Intertrust Plans Universal DRM System

Rushmore and others wrote in with news that Intertrust, which has a large DRM patent portfolio, is planning a universal DRM scheme for consumer electronics.

More info on intertrust

[junkymailbox]

For those interested:

Intertrust [intertrust.com] holds alot of United States patents. Those are listed at the USPTO office [uspto.gov]

They also have a patent litigation [intertrust.com] against Microsoft covered by Slashodot [slashdot.org] earlier

"BigBrother.com" now available

[malibucreek]

FWIW... more doomsday from Newsweek [msn.com]: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works.

Re:Unbelieveable...

[Frymaster]

I pay $50 a month for satellite and I cant even record any TV.

oh, you'll be able to record... i mean, there are guys in the parking lot of the mall trying to sell me satelite decoders out of white vans every weekend. it'll only be a matter of time (measured in days) before the white van gang have the "satelite recorder" boxes.

Re:Stable Door...

[Anonymous Coward]

Done, by accident. [sourceforge.net]

You can't have too many universal DRM schemes!

[gearmonger]

In case anyone was worried about DRM dragging down consumers' ability to enjoy their content, the sheer number of "universal" DRM systems being proposed should effectively castrate their effectiveness.

At least for a while...

Re:2035: a reflection

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, you could have just posted a link to Right to Read [gnu.org] and saved yourself the trouble of trying to sound original.

Re:Unbelieveable...

[PCM2]

For about $20 a month I subscribe to Netflix. I can watch pretty much all the DVDs I want, any time I want. No commercials, the movies start and stop when I want them to, and I can pause them while I'm making dinner -- no additional TiVo required.

Re:Hrrm

[kallisti]

And it's exactly why I will never ever buy an iPod. Even if it's cool and I can get around the DRM without much effort, I'd rather vote with my wallet and tell apple to shove their DRM and get something that reads like a USB mass storage device.

The iPod does read like a USB mass storage device, the "DRM" consists of making the music folder hidden. That's all. On Windows, say Show Hidden and you'll never even know it was there. This is quite different than actual DRM with authorization checks.

They Convinced the vendors no problem...

[Archfeld]

Now convince the consumers that it provides them ANY benefit or advantage...Granted the manufacturers will get to lie and misrepresent the facts on national television and printed media but still every person I've EVER explained the concept to has come away WHAT ?!?! NO WAY, be they a computer literate person or just someone buying lots of music or dvd's. Break it down to a basic level and compare to every day examples, and they 'so-called' consumer advantages DRY UP AND BLOW away and all you are left with is a system to squeeze blood from a failing market, DIVX didn't fly and it was consumer friendly and simple compared to the implications of DRM and the long term hidden effects.....

Re:Same Old

[blunte]

I forget the exact text and the name of the kid movie, but I'm pretty sure it's a Disney movie.

Problem is, we have a 5 disc changer. When an audio CD ends, it will spin up the next disc. If the next disc is a movie, but I don't want it to play, I instinctively it STOP. Depending on the movie, I'll see some message like "Cannot stop at this time", or something very clearly telling me I'm not allowed to stop.

I'm just trying to stop the whole damned thing, I'm not even trying to skip content. So my only alternative is wait several seconds until I am allowed, or hit the power button. Usually by then I have already forcefully "pressed" the power button.

And of course, not being able to go directly to Menu upon start of disc is BS. I do NOT need to see the same previews for the 100th time (kid movies get watched over and over), and thus, I go thru preview hell over and over. I have to >| >| >| >| to skip the 6 or 8 tracks of previews.

Disney execs should die. Disney is one of the most evil companies. They're purely about the money.

Re:DRM for the user

[Alsee]

You entirely missed his point. He was making a joke about how you said "fare use of content". Fare - as in paying a fare. It's funny because you didn't say FAIR use, which your DRM system (and any DRM system) prohibits. Fair use, as in perfectly legitimate, legal, and free use.

It is unconstitutional for copyright law to prohibit various sorts of fair use such as satire, critisism, educational uses, and more. DRM is trying to play a game to get around that constitutional limitation on copyright protection. DRM makes that use impossible, and the DMCA makes circumventing that DRM illegal. It is the law prohiting fair use by proxy. The REAL illegal circumvention is that attempt to circumvent the constitution and exterminate fair use. A copyright holder has zero rights to prevent perfectly legitimate, legal, and free fair use.

No, there's no obligation for the copyright holder to help make fair use easy, but there can be absolutely no legal enforcment of his attempts to prevent it (DRM).

You're perfectly free to use all the DRM you like so long as it is perfectly legal for me to go into business defeating that DRM for anyone who wants that service.

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