Beastie Boys New CD Installs DRM

[DanceMentor]

It seems the Beastie Boys new CD (in some countries) silently installs Digital Rights Management software on your computer without your knowledge.
More here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/18/copy_protected_cd_smash/
and here: http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=2099
Fans are also expressing their disapproval on the Beastie Boys Website:
http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/

[Chris Stratton]

Plus the Senator from Disneyworld just introducted a bill to overturn the Betamax decision which established the legality of the VCR (as in video tape RECORDER)

On the bright side, it's easier than ever to build truly custom electronic systems... they can pry my field programmable gate array from my cold, dead hands...

[Pacion]

Chris, for the non americans, can you explain a bit further/provide some backgroud please :kitty: :D

[Chris Stratton]

Sorry... there are two major trends going on right now.

One the one hand, you have the increasing tendancy of corporate media trying to exert extensive control over everything. This comes in the form of copy control mechanisms which are more incidental annoyance to legitimate use than actual impediment to copying, but more importantly are backed up by some extremely strong, and rather poorly thought through, legal protections. For example, you can have a situation where it is perfectly legal to make a backup copy of something for your own use, yet the media company that relased it uses various tricks to try to prevent you from doing so. While it would be legal to make that copy, some of the recent and proposed laws make it illegal to get around the over-reaching tricks in order to make a legal copy. Even the media companies know that this is a weak argument as long as the tricks can be easily defeated, so there are now attempts to legally mandate heavy duty restrictions into all sorts of consumer media appliances. As computers themselves became primary media appliances, there are powerful interests who would really like nothing more than to abolish the general purpose personal computer, and replace it with something tightly restricted so as to be useable only for approved activities, running approved software, etc.

Countering this is the whole trend of open-source and free software. Started for a mix of practical and political reasons, it seeks to put control over what a computer does back in the hands of the users themselves. Even if the user is non-technical, under this system they can get support and even modifications from anyone who feels inclined to provide this service - not just the original author/manufactuter. In a trend that has caught many unfamiliar with this area by suprise, a number of major industry players such as IBM are actually buying into this approach - contributing towards the development of non-proprietary software that is available to everyone including their competitors, and making their money by being seen as an ideal, if not exclusive, source of support services, hardware, etc. While this approach has mostly been about computer software, some computer-like devices now incorporate general purpose chips which can effectively have their internal wires 'programmed' to a desired configuration - so I was joking that if it became impossible to buy an unrestricted computer, some of the open-source community would simply start publishing the configuration files necessary to make a 'computer' out of these parts.

[Sarah]

While this approach has mostly been about computer software, some computer-like devices now incorporate general purpose chips which can effectively have their internal wires 'programmed' to a desired configuration - so I was joking that if it became impossible to buy an unrestricted computer, some of the open-source community would simply start publishing the configuration files necessary to make a 'computer' out of these parts.

This would be the thingy which supposedly prevents one from changing the zone on one's DVD drive an unlimited number of times, and similar devices?

Oh well - there's always the analog hole........

Cheers
Sarah