DRM Drags Down Economic Growth
Countries that back digital-rights management technology are doomed to
lag behind, Linden Research exec says.
Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Thursday, June 21, 2007 6:00 AM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...l?tk=nl_dnxnws

Digital-rights management (DRM) drags down economic growth, and
countries that back the technology are doomed to lag behind, a top
Linden Research Inc. executive said Thursday.

DRM refers to any technology that restricts how a digital file or
software can be used and shared. The technology is meant to protect
the interests of copyright holders by limiting how digital content is
used and insuring they get paid. But critics charge DRM is clumsy,
infringes on fair-use rights, and restricts competition.

DRM makes education and learning more expensive, which results in less
innovation and a lower gross domestic product, said Cory Ondrejka,
chief technology officer at Linden, the company behind the Second Life
virtual world.

"DRM makes you less competitive," Ondrejka told attendees at the iX
Conference alongside the CommunicAsia show in Singapore.

Countries that want to close the gap with more advanced nations should
avoid DRM or they will continue to lag behind, he said.

While Ondrejka's comments addressed the issue of DRM in the real
world, Linden has wrestled with copyright infringement in the virtual
world.

Last year, some Second Life users began using CopyBot, a program
capable of replicating items that other users had created and sold in
Second Life. Faced with a growing chorus of complaints from users who
saw their products being copied, Linden ruled in November that CopyBot
violated the virtual world's terms of service and threatened to ban
any user found using the program for copyright infringement.

But Linden stopped short of using DRM to protect against copies in
Second Life.

"While Linden Lab could get into an arms race with residents in an
attempt to stop this copying, those attempts would surely fail and
could harm legitimate projects within Second Life," Ondrejka wrote in
a blog post at that time.

In that same post, Ondrejka noted Linden isn't in the business of
fighting copyright infringement. "The communities within Second Life
should have the tools and the freedoms to decide how and when they
deal with potentially infringing content," he said.

DRM - Digital Rights Management has really got me chapped!!

I don't own an I-Pod, and I won't buy one till the DRM mess is straightned
out.

I do burn my own CD's and have several MP3 players.

I have a small archive of downloads i made online and therin lies the
problem

I paid good money for the songs i downloaded.
As I understand it,.. I OWN them just the same as if i had the CD.
Why can't i burn them on a cd so i can gain portabality with them???

The entire body of 'copyright' law ALLOWS for you to copy for your own
use!!!
If you purchase a book or record or blueprint, you are allowed to copy it
for protection. The main sticking point is that you can not PROFIT from the
duplication.

The lack of 'profit' is what caused a whole lot of cummotion when 'Napster'
first came out

Back during the stone age, I used to buy LP's and then transfer them to tape
(7 1/2 inch reel to reel). This kept the LP's in good shape.

I want to be able to live by the same philosophy today with Digital media.

We consumers need to rattle the politicians as hard as the recording
industry's lobby.

<johns1947@charter.net> wrote in message
news:zDUfj.123$7r2.6@newsfe02.lga...
The short answer: http://www.soundtaxi.info/

The long answer:

LOL, you really should do more reading and less whining. DRM for music
files is becoming a historical artifact:
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...013_398775.htm

Technology January 4, 2008, 12:01AM EST text size: TT
Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM
The last major label will throw in the towel on digital rights management
and prepare to fight Apple for valuable download revenues
by Catherine Holahan

In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music
Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright
protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded
from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned. Sony BMG, a joint venture
of Sony (SNE) and Bertelsmann, will make at least part of its collection
available without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software some
time in the first quarter, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM,
following Warner Music Group (WMG), which in late December said it would
sell DRM-free songs through Amazon.com's (AMZN) digital music store. EMI and
Vivendi's Universal Music Group announced their plans for DRM-free downloads
earlier in 2007.

Getting Hip to the Internet
The impetus to lift copyright protection represents a sea change for the
recording industry, which for the better part of a decade has used DRM to
guard against what it considers illegal distribution and duplication of
songs purchased online. In abandoning DRM on à la carte song purchases, the
labels could create a raft of new, less restrictive ways of selling music
over the Internet, such as through social networks like Facebook and News
Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. Partnerships with retailers such as Amazon could also
help the music industry take a swipe at Apple (AAPL), which has come to
dominate the legal download market through a one-size-fits-all pricing
scheme record labels find restrictive.

Details of Sony BMG's plans are expected to emerge in the coming weeks.
Justin Timberlake, the popular recording artist signed to the Sony-owned
Jive label, is participating in a Super Bowl promotion with Pepsi (PEP) that
will kick off Feb. 3 and offer free distribution of 1 billion songs from
major labels, including Sony BMG, through Amazon's DRM-free download
service, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sony has been
experimenting with DRM-free songs for about six months. The company began
giving away DRM-free promotional downloads for recording artists that sell
less than 100,000 units, and at least one artist gained mainstream exposure
through the effort. "A lot of these tests have led people to believe that
maybe this works," says a Sony BMG executive who asked not to be identified.
A Sony BMG spokesman declined to comment. Amazon also declined to comment on
its DRM-free deals, beyond what it has disclosed in press releases.
[snip]


YAWN
That's because you're an idiot at least twice over. You paid good
music for almost nothing AND you didn't bother to read the contract that
defines what you bought. You really should read it sometime--it's a HOOT!
Part of the hoot is that the contract you agreed to allows the seller to
change the contract any time the mood strikes them.
The main sticking point isn't copyright law, it's contract law. You
bought the use of a file within the limits of a contract that YOU agreed to.
And I want a Swiss bank account with a cool billion dollars sitting in
it.
The consumers need to do less consuming and more thinking BEFORE they
plunk down "good money". You voted in favor of DRM with your dollars.
Fortunately for you those of us who "voted" against DRM are winning this
one. Anyone looking for "help" from politicians is in for a major
disappointment. You live in an age where the only ballot box that really
matters is the cash register.

TB



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