CRF Reveals Draft of New DRM Technology 197
scubacuda writes "PC Advisor and others report that the CRF (Content Reference Forum), a new, cross-industry standards organisation that boasts Universal Music Group, Microsoft, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and VeriSign among its members, has unveiled a new specification for a DRM technology.
A draft of CRF Baseline Profile 1.0 is available for public review and comment." According to a report on CNET News, the "the [CRF-created] file would set up a process that automatically delivers files in the right format and potentially triggers an automatic payment system that could be changed moment to moment by the content distributor."
Members like that.. (Score:5, Funny)
TRUSTED COMPUTING ALERT (Score:2)
Trusted Computing securely reports to the media company that you are running on a compliant Trusted Computing system - your "enviornment". The files will not WORK unless you have an approved "enviornment" that will enforce for example a $1 billing process before playign the file. The whole CRF system is a standard fo
Intelligent File (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, people are going to download executable code from kazaa and execute it. It ain't hard to guess what the follow-up news stories are going to be like. (Dammit, why haven't I bought stock in the anti-virus companies yet?!)
Re:Intelligent File (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Intelligent File (Score:3, Insightful)
I call that pretty dangerous.
Re:Intelligent File (Score:2)
You don't think they'll try making ActiveX objects or something equally asinine the download targets?
Not executable (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
So how exactly would this prevent me from, say, using a packet sniffer to grab the content as it comes down the wire (or grabbing it at whatever stage it exists decrypted) and redistributing THAT on Kazaa?
No, it'd pretty much have to be an executable wrapper around the content that communicates with the sound card VIA some kind of "secure" hardware path.
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
OT: correct term was: Re:... thus can be ... (Score:2)
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
You know this is the holy grail for DRM, and also something I will absolutely not participate in. Look at the web access for cell phones with its pay to connect type of charges. These kind of payment schemes are just excuses for monopolies to fleece the customer.
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
So make your own system that's different. It a free market. I know that there could be a high cost of entry, but anyone could make a better product.
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
I'm coming at this from the customer's viewpoint. I will not participate in pay per access type of systems.
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
Except we already have that. Heck, we have that in several dozen different ways. What this provides is the ability for corporations to charge you for content whenever they feel like it, without paying for distribution themselves. Oh, and change the purchase terms, and any number of other dirty tricks.
Re:Not executable (Score:2, Funny)
And put that on Kazaa.
I love XML.
-Peter
Re:Not executable (Score:2)
That's great!
I can hack it to get free content just by modifying the <cost> tag to 0.00!
Re:Intelligent File (Score:3, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our unbelievably large Internet worm overlords.
Re:Intelligent File (Score:4, Insightful)
can someone explain to me why i'd want to host files for other people's profit? if i'm gonna have to pay for a file, it damnwell better be hosted by someone else, and not by me.
Painting (Score:2)
Re:Painting (Score:4, Informative)
Well, the painting was finished in 1512 [hlla.com] and copyrights didn't exist until 1710, [copyrighthistory.com] so I doubt it.
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles man was sentenced and jailed without trial for violating the File Acquisition Grant System (FAGS) when he downloaded a ten year old Kid Rock song without submitting the required payment of 2 Euros.
"My cat was sitting on my desk, and I guess his paw was on the Num Lock key or something, right when the transaction was happening. I didn't intend to violate the EULA at all," said the incarcerated netizen, whose belonging have been seized and sold on EBay.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm, and Media (ATFM) agent Phucyo Fridomup successfully lobbied the automated court system (running a patched version of MS Justice 2007) to get another three consecutive life sentences added on after hearing the comment about the cat, since this may give other criminals information to use to bypass the payment system and is a further violation of DMCA.
The cat has since been ritually slaughtered and offered up as sacrifice pursuant to 2008 Patriot Act Adjunct Subsection 8.4.
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
March 15 -- Today an Ohio public school classroom was raided by Department Of Media Enforcement (DOME) agents, following a tip that a student was in possesion of two unauthorized screen captures. The captures were reportedly from the popular TV shows, Frivolity (Tuesdays MVE, 9:00PM - 1
Error in your dystopia (Score:2)
You owe the media companies the Skewes Number [wolfram.com] of dollars. No, 10^that. No, 10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^that. No, wait...
Ah, what the hell. They own all possible Universes. Get SETI going, we have fines to collect.
