to do.

Anecdotally: I buy CDs.  I like having a physical copy of an album, as
a back-up and an actual thing to look at, and I can use it in actual CD
players.  I would buy music online if it were high quality and in an
open format that isn't tied into any specific device (and have indeed
bought a few titles like that, when they've been available in no other
way) -- and if it's competing with a CD, it will have to be a lot
cheaper.  I wouldn't buy DRM-laden music because I'd have no guarantee
that I'd be able to play it tomorrow.  Adding DRM to a download will
turn me off of it, and will (IMO) make no difference to "piracy".


-- 
smst
------------------------------------------------------------------------
smst's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=752
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34928

_______________________________________________
audiophiles mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles

Reply via email to