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BSA To Join Battle Against DRM
Posted by
Hemos
on Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:32 AM
from the who-what-where-why-how dept.
from the who-what-where-why-how dept.
Dunark writes "It appears that two of our favorite enemies are now at loggerheads with each other: According to The Inquirer, the Business Software Alliance has joined the fight against the Hollywood-backed attempt to legislate required DRM (the Hollings bill). Read about it in The Inquirer and also at Mercury News"
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Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Standard American politics (Score:2)
Re:Hmm (Score:2)
Why do so many
If we are lucky (Score:4, Insightful)
WHAT???????? (Score:3, Funny)
hahahaha you FOOL (Score:2)
Re:WHAT???????? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, the BSA is controlled by the tech companies.
So, if the techs go after **AA, it will be through the BSA and (maybe) individually.
Hardly surprising.
Parent
Re:WHAT???????? (Score:4, Insightful)
The goal is the same: make money.
Tactics might be different, but who really thinks you make as many friends in Congress by kicking down their doors as you do at public schools? ; )
Parent
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
+4 Insightful. Place your bets please. (Score:2, Funny)
Obligatory BSA Joke (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, though, I'm suprised to see Microsoft take this position, since they had the most to gain if this scheme takes off. After all, if you can only watch future movies on "approved" OS's, guess which ones will be approved [microsoft.com] and which ones won't! [gentoo.org]
Obligatory MPlayerJoke (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Microsoft doesn't mind DRM, really... (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft's DRM scheme serves as yet another way to lock people into their operating system by restricting the choice (of content) that is available to users of other operating systems.
Think about it: if Microsoft is successful at convicing Hollywood that their content will only be safe on Microsoft Windows systems, then Hollywood will only produce content for Microsoft Windows systems.
Microsoft may actually fear legislative attempts at creating DRM schemes, since those attempts would be much less likely to favor one OS over another.
Parent
BSA is not the **AA?? (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference is the business model.
**IA wants to control the media of distribution to protect their business model.
BSA wants you to "break the law" with their software watching to charge you after the fact.
You know penalities are "free" money.
Re:BSA is not the **AA?? (Score:2, Insightful)
hehe, and next we'll read about BSA becoming the new owners and distributors of such things as "Nero Burning ROM", "WinZip", etc. Heck, maybe they'll foot the bill for a pretty GUI DeCSS app. Of course, these will be special new versions which make handy use of your P4 serial number and your broadband connection back to their data warehouse.
With a couple of Perl scripts, their whole bully-fee-collection system could be automated.
Re:BSA is not the **AA?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
DRM seems strikingly familiar ... (Score:5, Funny)
Please don't mod this +1 funny, as it's not meant to be that way. I really do find strinkingly large simularities between the way the Nazi's do things and the way certain members of congress try to force the people that elected them to give up their rights. Just because "Rights" is one of the DRM words, doesn't make it right.
I believe in Law [stanford.edu] that is for the people.
please follow the links...
Re:DRM seems strikingly familiar ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course not. If you look at the names of lobbying organizations, you'll find a number of organizations that sound like they are environmentally-oriented but are, in fact, run by oil or other big industry concerns. Same with supposedly health-related lobbyists who really work for tobacco companies, etc. Heck, even "Greenpeace" seems a misnomer sometimes
Parent
heh (Score:5, Interesting)
This is like an American version of Godzilla vs. Mothra, 2 monsters in suits battling eachother in the courtroom, you're not quite sure who'll win, you're not quite sure you care, but you have to watch it and cheer them on.
Re:heh (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Don't be so supprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't be so supprised (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
So confusing! (Score:2)
Re:So confusing! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
What fools we all have been! (Score:5, Interesting)
Market-Enforced DRM. You can only get your software,
movies, music and what have you THROUGH their
blessed Palladium.
The reason they don't want Hollings bill is
that it forces them to consider things that they
otherwise wouldn't for economic reasons, for
example fair use and expiration of copyrights, which
would come into play IF the DRM solution was
part of a law.
So -- Remember. They are NOT anti-DRM, they just
want to CONTROL the DRM. And it is a LOT more
difficult for government to interfere with
the private choices of individuals (you bought
this hardware knowing it had DRM -- but you
can't connect to your online banking otherwise and
the $10/teller visit fees added up!)
