Diamond and RIAA finally settle lawsuits 114
Rahga writes "This quietly-released and vaguely worded press release says that Diamond and RIAA finally settled all pending litigation, with words on Diamond vowing support for SDMI. Now record execs everywhere can sleep safely again. " Anyone know any more details?
RIAA is a dinosaur (Score:1)
Free music is the way to go. Who cares if I can't hear Celene Dion or Mariah Carey ?? The problem here is that people are whining "I won't be able to hear my favourite artist on mp3 because the RIAA wants to protect their work by using proprietary music encoding". Well guess what ? Don't listen. If the artist you enjoy won't release their work in the format you desire, why are you still listening ? The sad fact is that the person who owns the copyright gets to decide on the method of distribution and they mostly choose the kind which will squeeze the most money out of you.
If you really want to hear certain artists or certain songs which are only available under this new format, well then you've got to play their game and shell out the money for the appropriate equipment and downloads. Just like if you want to run Microsoft Word. Otherwise - find an alternative. Support the musicians that acknowledge that you have rights as music consumers. If you download a song and store it using your resources IT'S YOUR SONG. Same as GNU is your software.
It's darwinism, folks. The formats you support are the ones which will survive. If you don't take any shit, it's much less likely they'll try and give you any.
True Dat... (Score:1)
Minidisc sound quality (Score:1)
Re:Eh? (Score:2)
Also, minidisc sound quality isn't that great. It uses lossy compression, just like mp3 does. If you purchase mp3s over the internet, then record them to a minidisc, it sounds horrible, since you're going through two different levels of lossy compression.
Any convincing arguments of SDMI succeeding? (Score:1)
But are there any good articles that can even go half-way toward convincing me that it'll succeed?
Even the most convincing argument I've seen-- Record companies can release their music only in SDMI format-- isn't really feasible because of the huge installed base of CDs.
The only way I see this succeeding is having it be part of DVD-Audio, but that's very far off from widespread adoption.
Re:This is Bad (Score:2)
I don't think you can find it, they have stepped around it quite nicely.
Another quote:
3Q: How does SDMI benefit consumers?
A: SDMI participants share a common goal: a satisfying consumer experience. With the major music, consumer electronics and technology companies supporting SDMI, consumers will have access to a variety of SDMI-compliant music, software and hardware. "
Sorry I just don't buy it. Limiting choice and keeping prices high are not a "satisfying consumer experience". And that's why they'll lose, I won't buy it, he won't buy it, and hopefully most people won't buy it, and it'll die. Find the music you like, listen to the music you like, buy the music you like. Don't let anyone tell you what kind of music you like. It's about choice. It's about freedom.
Re:No big dealie... (Score:1)
In the future, you'll have to buy your music in SDMI format? Fine. Someone'll buy it, record it as mp3, and post it right back on the 'net. End result? Nothing's changed.
OK.... (Score:1)
Re:This is Bad (Score:1)
Ok. How about "The only content SDMI-compliant devices will not play is illegally
copied SDMI music beginning in Phase 2." It's answer 7, paragraph 1, sentence 2. Don't misunderstand; I dislike SDMI as well. I find it outrageous to be expected to pay $15 for a product that costs under a dollar to press and package. It's doubly offensive when you consider how little of that profit margin actually goes back to the artist -- most of it stays firmly in the hands of the artist's label. MP3's are a huge threat to this style of extortion. Diamond's not so dumb as to totally pass up this market by disabling the very feature that the product was built around in the first place.
I did. (Score:1)
-RMB
Re:This is Bad (Score:2)
If you read it, you'll also notice that it is a software upgrade needed to play SDMI files after phase II, so you have to software upgrade your hardware to keep it working. This gives TOTAL control back to these companies. Also there is no mention of what you can or cannot play in phase III or IV. Since they are using a mandatory (if you want to keep playing new music) upgrade process, additional more restrictive phases are very likely.
