AP Wants To Become The ASCAP Of News

from the can't-think-of-many-worse-ideas dept

Remember the Associated Press's bizarre and unworkable idea to DRM the news. Well, reader crcb alerts us to the news that the AP is now filling in more details, about how it effectively wants to become the ASCAP of news. Yeah, you read that right. Talk about bad ideas. I'm sure being like ASCAP is appealing from the AP's side, but it makes no sense at all from the publisher side -- especially given the details where the AP gets to keep a 20% cut of any revenue collected this way. As you read through the details, it's as if the folks behind it at the AP don't quite understand the very basic economics of content and the internet:

Curley indicated that the clearinghouse's biggest moneymaking opportunity is likely to be the licensing of copyright-protected content to mobile phones and an array of computer tablets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad and emerging competitors.

Huh? You license content to website or apps, not to platforms... This seems to have absolute disaster written all over it.

Filed Under: drm, journalism, news
Companies: ap, ascap

Court Allows German Website To Link To Software Company's Website Five Years Later

from the links-are-speech dept

Having recently been in Germany, and discussing the state of the law there, I have to say that I was pretty stunned with the level of liability placed on third parties in Germany. I was told, repeatedly, that German law places tremendous liability on third parties, holding them responsible for actions of users in many, many cases. So, perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that a news publisher, Heise, was banned from linking to a software company, Slysoft, which makes programs for copying various content from CDs, DVDs, etc., and which can be used to circumvent DRM. Way back in 2005, Heise was sued by folks in the music industry (it's unclear exactly who, and most of my searches are turning up only German reports on this -- so if anyone knows, please fill us in via the comments), and a court ruled that it could not even link to Slysoft's front page, even as the company's lawyers pointed out (correctly) that not linking wouldn't exactly stop people from being able to find Slysoft and its software, and that linking is part of how journalism works these days.

Another court in 2008 agreed, but now, five years after the original ruling, it appears that a court has rejected those earlier rulings and upheld Heise's right to link to the website of a company it was reporting on (found via Glyn Moody). It's pretty amazing in this day and age that this even needs to be discussed, but there's still plenty of confusion over this. A link is just a form of speech. It's about time that courts finally understood this simple fact.

Filed Under: copyright, drm, germany, links
Companies: heise, slysoft

Canon Creates Keyword-Based DRM For Copy Machines?

from the can't-copy-this dept

In an attempt by Canon to help plug the analog hole when it comes to physically copying documents, apparently its new scanner/copier machine has a feature, named Uniflow 5, which will use some optical character recognition (OCR) tech to stop you from copying/scanning anything with specific keywords:

The latest version of Uniflow has a keyword-based security system. Once configured by an administrator, the system can prevent a user from attempting to print, scan, copy or fax a document containing a prohibited keyword, such as a client name or project codename.

The server will email the administrator a PDF copy of the document in question if a user attempts to do so.

The system can optionally inform the user by email that their attempt has been blocked, but without identifying the keyword in question, maintaining the security of the system.

You can certainly see why some paranoid organizations might like this, but it seems like just another form of DRM which will likely only serve to piss off legitimate users.

Filed Under: copy machine, drm
Companies: canon

Ebook Publishers Never Learned: DRM & Ridiculous Prices

from the history-repeats-itself dept

One of the reasons we talk so much about the recording industry is that, in some ways, it's an "early warning system," for a ton of other industries. I had hoped that, in calling attention to things done poorly and the things done well in the music industry, some of those other industries starting to face the same issues would be able to avoid the same mistakes. However, as we've watched the movie industry, the newspaper industry and the publishing industry start down those same rapids, a part of me is wondering if they're simply destined to make the same mistakes anyway (and just wait until other industries, such as healthcare, energy and finance go through this process as well...).

In fact, watching the ebook market in action is like watching a slow motion train wreck that parallels the music industry. Here are two examples. First, some publishers have apparently decided to price ebooks higher than hardcover books. Customer are protesting (and giving the books one-star reviews on Amazon), but the publishers don't seem concerned. Meanwhile, publishers are still insisting on ineffective and annoying DRM which only serves to harm legitimate buyers, without doing anything to prevent unauthorized copies from proliferating. We've seen this story before... How is it that folks at these publishers haven't been paying attention? Or do they really think "but, with us, it's different"?

Filed Under: drm, ebooks, pricing

Intel Threatens To Use The DMCA Against Anyone Who Uses The HDCP Crack

from the that'll-win-them-over dept

Well, isn't this nice? Intel, who recently confirmed that the HDCP master key was, in fact, leaked, has also decided that it's going to threaten to sue anyone who makes use of it, under the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. The last gasp effort of those who still want to believe in DRM: after it's cracked, they'll wave the DMCA at you. Perhaps rather than falling back on DMCA threats, Intel could spend its efforts explaining to Hollywood why DRM is a mistake.

Filed Under: drm, hdcp
Companies: intel

Intel Confirms HDCP Master Key Is Out

from the oops dept

We were among the many folks who wrote about the supposed leak of the HDCP master key this week, leading to an interesting discussion in the comments -- including a comment from a big time DRM supporter (he's even written a book about DRM) who scolded us for getting the whole story wrong, insisting that there was no such thing as a master key and that Hollywood never would have agreed to HDCP if there were such a thing. This struck me and some others as odd, as many of us have followed the discussions on HDCP, and I tended to believe Ed Felten's explanation of how HDCP works, which indicated that there was, in fact, a master key. That was from a few years ago, but Felten also just posted another explanation about how HDCP works, and it still seems to involve a master key.