Re:Error in your dystopia (Score:3, Interesting)
One thing that I found quite interesting when watching it again, in the movie Aliens, the whole thing is a corporate wonderland! 40-odd years ago you forgot to do your maintenance on that one motor-spinny-thing? We'll have to fine you $3,000! The whole military / corporate trial was really scary, and I don't know why I didn't pick up on it the fi
Automatic Payment System? (Score:4, Insightful)
If we ever get to that point, i for one wont be using a PC device of any kind...
Re:Automatic Payment System? (Score:3, Insightful)
well by that point in time I will be using macs and linux pc's, So either I will be immune, or just won't be upgradeing any more hardware. It will suck, but I will be free, to do as I live, as I desire.
You wont be upgrading.. (Score:2)
So i figure at some point in the future ( many years away im sure ) us OSS people may be out of luck..
In that situation, Open hardware or old hardware may be banned too... id not put it past them.
Too bad todays hardware isnt made to last, eventually it will all fizzle out too, forcing 'upgrades'.
If that ban doesnt happen 100%, i am sure it will be a requirement to get online at the least " for national security
Cheap music... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, I'll sell you a music file for only 1 cent.
On second thought, make that $100
Yup! (Score:3, Informative)
It's called "bait n' switch, internet style"
Re: (Score:2)
Bouncing accounts everywhere.... (Score:5, Insightful)
virus?
Ok, let me also say this. The whole thought process around the word automatically is really starting to scare the hell out me. We live in a society where folk have a hard time keeping track of written checks. How the hell do we expect them to keep track of all the automatic deductions being taken from them?
Oh wait, we don't. Just another way to enslave the masses I guess.
No thanks. I will stick files that might sound like crap, but I don't get charged for until I buy the cd (let the flames begin).
Re:Bouncing accounts everywhere.... (Score:2)
(sizzle)
"Automatic" (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine a virus that downloads tens of thousands of songs to your computer. Then imagine the automatic money transfer. Then imagine the lawsuit you'll have if they won't give back the money.
Re:"Automatic" (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't going to be their business model.
Re:"Automatic" (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is going to be getting the original authorization and
Ah, telephones (Score:2)
Try the same suit with your long distance carrier sometime.
Re:Bouncing accounts everywhere.... (Score:2)
That's an interesting definition you have of slavery, making it easy for them to spend more money than they realise...
Re:Bouncing accounts everywhere.... (Score:2)
ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Everybody? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I'm right, this seems dead before it starts, since the only real shot it has (IMHO) is being able to provide all songs, where some online sales places can't.
Am I wrong?
Re:Everybody? (Score:2, Insightful)
This doesn't really answer your question (maybe it does, but I'm very dense). I don't know how they will prevent you from copying the file when/while you retrieve it, though.
what if... (Score:2)
And you aren't eligible to participate in this unless your company has more than $1M in assets or similarly restrictive criteria>
Change the law (Score:5, Interesting)
If you think this couldn't happen, consider that more Americans use p2p filesharing applications than voted for George Bush.
Change the Law [goingware.com], from my article Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads [goingware.com], discusses the background of copyright law in the United States, and suggests steps you can take to reform copyright law. Among the steps I discuss are to Speak Out, Vote, Write to Your Elected Representatives, Donate Money to Political Campaigns, Support Campaign Finance Reform, Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Practice Civil Disobedience
Thank you for your attention.
Re:Change the law (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Change the law (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
You've got to remember that the entertainment industry is a very special case of copyright. It has a very large consumer base and a tight fisted distribution arm which has abused copyright laws for their own financial gain. But the war must be between the cons
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
Not everyone is going to gladly put time and money into a project, be it software or a music album, that will reap them next to no monetary reward. I've got bills and a mortgage, I need to put food on the table and wouldn't mind some creature comforts now and then (and I won't sneeze at a tropical holiday). Am I to survive on the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that all my work is in the public domain for all to enjoy?
Free (as in liberty) so
Same as it always was (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting that no one since has been deemed better in those particular categories.
Re:Same as it always was (Score:2)
Did they dismember strawmen too? (Score:2)
You: In those times people were dismembered on stage, so therefore your argument is invalid.
Me: Ow, reading that post gave my logic muscle a hernia.
Note that they are all individuals.. (Score:2)
The rest would
Re:Same as it always was (Score:2)
Also, it was probably much harder to publish something and distribute it widely, so wouldn't copyright be more important to artists of that time? I can write a short story, stick it in a blog, and have it around the world in hours. So much less expense and financial risk for me, yet so much more incentive. Someone tell me again why we're stuck with the crap Disney produces?
