[advocacy] Re: I just read your article on OGG & have Question

[Daniel James]

> The only reason for the mention of the
> SONY pocket device was to point to the move toward blocking
> multiple-copies of audio files.

Sure - I think serial copy protection is interesting though, because
it gives us an insight into how the industry thinks. Commercial
unauthorised duplication, or 'piracy', doesn't require serial
copying. The cost of a legit DVD or CD to make large scale illegal
copies from, in parallel, is negligible.

So I guess that serial copy protection, whether SCMS or CSS, is based
on the idea that home copying is the real enemy. I think that's just
ignorant; I personally learnt a lot about music from the tapes that
my friends made for me when I was at school. None of us had enough
money to buy more than a few vinyl albums each, so we all lent vinyl
or circulated tapes. In other industries it's called 'word of mouth
marketing' and is actually encouraged.

Since having my own money to spend I have bought hundreds of CDs,
vinyl albums and singles, probably 1000+ by now.

> If the industry can somehow manage to find a way to secure
> encrypted data in protected music and allow end users to continue
> to produce raw files, we should be okay.

I think there's a contradiction there - if home studio technology is
abundant, and it allows unrestricted manipulation of digital media,
then there's a gaping hole in any DRM scheme.

I'm not convinced that encryption of music itself is the way forward,
given the 'word of mouth marketing' issue - the purpose of making
sound recordings is for them to be heard, after all.  I would support
encryption of metadata though, since we might need to authenticate a
particular track, or use this data for automated royalty accounting.

There's a whole industry dedicated to the idea that non-tangible
'digital goods' can be treated in just the same way as real products
- with greater profits, of course. Personally, I think business
models will be forced to change if people challenge this assumption.

Cheers!

Daniel

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