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Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You and other jewels by Bruce Schneier

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Carol Haynes:
Surely that you need to use AnyDVD to skip the previews is itself a negative effect.
-Eóin (December 09, 2008, 04:12 AM)
--- End quote ---

Not really - the DVD is designed to be played in a particular way on a standard DVD player. Using AnyDVD is just a method of circumventing user restriction built into the disc. Not actually anything to do with DRM in windows.

Actually manufacturers are starting to force users to watch intro videos - eg. look at "Charlie Wilson's War" and you have to watch a 4 minute video for UNICEF before you can watch the film - and if you press the menu button at the wrong point it starts again! Personally I hate UK DVDs that have an extended (and extremely loud) 'don't be a pirate' video before every disc with no option to bypass it - to me it is justification for cracking DRM just to get a DVD that allows you to watch the film without a legitimate user being treated like a potential criminal. Of course none of the pirated versions need to inflict such rubbish on viewers so who does it inconvenience?

Having said that just having AnyDVD installed in the UK would mean that should your computer ever be examined by the 'authorities' you would be ASSUMED to be using it for breaking DRM. In the UK just having such software installed on your computer is deemed to be proof that you are circumventing copy protection and are there for guilty of an offense. Not sure what the US law says ...

The fact that the law assumes the presence of a certain software title proves your guilt does mean that the impact of DRM on the computer owner is negative.

Eóin:
Also movie industries can't get you to implicitly agree to wave your right to being able to make a backup copy of your media. They wish they could of course but no amount of terms or conditions that come with a film can revoke that right.

So the DRM to try and prevent you making that copy serves only to negatively affect the user.

And while we're at it, what about the sony fiasco, DRM in an malevolent form.

Carol Haynes:
Also movie industries can't get you to implicitly agree to wave your right to being able to make a backup copy of your media. They wish they could of course but no amount of terms or conditions that come with a film can revoke that right.

So the DRM to try and prevent you making that copy serves only to negatively affect the user.
-Eóin (December 09, 2008, 05:15 AM)
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In practice they cannot enforce such a law on individuals backing up DVDs, CDs, software discs etc. but in some countries it is illegal to do so. As I said above in the UK is a criminal offence now to use any means to circumvent copy protection - even having software with the capacity to circumvent copy protection is deemed proof that you have used it for that purpose. They don't have to prove you did it just that you had the capacity to do it!

So much for democracy and freedom -I despair these days with what we laughingly call a free society!

I was reading a newspaper article the other day which exposed the proposals of the UK government to use lie-detector tests (polygraphs) on people claiming state benefits if they suspect fraud. The result of the test would be used to decide whether to suspend payment of benefits (not a criminal case in court where you have the chance to defend yourself). Add to that the benefits agencies apparently have already been using voice print analysis on telephone calls to determine whether callers are lying ... not that they tell callers that they are doing it - in fact they say calls are recorded for training purposes. Big Brother really is out there now and in the UK he hears you, drags you off the street without warrant and throws you into prison for up to a month (and wants to make it 3 months), wants to use lie detectors (which are proven to be inaccurate) and uses CCTV so that the average UK citizen is apparently filmed up to dozens of times each day! Communist China is beginning to sound less repressive than the UK.

f0dder:
Having said that just having AnyDVD installed in the UK would mean that should your computer ever be examined by the 'authorities' you would be ASSUMED to be using it for breaking DRM. In the UK just having such software installed on your computer is deemed to be proof that you are circumventing copy protection and are there for guilty of an offense. Not sure what the US law says ...-Carol Haynes (December 09, 2008, 04:46 AM)
--- End quote ---
Why would you have it installed if you aren't using it to break DRM, anyway? Both region code protection and CSS/ARCCoS count as DRM in my book.

Carol Haynes:
To back up your DVDs for personal use, to rip them for use on portable media players & wifi media/network players connected in the home to TVs etc., remove user restrictions (so that you can get straight to a menu rather than sit through 5 minutes of ads and warnings about pirates and terrorism), remove regional encoding so that non-US citizens have access to region 1 DVDs that are not published outside the US etc.

All of these are to me legitimate usage of a purchased product and don't have to be used for sharing or piracy purposes.

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