Sony CTO Starts New "Buy Once, Play Anywhere" Group 138
jriding writes to mention that a new effort, headed by Sony Pictures' CTO, will attempt to allow customers to stream video content seamlessly on any device that they own. One has to wonder how successful or "all encompassing" it will be without Apple, TiVo, and Amazon, some of the major players in the space. "It's all very much in the future, however. The press release is peppered with confidence-wilting phrases such as "will define and build a new media framework" (something this complex hasn't even been defined yet?), "we are developing," and "over time." Without even a spec in place, there's no way we will see working products for at least a year, quite possibly longer. And, if the strategy document we discussed in August remains accurate, new DECE-ready devices will be needed to make the whole scheme work. By the time video stores adopt the tech, electronics firms implement it, movie studios support it, and consumers purchase all the pieces to make it work, will it still matter?"
Good, but they can do better : (Score:4, Interesting)
i want music provider to be my backup vault. if anything happens, i should know i can get what i bought from there again, with a click.
if i go traveling anywhere, i shouldnt need to worry about taking my mp3 player with me, platform, framework and shit. i should just be easy to know that from anywhere, i can login to the 'music provider x' and get whatever i need from there, again. they can limit my download to 1 per day if they want or anything. or, even can charge me something like 0.1 cents for each additional download for all i care.
i just want NO hassles, and full reliability.
its amazing that it took them THAT long to realize that this is the real deal.
Round Two (Score:3, Interesting)
Dupe [slashdot.org]? Not really, as we now see just how much support this thing has.
Buy Once, Play Anywhere = non DRM'd MP3! (Score:3, Interesting)
All of this amounts to little more than big corporations attempting to unite, in order to better fight off the most dominant players in the marketplace (Apple's iTunes store, primarily).
They knew from day 1 that Apple wouldn't go for it, since they rather like their "ecosystem" being undisturbed.
In the big picture though, ditching the DRM is the real answer. We already have standard audio and video formats out there! They're proven to work effectively on all sorts of hardware.
The content sales people always talk about "format incompatibility" because it sounds better, but this is REALLY about unifying protection schemes bolted on TOP of the formats.
Re:"Anywhere...as long as we say so" (Score:2, Interesting)
This is not just Sony. This is pretty much the ideal DRM system for the big media companies.
Because it is centrally controlled, and it is setup so the copyright owner controls what you can do with your purchase.
This is the basis of a long-term strategy by the RIAA/MPAA companies.
First, create a DRM system that is completely controlled by themselves, and get hardware manufacturers to embed it into as many devices as possible [like DVDCSS and AACS]. Make sure it is not beholden to anyone else [such as Apple or Microsoft].
Second, push adoption of this system by making it initially fairly cheap for HW companies to license and by making content available for it that has fairly reasonable limits [ie, as many of your devices as you wish, probably cheaper than what competitors can offer, while denying competitor systems similar possibilities].
Third, squeeze out the competition. Either keep content exclusive for this system, or make it cheaper and more flexible than what the competition can offer.
At this point, the media companies need to basically wait for customer adoption. Music will difficult because it is already offered DRM-free, but video will be easier because they can throw this stuff into the DVD and Blu-Ray specs so you can transfer new releases to computers and portable devices, while preventing competing systems from working.
Fourth, (and this step depends on adoption), just outright deny licensing content to competitors, and now they are free to start locking down the system by say, having a small fee for transferring that movie to your phone, or increasing the licensing fees [so they get a decent cut of all hardware sales], or just increasing prices, as you don't have a choice [other than piracy].
The MPAA companies have seen what Apple has done to the music industry and they won't let that happen to their industry. They are willing to spend a LOT of money to try to replicate it, but so the system is totally under their own control. They don't want to have to only charge $10 or $15 bucks for a movie, because that's what Apple thinks is a reasonable price for a movie. That's why the iTunes movie store selection is so crappy. They'll take some money from Apple, but they are hell-bent on making sure nobody but themselves will be dominant in the distribution chain for video. And the RIAA companies are only too happy to jump onto this bandwagon. And the hardware companies are eager for any system that gives them access to content, particularly video content.
Re:"Anywhere...as long as we say so" (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm going to defend them on one point that they finally almost get the "play anywhere" idea and are willing to work across companies to achieve what Apple has already done. Apple has proved that people will buy up electronic copies sold "just like a book" and usable on so many devices. The "pairing" of iPods and Apple TVs to "mothership" computers has worked out very well. The only flaw Apple's stuff has is that you can't automatically aggregate stuff (to backup all your media) among machines even under the same account.. that's disabled because they still think we're all pirates. My opinion is that the "missing link" in Apple's cap is that Time Capsule should also act as a storage for all the iTunes you might purchase then treat PCs just like iPods to "check out" songs.
I think that's exactly what Sony and co. want to do. You'd have one "mothership" at home, constantly "phoning home" but everything else would be invisible.. you'd buy on a phone, or email, or PS3 and all the sales would go back to the "mothership" for archiving the keys. Buy however many media devices you want and sync away all day.
This is just like Amazon mp3s, the media companies will create a whole new thing simply to do what they've already obligated Apple NOT to do.
Re:I dunno . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
I like my rip once, play anywhere cult.
We've interpreted "fair use" to include portability and archive reliability since, ooh, 1985 perhaps...
Unfortunately, Congress effectively outlawed us with the passage of the DMCA, even though we kept to the spirit of copyright law by not giving away our portable copies and archives.
Re:Good, but they can do better : (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree, when you're buying physical property. According to the music industry, we're not buying music but in fact are buying a license to listen to said music. Moreover, they've been claiming that we're buying a license to listen to music under specific conditions only. Either I'm getting a CD/tape/LP/8-track/download that contains music where protecting the product and its contents are my responsibility (which gives me legal authority to make as many backups as I deem necessary, so long as I'm not distributing those backups), or I'm buying a license to use the content.
I like supporting artists and content providers, but if I'm buying a license to play back that content rather than the content itself (mind you, me buying content doesn't give me redistribution rights, though I would have resale rights as I'd give up my own copy), then I will not buy unless I have unlimited rights to play back the content I've licensed whenever and however the hell I want. That means on my iPod, my phone, my desktop, my laptop, my TV, and any other device capable of audio or video playback.
If they're going to insist on selling a playback license bound to my possession of a piece of physical media (or series of bits) that I don't have permission to protect or otherwise back up, then they're not getting my money.
Short version: I'm never buying another product with DRM, period. I've been burned more than often enough to say "fuck it." If they won't offer me reasonable terms for the purchase, I'm taking my money somewhere else.