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My iPod runs on MP3 files. Recently, perusing a friend's nano, I saw M4A files. Tech wise, M4A are theoretically superior though not as broadly used and I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. Why? More tech is more gooder, no? Well, the MPEG-4 format allows for a little beast called DRM. Even though such an infection is not required in such files, the mere possibility of it offends.
DRM is media industry shorthand for Digital Rights Management, though for the average user, the R really stands for restrictions. Laws governing fair use are not often enforced by DRM so much as broken by it. Those who make money off entertainment sales feel that protection is necessity, even if makes folks like me avoid their offering like the plague. It is for this reason that I've never downloaded an iTune. Sad, really.
Today is a good day for people annoyed by DRM. Sony, historically an unpleasant company when it comes to customer relations, has taken DRM to the next level. The biggest known security threat to PCs is a little known animal called a rootkit. Rootkits are currently rare in the wild, but they're also hard to detect and no current software exists that will really protect against them. Take note, some killer rootkit will revealed soon, no doubt.
Sony decided it would be a good idea to protect their music by not only requiring special software to listen to a CD on a computer, but to have that software infect the PC with a rootkit. Someone figured this out recently and now California is suing Sony over the damage.
I think it's rather ironic that California, champion of the draconian practices favored by the RIAA and the MPIAA, has filed suit. May they inflict enough pain and suffering to make an example of Sony.
Sorry, self righteous hypocrites really mess with my bliss; I'm normally not so violent, really. Ok, there's a school board in Kansas who needs a pike enema... it's been a tough week.
DRM is media industry shorthand for Digital Rights Management, though for the average user, the R really stands for restrictions. Laws governing fair use are not often enforced by DRM so much as broken by it. Those who make money off entertainment sales feel that protection is necessity, even if makes folks like me avoid their offering like the plague. It is for this reason that I've never downloaded an iTune. Sad, really.
Today is a good day for people annoyed by DRM. Sony, historically an unpleasant company when it comes to customer relations, has taken DRM to the next level. The biggest known security threat to PCs is a little known animal called a rootkit. Rootkits are currently rare in the wild, but they're also hard to detect and no current software exists that will really protect against them. Take note, some killer rootkit will revealed soon, no doubt.
Sony decided it would be a good idea to protect their music by not only requiring special software to listen to a CD on a computer, but to have that software infect the PC with a rootkit. Someone figured this out recently and now California is suing Sony over the damage.
I think it's rather ironic that California, champion of the draconian practices favored by the RIAA and the MPIAA, has filed suit. May they inflict enough pain and suffering to make an example of Sony.
Sorry, self righteous hypocrites really mess with my bliss; I'm normally not so violent, really. Ok, there's a school board in Kansas who needs a pike enema... it's been a tough week.