SDMI is bad. (but only if you're into consumer rights)
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/1999_06/pr
http://www2.toshiba.co.jp/pc/catalog/ff/ff1100/
Just have some imagination, in the next 2 years, the keybroadless miniature notebook will come out. The first one will have the size of a old game boy, the new ones will shrink shinner. The touch screen will be supported. (touchscreen is cheap, there's a $900 subnotebook already support it) And the keybroad (foldable?) and other stuff will all connect via USB.
The highend model will have a type II slot, so you can run a solid state hard drive on it, with screen turn off, you can run it for 8-12 hours. When the next generation of keybroadless mininotebook appear, it will be light enough for a portable music player. This is a decisive barrior-breaker for any RIAA lame attempt to shut down mp3. Even if Rio can't make mp3 players anymore, people who can afford it will be able to play mp3 on win9X/linux/winCE platform. And some day palm XX will too.
CY
Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:1)
It is the same reason people give to charity.
Control is never good, once an idea has a string tied to it, or rather the majority of people think it has a string attached to it, those strings can be used to lure, to fish, to steal, to hoard, to control. They may also be sold, bought, and collected, twined into ropes, ropes to bind all enemies, to bind individuals, to bind a culture.
If people are not honest, then they can never be thwarted. It is the very fact of honesty of the majority that makes the culture survive, it is that most are honest that the fiction of copyright, the fiction of the ownership if ideas/artistic works, is obeyed. No government, no legistlation can EVER go strongly against the general will of the entire populace. The only way GPL, copyright, or anything else can be 'Enforced' is if the public is willing to let it happen to them.
So ending copyright, or signifigantly shortening it to a few years, loses nothing, the same people will still duplicate, the same people will continue to purchase, except it will not be a monopoly (though many would still purchase the 'official' or 'artist-sanctioned' version.) The gains are all you mention, artists are not stuck and screwed by publishers, the public is enriched like never before.
Re:It would appear... (Score:1)
Let's hope they haven't sold out. It would suck for the RIAA to get their way once again.
Whoa people, put away the tar and feathers. Let's slap another spin on this.
Diamond: "So we supports this SDMI dohiky of yours, you'll shut the hell up?"
RIAA: "Yes, Yes, we be happy!"
Diamond: Thinks to himself. "We put this SDMI crap in RIO and Jar Jar here goes away. When SDMI turns toes up, we covered because we never remove mp3 support. If SDMI does go over, then we covered there too."Cheaser cat grin. "Deal!"
I don't know if anyone else read this but I never saw any place where it was mentioned that Diamond had to remove support for mp3.
Re:Rio's aren't all that cool anyhow. (Score:1)
If there is software that can let you download MP3 files great! I just reported on what I learned regarding "official" product and it's software. While add-on software is generaly a good thing, if you can do it directly out of the box, that is even better.
Good luck on your flash card test.
minidisc +optical soundcard+ windowz :( (Score:1)
BOSE doesn't always make good equipment, but Grundig makes really high quality stuffs.
i'm thinking of buying a minidisc player and a optical out soundcard. but i can't find any sound card with optical out (TOSLINK) and linux support.
Anyone?
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:2)
Duplication without permission is theft. By hitting "submit" on slashdot, you are giving permission for Slashdot to reproduce your comments. You are also giving me permission to look at them. When someone makes a CD, they give you a license to listen to the music. You are allowed to make archival backups of the music, but you are not allowed to distribute the music. This is illegal. You may not be stealing an idea, but you are stealing revenue from the people that created the idea.
You are taking something that costs money. They have not technically lost anything from your piracy, but they have lost an opportunity for revenue. If you're the sort of person who would never buy anything copyrighted (just let me know if you're the sort of person who's never bought a movie-ticket, book or CD and I'll produce my unicorn). Duplication and distribution is not necessarily wrong. I give my words to slashdot so that this can be done. Unauthorized duplication and distribution is illegal and wrong. If I wrote my post on a piece of paper and CmdrTaco came to my house and stole the paper and posted it on slashdot, that would be wrong. Leaving out the "unauthorized" part in your sentence is wrong. Is the duplication and distribution of your credit card numbers ok?
