Was SunnComm's Anti-Copy Technology Weak On Purpose?
from the industry-giving-up? dept
An opinion piece by Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Glob suggests that everyone missed the “big” story in last week’s story about how easy it was to break SunnComm’s new copy protection technology. Bray notes that SunnComm’s angry response didn’t seem to focus on the fact that the technology was easily surpassed – but that this was considered a “flaw”. Instead, they said that the technology was acting exactly as it was intended, with an easy workaround. Bray believes that the entertainment industry may be realizing that strong copy protection angers customers, and they’re better off just using weak copy protection, which will keep most people in line. Of course, if that’s the case, why bother at all? If it’s not slowing down the ability for most people to get songs online, then what difference does it make?
Comments on “Was SunnComm's Anti-Copy Technology Weak On Purpose?”
Heteroscedastic Economies
To plot the distribution of file sharers, techies form one cluster and the ignorant masses form another. As long as the ignorant masses aren’t aware of how to foil copyright protection, and arrogant techies pounce on people who ask them how, record labels can make money off the masses.
"Will keep most people in line"
What does this mean? That people will simply not buy the CD because of this crap?
copy protection
Doesn’t someone breaking (even weak) copy protection open them up for DMCA prosecution as opposed to just copyright violations? The reasoning could be that its easier to ‘get’ people in court with the DMCA than with copyright protections.
Also, it might have a psychological effect to keep some people from copying if they feel they need to circumvent some sort of protection before copying as opposed to just inserting the CD and ripping away.