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If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Sorry, don't see how the DCMA works with that. Yet another undiscovered clause of the constitution that makes it a federal issue to protect rap songs for a period of the author's life plus seventy years - Just impossibly long to begin with, and it's hard to argue that music is 'useful arts'.
I gonna sue you for not buying my product!
What a concept!
The burn rate finally caught up with the founders, the good times and heady days are long gone, in a fit of desperation and booze, they decide to pursue the “SCO option”.
"MRT, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., argues that its X1 SeCure Recording Control technology has been "proven effective" as such a protective measure by plugging the "digital hole" that allows even copy-protected music streams, when played back, to be captured and potentially copied. The company says that because the companies are avoiding use of its purportedly effective product, they are violating the DMCA."We've given these four companies 10 days to talk to us and work out a solution, or we will go into federal court and file action and seek an injunction to remove the infringing products from the marketplace," CEO Hank Risan said in a phone interview Friday."
This is a novel approach... you aren't using OUR product so there for you are infringing... and we'll sue.
"Cease and desist not using our products."
???
Color me confused.
WTF ping
A California company that makes technology designed to prevent ripping of digital audio streams has accused Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks and Adobe Systems of violating federal copyright law by "actively avoiding" use of its products.Hey, all you big corporations, I've got an even better method, abstinence. Pay up!
WHAT???!!!
This has to be one of the most idiotic patent cases I have EVER heard of. Suing someone for NOT using your technology? Any judge who would rule in favor of the plaintiff should be thrown off the bench and locked in the loony bin...
For that matter, any and all legal expenses incurred should be paid by the plaintiff for a frivolous lawsuit.
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"Wait a minute! I could sue folks for not buying Apple products! Score!" |
A little primer on this stuff — at least based on this article, the suit is only about DRM on streaming audio. A lot of companies use streaming audio to listen from their site. Anyone can listen, but only as long as they decide to host it, and no one can copy it, pass it around or host it on their own site.
Problem number one is the way OS software works. That stream in your audio player has to pass through the OS audio driver before to goes to sound card, to the speaker and thence to your years. Clever programmers have figured out to intercept those data at that step — Audio Hijack is a popular program for Mac, and Audacity is one available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and I think other *ix platforms.
Problem number two is the more fundamental one. You simply cannot make audio possible to hear and impossible to copy. That’s why God made microphones. And without even resorting to that, just plug into a recorder instead of speakers, and you’re home free.
Most people won’t go to that hassle, and that’s what the industry is missing — make DRM easy enough to use, and protected files cheap and easy enough to use, and most people won’t bother to work around it. Instead, they’re digging in their heels and pushing technology that makes their content so difficult to copy that it’s also difficult to use (Sony’s infamous rootkit was the one that finally set off alarm bells). How’s that supposed to help sales?