WTF are you talking about? "the will of the populace"? Who died and make you Lenin? So let me get this straight:the will of the people is that music should be freely distributable but not movies?
Now I'm going to hit submit, thereby giving implicit permission to Slashdot to reproduce my message.
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:2)
Duplication without permission is theft. By hitting "submit" on slashdot, you are giving permission for Slashdot to reproduce your comments. You are also giving me permission to look at them. When someone makes a CD, they give you a license to listen to the music. You are allowed to make archival backups of the music, but you are not allowed to distribute the music. This is illegal. You may not be stealing an idea, but you are stealing revenue from the people that created the idea.
You are taking something that costs money. They have not technically lost anything from your piracy, but they have lost an opportunity for revenue. If you're the sort of person who would never buy anything copyrighted (just let me know if you're the sort of person who's never bought a movie-ticket, book or CD and I'll produce my unicorn). Duplication and distribution is not necessarily wrong. I give my words to slashdot so that this can be done. Unauthorized duplication and distribution is illegal and wrong. If I wrote my post on a piece of paper and CmdrTaco came to my house and stole the paper and posted it on slashdot, that would be wrong. Leaving out the "unauthorized" part in your sentence is wrong. Is the duplication and distribution of your credit card numbers ok?
WTF are you talking about? "the will of the populace"? Who died and make you Lenin? So let me get this straight:the will of the people is that music should be freely distributable but not movies?
Would you be more satisfied if there were no allowances for fair use? Then there would be no arbitrary line, and you can be sure that line is a lot closer to no fair use than uninhibited fair use. Fair use is extremely well defined through years of court history. It is not arbitrary.
Now I'm going to hit submit, thereby giving implicit permission to Slashdot to reproduce my message.
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:2)
Re:Minidisc sound quality (Score:1)
Nick
Re:MP3 quality sucks anyway. (Score:1)
If I recall, as Dick Solomon from Third Rock once said 'hah! CDs, when will these human realise the superior sound quality of vinyl?'
RTFM (Score:1)
There appears to be a large number of misconceptions here regarding the nature of SDMI and the ramifications of the Rio supporting it. Wah [mailto]'s take in particular is in error. In ~18 months, SDMI's "Phase 2" will begin. After this point, SDMI-compliant players will no longer play copied SDMI-secured audio. There's nothing to stop it from still playing all your favorite MP3's, illegally obtained or not.
Don't misunderstand, it's not good that Diamond supports SDMI with the Rio. By doing so, they help to create a market for SDMI, and thus legitimize it. I'm sure they also paid in quite a bit of money to the RIAA to support SDMI. However, SDMI doesn't mean squat if you don't use it. Even if the only format you can find a particular piece of music in is SDMI-secured, there's nothing stopping you from converting it to MP3.
Re:This is Bad (Score:1)
Your take is in error. In ~18 months, Phase 2 of SDMI will begin, and your [insert PMP here] will stop playing any SDMI-secured files that have not been legitimately distributed. All your favorite old MP3's will still work just fine. You might want to check out the SDMI FAQ [riaa.com] for more information.
Re:Minidisc sound quality (Score:1)
Re:Music Piracy and Free Software (Score:1)
Walt
I disagree (Score:1)
The way I see the open source movement is that
programmers are paid for programming not for selling copies of programs. So if a company wants a new DB it pays a programmer to write it. Eric Raymond says that the vast majority of programmers don't make their living from selling copies of their code.
The same with musicians... they should be paid to play music not to sell copies of recordings.. the way concerts are done nowadays a (popular) musician could make 6 figures
on one concert.
The way that the music industry works now means that only a very small subset of musicians can make a good living out of music. This mp3 way of doing things means that smaller bands/artists could publicise their work to get people to their concerts so they could make money.
