This all goes to show that the content industry REALLY do not understand
the consumer electronics market at all -- and they should quit wasting their
time (and ours..).
Circuit City discontinued support of DIVX a couple of weeks ago -- proof
that people do not want the entertainment industry dictating how or when we
will consume their work. As Marshall McLuhan said: "Information wants to
be free"... an overquoted maxim that applies well here. We pay not for the
music on the CD but for the commodification of the object that contains the
CD. To a greater extent we also pay for the convenience of choice -- to be
able to play that song whenever we want and to manipulate it (by putting it
on a mix tape, etc.) however we want.
The music industry should try to focus on the latter as a revenue model --
they just do not like the fact that there's no margin in it.
Tim Byars wrote:
> * Music publishers will include encryption coding on their future CDs
> that will make playback impossible when the contents have been pirated;
This will contravene existing law which permits us (the users) to make one
copy for our own use. Since CDs are stateless it's got to be all or
nothing.
> * Electronics manufacturers will build their digital music portables
> based on software that will read this encryption and block pirated tunes.
So when I go shopping am I going to buy the player that looks for the serial
number? Or am I just going to run software on my Palm device that's written
by some punk and ignores it? How do they even expect to force CE manufact-
urers to comply? And who hasn't bought a CD player for every conceivable
locale already?
These guys just do not get that when they tighten their grip, even more
money
slips through their fingers, to paraphrase Princess Leia.
The consumer is not stupid. They saw through DIVX and they will route
around
this even more easily.
-Ian.
.:|:..:|:.
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