Kindle pretty much sucks a lot.  With an actual book you have tons more flexibility than you do with a kindle book, and in this digital age, that’s ridiculous.  Be sure to watch part 1 and 2.

Full Story

When the new iPod Shuffle came out, I knew the proprietary control panel (wrapped around the cord) would be an inconvenience for customers.  If it breaks, you have to buy a new set of headphones, or if you want to use headphones that are better than the standard earbuds, you’ll need Apples adapter to fit the controls.

Turns out, that method is even more inconvenienced by the presence of hardware DRM.  Third party manufacturers will have to use an authentication chip if they want to interoperate with the new Shuffle.

In any normal case third parties would simply reverse engineer the technology to make it compatible, but thanks to the authentication chip, such reverse-engineering would be illegal under the DMCA.  Apple is counting on that fact.

This is an anti-competitive system (as are all DRM systems) that puts innovation into the hands of a single corporation.

Full Story

Microsoft has revealed it’s new MSN Mobile Music Service, designed specifically for users who listen to music primarily on their mobile device.  The weird thing about this is that the music you buy from the MSN store is locked to the phone you purchase it for.  A return to Digital Rights Managment.

This comes as a surprise considering the MSN Music Store debacle in April 2008, in which Microsoft announced that the service would be shut down, without giving users a way to keep their purchases music outside of burning it to a cd.

The interview linked above is downright embarrasing.

Free Your Phone.

In case you didn’t know, virtually every cellular phone on the market today is locked to a single carrier, which serves only to divide the users, and maximize profit for the carriers.  Broadly speaking, it’s a form of digital rights management perpetuated by anti-circumvention clauses in laws like the DMCA, and the EU Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive.

The Electronic Frontiers Foundation has launched a campaign to unlock phones; go to the site linked above and sign the petition.  It will be sent to the Copyright Office, in hopes of bringing attention to the matter.  Hey if Google can do it, so can we.

This is the Congressional Act that will enforce the February 2009 transition to digital:

http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/hollings.s2048.032102.html

It’s a short read, please, for your own sake, read it.

Now, I’ll explain why it’s a form Digital Rights Management.

Here is an excerpt from Section III of the legislation:

(a) PRIVATE SECTOR EFFORTS. –

(1) IN GENERAL. — The Federal Communications Commission, in consultation with the Register of Copyrights, shall make a determination, not more than 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act, as to whether –

(A) representatives of digital media device manufacturers, consumer groups, and copyright owners have reach agreement on security system standards for use in digital media devices and encoding rules; and

(B) the standards and encoding rules conform to the requirements of subsections (d) and (e).

——————-

There will be a period of 1 year after the enactment of this legislation in which the private sector must negotiate on security standards to implement on all digital content. After 6 months, the FCC, who will spearhead these negotiations, will report to congress about the progress of the negotiations, and if need be, an extension of the deadline will be granted.

Once a security standard(s) is in place, the FCC has 30 days to make it an official rule and adopt the standards. Upon this adoption, they have 180 days to publish an official final version of the security standards, and when they do, it will take effect 1 year after publication. So in February 2009, if you don’t have a digital signal, you will not receive broadcasts.

Here are “subsections (d) and (e)”:

(d) SECURITY SYSTEM STANDARDS. — In achieving the goals of setting open security standards that
will provide effective security for copyrighted works, the security system standards shall ensure, to the extent practicable, that –

(1) the standard security technologies are –

(A) reliable;

(B) renewable;

(C) resistant to attack;

(D) readily implemented;

(E) modular;

(F) applicable in multiple technology platforms;

(G) extensible;

(H) upgradeable;

(I) not cost prohibitive; and

(2) any software portion of such standards is based on open source code.

(e) ENCODING RULES. –

(1) LIMITATION ON THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS. — In achieving the goal of promoting as many lawful uses of copyrighted works as possible, while preventing as much infringement as possible, the encoding rules shall take into account the limitations on the exclusive rights of copyright owners, including the fair use doctrine.

(2) PERSONAL USE COPIES. — No person may apply a security measure that uses a standard security technology to prevent a lawful recipient from making a personal copy for lawful use in the home of programming at the time it is lawfully performed, on an over-the-air broadcast, premium or non-premium cable channel, or premium or non-premium satellite channel, by a television broadcast station (as defined in section 122 (j)(5)(A) of title 17, United States Code), a cables system (as defined in section 111(f) of such title), or a satellite carrier (as defined in section 119(d)(6) of such title).

————————–

If you’ve read my last post, “The Archaic Oppression that is Digital Rights Management”, then you are aware of HDCP. Well, HDCP is compatible with (d) and (e) and will undoubtedly be lumped in with the security standards.

You haven’t seen the worst of this Act yet (unless of course you clicked on the link above and have already read it). Section 5 makes it illegal for manufacturers of digital media devices to sell devices that are not equipped with standard security technologies.

Section 5:

(a) IN GENERAL. — A manufacturer, importer, or seller of digital media devices may not –

(1) sell, or offer for sale, in interstate commerce, or

(2) cause to be transported in, or in a manner affecting, interstate commerce,

a digital medial device unless the device includes and utilizes standard security technologies that adhere to the security system standards adopted under section 3.