All we need is a mechanism to find the "good" musicians from the "bad" so we don't have to wade our way thru 1e6 tracks of cr@p:)
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:2)
Are you sure about this? Most people? I find it very hypocritical when people say they don't buy CDs because the record studios cheat the artists. Of course, by stealing the MP3, you're cheating the artist out of the $1.50 or whatever that they would have made. Do they write a check for $1.50 and put it in the mailbox? No. Perhaps you do, but I doubt most people would. In fact, I doubt most people who use stolen (I will not mince words) MP3s give anything back to the artist, and if your only point is to try to screw over the record studios because they're screwing over the artists, you accomplish little by screwing both over.
I can see MP3s are quickly eroding music copyright, and I don't particularly think this is a good thing. I'm glad that the music I listen to (classical and "World" music) has a nice body of listeners who are willing to pay for the music rather than steal it. Because once a type of music becomes "commoditized" by piracy, a studio has no interest in promomitng it. They won't hire good editors, people to draw nice covers, and the artists themselves. You will have more music than you ever had before, I'm sure, once it all comes down. But it will be the music of garage bands who can't earn a living making music. Perhaps that in itself will satisfy you, but the music will be lower quality, just because not enough money is going into it (not to say that money==quality, but in general giving sustenance to artists does more to improve the quanity/quality of their work and tarnish it).
"If people are not honest, they will never be thwarted." This is true, depending on your definition of "thwarted." You can't stop people completely, that's for sure. But you can make things more difficult and stem a LOT of it. For instance, using and finding MP3s, believe it or not, is not something the general population can do with ease. It's difficult. Therefore most people don't use them. Likewise, it is common to sidestep Macrovision protection on DVD and VHS players, but it still does a lot to stem petty piracy. Macrovision does not "thwart" piracy; it still exists, in spades. But it does prevent an awful lot of it.
Copyright and money are not as tightly linked as some people might think, but they are still linked. When a company/individual fears losing control over the distribution, they seek other ways of making money off of their intellectual privacy. I loathe the day when music tracks come dubbed with ads. In short, without copyright, the artist can make money, but it's even less of a guarantee than it is now. You not only have to achieve a certain level of fame (and there will always be a few groups which have all the fame and a lot of groups which have no fame, regardless of the distribution method; this is the way human preference works), but you have to make sure that you can make money off of it. Now you just have to worry about the first.
Re:Come on! (Score:1)
Disbarred? Nope! (Score:1)
Nope. You get disbarred for lying about a fact. You get to argue for an opinion or interpretation of the law whether you believe in it or not.
Consider the defense of "pleading the alternative" in a criminal trial, for example. Prosecution claims defendant stole it. Defendant PLEADS that he didn't take it, he gave it back, he didn't sell it, he didn't spend the money, etc. That's perfectly legal, because it's the prosecution's job to prove all the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defense's to poke a hole in any one necessary element.
Now if the defendant gets on the stand and TESTIFIES that he didn't take it and he gave it back, or any other claims that are mutually exclusive and therefore one must be a lie, he HAS broken the law and is in deep kimchee. Ditto lawyers who make a false claim of fact.
Re:Rio's aren't all that cool anyhow. (Score:1)
There are 3 players, the eiger labs MPMAN F20, the RIO and the Creative NOMAD.
The RIO allows you to download not only MP3 files but other files into its memory for storage. However you can NOT download MP3 files from the RIO to your PC. Also you can not load a flash card with music and let your friend listen to it in his RIO. Each RIO card is formated for that machine only.
The MPMAN F20 allows you to store all sorts of files, but also does not allow MP3 files to be downloaded from the flash card to your PC. However, unlike the RIO, you can swap flash cards with other MPMAN users. The flash card is still formated in a proprietary manner.
The Creative Nomad is so new I have not yet heard how it acts. I sent an email to their tech support but haven't gotten any reply yet. I am assuming that it will also prohibit the downloading of MP3 files from the NOMAD to your PC (easiest way to calm the music industry.) I hope you can swap flash cards with friends, but don't know for sure.
