Who Hates DRM? Comments please!

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Who Hates DRM? Comments please!

paradoxsm

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#4668 16-Aug-2005 01:28

Okay I must admit, I HATE DRM and will do anything about getting around it.

With mp3's as free as the winds and there being more ways than ever to get these free music tracks the record labels are "ficghting back" with imposed and horrid complicated multi-million dollar restriction encryptions created by the self indulging Pigs that are the Music Labels.

Now I can jump on KaZaA and download this track illegally, I can then do what I want with it, Edit it, remix it, load it onto practically every device I own and it'll play, perfectly. no problems.
My computer crashes? No worries!!! it's unrestricted open audio. Just load it back off the backup CD and i'm good.

OR I can do the right thing and go to a legal download store and BUY the track, supporting the filthy pigs that are Record Labels and give 3c to the hardworking artist. I canNOT load it onto any device I own, I canNOT play it in my car CDplayer, I canNOT edit it into a neato mix,
My computer crashes?,,, They WONT play.

Something is wrong here. The pirated stuff plays fine.
The legally bought stuff is screwed. I started Encoding mp3's back in 1995 with l3ENC (http://www.rjamorim.com/rrw/l3enc.html) and a line-in on soundblaster-16 at school,
Those 15 or so mp3's I still have still play perfectly today.

I doubt that those wma, aac, m4p or dcf (mobilephone), DRM files will stand the test of time......

please submit your comments. I'm keen to know what others think about DRM and how stupidly restrictive it is.

The other big gripe I have with "legal" music is its patheticly low bitrates and horrid sound., They sound shocking on any decent sound system!

Buy MP3! songs without bloated DRM software at www.amplifier.net.nz

tonyhughes

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#18415 16-Aug-2005 03:06

mmm.... i have some DRM music from digirama. i dont use any players (software or portable device) that supports WMA, so first thing i did was fire up WMP and burn them to an audio cd. Then i ripped that CD into itunes and onto the iPod.

Instant no DRM and able to play on the device I own.

Did I do anything illegal by doing that? Probably.

Do I care? No - I bought the music, and had to strip the DRM off so i could play it in the ONLY place it is useful to me - my iPod.

You are right about the restrictions - its crazy when you can just burn/re-rerip audio cds at will.

muppet

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#18446 16-Aug-2005 11:42

DRM pisses me off.
I know why it's there and I can understand their arguements for it, but it's never designed really with the consumer in mind.

Sadly though, most people just accept it, the way that everyone accepted Windows ME and below's BSODs. They just think that's the way it is. Sure there's a few of us who realise that's not the case but the majority of people are conditioned that they have no control when technical stuff doesn't do what they want.

If you want to be really pedantic, throw away those MP3s and use OGG instead... OGG gives you better quality in a smaller file and is 100% patent free, unlike MP3. I guess if you're posting on geekzone though you already know this. It's just a shame that iPODs and many other media devices don't support OGG.
It's like TradeMe vs the other trading sites. The other sites might be better but TM has the mass to keep it "the norm"

tonyhughes

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#18461 16-Aug-2005 13:16

muppet: If you want to be really pedantic, throw away those MP3s and use OGG instead... OGG gives you better quality in a smaller file and is 100% patent free, unlike MP3. I guess if you're posting on geekzone though you already know this. It's just a shame that iPODs and many other media devices don't support OGG.

Is it because of the openness of OGG that many/most manufacturers arent supporting it, especially the ones made to be compatible with the DRM stuff?? Perhaps they are offered bigger slices of the pie in return for shutting out open formats that dont make the big players any $$?

taniwha

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#18467 16-Aug-2005 13:32

occasionally i implement DRM solutions for clients...
but.. yeah,, i hates it.

i spend about $200 a month on music - about $150 of the is online purchases.
but - i never buy DRMed files.

i'd choose flac or ogg first, and then mp3s - i'd consider other formats if they played anywhere, but i'll never pay for DRM-ed music. i no longer purchase from realgroovy because they now have DRM . boycott them all i say. send your money to the companies that don't treat us all like thieves.

