Chris Pirillo » drm

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother: DRM-Free Audio Book

Chris — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:30:19 +0000

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother: DRM-Free Audio Book is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

Cory Doctorow has written a new audio book, entitled “Little Brother”. He sent me the following email to give us all a peek at the plot, and to explain something very important and ground-breaking about this book.

Plot Synopsis Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works – and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
The audio book is from Random House Audio, and was released on April 29, and cost is $20.00. What’s the big deal? The deal is that it’s ONLY being delivered as a DRM-free MP3. There will be no DRMed editions. This is a first for Random House Audio.
The audio book comes with the author’s sampling license: once you own it, you’re free to take up to 30 minutes’ worth of material from it and remix and then redistribute it as much as you like, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis, make sure that it’s clear that this is a remix and not the original, and make sure that you tell people where to find the original. This is in addition to all the fair use remixing that you’re allowed to do.

After playing a half-hour of the audio book for my chat room, no one wanted me to stop! You guys know where to go to where to get the rest. How can you not love an author who writes about ’saggy man boobs’? I love that Corey has taken the DRM out of the book, and I can’t wait to see others follow suit.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Buying Music ala Carte vs Renting with Subscriptions

Chris — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:36:04 +0000

Buying Music ala Carte vs Renting with Subscriptions is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

Googler888 writes: “I’ve been a hardcore iTunes song buyer for a couple of years now, and boy has it been great. I know Chris loves using subscription-based song services like Rhapsody and Napster, so I am hoping to start a war between the two. So here are my top 5 reasons why I chose owning a song, rather than renting it.”

It certainly does feel awkward to be constantly giving money to “the man” every month, for an all-you-can-eat subscription. The fact is, if you don’t pay him, your tunes expire. You have then wasted around 80 Gigabytes of your hard drive space with songs you can no longer listen to. This will take forever to delete them all. It also means, of course, you will no longer have the tunes for your music player… unless you pay “the man” again, re-activate your tunes… and hope you don’t forget to pay next time.
Renting songs is a bad idea for people who travel a lot. Let’s say you have just loaded up your music player with these subscription-based tunes, and are headed out on your vacation. You leave your computer at home, because you shouldn’t need it on a trip to the Carribbean. You land in Barbados, only to find that your tunes have expired. Your seven days in the country will now be unpleasurable, because you forgot to re-subscribe and no longer have access to your music. Now you have to pay $25 to the hotel for their in-suite, on-demand music service, and you won’t have your tunes for when you go to the beach.
Piracy and Viruses. Piracy has been plaguing the music industry for years. There are now programs that strip these tunes of their DRM so that they can be kept forever. This means that services like Rhapsody will go out of business, because all their songs have been stripped and are now available from BitTorrent or Limewire. Mind you, services like Rhapsody and Napster are very cheap monthly, meaning that people are going to turn to them for their piracy-making. Also, this means that viruses, trojans, or other malware can be uploaded to BitTorrent or Limewire in the zip file that contains the song.
iPods. iPod does not support Windows Media DRM 10, which is what services like Rhapsody and Napster have been using to “protect” their music. That cool new iPod Touch or iPhone you just bought won’t play your subscription tunes, leaving you disappointed and in despair. Also, iPods are very sleek and cool looking. This puts people in the awkward position of choosing to get the “cool” iPod, or settle for an ugly MP3 player that “just happens” to play WMA DRM 10 songs.
Availability. Many places around the world sell MP3 players that support these shenanigans. Services like Rhapsody are not available worldwide. So if your favorite song that you want to rent is only on Rhapsody and you happen to be in Canada, Norway or China… you’re out of luck.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

DRM and Greed

Chris — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:06:36 +0000

DRM and Greed is a post from Chris Pirillo

Bruce Munro has been listening – and my videos on DRM and the future of the RIAA really set him off:

