Of course in the states we also have DCMA which says that the mere act
of breaking encryption (the basis of many DRM schemes) is illegal. So if
you buy a DVD and wish to make a copy so you can extract the audio
tracks, copy it to your favorite iDevice or just have a backup in case
the original gets scratched, making that copy breaks the law because you
have to break the encryption to do so.
CB
On 2/15/16 9:52 PM, erik burggraaf wrote:
Hi Jessica,
DRM stands for digital rights management. In other words, digital
licencing strategies that restrict how media is distributed online and
policies that govern how you access your data. DRM's usually take the
form of security encryption that prevents you from making copies of
digital files. Essentially, the licencer sells you the file and the
right to use it in certain ways but not others. In order to enforce
the policy you only receive access to the encryption key as long as
you are operating within usage guidelines determined by the
distributer. For example, you may only have the key for a set number
of devices, usually 3 or 5. In this case, you may only have the key
as long as the username and password for a major shopping conglomerant
which you used to purchase rights remains active. Should your
username and password be revoked for reasons not related to your use
of the content... Well... too bad.
Early DRM's took the form of rootkits, major legal and personal
security violations which essentially gave the distributers of digital
content a level of access to end user computers that even the users
themselves didn't have in order to control the number of copies made
of digital material.
Later DRM's were less threatening, but only worked on specigic types
of equipment. IE, you could only use your purchases on windows.
DRM's are fraught with accessibility concerns. For example, DRM's
that prevent you from copying the text of an ebook you purchased also
prevent the content from being exposed to a screen reader so that you
can use it with speech and braille.
Nowadays drm's are a lot more user friendly and less restrictive,
which makes them even easier to break than the original flavours, and
so of course, those with a bent for such things break the drm's on a
regular basis, while those without such pentients have to spend hours
on the phone recovering their keys when their authorized device falls
in the toilet and dies.
regardless of how you feel about the sharing of intelectual property
online, it's very tough to make a case in favour of DRM's.
Erik Burggraaf
On Feb 15, 2016, at 9:25 PM, Jessica Moss <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
What is drm, and what do you find wrong with it? I've heard that
mentioned, and think I found something with that extention when I
used to transfer music files onto my windows mobile phone, when I
used to use one, but never opened them.
On Feb 15, 2016, at 3:00 PM, erik burggraaf <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
May I suggest:
http://www.downpour.com <http://www.downpour.com/>
http://www.tantor.com <http://www.tantor.com/>
http://www.booksinmotion.com <http://www.booksinmotion.com/>
http://www.emusic.com/book-genres/audiobook/
Also, while I'm not a fan of physical media too much any more, many
books that can't be purchased drm-free can be purchased as mp3 cd's.
http://www.audiobookstand.com <http://www.audiobookstand.com/>
I am eternally thankful that I never bought into a DRM of any kind.
If any one knows of other places to get DRM free audiobooks, I'd
love to hear about it. My list is sorted in order of frequency
used. Emusic is at the bottom for two reasons. First, their smart
phone app is only available in the US and the UK. Second, the smart
phone app only supports music, not audiobooks. And finally, Emusic
closed it's customer service call centre. So, I would avoid that
one, but the other three are really really good.
Best,
Erik Burggraaf
On Feb 15, 2016, at 2:43 PM, Sabahattin Gucukoglu <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Amazon have closed my brother's account because he was returning
too many articles to them. He'd apparently crossed some sacred
threshold or other--presumably one calculated to be the least
profitable to Amazon--with the result that he can no longer log in
to his account.
And you'll never guess what that means for his very handsome
collection of Audible books.
Go on, take a guess. You'll probably get it first time ...
The DRM on Audible content requires that any device obtain a key
from Amazon, after logging in to an account. Any device already
possessing that key can of course continue to download and play any
content, but without logging in, a new device cannot obtain the
key. Amazon have made it very clear to my brother that they have no
intention of allowing him further access to his account. So Amazon
has put an effective end-of-life date on all of my brother's
Audible "Purchases"; as soon as he resets the devices, sells and
replaces them, etc, his Audible collection will be no more.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that DRM
is thoroughly and fundamentally evil. It's wicked. It's corrupt.
It's iniquitous. And it's not about piracy at all, it's about
control. You don't own the things you "buy" if the content is
locked with a key you don't have and can't get. The true owner is
simply parting you from your money with the vague promise of
letting you use the key, which they endeavour to keep you from
discovering, lest you use it in ways not approved by the owner--for
instance by unlocking your digital content permanently and thus
freeing yourself from the owner's grip--but which they will make
available to you while using software that they trust to protect
their, and not your, interests. And of course, the owner always has
the option of not letting you use your key at all, by telling the
server not to give it to the software. While your decryption key is
in their hands, anything might happen to your content, at any time,
even if the owner promises to the contrary.
This racket is only possible because we give these content
distributors the money to enable it--to write the software that
keeps the keys safe from discovery while in your hands, to write
laws that prohibit people from breaking the software to access the
content without use of that software, and to criminalise perfectly
legitimate uses of content that are inconvenient for the bottom
line, but that are recognised by copyright and common sense as
being reasonable and fair. I sincerely hope you take something from
this incident, as I surely do, with something like this so close to
home happening, and I hope you'll be willing to think carefully
about whose business practices you'll be willing to support if you
have the choice. I understand that we don't all have the choice to
exercise all the time, and that it's easy to make up excuses and
pray that it never happens to us. I'd say that this was
particularly true for blind people and those with other reading
challenges, because the selection of material is already very
limited. Audible makes a fantastic, sometimes exclusive collection
of audiobooks available.
But they, and any other DRM pedaler, simply cannot be trusted. I
have made it a habit never to value any protected content too
highly, and I'm gratified to see the truth in it, sad as I am for
my brother's plight. For your own sake, wherever possible, you
should make arrangements to avoid DRM. Try not to purchase anything
you wouldn't keep from a DRM merchant. You never know, it could be
you this happens to, and you might be the next person to own a
handsome collection of strongly encrypted, utterly useless files
that you have no hope of playing, and who will be out of pocket for
the amount you "Bought" them for.
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