IEEE Working Group Considers Kinder, Gentler DRM 236
slave5tom writes "An IEEE working group is trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Its scheme will allow unlimited copying of encrypted content, which will require a playkey to activate. Trying to add a cost by making the playkey 'rivalrous' (what you take I lose) and rescuing the big content players from the brink of oblivion does seem futile, but it is entertaining to watch them fight the inevitable."
EOL (Score:2, Informative)
So when the publisher is no longer interested in maintaining the DRM servers, I still lose my 'property'?
IEEE-USA also lobbies for software patents (Score:4, Informative)
Re:rivalrous? (Score:3, Informative)
Rivalrous is an economics term. Zero-sum is a game theory term. Different, but related fields of study may use different terms for similar concepts.
Re:At least there being honest (Score:3, Informative)
Interesting that you should bring up Portal. The team for that in fact was quite small, (no more than 10 people involved, according to wikipedia) and made a very similar game before Portal on their own - with presumably very little funding. Apparently most of the time and money required in Portal compared to the previous game was to create it in the Half Life universe. And even then, going by the MSRP for the game, it's a pretty safe bet it was in fact fairly cheap to make.
As far as movies go, a lot of things that used to cost a lot of money can already be replicated fairly cheaply with a green screen and CG. And then, take Avatar for example of what things will probably look like in the future. Sure, that tech is expensive now, but only because it's new. Give it a decade or two, and anyone will be able to create their own movie with that tech, with consumer-grade equipment they'll probably be able to purchase for the equivalent of 1-2K in today's US dollars or less. That will basically put the movie industry in the same place the music industry is now: where the only real difference is that the "expensive" stuff is a lot more heavily advertised, and you'll be able to get all you want of just-as-good stuff for [nearly] free from indie sources.
Re:DRM is DOA. The real "genie" has been out.... (Score:3, Informative)
"The original genie was let out with the LP vinyl album."
Actually it was long before that. The "original genie" was let out with the paper rolls that control player pianos. They could be copied with a paper punch and some glue.
We owe a lot of our modern copyright law (up until DMCA, that is) to the lawsuits that took place over the copying of those rolls. That is also when it was first determined that software -- even software that is made "real world" by causing a machine to do something -- is properly covered by copyright law, not patents.