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The REGISTER has a really good article that really makes me want to flush MS down the proverbial tubes forever..

The pay-per-view, digital rights <sic> management B.S. nonsense has to stop..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16959.html

Even you Mac folks won't be immune...

"You could, as Linux and Mac users currently try to with Windows, treat the matter with what the late George Brown called a "complete ignoral," but this time around it would be rather harder, as Microsoft would have stuff you wanted access to.
"

Even more of a reason for me to jump ship to Linux as my 100% of the time OS.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

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Originally posted by EricG
Even more of a reason for me to jump ship to Linux as my 100% of the time OS.

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My blog: Pocketfactory

I suppose you are right.. Why Linux, because I use *nix at work and mostly because I also fear Apple will get sucked into the digital rights hysteria vortex as well.. not like they would have much choice in the matter, MS does own part of them as well..

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

If you *enjoyed* that REGISTER link, check this one out:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16933.html

"Woundup WinXP to include pirate music 'terminator'
Think about it - an OS that's designed to destroy data..."

and yet another about how the hard disk makers are going to put content management directly into hard drives.. You won't be able to restore a backup of your PC to a new hard disk unless you "have permission" first..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/16300.html

"What is wrong is when people who would like products that simply record bits, or audio, or video, without any copy protection, can't find any, because they have been driven off the market," he asks. "My recording of my brother's wedding is uncopyable, because my MiniDisc decks act as if I and my brother don't own the copyright on it."



What's this world coming to?

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

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Originally posted by foo fighter
Why Linux? According to this article your every bit as screwed as Mac users. Even more so in fact, since the Windows Media Player, MS Office, and IE are already available on the Mac.

Sure you can use Linux 100% of the time. Unless of course your time means anything to you.

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Your right, you don't have to buy into this digital fascism, but I agree with their point it's going to be a lot harder this time around to simply ignore them (Microsoft and etc..)... Your choices will become more limited and more (controlled)..

And even if you can ignore Microsoft & allies, then, the whole CPRM on "recordable media" (i.e. hard disks, CD-R/CD-RW drives, Zip disks, MiniDiscs, etc..) will be pretty hard to get around..

I used to think the digital age was going to be amazing, but now I see how bad it really (potentially) could be, even television & vcr's (digital) won't be immune, if a tv station or "content copyright holder" wants to prevent you from "digitally" recording a movie on H.B.O. HDTV they will be able to "disable" the record button on your VCR, or even worse, prevent you from pausing while recording a TV show or sporting event to skip the commercials, limit the number of times you can play it back, and on which machines (i.e. only on the machine that recorded it initially), prevent you from making a copy to give to grandma, etc.... Current DVD players show a hint of this digital fascism, most DVD movies prevent you from skipping over the FBI warning.. I fear this is just the beginning.

I, as a consumer, find this whole "control" concept offensive.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

quote:

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Originally posted by EricG

I, as a consumer, find this whole "control" concept offensive.

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What the Heck! It's what I want!

quote:

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Originally posted by EricG
Your right, you don't have to buy into this digital fascism, but I agree with their point it's going to be a lot harder this time around to simply ignore them (Microsoft and etc..)... Your choices will become more limited and more (controlled)..

And even if you can ignore Microsoft & allies, then, the whole CPRM on "recordable media" (i.e. hard disks, CD-R/CD-RW drives, Zip disks, MiniDiscs, etc..) will be pretty hard to get around

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I wholly agree, as consumers we have the power, just look how Divx (the Circuit City dvd player not the mpeg-4 compression codec) was forced off the market.. But we should be ever vigilant of digital fascism lurking on the horizon, in dark corporate boardroom meetings and at the government level, eating away at our "consumer" digital fair use rights... Look at the Philips dual cd player/recorder, it has all kinds of controls and limits built into it, you can only make X number of copies of a copy, you can't use off the shelf blank CD-R's (you must use specially made cd-r's {and "specially" priced cd-r media) ), there is also some kind of serial copy control in it.. etc.. The list goes on.. My point is these kind of devices will start to saturate the market and over power the "liberated" devices, look what happened to the poor DAT recorder!!, and I can only guess in the future, "content controlled" products will start to come teamed up with powerful "media content" providers, and at a reduced or subsidized cost, making it much harder for the average unaware consumer to resist or circumvent, I can only hope that these things go the way of Divx.

Sure we will still have the right to make fair use copies, but nobody will be able to legally manufacture or sell such devices... and what few devices that are "liberated" will probably be electronically "black balled" from interfacing with "content controlled" devices, rendering them useless.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Yes, we do have the power--the power to crack the code that will prevent us from copying legal content. Just as DeCSS was written to enable DVD's to be played on Linux machines (or so they say), someone will devise a method to get around these so-called "protections" written into the software. I don't care how much copy protection there is or how secure someone says something is there will always be someone to find a way to get around it.