There are other feature differences between the devices, but none that refer to file security and how they can be accessed.
Most info was gotten from: http://www.eigerlabs.com go to the MPMAN section and look a product comparison or reviews. Don't remember which one.
I think the MPMAN F20 is the best for now. The future for these products are changing so quickly that buying cheap and good may be the best idea since what you buy may not be workable in a year!!
However that $50 rebate for the RIO really makes the decision tough.
Re:Come on! (Score:1)
1. Break a Windows OEM CD
2. Order and eat a McDonalds super sized meal or equivlent of any fast food place
3. Grow a beard....
4. drink a 3 letter bottle of cola [hard to find] or 2 2 letters
If you've allready done one of thies then consider penence paid and may the source be with you
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:1)
When is copying now known as stealing? I will not mince words, Slashdot has stolen my comments by copying them and sending them to servers all over the planet, your netscape has STOLEN my words by copying them to your harddrive.
Or perhaps it is you who is mincing words, by making the word 'duplicate' or 'copy' a synonym for 'theft'.
What is being done is duplication and distribution. You may call that stealing, robbery, or theft. I prefer to call it what it is. Piracy is unauthorized duplication and distribution, but why does the RIAA cause it piracy? Piracy has wonderful connotations to pirates on the open seas. Perfect for fooling the populace.
Would you call connecting two wires together, 'theft'? Well, its being called theft in newspapers and public forums all across the country. Its called theft when those two wires are 'cable television'. When is duplication called theft? When is duplication (not removing the origional) called theft? Is photocopying an article out of a magazine now theft? Ideas and artistic works are unique endeavors, because they CAN be duplicated for no cost, are (for some reason) treated specially. There is no 'fair use' guidelines for using someone elses car, house, or other property. Yet there is fair use for copyright, why is this type of duplication not stealing, yet other types are? The line between free duplication, and all duplication being theft is arbitrary and drawable anywhere? I dislike arbitrary lines for this very reason, they may be moved infinitely often.
Note that Macrovision discourages 'petty (at-home) duplication', but that is not strongly against the will of the populace.
Audiophile (n): (Score:1)
--
No! All you need for Good MP3 playing: (Score:1)
MP3 CDs (Score:1)
Re:Five Years (Score:1)
MP3's will
Anyway... they're only complaining about MP3s because MP3s make the so called 'piracy' possible. Once bandwidth catches up, they'll complain about that and then they'll
Re:This is Bad (Score:1)
I think you're confusing Diamond's interests with the RIAA's. The RIAA wants to crush MP3. Diamond wants to make money from selling the Rio. If they stop playing MP3's, people will stop buying them, as most people have their music in MP3 format. Also, an MP3 is not "illegally copied SDMI music". It is not SDMI music, period, and thusly, is not affected by the transition from Phase I to Phase II. I mean, Diamond could program their Rios to stop playing MP3s when/if you upgrade to SDMI Phase II software, but why would they? That would destroy the demand for the product. Further, there is no Phase III or IV of SDMI. Phase II is simply when the anti-pirating stuff kicks in.
I agree with you -- SDMI is bad, but it's looking to be pretty much harmless. People aren't just going to up and stop using MP3s, and companies that refuse to support it are losing their market. SDMI is an overrushed, ill-concieved attack by the music industry on something that is tearing away their monopolistic stranglehold on the music market. It is doomed to failure.
Re:there is something stopping you. (Score:1)
Point :)
In that case, I wonder how long it'll be before someone figures out the SDMI format enough to write a decoder that simply ignores the copying data.
SDMI (Score:1)
Scott Ruttencutter
viper21@ia.net
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
But what does this mean for us? (Score:1)
More info & analysis (Score:1)
--
It would appear... (Score:1)
Let's hope they haven't sold out. It would suck for the RIAA to get their way once again.
