Cracking the HD-DVD Code: A Comment on the Evolution of Popular Trends in Technology and Culture (1280 hits)
Category: Computers & InternetLabels: ets_sociopolitical_commentary ets_essays
Rating: 1.55 on 34 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (View user info) at 2007-05-03 15:45:30 EDT
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Seeing as this is being censored all over the net,
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/05/02/digg_in_chaos_over_hd_dvd_crack.html
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/hd_dvd_crack_sparks_digg_user_rebellion/
I thought I'd pass it along to those interested in being able to crack HD-DVDs. (This of course should only be done for one's personal use in backing up purchased copies of DVDs.) I also thought I'd offer a few comments on intellectual copyrights as someone who gives away his entire musical catalogue on a daily basis...
First let me start from a readily accepted axiom: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. The more the few are allowed to consolidate and keep knowledge from the many, the more enslaved the many will become. If companies are concerned about piracy, they should address it by modifying their product to work in tandem with existing technology, not attempt to censor and distort that technology to suit their needs simply because they have the money and power to do so.
I have a suggestion for the multi-billionaire moguls producing TV shows, movies, and recorded music... Maybe it's time you either accept the fact that you're not going to be able to control how your products are used all the time, or start investing in products that you can control... Fr instance, start producing plays again instead of movies. Start setting up music festivals in cities where people are starving for something more interesting to do than listening to their iPods in their houses. Here's an idea...having trouble getting people out to the movie theatres? How about offering them streaming versions of your latest theatre films via the internet for those who don't feel like leaving the confines of their home only to spend inordinate amounts of money on gasoline and soda?
There are all sorts of things you could reinvest your billions into, but the fact of the matter is, you're still making money hand over fist off your products. Blockbuster movies are smashing old records on a yearly basis. You own franchises that are part of the popular vernacular and you exploit those whenver possible, squeezing whatever dollars you can out of Harry Potter dolls and Star Wars video games.
Throughout the centuries, as technologies and societies have morphed, all sorts of inventions and practices have been rendered obsolete. Consider, for instance, how much in royalties the patents for the hand-operated butter churner or the cylinder phonograph recorder are bringing in these days. How about the Lone Ranger and Tonto? Where are their throngs of young cowboy wannabes with cap guns and plastic chaps these days? See, things change. In terms of human development and knowledge, this is a good thing.
Since the first human inventions, clothes and tools, people have been taking things apart and examining them in a effort to understand how they work and hopefully how to make them better in the future for the benefit of everyone. Anyone who has never, as a child, gotten a toy - a See-n-Say, a Happy Apple, a computer game - and not been tempted to take it apart to figure out how it operates is missing a part of that unending curiosity that makes human life worth living and knowledge so perennially valuable.
Knowledge belongs to those who seek it out and share it. To abridge thought or speech is to abridge that which makes us men. There is no corporation or government on the face of the earth capable of taking away a man's curiosity, or his will to make his life just that much easier.
But, they will try, and, as always, they will fail, only to start the cycle all over again another day. But this is part of what drives innovation forward. If it were profitable to remain stagnant, tied to a single technology, we'd all still be using VHS, or worse, filmstrips! (ICK!)
Why introduce the latest technology your R&D department has developed if it isn't going to be successful? Here's why...because if you don't do it, someone else WILL.
Welcome to free market capitalism! Now either get back to developing better business models, retire and start swimming in your Scrooge McDuck moneybins, or shut the fuck up, because the people who pay to keep you in business are the same people who steal from you now and thenwhen their budgets demand. It evens out in the end. Look on the bright side, with population growth, there's no longer a sucker born every minute...now it's more like every nanosecond.
User Reviews
Submitted by BranDo (user info) at 2007-05-04 04:03:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!