Re:Same as it always was (Score:2)
While you don't have the financial risk of pressing thousands of copies of a CD and hoping they sell, you do have the costs involved in creating the work in the first place. Usually the biggest cost is the creative one. Good artists don't just come up with endless streams of good ideas - they tend to have a few and they need to make their money off of those.
Think of Tolkein and LotR. Do you think he just scribbled that out in a few wee
Re:Same as it always was (Score:2)
Re:Same as it always was (Score:2)
Actually I favor reform, not repeal (Score:2, Offtopic)
But my personal feeling is that copyright should be reformed, not repealed.
For example, while I feel that copyright should be allowed for software, I don't think it should be permitted for binary-only releases unless full source code is submitted to the copyright office, so that upon the expiration of the copyright, it can be released to the public domain.
In the section of the article entitled Shoul [goingware.com]
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
But you at least do make a valid point that reforming the laws would still leave them there to perform the function of promoting progress. I do however see a problem with the person's lifetime being the limit.
Here in Australia the hottest local muscial artist is also suffering from a possibly fatal disease. Now we all hope she'll make it through and I think she will, but just say she didn't. Does all her work then go into the public domain? What if she were marr
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
A plumber usually only gets paid on a hourly work basis. SO if he is no longer working then obviously there is no chance of making money after his death.
It's just the different natures of the two professions. The plumber has the security of knowing that he will get paid for the hours of work he completed in a day. The s
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
OK, apply that logic in reverse. Let's pass a law that companies can own days of the year. On June 1, for example, AOL might have the right to control all commerce, charging what taxes or fees they see fit. If they charge too much, people will wait till June 2, when IBM's laws will govern. Think of the expansion of the economy! Employment for lawyers, enforcement agents, marketers advocating a particular day to go shopping. Thing h
Re:Change the law (Score:2)
In theory perhaps, but there are some difficult international treaty obligations there...
It's not really much of a surprise... (Score:2, Interesting)
Universal Music Group, Microsoft, VeriSign (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Universal Music Group, Microsoft, VeriSign (Score:2)
"Currently, people who send files through file-trading networks, or via e-mail or instant messaging, are largely locked in to sending a specific file that may not be readable by people who lack the appropriate software or hardware."
That makes a lot of sense. This technology will allow me to share my copy of Deus Ex 2 with my friends who have Macs. Thanks for clearing that up.
Scary (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of people who don't read places like slashdot would be equally concerned if they knew what was going on. They need to be educated, its why democracy works, and why it fails when it doesn't occur.
Re:Scary (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one reason why we (U.S.A.) have a representative democracy (as opposed to direct democracy). A filtering layer of responsibility prevents horrible things from happening.
I actually think our democracy would work better if people were uneducated. Our education system now is broken, serving to indoctrinate political and cultural agendas far more than impart any useful knowledge.
At least if we acknolwedged this fact and focused our efforts on useful propoganda for our youth rather than bickering with school boards and burned out teachers and still having no consensus on morality, ethics, history, or even current events, then we might have a chance of generating good voters.
As it stands now, kids in school learn mostly how to fight and how to memorize trivia for short periods of time. If our country was a giant game show with a fighting round followed by a quiz round, then we'd be all set.
Re:Scary (Score:2)
Fighting round?
Quiz round? Well, there *is* an election next year...
Hmm...I'd say you've got it just about right there
Re:Scary (Score:2)
What happens when the filter is poisoned, though?
Re:Scary (Score:5, Insightful)
Not at all. If copyright were as it was two centuries ago few, if any, Slashdotters would be complaining. The problem isn't that these groups want the law to revert to some earlier incarnation, they want to be allowed to continue mutating copyright into some hybrid form favorable only to themselves. Remember, the RIAA and sister organizations have been "adjusting" copyright law for a very long time: it was largely back-room stuff. They've just gotten a lot more overt about it recently and people are starting to notice.
But this comes back to enlightened Capitalism, or the lack of it. Absolute control does not guarantee an eternal revenue stream, in spite of content holders contrary beliefs. Put this way: even before peer-to-peer raised its (to them) ugly head, music sales were falling off. Well, at least the industry's growth rate was dropping. And that was the period where they had substantially more control of music distribution and production than they have now. Being able to restrict content distribution with an iron-clan DRM system can't force people to buy a product that they do not like and for which they have no use. The music companies and the RIAA figured that, if they could control all the music available for purchase or on the radio, they could sell us anything they want and we would buy it. That approach worked for a while, but eventually the public wised up and demanded more. And when Napster came along
Whatever genre of entertainment floats your boat, the two things the buying public wants are a. variety and b. quality. Variety is probably the more important of the two. In any case, the entertainment industry (the music studios in particular) has been providing us with progressively fewer choices, along with a general degradation in quality. All the DRM in the world won't make me buy crap. Sometimes you just simply have to provide a quality product for a reasonable price
The music industry's monomaniacal absorption with peer-to-peer file sharing is interesting. They seem to be operating under the delusion that eliminating or corrupting these primitive networks will assure them of their due. And even if it were actually possible to enforce a global ban on file sharing
The point is that there really isn't any way for the content people to recan this particular can of worms. People with get what they want, which is a large selection of reasonably priced (or, if necessary, free) music and if it means going back to SneakerNet that's exactly what will happen.
