Via Boing Boing, we saw this account over at Geek With Family that rather nicely captures the absurdity of DRM legislation.
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$5M Starforce Class Action Lawsuit
By 4.5.06
Hate Starforce? Want to sue them? Well, Christopher Spence has already done it on your behalf. Christopher has filed a $5M class action lawsuit against Ubisoft for using Starforce DRM in their games, and if he wins, you’ll be entitled to collect if you’ve ever had your system infected by Starforce.
Record Industry Should Throw Piracy a Party
By 3.23.06
Surprise! Downloading doesn’t hurt record sales. Double Surprise! The information comes from a study commissioned by the record industry (albeit, Canadian).
France Furthers Anti-iPod DRM Bill
By 3.22.06
Liberte, Egalite, no DRM? The French are voting on legislation that would restrict iTunes and its ilk from from limiting upon which devices the music can be played or how the songs can be shared. [Photo from recent student demonstrations outside the Sorbonne, just imagine the mattress represents a giant iPod and we’re good to go.]
Starforce Accuses Critics Of Being Russian Mob
By 3.22.06
Starforce — a Russian company that sells highly-invasive copy-protection to software companies and threatens lawsuits against its critics — went up about a tenth of a notch in our books when they apologized to Stardock for posting links to illegal torrents of their most recent game, in response to Stardock’s implied criticism of their software.
How DRM Affects Battery Life
By 3.17.06
With all the furor over DRM lately, CNet asked itself the simple question, “How does DRM affect battery life on your iPod?” As you might expect, the answer is — badly.
When Is An Audio CD Not An Audio CD?
By 3.16.06
Reader Matt V. called our attention to Ben Laurie’s blog. Ben recently purchased a Beth Orton CD from Amazon, only to discover that it had DRM on it that prevented him from playing it on his computer. Ben has since returned the CD to Amazon and filed a complaint against them with the Trading Standards Authority (a UK consumer rights organization) that Amazon is dishonestly calling it an “Audio CD”. Ben argues it isn’t an Audio CD, because he can’t play it on his computer.
Why Starforce Sucks: DRM CSR Idiot Pirates
By 3.14.06
A brief history: for those of you who aren’t into video games, you might not have heard about Starforce, a Russian company that has become infamous amongst the gaming community for an extremely invasive and draconian copyright protection system that has, according to numerous forum posts, completely broken many customer’s computers. Starforce denies these claims and smugly mention that they recently held a contest for $10,000 dollars to prove in their office that Starforce breaks systems. According to them, no one won. The problem? They required you to demonstrate it in some Muscovite office complex, under their supervision. We doubt many people were twitching to fly to Russia just to lose a $10,000 bet on some dreamed-up technicality.
Software Syncs Crappy Non-iPods with iTunes
By 3.6.06
We don’t have an iPod. We have a first-generation Dell DJ. Compared to the design of the opalescent obelisk ubiquitously clutched in every hipster’s hand, the Dell DJ is striking. It looks exactly as if Soviet super-scientists invented a time machine, traveled to the future, copped on to the inherently socialist nature of the music trading scene, and — traveling back to their own era — attempted to make their own mp3 player out of a two-inch plate of Soviet-grade titanium tank plating. Fifty years later, Dell.ru found about a million of these in an abandoned Muscovite silo, dusted them off, formatted “Lenin’s Greatest Hits” off the hard drive and sold them as is, to idiots like probably-not-you but definitely-royal-‘we’.
Yeehaw it’s a DRM Roundup!
By 2.21.06
- The Department of Homeland Security is finally doing something good, even though how it falls under their jurisdiction is a bit ambiguous. US considers banning DRM Rootkits. Use username dominos6. Must be anthrax on the brain.
How Many Posts are Yakking about DRM?
By 2.16.06
Does the glut of DRM drama have you reaching for the dramamine? As the chart below illustrates, you’re not crazy, lots and lots of people are talking about it. Here’s a graph of DRM mentions over the past year by post count.
Brookyln Grandma Sued for $150,000 by MPAA.
By 2.14.06
63-year old Janice McBride is getting sued by Hollywood for pirating the Adam Sandler flick, The Longest Yard.
RIAA Bans Resale of Preloaded iPods
By 2.13.06
Apparently 1) the RIAA is now a legislative body and 2) MTV is still relevant.
MPAA Says: “DRM Exists To Annoy Honest Customers”
By 2.9.06
We saw this astonishing quote from Dan Glickman of the MPAA over at the Beeb, when asked about the effectiveness of DRM:
