You may or may not stay up to date on Digital “Rights” Management, but I consider it a pretty big issue since I rather enjoy converting my CD audio into files so I can listen to my music collection at my leisure. This is not a Sony-specific issue, but the music industry in general. However, this topic IS about Sony, so on with the show!
Sony’s latest method for copy protected CDs had been uncovered and is a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Click and read for technical mumbo jumbo.
But wait, there’s more! Now Sony’s tools are being used to create malicious software by jerks, and it also happens to affect online gaming a great deal, as covered by Gamespot’s article, specific reference to being able to cheat in World of Warcraft undetected.
I hope and pray this kind of thing keeps happening, I honestly don’t want any music labels (in particular) to ever pull their collective heads out of their collective asses anytime soon. And yeah, that goes double for all of Sony… lol
The recording industry has an almost singularly unscrupulous history, and despite the simple fact that their current model is proven to work incredibly well, as a marketing based business they’re right up there with Sodapop and Microsoft in terms of the insane ratio of product cost to sales. The business is good for no one except their own suits and the lucky few artists who’ve hit the very top.
I desperately need to believe there’s a less corrupted world that could still have “pop stars”. Here’s to the mainstream labels misering their way out of existence!
Gamespot has also posted some news that Sony has patented technology that verifies when software is inserted into a machine such as a console, and registers it to that machine. If Sony enforces this technology into the Playstation 3, it would effectively stop the sale of used games, and rentals.
I personally have no love for the concept of DRM, and this is one of the reasons why I don’t think I’ll ever buy into services such as iTunes. My personal opinion is, if you buy “data”, whether it be on a physical disc, or as pure data, you should have the freedom to play/view/listen to that data on any machine, without restrictions on the number of devices that you can use it on.
Especially with music, people shouldn’t have to be tied to the control of a few big companies, or software programs. I’m with Parn on this one; I like to be able to listen to all the audio that I have bought on CDs off a single PC, and easily copy that audio to whatever devices that I want to later on, without restrictions. Also, as far as I can see, DRM only encourges piracy, as using a pirate copy of a song actually gives you more freedom over your audio, than - for example ? a song downloaded from iTunes.
interesting… but what effect would that have on consoles that aren’t connected to the intarwebs? Unless the disc itself can retain the data, it won’t know what console it’s been registered to…
I swear, the lengths companies will go to in order to keep someone from making the smart decision and not wasting $15 to $20 on a CD that has one or two catchy songs and then the rest being filler… This is absolutely disgusting, because DRM - at least, Sony’s misconstrued concept thereof - treats every music listener as if they’re some sort of a criminal, regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with Music piracy. It’s simply disgusting how they’ll go to any disgusting length to secure their income. What sleazy, underhanded business tactic WON’T they try? Not only that, but they’re treating the people who actually BOUGHT the CD as criminals.
Simply disgusting. There are only two things I have that bear a Sony logo - a Playstation (which is actually my brothers), and a CD player. And with tactics like this, I don’t reckon there will be many more things in my house with their name.
At any rate, given that I’m a Heavy Metal fan and most bands are very cool about music downloading (or, that is, it doesn’t effect them / bother them much, or they simply do not care), the odds of me having to put up with this DRM crap is pretty slim.
It would be theortically possible for the bluray discs to retain a writable section on them, to store some additional data written by the PS3’s laser. Imagine a multi session DVD, where the first session is the game, and the second session is the DRM signature (based on the console’s serial number) that the PS3 writes to the disc once it’s inserted into a console for the first time. The PS3’s operating system could then close the disc after the second session was written (making it no longer writeable), effectively creating a “system exclusive” disc, all without having to connect to a network. I don’t know if Sony would actually go ahead with something like this, and I sure hope that they wouldn’t!
Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast had a feature where it could only be played online on the console that you registered it to. I found this annoying to say the least, although understandable why Sega did it. But what happens if your DC dies? What happens if you want to let your friend try out your copy of the game so he can see if it’s worth his money? It’s these kind of issues that put me off the concept of data tied to a single machine. For games at least, a user name and password system is much more appropriate IMO.
I don’t think they would include a blue-ray disc burner in the PS3 even for such limited function… Then again, they did say it’s going to be expensive…
It’s going to be expensive as it is. Adding something in like a Blue Ray burner would open up tons of security risks, as most people wouldn’t even have a burner like that yet. Never mind the costs.
[quote=“Solo Wing Dragon”]Gamespot has also posted some news that Sony has patented technology that verifies when software is inserted into a machine such as a console, and registers it to that machine. If Sony enforces this technology into the Playstation 3, it would effectively stop the sale of used games, and rentals.
[/quote]
… It’s also going to stop me borrowing games from my friends (which I may consider then buying), selling on and then repurchasing a title at a later date, upgrading to a new console when my old one dies…
Why the hell am I going to fork out hudreds of pounds to be treated like a criminal in my own home? It’s bad enough already with us import gamers being treated like we’re callous law breakers when all we’re actually doing is just purchasing an item from another country (What would they rather have us do? Download it off an FTP?) ub tthis would really take the biscuit. If this ever sees the light of day, I will seriously have to consider ditching this new gen, and concentrating instead on older consoles.