freak720

July 31, 2009 at 4:16pm

At some point, i would like to see stuff on mainstream news networks, the stuff your mom would watch, where they tell people what injustices are commited in the tech realm, and tell your mom, in a way she would understand, what this does to her. As long as the group that cares about this is considered a niche market, lawmakers are not going to adress it properly. If everyone and their mother knows about it, they are much more likely to respond. the DMCA relates to tech, and in tech, anything a decade old is considered arcane. well the DMCA is in desperate need of replacement.

Zazubovich

July 31, 2009 at 3:04pm

Nobody works harder to insult and abuse their customers, cheat both the customers and the artists, and in general make their product unattractive to downright hassle-bound than the cretins of the film and music industry.

HeartBurnKid

July 31, 2009 at 9:45am

I reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees have the right to dictate access to creative works.
No other product or service providers are given such far-reaching powers.
No one expects computers or other electronics devices to only function in the manner that the creator intended and only function for the purchaser and no other end user, and there is no reason that any particular mode of
distributing copyrighted works should be allowed to do so.

cardfan

July 31, 2009 at 3:10am

Glad I stopped being their customer:

http://www.riaaradar.com/

FRAGaLOT

July 30, 2009 at 6:34pm

Ya know all the arcade games and Rock Band songs I download on Xbox Live has DRM.. but then again i don't need, nor want to move that content onto any other format, or device anyway.  I'm not even sure how i could in the first place.

Cache

July 30, 2009 at 6:19pm

"No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity"

I would agree to some extent--after all, new technologies come out and replace older technologies on a very regular basis--just look at the demise of cassette tapes as an example.  I would not expect a company to be responsible for taking the music I had on a cassette and porting it over to a newer, superior format.  However, there is the flaw in his statement.

Digital media, whether in the form of mp3's, .wav, FLAC, or any other of the numorous files out there are still in active development.  If the format of the music changed, I would certainly agree that the media companies are 'off the hook' for updating a users' album collection.  However, this is a case where a deliberate bug was created, one that would render a product dead by design. The mp3's did not cease to work, they were forcibly and permanently disabled by people intent on deliberately removing the music from the people who legitimately bought and purchased it, with no changes to operating hardware whatsoever.  

Can you imagine if Windows was designed so that Microsoft could simply turn everything off remotely, and demand users upgrade to Windows 7?  And then claimed that it was somehow the users' fault because no user was promised that the program would work forever? 

Phyzicistblue

July 30, 2009 at 5:54pm

"No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity"

But people do expect their computers or other electronic devices to work until they fail, not until say, Intel comes into their homes and pulls the processor from their computer.  If I bought music and due to my own incompetence, my harddrive crashed and I lost the music, then sure maybe I would buy it again, much like if I lost a cd or dvd.  But should I never be allowed to listen to a song I bought because someone, somewhere else, in no way related to me, or the song I want to listen to, decided to turn off a server for whatever reason?  That is tantamount to Ford coming and taking the engine out of your car because they decided to no longer offer repair services on their vehicles.

aviaggio

July 30, 2009 at 5:01pm

And this is why I will *NEVER* purchase DRMd media. EVER. I have vinyl records and cassettes that are 35 years old. I have books that are over 100 years old. VHS tapes and CDs that are 27 years old. I bought them. I own them. And I have the right to enjoy them no matter what their age.

Again, the industry is spouting batshittery, telling you even though you pay for something you don't really own it and shouldn't expect to enjoy it forever. I wonder what kind of media library this jackass owns. Any books, CDs, vinyl, etc. out of print? Well, you gotta burn 'em and buy all new copies in DRMd digital formats. Can't expect to enjoy them indefinitely, now can ya? Yeah, somehow I think not.

If I buy it, I own it, and can do whatever the hell I want with it for as long as *I* choose. Bite me Metalitz.

colinjm0517

July 30, 2009 at 5:01pm

When will they learn? Apparently they are too ignorant to realize that DRM=protest and they more they tighten their grip on people, the more people slip through their fingers. If they want to boost sales and stop losing money to Pirates and DRM Crackers then they should make content DRM-free and reverse the DRM on ALL infected content for FREE.

WGA is another word for spyware, and DRM is another word for virus or trojan