Before the RIAA can get back the business, they might want to look at what got them here. In the 60’s and 70’s, a 50 cent 45 RPM record was a promotional item, meant to entice the public to buy the LP. It was relatively successful but even if the LP was a dog, they made a small profit on the millions of 45’s sold.
Within a few years that same 45 was $2.49 and the record companies had already started to market new artists with little quality material, poor preparation and lots of filler to pad out $10 LP’s. People started to get smarter and just bought the 45’s but at least they were still buying. CD technologies were introduced and the price of an LP (CD) shot up to $25 with assurances from the music industry that prices would fall back to LP levels as soon as the majority of the public adopted the new technologies.
They lied. They kept prices high, drove vinyl off the shelves and created a brand new problem. They manufactured a perfect digital copy of the program and were helpless to prevent the duplication and eventual distribution through the internet. Smarter teens can simply fire up the family digital TV, go to the “radio” stations they all contain, hook up their media recorder and go away for a few days. Digital music, no DRM and easy to edit MP3 format for the computer. Reminds me of the reel to reel recorders and FM radio stations when I was a lad.
Lets see now, they stopped fair cost promotional distribution (45’s). Tripled the cost of the LP and rushed product to market with poor content. Did little in the way of promotion deciding instead to spend that money on litigation suing teenagers hundreds of thousands of dollars (by the way, teenagers don’t have any money) and generally making a pain in the ass of themselves to legislators and law enforcement around the world. I have a great idea, STOP everything you are doing now and lose the lawyers (nobody likes lawyers, really). Get back into the studio and create something worthwhile, stuff those CD’s full of entertainment and sell it for $10.
Lets see. 100 million CD’s at $10 as opposed to 1 million at $20. Do the math and for god sakes get that music executive a calculator because odds are he still doesn’t get it. One last thing, get your house in order, the artists are starting to promote themselves on the internet, many successfully. RIAA are you listening.

DRM is an unnecessary evil – so long as trust is well placed.

Top 5 Tips to Save the RIAA and the Music Industry

Chris — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:18:00 +0000

Top 5 Tips to Save the RIAA and the Music Industry is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

With the advent of DRM, the music industry is increasingly losing serious amounts of profits. Piracy is at an all-time high, and there’s no end in sight. What can be done to help the music industry save themselves? Here are five things that they may just want to pay attention to, as sent in by a community member.

Put money into open source iTunes killer, like SongBird for instance. Record industries need an app that works on all platforms, so that everyone can enjoy and use them.
Invest in Bittorrent, and make it part of the iTunes killer. BitTorrent is the fastest platform, and most widely used. (Note from Chris, keep in mind that BitTorrent isn’t a platform, it’s a series of networks. But I get what you’re saying here)
Hire coders to make your music available to work on ALL platforms, programs and formats. Nothing is worse than not being able to listen to music you purchased on any media you want.
Allow any and all stores to sell music, don’t just lock it down like iTunes does. (note from Chris: It’s not really about HOW I get the music, then the fact that I just am able to GET it, period.)
Profit! (Note from Chris: I’m not really sure what he’s saying here. I mean sure, the record industry needs to make a profit, but in order to do that, they need to increase sales. THey can’t afford to do things to increase sales without profit. It’s a never-ending cycle.)

Lee sends us this comment:

Had to comment, as mindless and uninformed as it may be. The day any of these big musicians arrive for a concert in a Geo or flies coach or moves into my neighborhood because they can’t afford anything more that’s the day I think the music industry is in trouble. I don’t download music because I don’t have time and half the stuff coming out is really crap. But if there was something I did like I have no problem supporting an artist that can entertain me. Of course you can’t support the artist without supporting the music industry. If there is any issue with the music industry it is that it is spending too much money fighting a situation an not taking enough time to see how they could use that situation. Yes piracy is out there, yes it’s a problem because it does cut off SOME of the overwhelming profit that comes in but by making music available and only available to listen to on an ipod (for example) the music industry is not doing itself any favors. I did subscribe to a music service for a short while. When I found that I couldn’t listen to the music I bought on anything but windows media player well that was that. The points brought up in your newsletter were valid. The last thing is that there is nothing worse than buying an album because of one track and having remorse because that was the only track on the album worth listening to. When people have to wonder how they will pay for that next tank of gas it’s amazing to me that the music industry still exists. Hopefully that doesn’t sound to bad but remember it’s just one uninformed opinion. The real impact is on the small or undiscovered artist who may be plenty talented but the MUSIC INDUSTRY does not want to take a chance on. In the end obscene amounts of money are being made but human greed knows no bounds I guess because they want to turn it into ultra obscene amounts.