Does this really matter? (Score:1)
Isn't this really worse news for Diamond than for lovers of MP3's?
-konstant
Five Years (Score:1)
I imagine that within the next 5 years the average connection speed will be fast enough to stream full 16 bit PCM without compression.
The music business _will_ have to change their business model. It's 1910 and Henry Ford just rolled into your buggy dealership in a Model T.
-scott__
I think I'll buy a Rio ASAP now. (Score:1)
Well, fsck that $hit. Diamond is gonna go with SDMI?!? That sucks @$$.
Since the current Rio's still take MP3's, I think I'll go out and get one.
Can anyone tell me which end the security comes from on SDMI? Is it in the file? Is it during the download?
Palm Pilot as Portable MP3 Player? (Score:1)
And these things would be pretty much computers, so if the RIAA sues them, they'd have to sue the whole computer industry for MP3 playback, no?
I think that would certainly make things interesting.
Conspicuous absence (Score:1)
Come on! (Score:1)
They settled for undisclosed amount... (Score:1)
Someone's seeing ghosts (Score:1)
Not piracy, not the the threat of piracy, just the potential threat of piracy.
Sort of like Alan Greenspan keeping an all night vigil looking for the Inflation Bogeyman. Sheesh.
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
With no corporate interests selling MP3 players, you're looking at a format that won't have any players sold for it.
If players are produced, by smaller vendors, it will be in a "pirate satellite dish" kind of market. In other words, it won't go anywhere. If it does, it'll be taken down.
SDMI Phase 1 won't be a problem... (Score:1)
From what I can gather, phase 1 devices (which are expected this fall) will pretty much just be able to recognize SDMI marked content, and respect whatever rules are encoded into that song. The devices will play any non-SDMI content without any complaints. In fact, the only screening that the player will do on the content seems to be a check for the "upgrade to phase 2" trigger. Once phase 2 is developed, the studios will begin putting this trigger into their SDMI songs. Those songs won't play until you upgrade. However, if you don't bother listening to SDMI songs, you shouldn't ever get the trigger. There is no indication that your player will break if you don't upgrade, you just won't be able to play phase 2 songs.
The so-called phase 2 is where they will actually try and get fancy with the protection. This version will try and screen all content to see if it is protected. They are hoping to have some sort of watermarking technique which they can use to mark CD's. These "phase 2" CD's, in theory, would produce MP3's which would still have the watermark. But, of course, if your player is phase 1 it won't know how to check for these watermarks, so your MP3's will work just fine.
The main possible problem I see is that most of this logic is contained in software that runs on your PC. That software then talks to the "Portable Device", or PD, over a "Secure Authenticated Channel". I think we can all image what would be involved in trying to write GPL software that would talk to one of these things over the SDMI interface. However, the spec does explicitly mention that PD's may have "unprotected" interfaces, with the caveat that all content from the "unprotected digital input" is "screened". I assume that this means that the PD has to check for the "upgrade" trigger. It's not clear whether or not the manufacturer would have to include two separate physical port, or if it would be OK to just have one port that would have some obscure protocol for putting it into "secure" mode. If the latter, I would guess that the SDMI Rio's will continue to work just fine with the current Linux software. Oh, except that you won't be able to copy songs out of the Rio. The Spec is very clear about that point. To be honest, I'm suprised Diamond included that in the first place.
It's my opinion that we may not ever see phase 2. I have strong doubts about anybody's ability to develop a watermarking technique for audio which can't be removed. Not to mention whether or not the current portables will be able to implement such a technique. Even then, there is a good chance that the consumer will soundly reject the whole thing before it even gets close to phase 2. Oh well, I guess we'll see.
Re:Five Years (Score:1)
Of course... (Score:1)
Anyone who wants portable MP3 can still take their MP3s and burn them onto CDs or whatnot.
In the long run, it's not going to make much of a difference. Especially with the variety of MP3 solutions out there - Diamond isn't the only game in town.
