This is important. I really want you to understand what’s going on with the video industry’s push towards HD. Under pressure from Hollywood, they are engineering a complete removal of the concept of fair use. They are setting up systems that will completely control how, when and where you can use content that you buy. Even worse, they can retroactively change the rules!
Today the AACS (aggressive automatic consumer screwing*) organization announced availability of the interim version of their system for protecting content providers from their criminal customers. Their noble intentions are pretty well summed up in this choice excerpt:
The AACS specification accelerates the ability of consumers to enjoy exciting, new, flexible entertainment experiences and storage options, while continuing to provide the traditional, straightforward playback mode, for the next generation of prerecorded and recordable optical media such as Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Additionally, AACS is designed to create unprecedented flexibility, portability and security for entertainment content to be enjoyed on networked home, portable PC or CE devices.
I especially love their mention of a ‘traditional, straightforward playback mode‘. I bet it pained them to have to include any way to play the content at all. Rest assured they have top minds working on making sure nothing will be straightforward in the future.
Further, if you download the AACS agreement itself, you find the frightening concept of the ‘analog sunset‘ (it’s on page 82). This is where device manufactures agree to not make analog devices after certain preset dates.
Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have embraced this draconian system, and the studios are salivating at the prospect of you never actually being able to own content again.
My reaction to this abomination is simple: no way in hell. I will not buy any product that uses this crap, and I hope you’ll join me in that boycott. Let these morons see the early adopters staying away in droves.
Please pass this on; post it on your blogs, ‘digg’ it; slashdot it; whatever it takes to stop this insidious plan.
Here is the AACS announcement
P.S.
*I got some complaints about not giving the ‘official’ full name of AACS. Well, OK, if it’s that important to you: Advanced Access Content System. There; feel better?
At the advice of a reader I looked up an article from 2004 about DRM, written by Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Absolutely brilliant description of the problems of DRM. You’ll find it here.
P.P.S.
I set up a dedicated page to share information about AACS and related technologies and how they affect your rights to fair use. It is www.hdboycott.com
I got news for you. You never owned any content to begin with. Copyright works as a “long-term rental service”. You buy the right to watch/listen/read the content. You don’t actually own anything.
The technology may be cracked that is not the real problem, The real problem is that all the early adopters that have invested $15.000 in HD equipment will be screwed by the HD-DVD and Blue-Ray players. Because those new players require a new “secure” conection between the player and the tv and most of the HDTV don’t even have that type of connector. That means that all the million (maybe billions) the consumers have spent in HDTVs in the last few years is wasted money because they cant see HD content on it. The pirates always find the ways to crack the system but the average consumer is SCREWED because the movie studios think that every customer is a criminal.
I will have to pass on trying to keep my collection of music and video up to date with the latest format. Anyone want some Laserdiscs? Maybe there will be a silver lining if people are driven to find alternatives to the horrible experience of buying music and video. I cringe to think how much worse it would be without Apple. People would probably be transferring music to ugly hardcover book-sized devices by plugging them into a computer and typing something like “copy c:\windows\applications\crappyplayer \43hy6fdriver\playlist /musicbrick:file\whygodwhy”
Perhaps something should be mentioned about the PS3. This is going to be the motherload of Sony DRM because for the million people in the USA who might be looking at a Blu-Ray player, this will be the most viable option. Why pay $1500 for a player, when you can get one for $800 plus play games and whatever else it will do. The outrageous price will most likely deter all but the early adopters, but eventually it will come down to middle America, and the uneducated masses will begin to consume (and have to pay multiple times) for all of their content.
There is a rather large community of tech-savvy people out there, and they are gamers. Gamers CRAVE hi-def! Just look at the IMO not so great xbox 360 and the huge demand for it, simply because it is the only HD system out there. We should be praising companies like Nintendo and their refusal to move to HD. Instead of cramming tons of horsepower and large quantities of DRM into the systems, they focus on better optimization and innovation.
The world could learn a thing or two from the big N.
The whole DRM and fair use issues have gone WAY overboard, especially with the analog hole legislation, and its time we let the pushy content providers know what we think!
I for one am tired of all this DRM garbage. And I’m tired of writing my congresscritters about it only to receive form letters explaining why they are glad I wrote in like everyone else to express my disgust with DRM, et al, but they side with the content providers so I can go spin. Or something close to that.
So vote with your money. I’m all for it. I won’t be an early adopter any more. I have hundreds of LPs, cassette tapes, video tapes, DVDs, and even iTMS tracks. I spend money on entertainment, but now I won’t jump on the HD bandwagon. Let this tech go the way of DAT, SD CDs, and DIVX discs… Count me in.