Prices... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Prices... (Score:2)
You buy a relatively new bands song/album, they make it big, the companies greedily wants more as theres more demand.
urk (Score:2, Insightful)
Quality Products (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Quality Products (Score:2)
One wasn't evil enough for an invite, and the BATF guy got hung up at airport security.
Goerge O. Was Right (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it's 2003, but why does it feel like 1984?
it just don't add up? (Score:5, Insightful)
WE NEED THIS BECAUSE...? (Score:2, Insightful)
Customer Reaming Facility (Score:3, Insightful)
Fun for the whole family, have little billy click it twice for twice the fun!
Seriously, I was eating in "Dennies" (rellay, my fault, I know) and the eight of us each had the all-you-can-eat breakfast bar. When the bill arrived we had been charged for ten. When we said, "hey, there are eight of us, but you charged us for ten" the servers response was, "oh, so do you want to go back and eat some more?"
If you don't understand what is so wrong with the server in this example, then "automatically" and "changed at any time" are happy fun words for you and yours.
Someone please save us all from the popular culture that would make people think anything like this CRF could be given a "popular and positive" spin...
Interesting Concept, However.... (Score:2)
I just want something that sucks my credit card number, PIN, SSN, mother's maiden name, and the biometrics for my colon if I so as much as hover on a hyperlink. That's what I want. I'm patenting it right now before any of you other bastards claim prior art.
I want to be charged for breathing, too, but I haven't figured that out yet.
I love automatic programs that bill me. Honest. (Score:4, Insightful)
"the [CRF-created] file would set up a process that automatically delivers files in the right format and potentially triggers an automatic payment system that could be changed moment to moment by the content distributor."
Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
Remember, these are the people you keep reading about that leave their servers open and have lists of credit cards stolen from them. Regularly.
Just imagine DRM and auto billing mixed into that. This will be a nightmare of epic proportions. You heard it here first.
Weaselmancer
Re:I love automatic programs that bill me. Honest. (Score:2)
That's what some people in the music industry think it is. What they imagine is a world where they don't need extensive distribution channels but still get the money.
I put it through babel fish: (Score:5, Funny)
"While the internet and its protcols e.g www/http, filesharing etc are well suited to almost eveyrone in the world, we the suits find it challenging to make more money from less work."
Additionally, there is currently no technology framework in place that allows all market participants to ensure that the business agreements they make are respected.
"We have come to the conclusion that the business model that has been in use since the dawn of mankind (you give me this i give you that) does not work. We want to sell you a book, but we dont trust you to burn it after 24 hours so you can return and buy another one."
Today, there does not exist a technical and business framework to achieve interoperability across multiple technology platforms and enable new business models. The Content Reference Forum plans to change that.
"We had an old business model working before, but unfortunately there has been a change in technology and instead of moving on we want it our way."
The Content Reference Forum (CRF) is a recently formed standards group of leading technology and content-related companies established to develop a universal way to distribute digital content across various media and geographies.
"We have decided to join forces with our other corporate friends and make what is known in the business world as 'A big fucking unstoppable snow-ball monopoly bull-doser'"
The organization's goal is to create a dynamic marketplace where participants can promote, sell and legitimately share content; consumers can get the right content for their location, platform and preferences; and the underlying commercial agreements and rights surrounding the content are respected.
"We realised that eventualy everyone would figure out our plans so we sugar coated a potentially useless idea with the solution to a totally random problem: people get pissed off when they have to select their country and media format from a drop-down list."
CRF's work will benefit many different audiences including content and technology companies as well as services companies (e.g. cable, telecommunications, cellular) and related businesses (e.g. Internet portals/media companies, wireless companies, computer manufacturers, consumer electronics makers, entertainment companies).
"This will benefit us... and a few choice friends"
Consumers will also eventually benefit as it becomes easier for them to find and share the content they want in the way they want it.
"Consumers will eventually realise that if they do what we say we wont sue them. They will also be able to use our complicated, badly designed content search system and have the ability to select their country and media format from a drop-down list."
