: Why tech firms are out of tune

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Claudio Gutierrez <cgutierrez () improvement cl>
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 20:13:52 
To:Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Why tech firms are out of tune

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3383253.stm
By Bill Thompson

Normally it would take a political appeal, or a tribute to some old time 
rock and roll legend, to get Dr Dre, The Edge, Sheryl Crow and Alicia 
Keys onto the same stage.

But when they all showed up at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las 
Vegas this week it was entirely for their own benefit.

They were there as stooges to Carly Fiorina, the chief executive of 
Hewlett-Packard, as she made her conference keynote address and spoke 
movingly of how her company is going to 'democratize technology and 
empower digital revolutionaries everywhere.'

In an impassioned address, punctuated with a video of the future of home 
entertainment and a short performance by the talented Ms Keys, Fiorina 
tried to position HP at the centre of what she claims is a revolution in 
the way that technology is being used in daily life.

She talked about the ways that photography has changed from a chemical 
and physical process to one that is, as she put it 'digital, mobile and 
virtual'.

She waxed lyrical about the joy of hearing a song in Starbucks and 
downloading it wirelessly 'for a buck'.

And she claimed that the way entertainment is 'created, distributed, 
managed and consumed' is changing forever, in ways that highlight 'the 
power of democracy', and are about 'giving power the people.'

Then she went and spoiled it all by committing HP to putting digital 
rights management software in every one of its consumer devices, 
encrypting any recorded content stored on HP systems so that it can't be 
transferred to other computers or players, stopping people copying their 
old videos to DVD, and even making sure that HP home computers can't 
record broadcast television programmes.

This revolution is clearly not about people taking control, as Fiorina 
claimed - it is about the entertainment cartel exerting even more 
control over what we, the people, can do with its expensive and often 
over-rated products.

It's about restricting our freedom to use digital content in ways that 
fit with our lifestyles and choices. And it is about forcing us to pay 
more, and repeatedly, for stuff that we want to watch or listen to.

It is also, crucially, about limiting our freedom to play with the stuff 
we've bought.

Control freaks

Don't even think about trying to load a DRM-protected song into a music 
sequencer so you can play around with the tune, sample a few beats or 
seek inspiration from it.

Forget the idea of making a digital collage of video fragments or sound 
samples from DVDs or TV shows.

And don't even contemplate making a mix CD of your favourite tracks for 
your girlfriend or boyfriend to listen to when you're not around.

In the rights-protected world which Fiorina and her marketing department 
have dreamed up, we are to be passive consumers of expensively created 
content, not active participants.

The rights will be managed in a way that maximises revenue, not 
creativity or enjoyment.

The major problem with digital rights management is not the technology 
itself but the fact that the limits which it puts on the use of the 
protected files are outside the normal scope of copyright law.

Thanks to the European Union Copyright Directive and the US Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act, it's illegal to break the protection on a 
music file or ebook even if the purpose is solely to do something which 
copyright law allows.

If I crack the protection on a copy of Moby-Dick to make a large print 
copy for a blind relative, then I'm doing something illegal.

Protest vote

The result is that the balance between the individual user and the 
copyright-owning corporations has been completely skewed, and the DRM 
systems that Carly Fiorina loves so much will make it impossible for us 
to use

I used to think that our fears over the ways that the entertainment 
industry were cracking down on file sharing and other copyright 
violations were unfounded, because the computing companies would refuse 
to see their products crippled by the need to keep the Recording 
Industry Association of America happy.

  I was wrong.

Apple's iTunes is apparently a great service but it doesn't actually 
make Apple any money because of the high level of royalty they have to 
pay to the music industry for every song downloaded.

Microsoft used its presence at CES to announce its own range of 
DRM-enabled software, and now it is clear that HP too has bowed to the 
power of the cartel.

If the industry won't sort this out, then it is time for the people to 
act, both individually and through our representatives.

Consumer boycotts and government action are the only way we are going to 
re-establish the balance between copyright holders and those of us who 
want to listen to, share and be inspired by music, movies and literature.

It's time for all who believe in real freedom of expression to tell 
Carly Fiorina and her friends in the music industry that being a 
'digital revolutionary' means more than just doing what she thinks we 
should be permitted to.

Real freedom comes from below, not from the marketing department of a 
large corporation.



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