(b) EXCEPTION. — Subsection (a) does not apply to the sale, offer for sale, or transportation of a digital media device that was legally manufactured or imported, and sold to the consumer, prior to the effective date of regulations adopted under section 3 and not subsequently modified in violation of section 6(a).

—————

There you have it. NOT having HDCP and the other DRM security will be illegal unless your digital device was manufactured, sold, and purchased before the date of enactment.

subsection (b) here is perhaps the only relief, as the Act continues to restrict consumers by criminalizing circumvention of “standard security technologies”.

Section 6:

a) REMOVAL OR ALTERATION OF SECURITY TECHNOLOGY. — No person may –

(1) knowingly remove or alter any standard security technology in a digital media device lawfully transported in interstate commerce, or

(2) knowingly transmit or make available to the public any copyrighted material where the security measure associated with a standard security technology has been removed or altered, without the authority of the copyright owner.

(b) COMPLIANCE WITH ENCODING RULES. — No person may knowingly apply to a copyrighted work, that has been distributed to the public, a security measure that uses a standard security technology in violation of the encoding rules adopted under section 3.

————-

This is similiar to section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

This is like force feeding a baby, only, we, the “consumer” are the babies and the government is the overzealous, over-protecting parent. We are forced to update ourselves for the enrichment of retailers. That’s what I think these ridiculous measures amount to and it makes my blood boil.

I mean isn’t this “consume or suffer” mentality a bit revisionist?

Because of this, I’ve decided to compile a kind of guide to become DRM free, at least as much as your wallet might allow, before February 2009.

——————-

To start it off I’m going to put a seemingly popular phrase into a different, more honest context. That phrase is:

“HDCP support/ready”

The deception here is in the word “support”. The phrase should be changed to “HDCP Required for displaying premium content”. Please read my previous article “The Archaic Oppression that is Digital Rights Management” for clarification on this issue.

Okay, now the first step toward a DRM free life style:

Don’t use iTunes

I know what you’re about to say: “But iTunes is DRM free now!  It’s safe to use!”.  And you’d be correct, but iTunes does not yet have DRM free video content, for that there are a few alternatives:

http://www.4flix.com/
http://www.getmiro.com/
http://www.rhapsody.com/home.html

Stick with XP (if you must)

Or switch to Linux (the best way to avoid DRM). But do not use Vista. Vista has HDCP “support” along with something called Output Protection Management (OPM) that checks to make sure that your computer’s video outputs (video card, integrated or pci/agp) have the “required” protection (encryption) and if they don’t, OPM will turn off HDCP, thus disabling the users ability to view HDCP protected content (which will eventually be everything on a blu ray disk, for instance).

take a gander at this excellently put-together report on Vista Content Protection:
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html#functionality

Bruce Schneier, a cryptography expert puts it well:
“…Vista continuously spends CPU time monitoring itself, trying to figure out if you’re doing something that it thinks you shouldn’t.”

via http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows_1.html

Shop for older displays

Wide screen LCD monitors that are not HDCP compliant are still pretty easy to find, and getting one with both analog (VGA) and digital (DVI/HDMI) might not be a bad idea. I really want this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116391

In terms of televisions, most of us already have non-DRM displays because most of us haven’t purchased crazy HDTV’s yet. But if you have, and it has HDCP in it, sell it.

Sell it and go shopping for ones that don’t. But It’s hard to find televisions nowadays that aren’t HDCP, unless you want to go back a year or two.

Here is a good example of the unintended obsolescence cause by HDCP:

http://tv.about.com/od/frequentlyaskedquestions/qt/hdcpcompliant.htm

I’ll have to get back to you on this issue of a non-HDCP television, after I do more research.

The Video Card

Play WoW? Spore? Starcraft? Diablo? Half-Life? not a gamer? then go with a trusty nVidia 6800, a card made before the rise of HDCP. Finding a decent video card that’s without HDCP is just a matter of settling for slightly old technology. If you want to play Bioshock, Oblivion, Crysis, and whatnot, then you’ll have to get a newer card, which will almost assuredly have DRM on it.

The Motherboard

Motherboards are starting to come with HDMI ports on them and might just contain built in DRM on the chipset, so be careful when shopping. But as long as your not in the market for a new board, you’re most likely safe on this front.

Trash the Tivo

This goes back to broadcast flags, something I discussed in the previous article. To avoid them, use MythTV, which is actually more fun:

http://www.mythtv.org/

Don’t Use any of the services mentioned in my previous article

Some alternative to RealDVD:

http://www.dvdshrink.org/
http://k9copy.sourceforge.net/
http://www.mactheripper.org/

An Alternative to Steam:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3779378/PacSteam (This is Steam without DRM, it’s illegal for some reason)

To get around SecuROM:

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php

and I believe Alcohol 120 does the same thing:

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/37081822/alcohol?tab=summary

In Linux you can create and mount virtual drives from the terminal, no extra software needed.

With the coming shutdown of analog, the onset of DRM controlled media, and new copyright policy in the form of ACTA, you need to be safe from the storm of restrictions, or face the consequence of an oppressive commercial economy. I hope this warning and guide has helped, and I urge you to try your best to go DRM free.