~Douglas
I say great! Lets face it the content industry is doomed. Not because of DRM and AACS. Not because of piracy. It’s doomed because the products are shit and everyone is turning off. I sense a real cultural shift here in the UK and in the USA, nobody wants the brutal, patronising Hollywood propaganda laced with images of death, destruction and self righteous hate, they don’t want it anymore. The world is changing faster than the old dinosaur content houses can grasp it. Look at what the good directors are doing – distancing themselves from the big production houses. The same in the music business, which is dying painfully on its ass, much to my personal delight. Why? Because for the last 10 years I’ve heard nothing but cheap manufactured rubbish from talentless puppets. The “underground”, or rather the next wave and the future of media will not be through these traditional channels, these channels are dead already. Online distribution will wipe out content control long before it even has a chance to gain a foothold. AACS is just one more nail these clueless fools are driving into their own coffin, and I wish them a speedy suicide.
A.J (independent media producer)
My family are early adopters more often than not. We have already decided not to purchase anything in the new generation.
The way to stop it all in its tracks is to shun all early adopters who attempt to fuck everyone else by supporting DRM. Make it known that this is not a way they will get “Oohs” and “Aahs”. Walk away when they wave a Blue Ray or HDDVD drive your way. We all know it has more storage, it has the ability to push even more pixels… Who here older than 20 has not already lived through this more than once? It’s not impressive so don’t make them think they are impressive by having one “FIRST”.
I propose that everyone follow our example. Our family will only be renting movies from businesses who do not buy in ANY Blue Ray or HDDVD content. We will boycott ALL businesses who do even if that means when they all do we stop paying for any content.
If we can stop the first line of adopters, we can fuck the studios right back!
Hey A-J … If you read this, i noticed you are an independant media creator. I myself am a retired Animator/Arftistic Director with too much time on my hands. I have been playing with the idea of open or free content. If enough “free as in beer” content is created, we may be able to broadcast on an independant Web Channel. But we would need a lot of crossover work. I need people who can help with voice tallent, music and foley.
Anyone think this is a good idea?
Do I hear class action lawsuit!!!
Pardon my ignorance, but won’t AACS allow for easy placement of purchased High Definition movies on to your Media Center, DVD Player, portable video player, etc, all while assuring you keep it to yourself? I thought the idea was to give consumers the ability to put their purchased media on all their devices, while assuring they don’t distribute to others. What am I not understanding?
I read the AACS website and found this:
“AACS is flexible enough to interoperate with content protection technologies to enable consumers, to the extent authorized, to save licensed, protected copies of prerecorded movie titles onto home media server hard drives or authorized media while preventing unauthorized reproduction and distribution of next-generation optical media.”
What’s wrong with that? Just like iTunes downloads playing on authorized computers. Sounds the same to me.
I think you are over reacting. If you can copy and move HD content to your own media servers and hard drives, I don’t see what the issue is.
Make leaflets. Hand them out in front of your circuit city / best buy / dixons / comet / argos / tesco. Free speech people. We can use it to educate people about how they’re spending thousands on wide screen plasma flavoured junk.
Hey, nobody likes DRM. But let’s face it: the content-consuming public has brought this upon themselves. The fact is, people cheat. They duplicated VHS tapes, they duplicate DVDs, they pirate software.
I’m tired of the gripe: “why do we put up with copy protection schemes that treat everyone as criminals?” The fact is that everyone I know is, or has been, a criminal in this regard. And I don’t hang out with a particularly irresponsible crowd. I can’t think of a single person–including my parents–who haven’t illegally given copies of music or software to someone else, or gotten it for themselves. I’ve personally eliminated the practice over the past year-and-a-half (save for a couple of minor transgressions that I’m not proud of), but I’m the only one I personally know who has even tried to do so. So I guess my question is: why -shouldn’t- DRM systems treat us all as criminals?
I dont recognize licenses and terms. when I purchase content that content is now my property to do with as I please for personal use. Anything to the contrary I refuse to recognize.
Chris Taylor
http://www.dmcpa.info/
Enzo,
I think you are being too simplistic. How is any technology that is not heavy handed going to know it’s YOUR laptop or YOUR IPOD that you are transfering the file to so that you can play it.
All the DRM stuff requires the Silicon chip that Intel designed in order to play the DRM stuff also. Only TVs so far have had this incorporated. This same chip must be in all the electronics in order to play any DRM protected content.
It’s just madness whats going on. It will be years before anyone has these chips in their various electronic gadgets, and even then the private key distribution aspects will be unworkable.
I downloaed the Democrazy Player a few days ago. It is a TV player that has P@P software automatically incorporated. So in essence its a TV distribution device and player. I can really see on line distribution getting much bigger in the future, since the HDTV technology is going to take years to resolve the technical issues.