Submitted by FartSmeller (user info) at 2007-05-03 21:51:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome post. Can someone please explain to me what the hell it means to "crack" an HD-DVD? I'm sure it's a little more involved than simply putting the DVD in your computer and typing the string of characters.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-05-03 20:50:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2007-05-03 20:11:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
stick to this type of post. much more interesting
Submitted by camarilla (user info) at 2007-05-03 19:24:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Property is theft.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2007-05-03 19:14:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Seriously, ETS and I have had our ups & downs but I really do dig his music.
I couldn't retrieve it off my Mac for some reason, so I actually used my brother's computer because there were a number of songs I really wanted to have that badly. "Succumb" , "Climb" and "Vortical Monster" are my three favorites. I made a full compilation album from 17 tracks off his 3 (THREE!) albums "Sessions" , "Upward I Stumble" and "Tear Open The Massive Dark," using imagery that he has on his site. I've probably given 4 or 5 people I know into folk music copies of it; and they all love the stuff.
It may not be your type of sound, but for it's genre, it's damn quailty shit.
And dude... "Wonderland." That's one creepy fucking tune...
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2007-05-03 18:41:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2007-05-03 18:30:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Can't really see how brave this is. Bart is the one who'd get in trouble.
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ETS probably doesn't have the balls to post this on his website.
He might throw out a link to it.
But just like not paying his taxes, he will fold like a cheap hooker when threatened by the pimp hand of uncle sam.
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2007-05-03 18:30:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Can't really see how brave this is. Bart is the one who'd get in trouble.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2007-05-03 18:05:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatintro.swf
+2 random web link
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2007-05-03 17:37:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
i fear you don't understand how quicky a nanosecond goes by.
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2007-05-03 17:29:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2007-05-03 17:06:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:15:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:57:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Welcome to free market capitalism! Now either get back to developing better business models, retire and start swimming in your Scrooge McDuck moneybins, or shut the fuck up, because the people who pay to keep you in business are the same people who steal from you now and thenwhen their budgets demand.
----------------
People only steal when their budgets require them? I doubt that, I think people will steal when they think they can get away with it.
--------------
Speaking for myself... I don't have a whole lot of disposable income, but some of that I do have will go to bands or causes I wish to support. I still buy CDs from bands I really love, because I want them to continue to be able to produce music and make a living at it, plus if I really love someone's music, I would much rather have it in 44100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo than in 128kbps MP3.
I pay for my cable service...so if I want to use my Media Center PC to capture and use that content within the bounds of the law, I will. And if I want to purchase a SIMA Go-DVD filter to circumvent DRM copyprotection to allow my videos to be compressed into something more manageable and storable than a HUGE, bullshit MS-DVR file and streamed to the other computer in my house, I will! (Anyone have a GO-DVD filter for sale?) It's either that or move my computer to the bedroom everytime I want to watch a DRM protected program. Or, venture back into VHS.
I still go to theatres and see movies when I think it would be worth it for the big screen experience. I still go to concerts by bands I love because I don't ever want to have to say, "I had a chance to see them, but didn't, and now the lead singer is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and my opportunity is gone forever."
You will be hard pressed to find someone these days who owns a computer who hasn't downloaded or used a song or movie illegally at some point. Much of that is because the internet provides us with such an expansive smorgasboard of music and movies to choose from, it would be impossible to experience it all without a little breaking of the rules here and there. Then, if you find an artist or movie you like, and wish to add it to your DVD collection, you should go and buy it from the source, directly from the artist whenever possible. Don't buy it at Best Buy or Circuit City if it's on their website.
_________________
See? Isnt it fun to talk rationally and logically again?
All better!
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-05-03 17:00:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
goodness gracious, great balls of fire.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:43:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This wasn't so much about the slight rebellion of posting the code, the genii is already out of that bottle obviously (although every little bit helps drive the point home), this was more about taking the opportunity comment on something I have thought a lot about. Intellectual property rights is an increasingly tricky right to assert, and being a musician, I have wrestled a lot with it as it pertains to my own music and whether I should give it away or attempt to sell it.