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
Hock Leow, Vice President, Multimedia Division, Creative Labs, Inc. "The ultimate goal of SDMI is to provide consumers with wide selection and convenience in digitally distributed music. This is an evolutionary process that Creative Labs supports and we believe consumers will find value in SDMI-compliant products when there is a wide availability of SDMI content."
Although the addition of the radio to the Nomad is a nice feature. I may get one once it holds more than one CD
Copyright and money are not correlated. (Score:2)
Fans are an artists greatest asset. Fans buy t-shirts, attend concerts, talk to other fans. Most music groups make NO money in royalties until they sell a quarter-million copies.
Just as an illustration, why did you post your words to slashdot? You gave them away for free, why did you do something so stupid? Why am I posting my words to slashdot? Because I wish to enrich humanity with my words, not because I wish to enrich myself with monetary compensation.
I am an artist, like many other artists, I do my work for itself, because I wish to enrich humanity or my friends, to give them the gift of my opinions, my perspective, my aid. Not to make money. I do not make 'intellecual property', which may be posessed, hoarded, stolen. I make ideas, I make artistic works, my words here, my programming, my art, my works, the algorithms I design.
Do you believe that nobody is honest? That if you offered something for free, everyone would leech off of it, that there would be no contributors to the creators? I have sent bug reports in, made (and attempted to submit) patches, and such. I also help out on IRC occasionally. I gift others whom I will never meet again my time, my human labor, that which money only a measurment for.
There is lunacy on both sides of the issue, a gift culture will not work, nor is a purely capatilistic culture good.
I try to strike a reasonable balance. I gift my labor to others as I wish, with the only requirement that if they give it to others, that they give reasonable attributation to me. I also accept orders for where to direct my labor for my job.
Re:Same thing, the whole is greater than the parts (Score:1)
Well... This is how the process usually goes for me:
1. Hear a song I like on the radio
2. Start liking that song
3. Want to hear the song on the radio but it isn't played
4. Go find and download an MP3
5. Listen to the MP3 a lot
6. Get any other MP3s I can find by the same artist to see what else is on the CD
7. BUY the CD
That's how my normal process goes. So if the artist does a good enough job in their work, I do support them. I just don't want to throw my money away for a piece of crap CD that only has one good song on it.
~unyun~
Huh? Have I missed something here? (Score:1)
Have I missed something here?
--
- Sean
Re:No Rio for me (Score:1)
Stepping stones Not the destination (Score:1)
Who is giving these companys the money to ruin it for us? You guesed it WE ARE.
(thats we as in the collective mass we, not in the specific groupings we)
So what can we do? Simple. Cease buying products from any company using or planning to used the scumtype codes. Tell your fave artists to start putting out thier music, for sale, in mp3 format.
THis whole thing is about MONEY...the green stuff we fork over for goods and services. It has always been about enough people giving a shit to put the pinch on the producers and Demand the services they want.
Yes it is a simplistic plan, but sometimes they are the best ones.
there is something stopping you. (Score:1)
+++++
Re:Any convincing arguments of SDMI succeeding? (Score:1)
Does anyone think that DVD audio is going to take in ten years? If they just used DVD VIDEO and didn't used the video part of it (or maybe put videos on it:)) they could probably halve the period of adoption. (but they won't do it --trust me)
Copying digital info... (Score:1)
But I figured EVENTUALLY they would get the picture. Could someone please tell me why these people cannot be made to understand that, no matter how tricky they get, no matter how many layers of "software protection" they slap on, we will always be able to crack open the box and get at the goodies inside? We all know that, as soon as you render something digital, it is a supremely simple task to reproduce it with perfect fidelity. What part of the brain do these people lack that prevents them from realizing this fact? If they wanted good reliable copy protection, they should have stuck to LPs.
Seriously, what is the deep mystery here? Argh! And so ends my rant.