Re:What fools we all have been! (Score:3, Funny)
"This DRM bill should help our strategy a lot then."
"Sir, we just realised that we could get even more control WITHOUT the bill!"
"Everyone to lobby stations! Release the $2 billion emergency bribe money!"
Excellent news! (Score:4, Funny)
moron FraUDuleNT last gasper FUDgePacking (Score:3, Interesting)
2) Speculating on Their Own Stock: Microsoft issues a massive amount of put options. During the same quarter ended 3/31/99, Microsoft sold put contracts on their own stock for $400 million, basically betting that the stock will not decline. They need not worry because they are allowed to "cook the books." Of Microsoft's significant cash balance, it is also a financial fact that more than 65 percent of that cash did not originate from product sales but rather from tax benefits associated with the exercise of stock options, employees prepaying their own wages, and the sale of put contracts on its own stock. Microsoft's financial innovation is making a mockery of financial integrity, ethics, and the securities laws, just as Insull did in the 1920's.
3) Convincing Employees to Take Less Real Wages: Microsoft aggressively markets stock options to new employees in an effort to take wage expenses off the books. They also know that they can pocket the exercise price employees will be required to pay to take ownership of the stock. What also seems clear is that Microsoft is still aggressively marketing its stock option program to new recruits. To quote an email received, "I am about to begin employment at Microsoft and the stock option was the selling factor. Does your article overall state that it will be bad for me and will fail me in my retirement planning?" Is Microsoft fulfilling its disclosure obligations to its own employees, especially those that have put their entire 401K balance in Microsoft stock? This explains how 22 percent of Microsoft's massive cash balance has actually come from its own employees in the form of them prepaying their own wages through stock option exercise prices.
4) Publicly touting the stock: In a recent earnings release, CFO Greg Maffei jokingly cited 10 reasons why Microsoft is a $1 trillion company. A common strategy here is to have top executives issue conflicting statements, one talking up the stock and the other talking it down and then within a few days financial analysts all come out with buy recommendations on the stock due to a small decline. They are making a mockery of financial integrity, ethics, and the securities laws.
5) Controlling the media. After issuing several press releases on PR Newswire, Microsoft told the service to stop issuing my press releases. Microsoft is PR Newswire's largest client. PR Newswire is owned by Miller Freeman of the UK, a large media company that publishes many computer related publications including Information Week in addition to Microsoft focused journals such as the Windows System Developer. Miller Freeman does indeed function as if it were a department of Microsoft itself.
6) Stock Option Accounting: It is important to note that any discussion of stock option accounting must address two completely different and independent situations. The first is to analyze the impact of options exercised and already retired and the second is to analyze the remaining options debt outstanding. This study focused on both whereas most media coverage only focuses on the remaining options debt outstanding.
Special PAY PER VIEW EVENT! (Score:2)
Or if we're real lucky no one comes out.
-
Re:Special PAY PER VIEW EVENT! (Score:4, Funny)
> pichforks and chainsaws. Two go in, one comes out.
Might I add, that we'd need to keep a shotgun handy to deal with the winner.....
Parent
BSA our enemy? (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet many companies are evaluating open source alternatives for their existing proprietary applications right now, because they might not have bought quite enough licenses to cover all their use. That wouldn't be the case if BSA was less aggressive.
Re:BSA our enemy? (Score:5, Insightful)
They may cause people to move to open source but the collateral damage is too much.
Parent
Re:BSA our enemy? (Score:4, Interesting)
Incidentally, I've been a part of BSA enforcements before... and they treat the consumer much more fairly then they have to. At the end of the day, I'm just glad open source is gaining some momentum and the BSA will be unnecessary.
$G
Parent
I agree (Score:3, Insightful)
When they harass open-source shops (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
It is not supposed to work that way (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm no historian but I think the intent of the people who set up the USA Congress and other government organs was to enable the rule of the people for the common good. Now we see a group of corporations *buying* new laws for their own profit and the *only* thing that has the slightest chance of stopping them is another group of corporations who see a threat to their own bottom line.
It might be nice to see bad laws failing to get enacted but if you believe that the BSA are acting for the good of the people you are very naive. They act for their own good *exclusively* and it is pure chance that in this instance it coincides with what is good for the general population (indeed, there are many examples of the same group working directly *against* the common good).