And this was sent in by Gary:

We are tired of paying inflated prices here in Canada. Yet the smart entertainers go on the road and yes we will pay good money for these shows. Ottawa Ontario where I live has more road shows than Toronto or Montreal.This is a civil service town yet they come out in droves to see these shows. They have trouble coughing up $100.00 to see the NHL Senators but will fork out for music entertainment.
In the good old days and you heard about that somewhere I’m sure, Dick Clark had the right formula. Record stars performed on his show and yes hit singles made it to the top of the charts. 45’s sold for a buck or two and the industry made money. Then they recycled the music into albums meanwhile still churning out new singles.We don’t have Dick nor Ed Sullivan and most of us don’t stay up for the late night shows. The music industry who own networks should start showcasing the talent instead of trying to take individuals to court for small downloads.Canada has stiff laws on piracy but not enough to stem the tide Ask any teen where he got his music for his IPod?
I prefer to buy a song not an album and if the industry could get their head around this they could get back to making money.Come up with ways to use the internet to your advantage. The world is changing. Why can’t those Music execs get their act together,
Gary Pocock
Ottawa Canada
P.S. You are my favorite geek. I’ve been receiving your newsletters almost since you first started having subscribers ..

What do you think can be done to save the music industry? Do you hate DRM as much as I do? Leave me a follow-up comment, or send an email to me at chris@pirillo.com

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

DRM is Depressing

Chris — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:41:45 +0000

DRM is Depressing is a post from Chris Pirillo

DRM makes people sad, depressed, confused…

Hey chris, my name is Lucas Oliveiro, I am from Malaysia. First I’d like to say what a big fan I am of your work and what you do, I always wanted to ask questions but didn’t know how to go about it till I saw one of your videos asking the user’s to directly email you.
So now, first what is DRM? What is the purpose of DRM protected files? If while ripping a CD using Windows Media Player do I have the option to not protect the file with DRM? If the answer is no, is there any separate software which could do that.
I want to convert a WMA file to MP3, but I wasn’t finding any software that would be able to do this. The only solution I had was to record the WMA file in real-time with Media Blaze Pro, and the sound quality was really bad. Please let me know is there any converter software and not real-time recording software.
I don’t see the point of this protection; the CD which I rip was an original disc, and I need to convert the file so that I can save it to my mp3 player. Are all WMA files DRM copy protected? Or is there other types of copy protection? How do I remove this DRM protection if it’s already there?
Chris please help me out, Whoever who created this DRM thingy must be really smart… duhh…. he expects us to carry around our desktops and laptops listening to our tunes on Windows Media Player… and I thought gone were the days where the people would carry around their stereo… HELP ME!!!!! Cheers, mate!

iTunes Sucks

Chris — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:32:12 +0000

iTunes Sucks is a post from Chris Pirillo

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Chris has never really liked iTunes. While it has gotten marginally better over time, it just really isn’t as structured as it could be.

On Windows, iTunes is more of a hack or a shim than anything else: it looks and feels out of place, and doesn’t always play well with the operating system. Another problem is that iTunes is getting very bloated: it adds more Windows services now than it ever did in the past.

Matthew said someone in the chat room claimed that AAC was the iTunes format. It’s true that iTunes plays AAC and sells music with DRM in the AAC format, but AAC isn’t an iTunes-exclusive format.

QuickTime, iTunes, and RealPlayer all play AAC, an industry standard format. Windows Media Player, on the other hand, doesn’t play AAC, as Microsoft is trying to push its DRM format – WMA – on the industry.

Want to embed our What is AAC? video in your blog? Use this code:

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), MP3 Audio (.mp3), Microsoft Video (.avi), Flash Video (.flv)

PC to HDTV HDMI Connection

Chris — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:15:41 +0000

PC to HDTV HDMI Connection is a post from Chris Pirillo

Click Image to Play Video

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Roy asks why, when he connects his PC to his HDTV via the HDMI connector, he can’t see videos play back on his screen.

The problem is DRM: if you set the HDMI-out as the default monitor on Windows, then the videos will play. Windows Media Player only lets video play on the primary monitor.

Why is this so difficult? This is copy protection in action. Large content production studios don’t want you to steal (share) the video with other people. It’s called Digital Rights Management, and it’s a consumer nightmare.

As easy as it is to plug in an HDMI cable, DRM introduces another level of complexity that users should not have to deal with.