The technology is context sensitive. It's the antithesis to one-size-fits-all mass market distribution models. This makes it quite powerful and consumer friendly. The user's situation is relevant and respected including the rendering environment, location, existing relationship with content provider(s), and language preferences.
"We're going to write this little java app that lets you set the background colour of your online shop, and you can select your country from a drop-down list!"
available for public review and comment (Score:3, Funny)
TH15 5UX0RZ?
Come on, you were all thinking it...
Because it's what the consumers want! (Score:5, Interesting)
Songwriters own copyrights too (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is, the files he was trying to share were of his band
Actually, he might not have the right to distribute those files. He needs the songwriter's OK to distribute a recording of a song. And if he is the songwriter, he needs a professional musicologist's OK, or else what happened to George Harrison [columbia.edu] might happen to him.
DRM by any other name (Score:5, Insightful)
Copyright eventually expires, DRM doesn't.
A Big Brother Ver. of The Old DivX Standard (Score:4, Insightful)
So what is your response to this Mega-Corporation virtual theft? You call up their 1-800 number based in some 3rd world country and sit on hold for a day or so. When you finally get someone online they know nothing plus you can't understand a word they say.
God this sounds fucking great!
I can't wait! Where do I sign up?
Seriously these mega-corps can institute this standard or whatever they want to call it and sell it to the masses but we DO have a say so. I hope it goes the way of the 1st incarnation of DivX from Circuit City and burns out oh so quickly.
We as consumers can reject this outright and not buy into it. Money talks and bullshit walks. Money is the only thing these companies understand and that's the genesis of the entire drm/dmca argument although they would like to convince us it's just the ability to innovate.
With groups wanting to tie a drm to hardware and now this I really think the day is coming where we will actually want to stick with yesterday's hardware (today's) and forgo the next gen with all of the mega-media money protections built in.
I will stick with the hardware that I can control and not let it control me.
WTF (Score:2, Insightful)
What kind of fantasy world are they living in. The problem is that almost everything is encoded in well known formats that can be handled by most machines. The powers that be wish that content on P2P networks were in proprietary protected formats, but except for a bit of wind
Place your bets, gentlemen (Score:2)
Whats the over/under on how many years in prison that person is sentanced to? I'll take the over.
What are the odds that all computers made will require this built in (ala the v-chip)?
You know.... (Score:2)
Whats the problem again? (Score:3, Insightful)
And they plan to correct that by providing files to download that are specifically designed not to be readable by people who lack the appropriate software or hardware
These people don't actually use the English language. Or at best its a version of English that has been taken out the back, given a good thrashing and been convinced to do what its told or there'll be more of the same.
The only thing it needs... (Score:2)
How do they handle the monopoly aspect (Score:3, Insightful)
There is inherently nothing wrong with that. That is, as long as they define infrastructure that will be universally applicable. So if it only runs on an Microsoft platform it has failed. If it only protects data by companies associated with the RIAA it has failed. If the only security it allows for is the security as provided by Verisign it has failed.
When content, of a type protected by the mechanisms to be worked out by this committee, become available, the content is the copyright of the issuer of the data and as such it is entitled to the protection offered by the infrastructure. This means that music is secured at the time of publication within the infrastructure. This allows for people to create their own content and do with it as they like and, if at all it is secured, it is secured within the same infrastructure as is the commercial content as published by the organisations associated with the RIAA.
* Linus Torvalds has said before that the inclusion of DRM is not a problem as far as he is concerned.
* Music Midi and computers have a long history. It cannot be that the use of computers connencted with music or photo's or video will cease.
* There is nothing inherently wrong with DRM but it has to be open and it must secure my data as much as the data from a commercial entity.
* Given the pedegree of the people in this committee THEY have to prove their bona fides. Microsoft is a convicted monopolist and the RIAA wants the law to grant them the right to be a monopolist. They have one good thing going for them; Microsoft is one of the greatest marketing companies ever.
Thanks,
Gerard
Re:hey look! .. it's amazon & a download butto (Score:2, Funny)
So they can patent it under different discriptions
Re:You'll get nothing but what you ask for (Score:2)
Re:You'll get nothing but what you ask for (Score:2)
Job? What's that?? No, really, I am self employed. Taxes? Walk into the tax office and pay cash.
Cash. It's what people USED to do..
Re:We control... (Score:2)
Let me get this straight, you will give me a better picture on my television AND take fifty cent off the air. Make sure to get rid of his music videos as well. Now... where does the profit part come in?