Mon, 16 Oct 2006

Never met a rule they couldn't break ...

Hel, why'd they go to all that trouble? I can play any music I'd care to on my iPod, my Apples, my Wintel box or even my SuSE machine. Without any "special" software or DRM stripping required.

My technique? It's called the "analog hole" (look it up for yourselves), and it will exist as long as humans have ears. The RIAA had best get used to it.

Ruckus, the new downloading software aimed at preventing illegal file-sharing, arrived at Ball State University less than a month ago--but students have already found a loophole that allows them to break copyright as they like. Ruckus was supposed to allow students to download songs but not play them on an iPod. But by using software that strips files of their "digital rights" coding, students can get around the restriction, the Daily News reports.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

/Copywrongs | 2 writebacks | permanent link

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On 10/16/2006 11:05:02
Thud wrote

Two key flaws to the "analog hole" solution. 1) Degredation of audio from the original source. 2) Comparatively time intensive. Also, if you think the analog hole can't be closed, you're not thinking creatively enough. Copy-protection on HD video devices are already designed to prevent playing a copy-protected video if it is not hooked up to an output device that prevents copying; it's no stretch for me to imagine a DVD-Audio player that shuts down access to a line-out if the connected audio device doesn't identify itself as a speaker-only. You'd be reduced to setting a recorder up in front of the speaker, and then the sound degredation gets *really* bad. See: http://onthecommons.org/node/920?PHPSESSID=db54182be68e0fdb60989613c07a336e

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On 10/17/2006 00:16:15
Dave H wrote

Analog Holes

I get no degradation when I rip protected files now. The only way to close this analog hole (sound card as file) is in hardware. But even that won't close the purely analog hole, and with enough setup and the right equipment, that cannot be closed. And you'll get very little degradation. And in your example of a DVD audio device, well, I'd just clip the wires to the speaker and connect them to a line in or a mixer - or wait for the hack to the ID routines to appear on the Net. Time is the issue here - the only issue. All DRM really does is slow down the "theives". Which, if you think about it, is all any security system does. Locks can be picked, windows broken, sensors bypassed. Time is the only element available in security. Video is currently more problematic, but technology advances are coming rapidly there as well. Perhaps it's because I lived through the earlier copy protection wars - you remember, the ones fought over floppies and early CD's. The content providers lost that one, and they'll lose this one too. Thanks for the comment and Be well, Dave H.

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