On the one hand, being totally independent, the music I write and record has a very limited audience, even when I give it away; on the other hand, by giving it all away, I have nothing monetarily to show for the countless hours I've put into it, and therefore nothing to pass on to posterity but the property right itself.
I am a member of ASCAP, but I have not registered any of my titles for royalty purposes namely because commercial radio isn't going to play them anyway. They play only what the major record companies are pushing them to play. Even great indie label bands have a hard time getting airplay.
I see a future where more and more independent artists, like myself, will give their product away for personal use purposes, while building a worldwide internet fanbase. This will allow them to, in time, circumvent the usual record label routes and tour and make money on the strength of word of mouth.
I haven't been the best marketeer of my own product. I rarely update my website and I really only have a myspace page providing any steady flow of listeners, but you'd be amazed if I showed you my website reports... I still get thousands of unique visitors every month from all over the world appreciative of the fact that I am offering my product free of charge. There is something to be learned there, and if persued, a way to make it without going the conventional route.
Google "electric tooth syndrome" and you'll get an idea what I mean. People I've never met before in my life have posted blogs about my music and listed me as an "influence" on their own music. It's kinda humbling and pretty neat, really, especially when you find you are being linked to on sites based in countrys like Estonia that you never really knew existed.
Now, how to widen the net and reach more people while offering a higher quality product they'd be willing to support... That's the trick. It's one I'm still working on. For the time being though, I'm content with just hearing a few words of encouragement from people I've never met.
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:42:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
File sharing is not stealing, although the RIAA and MPAA have been trying to doublespeak the world into accepting that terminology. It's at most copyright infringement of some sort, but it's not entirely clear whether the infringer is the one providing the file or the one downloading the file.
As for the DRM crack, that is inevitable. DRM is the biggest scam pulled off my Microsoft, Macrovision, Apple, etc. to date. It's technologically infeasible and depends on your users being ignorant about the internal functionality of the devices they own. Once someone figures out how the devices work, "breaking" the DRM scheme is trivial where I put the word breaking in quotes because that implies that it was somehow cryptographically secure in the first place.
These organizations have been found guilty of price fixing and payola schemes and god knows what else time and time again. If the thieves would price material at a more appropriate market price that didn't depend on oligopolistic price fixing, there would be a lot more people who would opt to pay for the works than pirate them. However, given that the punishment for all of their previous crimes was essentially a slap on a figurative wrist, why bother being honest now?
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:36:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Too true. Live performances are worth paying for and always will be.
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:36:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2007-05-03 21:28:05 BST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:15:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Then, if you find a [...] movie you like, and wish to add it to your DVD collection, you should go and buy it from the source
===
And that's what you do, is it?
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Hahahaha busted!
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:34:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Blowing away DRM takes the power and revenues away from centralized structures originally created to distribute content, through established and exclusive networks, worldwide. I'm glad that the internet has begun to erode the iron grip of main stream media companies who decided what was going to be in this quarter's music catalog.
Now, I have an almost unlimited selection of music, tv and movies and I love it. I can't wait until the technology really comes to fruition and I can buy the latest Rodrigo y Gabriela single from iTunes knowing that most of that revenue will find it's way back to the artists, and none of it will go to the obsolete middlemen like BMG and SONY.
It will be thier fault too. The price of a CD hasn't come down since they were introduced, even though production costs have almost hit zero. As if that weren't bad enough, there has never been any kind of attempt to make CD's that can actually last a extended period of time. It always amazed me how I could buy a new CD and never have it anywhere but in the player or the original case, and find out a year or so down the road it has scratches on it.
I lost alot of my favorite CD's this way, and I download copies off the internet because I feel like I'm owed them at least.
Fuck em.
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:28:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:15:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Then, if you find a [...] movie you like, and wish to add it to your DVD collection, you should go and buy it from the source
===
And that's what you do, is it?
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:21:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yadayada
typical of you to be 3 days late spouting about stuff and posting things like you are some kind of rebel when others have done it already.
