Re: re[2]: Why I support the Internet Radio Protest Blackout on May 1st

[Robin.Bussell@axa-sunlife.co.uk]

OK, here's a worst case scenario: It may well appear overly paranoid to 
most of
you but bear in mind that once a medium goes digital then it is ultimately
lockable and signable by any number of encryption solutions and also the
playback of that media is ultimately under the control of those who can 
afford
to
set up chip fabrication plant.... Not a garage business by any means!

So put on your cynical head, slip into Orwellian nightmare mode and:

>as performers/composers/producers, what we have is controll over how our 
>music
is used...

>..so we publish enough for free/cheaply

That is until all the proposed digital rights management systems are in 
place
and
you suddenly find that you can't even produce media that will be readable 
on the
state of the art mass market devices out there. No more back room CDR
publishing,
(or its equivalent) if it doesn't come from one of the big boys and have 
the
right signiture
embedded in the data then the playback devices just assume it's pirated and
refuse to
play (or even auto erase).
The same will go for software that receives audio data streams from the 
net.

Open source will provide alternative solutions you say? Not if the 
'trustworthy
computing' initiative goes ahead and the only code that the motherboard 
bios
(or cpu microcode or whatever other non trivially modifiable component of 
the
 system is used ) will let near the audio hardware is code that has been
approved by the central authorities (be they Microsoft, Sony, the Ancient 
Order
of
Bavarian Illuminati... whoever)

So one day you upgrade your PC (or buy a new recording device ) and find 
that
none of the old MP3 players work, you can only playback "MMF" files and 
guess
what
there's no conversion software available that doesn't involve signing up 
for a
hugely bewildering license agreement and handing over a few hundred K. 
Hell the
player won't even start up untill it has phoned home and downloaded the 
latest
codec, set of signiatures and new encryption keys to replace those cracked
yesterday.

Great, guess you'll just have to settle back and listen to the latest 
single
from BoyKlone II
or Atomic Mutton that came pre-loaded on the pc and you begin to remember 
what
drove you away from FM radio all those years ago.

Meanwhile you've finished downloading drivers and a patch for your 
favorite DAW
software that now actually seems to work on your PC, great!
Soon you're laying down a few tracks and soloing over them, shame all your 
old
sample CD's (the royalty free ones you bought a while back, paying over 
the odds
for the rights to use them in your own recordings without the hassle of 
getting
every
sample cleared ) don't seem to work in the CD/DVD/NUEZDisc(TM) drive any 
more
and hey! since when did they stop putting analogue outputs on those drives!
 Oh yeah I remember, the press release said that the NUEZDisc(TM)  
consortium
had decided that  the inferior analogue format was now obsolete and agreed
amongst themselves to not bother with it in the new spec thus saving on
manufacture
price and eliminating some bothersome components which this chart here 
shows
were the cause of over 50% of malfunctions on the previous drives, so it's 
all
for
your own good in the cause of better reliability and service to you, our
esteemed customers.

Never mind, at least you can record some music of your own now but hang 
on...
what the F...  is that format? Where's my wavs! Hmmm, better read that 
splash
screen properly.... "Thank you for  deciding to demo the Maxwell Media 
Format
drivers, you have used up 5 of your 20 free acesses*, why not upgrade to
our platinum 'pay to play' program and let the EZupload wizard make putting
your tunes on line at www.megamediacorp.com as easy as EGBDF!

* Free trial files are reproducable only on the device of origin, other
restrictions
may apply "


<rant mode off>

....get the idea?  The sort of wide ranging laws that are being sought 
could
easily be the thin end of the wedge, before you know it the digital
broadcast revolution is no more, sure you have free speech but only to 
those
who can be bothered to stand in earshot while the majority sit at home 
infront
of MTV. The technology is there to create monopolies the like of which
have not been seen before. Don't say I didn't warn you.....


Robin.











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