[Vorbis] DRM and Ogg Vorbis ??

[Ian Malone]

On 13/02/06, Ken Petty <ken at oggcafe.com> wrote:
>  Ulrich wrote:
>
> I would like to know whether it is possible to use any DRM scheme with
> Ogg-Vorbis ?
> My idea would be to distribute music commercially and be able guarantee to
> artists that they won't be copied freely.
>
>

The real problem is that most schemes for most codecs (proprietary
or open) can be circumvented by the people who don't want to pay.
Which only has to happen once.

To do DRM on vorbis I'd suggest doing something like encrypting the
headers and/or the data packets and using a decryption key accessed
by the player, manged copying rights by having track-unique keys
transferred between databases. (I have no experience creating computer
security systems, so there is probably some fatal flaw here)

Of course this is non-standard, won't work on any other player and is
incredibly inconvenient for paying customers (DRM seems to be more
convenient for pirates).  Solutions like Ken's below (and others like
Magnatunes) are better in the long run I think.  Technical measures
for technical problems, legal measures for legal ones.

>  Ulrich,
>  I've struggled with the same question over the last couple of years while
> launching my music store, the Ogg Cafe, and have come to the conclusion that
> people will buy what they perceive to have value.
>  In this case, I have decided to promote tracks and some whole albums in ogg
> vorbis with a quality of -q8 and a sample rate of 48khz. These tracks would
> sell for .10 to .12cents US per megabyte and would have the URL to the store
> in the tags. Then I would offer, for free, the very same track at -q0,
> 44khz. I want to give potential buyers a sign that I do not consider them to
> be crooks. I want to be able to control downloads, but not the copying,
> based on my belief that people want to do good and to be honest.
>  Not to appear Pollyannaish, I know that there are some folks who would
> steal like a bandit if not watched, but I think that in monitoring
> downloads, I can curtail as best I can that sort of behavior.
>  -Ken
>  http://www.oggcafe.com

--
imalone
(developing a horrible habit of mailing vorbis at xiph.ogg)