So rejoice while you can but know this: you no longer have a say in the making of your own country's laws. Every time an expensive lobbying campaign is successful, it is one more battle lost for democracy; the exact legislative result is of little consequence.
Mercury News article optimistic? (Score:3, Interesting)
New organization! (Score:2)
Hi-tech? The Comptuer Systems Policy Project? Is this a new organization specializing in greetings technologies, or have they used a secret DMCA-protected encoding scheme to hide the real name and purpose of their organization?
I hope The Inquirer's fact checking is better than their spell checking.
DRM is at odds with BSA business model (Score:4, Insightful)
DRM prevents piracy; who you going to sue, if no one can use software in violation of its license?
Tom Petty's lyrics finally getting though? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's even more effective than establishing control over the radio playlists, something Tom Petty voiced in the lyrics to "The Last DJ".
Of course. (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, if a workable DRM scheme were possible, the raison d'être of the BSA, SPA, and similar criminal enterprises is completely kaput, vanished, gone, history . . . you get the idea. Additionally, their members would lose the mind share they currently gain from unlicensed use of their products.
The law in the U.S. has become corrupt. (Score:5, Interesting)
The biggest friends of business are business men and women. The biggest enemies of business are
The law in the U.S. has become corrupt, as this July 2002 article, linked at the bottom of the Inquirer article, says: Political contribution watch [theinquirer.net].
I've done some research about how law is made in Oregon: Airplanes are safe, but laws often crash [hevanet.com]. (For those who live outside the U.S.: Oregon is a U.S. state.)
Basically, it appears that the law in the U.S. is being driven by those who have a financial interest, not people who have the best interests of the country in mind.
Just one Question (Score:4, Insightful)
I read how the DRM is bad, and I agree. As a customer, I would not ever purchase something that limited MY USE of it.
The BSA is an extortion racket of the worst kind, not so much as what they purport to do, but rather in their methods of DOING It. The same can be said about the RIAA, MPAA, and even so much in the aspect of DRM.
Which brings me to my question: When did I become a CONSUMER as opposed to a CUSTOMER?????
I have seen the trend in the computer and electronics industry from as far back as 1995 to state that I, as a user of a certain product, no longer have the right to Support of that product when it messes up, that I no longer have the right to ALTER the product that I PURCHASED with my Hard Earned CASH to make it NOT prevent me from using it in a way that prevents it from messing up other items, and NOW, the fact that if I DO alter, fix, repair, modify or explore that product that I as a CUSTOMER bought, I can and will be prosecuted.
This is not the America I grew up in. This is not the America I swore to defend.
Yes, I know....Welcome to Corporate America. Where wars are fought not to win, but only to deplete the ever standing supply.
The mantra has gone from "This we'll defend" to "You better BUY it NOW!!"
When the elephants fight... (Score:3, Insightful)
-- ancient saying from Africa or somesuch.
I'm only saying this since rash uninformed proverbs with no real content is a great way of getting "+5 insightful".
Somebody was bound to post this, so I might as well get the karma...
I'm am reminded of this quote (Score:3, Funny)
This makes perfect sense to anyone who understands (Score:3, Interesting)
MS is the majority member, founding member and has the most control of, over and in the BSA. If you look at their neat figures and understand them, you will see that 90% of their "successes" battling piracy are MS related, and most instituted by MS.
Of course MS will not endorse a bill that puts into question their (stolen) DRM technology, much less one that legislates how DRM will be implemented (regardless of who implements what).
Rob
Re:Free karma alert! (Score:2)
The actual member list is at http://www.bsa.org/usa/about/members/
Re:Which side is MS on??? (Score:2, Interesting)
Be afraid.... Be very afraid....
Re:mixed feelings... (Score:5, Insightful)
'The victor would emerge stronger than either, and free from doubt,' said Gandalf.
Parent
Re:Huh ? (Score:3, Funny)
In other news, Osama bin Laden issued a statement saying that part of the problem is a perception that his organization is a band of murderous thugs.
In both cases, the statements are being subjected to sophisticated high-tech analysis to determine whether they are the work of a live speaker, or have been patched together posthumously from old clips.