Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM
wraith808:
How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM (via Ars Technica)
...and almost got fired doing it.
Can digital rights management technology stop the unauthorized spread of copyrighted content? Ten years ago this month, four engineers argued that it can't, forever changing how the world thinks about piracy. Their paper, "The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution" (available as a .doc here) was presented at a security conference in Washington, DC, on November 18, 2002.
By itself, the paper's clever and provocative argument likely would have earned it a broad readership. But the really remarkable thing about the paper is who wrote it: four engineers at Microsoft whose work many expected to be at the foundation of Microsoft's future DRM schemes. The paper's lead author told Ars that the paper's pessimistic view of Hollywood's beloved copy protection schemes almost got him fired. But ten years later, its predictions have proved impressively accurate.
--- End quote ---
Renegade:
Good article. This seemed a bit telling:
Yet the content industry continues to try, and fail, to produce secure DRM schemes. Biddle believes this strategy has proved counterproductive because it inconveniences legitimate customers without stopping piracy.
"I'm now finding that for some kinds of content, the illegal is clearly outperforming legal," Biddle said. "That blows me away. I pay for premium cable. It's easier to use BitTorrent to watch Game of Thrones. HBO Go is trying very hard to do a good job," he said, but the user experience just isn't as good. Because HBO Go is a streaming service, he said, it's more vulnerable to network congestion than simply downloading the entire episode from the darknet.
--- End quote ---
Bang on there.
I've bought video content that was only available streamed. I very quickly hacked around and downloaded the content as I HATE watching streamed video due to bandwidth issues. Downloading is far superior. e.g. In what universe does it make sense to entirely reload a video because you rewound 30 seconds?
IainB:
Interesting.
I become very impatient with jerky broadband video streaming. I won't watch streamed content for longer than about 5 minutes. I download it and watch it in a timeframe that is convenient to me. If I can't download it because of DRM or obscure paywalls or something, then I won't watch it and never return to it.
Josh:
I, for one, cannot stand DRM and cannot stand streaming content either. However, that said, I have had a VERY positive experience using the VuDu rental service on my playstation 3. My family just rented Brave and it worked great. Granted, this was due to my connection being available.
On the other hand, I am completely for offline storage. With hard drive prices going down, it is easier to download a file and store it than to rely on the cloud. I have almost completed ripping my 850 DVD collection to MP4 for storage on our media server. This will be complete once I am able to setup a Raid 1 array of about 4TB. Right now, I am stuck at 2TB on a single disk. Once I get a new enclosure, I will setup a Windows-based raid mirror (hardware raid is flaky unless you invest in a reliable controller, not those cheap promise boards).
Renegade:
On the other hand, I am completely for offline storage. With hard drive prices going down, it is easier to download a file and store it than to rely on the cloud. I have almost completed ripping my 850 DVD collection to MP4 for storage on our media server. This will be complete once I am able to setup a Raid 1 array of about 4TB. Right now, I am stuck at 2TB on a single disk. Once I get a new enclosure, I will setup a Windows-based raid mirror (hardware raid is flaky unless you invest in a reliable controller, not those cheap promise boards).
-Josh (December 01, 2012, 06:28 AM)
--- End quote ---
Kind of OT, but... Have you looked at FreeNAS? Someone recommended it to me in another thread and it's been wonderful.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version