(can't possible give you anything less than +2 since the whole 'A Show of Hands' thing... I love thee now)
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:15:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:57:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Welcome to free market capitalism! Now either get back to developing better business models, retire and start swimming in your Scrooge McDuck moneybins, or shut the fuck up, because the people who pay to keep you in business are the same people who steal from you now and thenwhen their budgets demand.
----------------
People only steal when their budgets require them? I doubt that, I think people will steal when they think they can get away with it.
--------------
Speaking for myself... I don't have a whole lot of disposable income, but some of that I do have will go to bands or causes I wish to support. I still buy CDs from bands I really love, because I want them to continue to be able to produce music and make a living at it, plus if I really love someone's music, I would much rather have it in 44100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo than in 128kbps MP3.
I pay for my cable service...so if I want to use my Media Center PC to capture and use that content within the bounds of the law, I will. And if I want to purchase a SIMA Go-DVD filter to circumvent DRM copyprotection to allow my videos to be compressed into something more manageable and storable than a HUGE, bullshit MS-DVR file and streamed to the other computer in my house, I will! (Anyone have a GO-DVD filter for sale?) It's either that or move my computer to the bedroom everytime I want to watch a DRM protected program. Or, venture back into VHS.
I still go to theatres and see movies when I think it would be worth it for the big screen experience. I still go to concerts by bands I love because I don't ever want to have to say, "I had a chance to see them, but didn't, and now the lead singer is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and my opportunity is gone forever."
You will be hard pressed to find someone these days who owns a computer who hasn't downloaded or used a song or movie illegally at some point. Much of that is because the internet provides us with such an expansive smorgasboard of music and movies to choose from, it would be impossible to experience it all without a little breaking of the rules here and there. Then, if you find an artist or movie you like, and wish to add it to your DVD collection, you should go and buy it from the source, directly from the artist whenever possible. Don't buy it at Best Buy or Circuit City if it's on their website.
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:13:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:57:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
People only steal when their budgets require them? I doubt that, I think people will steal when they think they can get away with it.
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Let me ammend my previous statement with my opinion that some people do not believe file sharing to be stealing, therefore it still is not a budget issue
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:12:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 20:57:33 BST (#)
Ranking: 0
People only steal when their budgets require them? I doubt that, I think people will steal when they think they can get away with it.
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Hell yeah!
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:12:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have a suggestion for the multi-billionaire moguls producing TV shows, movies, and recorded music... Maybe it's time you either accept the fact that you're not going to be able to control how your products are used all the time, or start investing in products that you can control... Fr instance, start producing plays again instead of movies. Start setting up music festivals in cities where people are starving for something more interesting to do than listening to their iPods in their houses. Here's an idea...having trouble getting people out to the movie theatres? How about offering them streaming versions of your latest theatre films via the internet for those who don't feel like leaving the confines of their home only to spend inordinate amounts of money on gasoline and soda?
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ok that was awesome.
if i could go see a play every weekend for the cost of a movie ticket or dvd i'd be so stoked.
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:03:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I think, and I could be wrong on this, but I think the record industry is the only industry to have survived as suing large numbers of its customers.
I agree with the 1 sucker/ns relationship you've proposed.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-05-03 16:02:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
so you finally took your prescription pills, eh?
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:58:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
YAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
Submitted by FATMANTPK (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:57:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Welcome to free market capitalism! Now either get back to developing better business models, retire and start swimming in your Scrooge McDuck moneybins, or shut the fuck up, because the people who pay to keep you in business are the same people who steal from you now and thenwhen their budgets demand.
----------------
People only steal when their budgets require them? I doubt that, I think people will steal when they think they can get away with it.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:57:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:54:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
truf
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:54:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Knowledge IS power!
Submitted by no1hasdis (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:54:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well done.
Submitted by beeltea (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:51:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
okay i like you again. I am fickle.
Submitted by Antioxident (user info) at 2007-05-03 15:50:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment