Michael N. Dundas

From The Agenda on TVO, an interesting debate on music downloading. Discussion includes the impact of Napster to present day issues with the Internet and copyright.  Participants include musicians, a record label, and Michael Geist.  The points I found most interesting were that unfortunately the industry was brought kicking and screaming to the Internet; they realize they have to do it now, but it took a long time to get here and that the “corporatization” has made the music industry so big that more and more money has to be continually made in order for it to continue.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been a periodical theme I have commented about.  Although I don’t have the time to follow it in as much detail as I should, I am aware of the basic issues and how they can and will affect me and the future.

My sister in law was down for the weekend for a visit.  Along with our weird discussions about PI day (which was yesterday), we had a discussion about iPods and DRM.  She is what I would classify as a ‘user only’ of technology.  She does not understand (and willingly admits no interest) in how the Internet works, or how her mobile phone makes a call.  She just wants the technology to work.  Her impression of DRM was that it was not a concern and didn’t affect her at all.  She uses iTunes, purchases her music, can listen to it on her computer and/or ipod.  If apple wants to put DRM on to protect them that is okay.  It doesn’t impact her.  This is not because she is naive or ‘stupid’, on the contrary she’s pretty bright.  Her interests, time and knowledge are elsewhere.

I believe this view is typical of many people and is unfortunate.  Everyone uses technology, most do not care or have the time to learn how it works.  As long as it works that is good enough.    However, I think (and hope) there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.  As DRM increases it’s touch points from data protection (music files, video files, software, etc.) to ‘tangible’ objects such as your headphones not being able to play in your ipod because they are not ‘apple approved’, I believe the ‘users only’ of technology will start to understand the implications of DRM much better and start to voice their opinions.  I can only imagine my sister in law’s reaction if she could no longer use her exisiting ear phones and had to purchase ‘special’ ear phones to listen to her ipod.

Apple finally announced that they will be removing DRM from all tracks available in iTunes.  DRM sure is taking it a long time to die, a very slow and agonizing death and it really frusterates me.  Most people I speak to about DRM think it has to do with piracy and falling sales, which anyone in the technology industry knows is far from the truth.

The copyright fight around music has been going on now for sometime. I think it has been made very clear that consumers do not want DRM, consumers want to be able to post music mashups, consumers want fair access.

I personally adopted a new set of rules for myself 6 months ago when it comes to DRM music and videos. I refuse to purchase any music or media that has DRM on it. I have no problem paying, but I will pay once like I always have and then I will use it as I wish, period. If want to play it in my car I will. If want to play it on my Mac I will. If want to play it on my iPod I will. If I want to play it on the newly invented gadget that my colleage made I will. I will not ‘ask’ anyone for permission to do this. I will not buy it more than once. The industry needs to get their ‘thick heads’ around this. I think they may finally be starting grasp to it.

In my opinion the next step is up to the artists and they need to develop a similar hard stance attitude. The artists need to start standing up to these record companies as a group globally and explain to them how they are going to service the artists and their customers, not the other way around. There has been a coalition of music artists in Canada that has been formed in Canada. I really hope this expands globally. As a consumer of music, I for one find this very frustrating and just want it to end.

Lately, I just listen to last.fm. It’s easy, it’s free and when I find something I like I’ll purchase it (assuming that there is no DRM on the purchased item).

-mike.

For anyone just starting to understand the Copyright issues before the Government in Canada, an excellent summary to cover the history and bring you up-to-date by Michael Geist during a talk at Concorida University.

There is plenty of information available on Bill C-61 (the proposed Canadian Copyright legislation) on the Internet. Michael Geist, who for all intensive purposes is leading the charge in educating the public and helping everyone become aware and understand the issue recently presented at a strategy session. If you want a 30 minute summary of the history and where we are at today I’d recommend taking some time to listen to it. Michael is a great speaker and he’s doing an excellent job getting the message out in clear and simple terms that just about anyone can understand, even if you have no background in copyright issues. I’d strongly suggest his blog for information and links to other good sources of information on this issue.

In listening to his talk, it confirmed that I personally am up to date on the issue. At one point Michael mentioned being characterized by a government individual as a “Pro User Zelot.” This made me smerk. I don’t know Michael personally, but the last word I would pick is a “Zelot”. I find him to be extremely reasonable and understanding of all sides of this issue.

Another interesting comment was made during the question and answer section at the end of the talk by a government individual. I couldn’t catch his name in the audio, but he spoke about “practical politics” and what people have to do to make the conservative government ‘care’. I am sure what he said is very true, and it really saddened me that what he said was correct. Of course deep down I know this to be true, but one can always hope it is not. To paraphrase the statement … ‘unless the issue is going to have enough momentum to change votes to the point of affecting the party they will just ride it out’. Another comment made by this person that caught my attention was

“If you accept the process then you are already done because the process is designed to go through.”

One of my favourite groups is The Corrs. They are from Dubland, Ireland. Currently the band members (all brothers and sisters) have gone on a hiatus, while they raise families. One of the members Andrea Corr has gone out on a solo career. I was interested in her website, and started looking around. She had a section of her latest songs and videos and I attempted to select it. The website came up with a message saying:

“Thanks for trying to access the digitalInsert for Ten Feet High – Andrea Corr. Unfortunately due to contractual restrictions, access to this promotion is not available to residents of Canada.”.

So they have a GeoIP database of some kind and my IP being registered in Canada is blocked. I’ve been seeing more and more of this lately. Not difficult to get around. Select a proxy in a permissible country and download the site, use one of the VPNs I have access to and exit out in the UK, a little annoying but easy to bypass. What about people that are not technical however? Well fortunately that is easy, a quick search on YouTube and poof all the videos available for viewing there that were on the website, no restrictions. So I ask why bother?

Do the people that do this not remember the Commodore Vic-20 and 64 days? They would put copy protection on the software, someone would create a program to allow you to bypass the copy protection and get a copy of the software. Then they tried the dongles. You put a electronic device that came with the software in the joystick port. If that was not present, the software would cease to work. These were bypassed as well. Eventually they gave up.

DOS based systems for the longest time didn’t bother with copy protection, it was just considered a dis-honest and illegal thing to do. Windows software tried the special serial numbers you have to enter and they still do this to this day. Of course, it is easy to get hold of them, and there are key generators for all the different software. Microsoft latest trick is to use windows update to verify the authenticity of your software. Of course you can get around this as well.

DVD’s now use ACSS encryption to attempt to stop copying. It has not been broken, but there are workarounds. The latest DVDs are freely available on the Internet as soon as they are released. It has stopped nothing. There are countless other examples.

Does anyone see a pattern here? Does anyone pay attention to history? This doesn’t work. It has never worked. Why do they keep trying and trying to do this? It’s a waste of money. The business models they have don’t work on the Internet or with digital media. Give it up. Change your business models.