And, now, Intel is apparently confirming that the leak is, in fact, the master key. So, at this point, I'm going to have to assume that the DRM expert and the scolding were wrong, and that there is, in fact, a master key... and it's been leaked. Good thing the FCC gave the MPAA the okay to break your TV and DVR to release movies that would be "protected" by HDCP, huh? As Michael Weinberg points out, the FCC has now broken a bunch of TVs for nothing:

Today, it looks like HDCP -- the DRM that the MPAA insisted was required to allow them to securely distribute movies prior to DVD release -- has been broken.  As a result, anyone who is motivated can make an exact digital copy of a "protected" high definition movie.  Since all it takes is one motivated individual to make that first copy, this DRM (like every type of DRM before it) now serves absolutely no purpose but to inconvenience legitimate customers.

In May, I wrote that "Studios are asking the public to trade the use of any analog inputs on their devices for more magic beans."  The FCC accepted that trade.  At the time, it looked like those magic beans at least pretended to have some powers to slow down copying.  Today they have been revealed for what they really are -- worthless.

Nice work, FCC.

Filed Under: cracked, drm, hdcp, master key
Companies: intel

HDCP 'Master Key' Found? Another Form Of DRM Drops Dead

from the what-a-waste dept

Chirag Mehta points us to the news that apparently some hackers have figured out the HDCP "master key," which effectively renders the DRM found in various HD formats useless. By this point, it should come as no surprise that such things get cracked. Is there any DRM that has actually ever been able to not get cracked at some point? It does make you wonder why the entertainment industry wastes so much money and effort on making such useless DRM products. For an industry that complains so much about how they're losing money all of the time, perhaps one way to save a little money is to stop spending it on useless, unworkable DRM.

Filed Under: drm, hdcp

Medieval Copy Protection: I Put A Curse On You

from the probably-more-effective dept

Slashdot points us to this wonderful blog post on the Got Medieval blog about how monks and scribes in the middle ages "copy protected" their books with "book curses" inscribed within the book.

I almost wonder if those were more effective than today's DRM attempts.

The blog has a nice image of one such curse, but here are a couple that I find amusing:

Should anyone by craft of any device whatever abstract this book from this place may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not recorded among the Blessed.
--attributed to a 16th-century French missal belonging to a man named Robert

Thys boke is one
And Godes kors ys anoder;
They take the ton,
God gefe them the toder.

[This book is one (thing),
And God's curse is another;
They that take the one,
God gives them the other.]
--found in various Middle English books.

Perhaps the most clever one though, is described as follows:

But far and away my favorite curse is found in a collection of English court transcripts made by William Easingwold around 1491. It takes the form of a clever Latin code. If you read the top two lines together it says "May he who wrote this book procure the joys of life supernal", but the bottom two together produce "May he who steals this book endure the pangs of death infernal" (Drogin's translation). I don't have an image of the manuscript, but this is a close approximation:

All of this reminds me of an even older story of books and attempts to stop copying, which we wrote about last year, concerning Saint Columba -- also known as Colmcille or Colum Cille -- who in the 6th century, decided to copy some religious books in an attempt to "share" the faith with others. He did so with a Latin translation of the Bible and it created quite the mess, with a debate over the legality of copying a book, and whether or not it counted as "property." You see, these arguments aren't particularly new...

Filed Under: books, copy protection, curses, drm, medieval

Reminder: You Don't Own Your Ebooks; Amazon Locks Customer Out And Doesn't Respond To Help Requests

from the you-don't-own-what-you-bought dept

We've pointed out in the past that if you're "buying" ebooks on devices like the Kindle or the iPad, it's important to remember that you're not really "buying" the books, and you don't really own them. We're seeing that once again with a story on Consumerist about a woman who was locked out of the ebooks on her Kindle for a month:

A month ago I bought a kindle and was really excited to use it on vacation. I bought a few books and when I was done, I bought another. Then they froze my account, so I called in and logged a case.

Within 48 hours I got a call back, saying it was an error on their side and they'd unfreeze it for me, but I'd just need to re-order the book. I thought no problem, thanks for the help. So I bought the book a second time and it automatically freezes me out again. I call in and log another case, but get no phone call back as promised from an account specialist.

This apparently has gone on for four weeks, involving approximately 20 phone calls and emails... and still no solution from Amazon. Anyone know of any case where the same thing happened with a physical book?

Filed Under: drm, ebooks, kindle
Companies: amazon

Once Again, How Does DRM Benefit Anyone?

from the we're-waiting... dept

Drew points us Shane Richmond's blog post about not being able to open legally obtained eBooks due to DRM. There's nothing new in this story -- which has been repeated thousands of times over the past decade or so, but it's just a reminder of the pointlessness of DRM and how the only thing it serves to do is to make the legitimate consumer worse off:

Can we pause for a moment to remind ourselves just how absurd this situation is? It's been a problem for so long that sometimes it's easy to take it for granted but we are being sold products that work in one set of circumstances but not others. And there's no good reason for the distinction. It's not as if this is a piece of software that needs to be re-written for each new platform -- it's just text.

The limitation is artificial and it's only there to prevent unauthorised copying but it's a wasted effort because anyone who intends to share these books can remove the DRM in no time. As always with DRM, it's the law-abiding customer who gets punished.

It really is amazing that anyone still thinks DRM makes sense.

Filed Under: benefits, drm, ebooks