As for ogg - there isn't really a consumer demand for ogg. What's the common name for ipod? it's an "mp3 player"... everyone knows what an mp3 is. a portable harddrive music player??? non-geeks won't know what you're talking about.
mp3 does the job. oggs sound better and don't have patents. Many businessees have been fooled into thinking that the DRM-ed wma format is free for them to use, but they forget to figure in what they pay to M$ every year in licensing for the OS + webserver + databaserver etc.. DRM-ed WMA is another way that M$ are causing vendor lockins.

If you have a web browser with SSL support, a place to save and play MP3s, and a credit card, then you can be buying your music online. i buy on my palm pda all the time. The rest is just a mess of different global companies trying to seize control of the new online music indutsry. MS wants to keep the OS monopoly - Apple want to create a portable player monopoly. Neither will be supported by me.

freitasm

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#18471 16-Aug-2005 13:51

What about this piece on DRM and how it can hurt mobile music sales?

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taniwha

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#18473 16-Aug-2005 13:56

Once the speed of mobile goes up, and eventually the price goes down to something close to DSL prices, then all those great non-DRM mp3 sellers can then realisticly sell their music straight to cellphones.

When you get home, you plug your cellphone into your USB port, and any new files are copied to your harddrive. (and viceversa, the new stuff on your PC copies to your phone)

and Every now and then you burn a backup dvd.

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paradoxsm

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#18537 17-Aug-2005 00:07

Thanks guys/gals.

Here's a thought..... Why not illegally download all your music and pay the artists DIRECTLY! about 4 times what Commision they get from iChoons/Cocefrige, & record Label xyz

Taniwha., Where do you get the piles of DRM free music from? I currently use AMPLIFIER.net.nz and try to cheaply buy on CD what I cannnot obtain via that site. what I can't get I just "download" using P2P.

Muppet, OGG is excellent and I use it quite often however everything plays mp3, Only thing than plays OGG is my i-mate.

No I DONT own an i-pod and never will, thanks to hideous i-tunes. but i'm seriously considering an iRiver. I heard they have a USB host!!

DRM does have it's uses, for example in coprporate environments, you can have media like corporate videos which is for staff enjoyment/education and unusable if copied. A good security.
Another thing than DRM would be good on is a "Musak machine" or some media kiosk which needs security for some of the media files to avoid anyone tearing it apart and ripping the misic files off.

People whom buy the music legally from a site will have less of a tendency to copy it about. The people who do the pirating are the ones whom will crack the systems and do it quite deliberatly.

So why restrict the decent people when you have all these people sharing it for free!!!!!!

hmmmm...

taniwha

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#18560 17-Aug-2005 11:25

plain old MP3s are everywhere - i dont' have all my bookmarks here, they're on my home desktop pc...
but... here are my favs:

amplifier
EMusic
Audiolunchbox
Magnatune

Going for (legal) DRM free online music means you won't find the BIG 5 record companies. The stuff you hear on every radio station repeated over and over, that's the big labels - you can get the same style, the same genre, and the same quality from other labels.

You won't find that Britney spears album you've been brainwashed to like, but you'll find plenty of similar stuff if that's what you like. Whatever style you like, have a good look around at the major DRM-free etailers, and discover some new artists.

Meanwhile, we just hope the major record labels either re-invent themselves or go bust (i'd prefer they went bankrupt personally)

And then the revolution begins.

Music diversity will grow.
When the major labels crumble, the diversity of mainstream music will blossom. It will be a revolution in pop culture. People will decide what's popular, not marketing.

Pay-for-play radio will end.
The lawsuits will stop.
Artistic freedom will expand.

All the things the majors do to manipulate the music business cost money. Millions of dollars in payola, 8 figure executive salaries, poor choices of new artists, overpriced studios--this money comes from musicians and fans, but benefits neither. If we cut out the waste, fans will be able to support more musicians while spending less.

Sifter

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#18594 17-Aug-2005 19:46

I use Tunebite www.tunebite.com, it converts to OGG/MP3/WMA - you still need to pay for the music but at least it is then portable to other media and devices.

taniwha

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#18596 17-Aug-2005 21:13

Here's some more i have bookmarked

Tune Tribe
Karma

and the infamous Mp3 Search.ru

Now i must check out www.tunebite.com

paradoxsm

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#18688 19-Aug-2005 01:06

Thanks for the links!! I don't mind paying for music (good music that is) I do like having physical CD's, it's kinda like owning Vinyl but it's not alyways convenient (or cheap)