Remember the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey where NASA official Heywood Floyd, on his way to the Moon, stops to read the lengthy zero-gravity toilet instructions? It’s one of the few humorous moments in this film and usually gets a laugh.
There's an interesting article by David Shamah in the September 6 Jerusalem Post titled “DRM Dummies?” In it Shamah describes how the Macrovision protection in his video camera prevented him from using the camera as part of a chain of devices to copy old family videotapes to DVD. (The camera incorrectly decided the signal coming in from his VHS tapes were “copyrighted” and automatically shut down.)
Elsewhere I've written about how online sellers of music CD's have a mixed record on telling customers in advance whether what they've bought really can be used due to built in copy protection. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a report on what Apple and others are doing with their DRM schemes applied to the online sale of digital music files.
There's an interesting article in the August 22 online Computerworld magazine called Intellectual Property is Focus at New Job. In it, a newly hired security professional at a computer product manufacturing company, writing anonymously, describe an assignment to figure out how to keep the company's intellectual property, such as engineering drawings and servive manuals, from "walking out the door."
I'm reading through the OECD’s “Digital Broadband Content: Music” Report. There's a huge amount of information that's directly relevant to the future of how technology is used for music distribution. I'll be posting some comments and observations over the next few days.
Amazon DOES publish "copy protection" information, after all
The information I received from Amazon.com was faulty. Amazon DOES publish details about the "copy protection" status of individual music CD's after all. Plus, I've iedntified with which CD's Suncomm copy protection technology is used.
I’m not ant-copyright. Copyright owners have a right to do whatever they want with the properties they own and control. But to make a free market operate, there has to be information available about product features that will make products potentially unusable. Sadly, what I see happening is market confusion and a crumbling of the standards that once made it so easy to buy and use recorded music.
Wow, Overstock.com responded in less than a day to my latest question about their selling copy-protected CD's.
For an online retailer to refuse to tell me in advance of a purchase if I can use the product is like a clothes store saying I can buy any pair of pants I want -- but they will not tell me in advance what the size is.
I’m also aware that there seems to be a growing number of software tools designed to support improved project management, to help with everything from developing an initial project justification to creating a software “dashboard” for reporting “key performance indicators” for measuring progress against business goals.
I’ve also come across a couple of instances recently where companies seem to have purchased such management tools BEFORE they have thought through all the business process changes that implementation of such tools can create.
The UK-based IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has published a new report estimating losses worldwide from illegal CD duplication and sale.
I am surveying online CD vendors to determine their policies about selling CD's with "copy protection" features that prevent certain types of copying.
I received yesterday in the mail a one-page form document from a Life Insurance Company titled OUR PRIVACY POLICY. The subheading of the document is "Required by the Federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and state privacy law." I decided to use this letter as the basis for some research into personal privacy protection.
Who Controls Personal Data?
Back in the Day, my favorite Latin quote was an example of the Ablative Absolute: “Eo Imperium Tenente, Eventum Timeo.” Loosely translated, this means, “Because he holds the power, I fear the outcome.” In some ways, fear and uncertainty exist today since, in many cases, people don’t understand, or even know, who has the “power” over how their personal data are used.
What is "Personal Data?"
When you start reading up on personal data and the definition of ownership, you quickly get caught up in questions about "what is property?" and "what data about me do I really own?"
These are tricky questions.
Proposed: A Choice-Based Approach to Controlling the Commercial Exploitation of Personal Data
Today significant commercial trafficking occurs in personal information. Credit bureaus, research companies, insurance firms, and corporations regularly buy and sell personal information. While much of this trafficking may be benign, most is either unknown to, or beyond the control of, the individuals this personal information describes.
Identity Theft and the Licensing of Personal Information
Many companies benefit from the buying and selling of personal, financial, and medical information about individual US citizens. Usually these companies behave in a responsible, law-abiding fashion.