Yuck (Score:1)
Re:SDMI (Score:1)
Re:Five Years (Score:1)
Music Cartel Shoots and Scores. (Score:1)
-Chris
This is Bad (Score:1)
For those of you who don't understand it, this is my take:
You buy a Digital Music Player (PMP), its MP3 compliant and SDMI compliant. It plays all your MP3s and whatever else format it supports.
--cut to 18 months later--
A hardware triggered event takes place inside your player that only allows "legal" MP3s or other formats. Unless they have the watermark, they just won't play.
This is how those is control wish to remain so. SDMI limits the freedoms of the consumer, and does it quite underhandedly, I would even say illegally.
If anyone sees a problem with my interpretation please enlighten me, thanks.
Tell your friends to tell their friends "SDMI sucks".
No big dealie... (Score:1)
Eh, figured it'd have to happen sooner or later. RIAA was having puppies. Still, time to evaluate other methods of listening to MP3s:
List goes on...
Screw the record execs... They aren't gonna get me without a fight. 'Sides there's always going to be a way around SDMI. It's called MP3.
Jonny Angel
Eh? (Score:1)
Eh? No portable mp3 players means mp3 will die?
First off, it seems to have done quite well without any portable players
Second, a Rio or equivalent device is not the only way to listen to mp3s on the go. If you don't like the Rio getting in bed with SDMI, get a minidisc. It's digital, it's swappable, and with a soundcard equipped with an optical output, it'll sound as good as mp3 possibly can.
Re:Five Years (Score:1)
Ok, I'm nit-picking.
Re:MP3 quality (Score:1)
Re:Palm Pilot as Portable MP3 Player? (Score:1)
Re:Copyright and money are not correlated. (Score:1)
If you do not care about payment but are interested in attribution, a control system would allow you to essentially GPL your music, and enforce those terms.
I am definitely not saying that SDMI is a solution. In fact, given that it was slapped together behind the scenes I believe it is unlikely to have any positive effect at all. However, I would still assert that a person's control over his or her products is valuable both in a monetary and non-monetary sense.
As for why I posted my comments for free, the dialog I see on
Walt
There is another skywalker... (Score:1)
Rio's aren't all that cool anyhow. (Score:1)
On the other hand, I love it when I hand it to people and they turn it over and over trying to figure out how I got the music in there.
Re:Another victory for freedom (Score:1)
Re:MP3 quality sucks anyway. (Score:1)
>kill off CD sales as I personally can't stand the bad quality of tracks which have been MP3 encoded.
That depends on the encoders. I've encoded a bunch of CDs of celtic music using Blade Encoder at 192 kbps, and the quality is as good as I'm going to get with my cheap little computer speakers. Some of the tracks _really_ sucked encoded at 128 kbps. The hammered dulcimer stuff, especially.
Music Piracy and Free Software (Score:1)
A software company illegally uses GPL code in their product. A computer user downloads an illegal copy of a song. One of these actions causes hundreds of Slashdot users to post irate comments, while the other happens every day, and the only protest comes from record industry lawyers. Yet in both cases the same principles are broken: the rights of the copyright holder have been ignored.
No Linux user who ignores artists' intellectual property rights every day by playing pirated music should be outraged by violations of free software licenses. By engaging in piracy---or by tolerating it---we are undermining the very laws and principles we rely on to keep our software free.
Instead of flagrantly stealing music sold on CDs, we should support alternate distribution channels like mp3.com. We should help musicians and record companies find ways to truly open up their licensing, in the same ways we've worked with computer companies to make their software free. The ubiquitous piracy which exists today will only hurt our chances for a more open environment in the future.
Music piracy is a problem, and we need to work to solve it with constructive methods, before the RIAA "solves" the problem in their own way. We need tougher community standards against music piracy, and community support for better ways to legitimately use digital music. Ideally, more music and more software could be truly free. Music pirates and software pirates will always exist, but they should fall into the same category as the script kiddies---disdained by respectable free software users and developers.
Re:Five Years (Score:1)
No.
It had electric lights, if that's any consolation.