[dvd-discuss] Viant report (was Washington Post Article)

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

> http://www.viant.com/pages2/pages/frame_thought_copyright.html

Here's a few nice exerpts...sorry about the formatting since it was pulled from a PDF file...that they hadn't exercised their DRM ability in the Adobe Acrobat to prevent me....

Moreover, DRM has the greatest odds of being effective if it is introduced subtly, so as not to present an obvious target of opportunity for hackers (who you know will crack it), but rather to convince non-partisan consumers who are uninterested

in conflict or complexity that legitimate content is desirable and easy, rather than challenging and restrictive. What’s needed is a “sneak attack.”

<SOMA...SOMA...SOMA>

Content Missiles

How might such a co-opt plan actually be accomplished? Isn’t the process of attempting to extract payment for something that might be obtained for free bound to be a painful one?

The key lies in adopting a creative approach.DRM is perhaps more flexible than has been widely portrayed,or even conceived by its designers.Recall that DRM packages

can contain any usage rules desired, or even no rules at all.The fundamental notion is that, when an unlicensed piece of content is opened in a media player,

there is an opportunity to issue a license under any terms that can reasonably be

d e s i g n e d .

<No...one expect the spanish inquisition. CONFESS. CONFESS>

later

This initiative has raised considerable objections among consumer advocates,56

and is likely to create consumer backlash against such products, as they are likely to

be perceived as restricting activities in the gray areas of “fair use” as the interaction

of protected hardware with unprotected software from any number of sources

(some of which may be legitimate) creates confusion and frustration. Moreover, it

makes the objective of co-opting peer distribution for legitimate use a far more

complex goal to achieve.

<This fair use....now isn't it just too bad that it exists?>