What’s the worst part of DRM? It doesn’t work. All you need to do is visit your favorite bit torrent website to confirm that hard fact.

Want to embed our HDMI Output video in your blog? Use this code:

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), MP3 Audio (.mp3), Microsoft Video (.avi), Flash Video (.flv)

What is DRM?

Chris — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:31:49 +0000

What is DRM? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Click Image to Play Video

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Clone69 wants to know wha exactly DRM is.

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, and it’s a piece of code that is intended to help curb content piracy. The problem is that DRM is a colossal failure:

It annoys users
Gets in their way
It’s not a good experience
And it doesn’t stop people from pirating content, at all.

Take Ponzi, for example: she had a Napster, Urge, and iTunes accounts. Because each vendor uses their own form of DRM they can’t play music bought from each store. So, each time she goes to a new provider she needs to purchase the same songs over again. How many times is she going to buy access to the same song? She could save money by buying the CD, ripping the CD herself, and then not worry about being restricted with what she can do with the content.

The easiest way to get around DRM is to purchase the content. Buy the CD or DVD and rip it to your machine. That way you’ll get the content you purchased plus the added ability to play that content in whatever machine you want to.

What do you think about DRM?

Want to embed Digital Rights Management video in your blog? Use this code:

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), MP3 Audio (.mp3), Microsoft Video (.avi)

Today’s Blogosphere

Chris — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:39:10 +0000

Today’s Blogosphere is a post from Chris Pirillo

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Apple wants to drop DRM blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Microsoft embraces OpenID blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Windows Media DRM is Corrupted

Chris — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 17:00:09 +0000

Windows Media DRM is Corrupted is a post from Chris Pirillo

So, I’m getting ready for a trip to Colorado Springs for my future brother-in-law’s nuptuals. I figured I’d give the Clix a shot with Urge. I fire up the Windows Media Player and… blammo:

“Your Windows Media DRM is Corrupted.” *sigh* I love DRM. It’s awesome. DRM is teh shiz. I want to make love to DRM, it’s so sexy. DRM is the ultimate. Give me more DRM. I want to spread DRM on my toast in the morning. I need DRM in my life.

Buying Digital Content at Gnomedex

Chris — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:24:52 +0000

Buying Digital Content at Gnomedex is a post from Chris Pirillo

Ethan Kaplan (no relation to Pud) wants to talk about blackrimglasses.com“>buying digital audio and video:

The $39 Dollar Song and 6 Cent Ringtone didnâ€™t really light up the charts on the TechMeme saturated blogosphere, but it is a valid discussion to have, especially when the business of content is exploding as it is (to use Jeff Jarvisâ€™ parlance). I know that being from a record company, people will immediately look to me to talk about DRM and the RIAA. I will avoid the latter, and only address the former in the context of the discussion about abstraction and mutability and how it relates to Value.

I like buying content subscriptions. I hate buying content ala carte. I love buying physical products from my favorite artists.

Why DRM Sucks

Chris — Sun, 28 May 2006 22:09:29 +0000

Why DRM Sucks is a post from Chris Pirillo

I’m not the first (and I certainly won’t be the last) person to claim that DRM sucks. But DRM doesn’t stand for “Digital Rights Management.” No, it’s really an acronym for “Dramatic Resource Mangler.” Here’s the problem I’m now running into: I’ve currently got a subscription to Napster, a trial account with Rhapsody, and another trial account with MTV’s URGE. That’s three separate subscriptions I’ve got floating across all my systems. Now, I’ve already downloaded Pearl Jam’s new album through Napster. I can’t listen to it in either Rhapsody or URGE. I’ve paid for it already! So, let’s say I turn off Napster and switch to URGE. I’d have to download the album again. What’s more, Windows Media Player / Windows Explorer doesn’t tell me where the album came from – I have to guess. I have to play (by trial and error) to see which albums are supported by which service. THIS IS MADNESS! Why can’t the individual file detect which service I’m paying for and then adjust itself accordingly? Why must I maintain three DRM’ed versions of the same song?

Screw Napster. Screw Rhapsody. Screw URGE. I’ll pay for one of ‘em and then find the album in a non-DRM’ed WMA or MP3 format elsewhere. I’m trying to play by the rules here, folks. I’m trying to give them my money. They’re not making this easier – they’re making it infinitely more difficult. DRM can kiss my ass.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.