DOWN WITH DRM!!!!!

-Jeff-

Oh, well then. Back to the topic at hand. I never did understand how the Big Bad Wolves ever thought technology was going to be the solution to a social/cultural issue. People have gone used to the ability to copy music from CD to tape (or from tape to tape in those long-ago days), and digital files are even worse in that way. You want to restrict people from doing that? Must be joking. Past time they understood that.

Of those, CQ, MM and Baldilocks are among my occasional visits. Ace if one of my regular reads links something interesting. And LBC of course. My commenting, though, tends to be concentrated at PW or Dustbury, especially in the last year or two.

I can’t remember the last time I commented at LGF, or even ventured there. When the threads hit 100 comments almost before the post is published, it’s hard to follow what’s being said. Unless one has a dual-core processor for a mind, and sadly I’m still 16-bit.

The walls are crumbling.

Just my curiosity, that’s all. I’ve seen your posts (or well, your nick anyways) on other sites, although I’d be hard pressed to name them. Probably the usual suspects, though – LGF, AosHQ, TH, MM, Insty (well, maybe not Insty, since he doesn’t do comments), HA, CQ, PJM. Do you visit Lex’s site or VC (well, when she was around anyways) or Baldilocks?

(As you can see, I don’t do the left-wing sites much. I can’t stand them. Too much vitriol and non-sense scattered around.)

Well, things could be worse. At least I pull down a regular paycheck and am in no danger of sexual harassment, since my boss is as butch as they come. Eh, she’s got more muscles than I do. Probably more ba… er, guts, too, for all I know. No need to guess who wears the pants in any relationship she takes up.

So, yeah, just out of random curiosity. I *loike* La Shawn’s place. Civil (mostly), thoughtful and with a high regard for others. Plus, we tend to agree on most topics. Not all, but what’s the fun in that?

Anyways, headed off work now. Time to eat, sleep and do stuff, not necessarily in that order.

Is there any money in it if I am?

La Shawn may not be on the bleeding edge, but she weighs in anyways…

I do not live in the US anymore so I could care less about the breaking US law and removing DRM for personal use.

DRM no DRM…. I just want to be able to play my media on any platform that I choose. DRM is like going into your local stereo shop and having to purchase a DVD player for each movie studio.

So now I found a great decission – MelodyCan converter (http://www.convert-any-media.com/index.php) which helps me to resolve drm-protection problem.

Also, WMA should be compatible with Zune, seeing as they are both Microsoft technologies.

Because DRM for audio does not provide a ‘protected digital path’ (aka HDCP/HDMI for hi-def video), you can simply play the music through your S/PDIF output to a digital recorder. Or use a software loopback and save in a lossless format.

McGehee – you the TNR whistleblower? Just curious.

Someday when I can afford it, I’ll get a car stereo that lets you plug in an MP3 player and then get an MP3 player. It will be great not having cases of CDs in my car.

Transferring files to different places is no different than when we created cassette tapes from albums back in the old days. We wanted different mixes and to listen to them in the car or to share with each other.

I also want to move slowly, because I’ve made some mistakes in the past. The Beta video technology was better than the VHS technology (in my opinion, unchanged in two decades), so that’s what I bought, but it was VHS that won out. Of course, VHS is now going the way of the dinosaur as well.

I also recall that when 8-track came out, THAT was touted as the technology of the future. (Yes, darlings, Grandma Trish really is that old.)

MKAnderson–
You are so right about the record companies. It costs them the same amount of money to make a cd as it did to make a vinyl album, but the price is more than double. I’m all for honest enterprise, but that’s price gouging. Now they’re the ones paying the price, and my sympathy for them is zero.

That’s already become possible; my last batch of downloads — from Wal-Mart, in fact — included some .mp3 options.

The record companies are being dragged kicking and screaming into the digital world. They brought it on themselves by flooding us all with quantity over quality and never lowering CD prices as promised. They were even found guilty of price fixing in 2002 (check out the graphic about how CD fees are divided). To my knowledge, pricing has not significantly changed as a result of this ruling. Why do we need record companies these days?