arstechnica.com — As we reported Friday, the looming royalty crunch on Internet radio that would have begun today (July 15) was narrowly averted last week by a temporary reprieve from SoundExchange. Now it appears that a lasting compromise is indeed possible, but such a compromise will likely mean mandatory DRM for Internet radio.
Jul 16, 2007 View in Crawl 4
init100Jul 16, 2007
Don't confuse DRM with ordinary encryption products, they are not the same thing. Ordinary encryption software benefits from being open source, while "open source DRM" is an oxymoron. This is because DRM works by providing both the encrypted data and the key, but obfuscating the key so that no average Joe know where to look. If the source was available, anyone could "fix" the application to save the unencrypted data on disk directly, or at least leak the encryption key.Ordinary encryption programs do not work in this manner. They use encryption to secure information, but not from the recipient*, but from unauthorized third parties. Then no obfuscation is needed, because both the sender and the receiver are meant to have access to the unencrypted data, and thus have access to the key(s).*= The general case has a sender and a recipient. Special cases, such as disk encryption software, usually have the same sender and recipient. This detail does not change the above argument.
digitalmoranJul 16, 2007
I think I know what the problem is... no one has been able to un-clog Ted Steven's personal internet. He's the only one who can steer us through this confusing series of tubes. Seriously though. We all know that they will eventually lose this war. I say let the bean-counters and attorneys launch their best laid scheme. Left unchecked they will destroy their own markets with their own stupidity and then we'll be rid of them.
bjornskiJul 16, 2007
Why do you have to try and turn this into an OS pissing match?
anotherbrianJul 17, 2007
The companies that make the DRM win.
guspazJul 17, 2007
net radio stations could always move to another country where the music tax (err, royalties) are lower. What're they like in Canada?Failing that, they could always just move to Sweden ;)