The Day the DRM Died

Okay, normally I try not to blog about geek-y techno stuff, but I couldn’t resist and had to say something about this.

Apple, EFI offer higher-quality DRM free downloads.

Now, many of you may be asking, what the heck does that mean, and more importantly, why should I care? I’ll do my best to let you know.

To briefly sum up what the article says, today Apple inc. and music record label company EMI (for a list of the music labels EMI owns, look here, and for a list of EMI’s artists, look here) announced that beginning next month they will start offering digital rights management software (DRM) free songs at a higher bit-rate on the iTunes Store. The nice thing about the higher bit-rate is it will sound better on higher quality speaker systems, e.g. home stereos, car stereos and what is so cool about selling the tracks without DRM is that you will then be able to play them on any device that can play AAC format songs, of which there are quite a few.

Now, what does this mean to you? Well, to be honest it probably does not mean too much to you or me directly. But, there is one thing that, in my opinion, it represents that is earth shattering.

A music label is assuming that their customers will do the Right Thing®.

You see, up until now it has appeared to everyone but the music labels that they were just out to make money, assuming that any and all music fans will do whatever it takes to get the music they want at the lowest price possible, circumventing whatever laws they feel necessary in the process. In fact, one such music label (Universal Music Group, to be precise) has even gone so far as to charge what some (myself included) are calling a Piracy Tax. In short, for every Microsoft Zune sold Universal gets $1, because anyone that buys a portable music player must be stealing music on the net.

But, EMI is willing to test a different perspective. Quoting Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI, “we take the view that we have to ‘trust consumers.’ Some will disappoint us. The idea is to give them the best music experience to grow sales and not diminish them.”

All I have to say is kudos to EMI for putting consumers to the test, props to Apple and Steve Jobs for planting the bug a few months ago, and I can’t wait until the entire iTunes Store Library (videos included) is available in high quality bitrates and resolutions without any DRM at all.

Edgy Eft

A few days ago, I did something that I never thought I would do.
But, to explain what I did and why, you are going to need a little
background.

As some of you may (or may not) know, I am a somewhat regular reader
of Wil Wheaton's blog, Wil Wheaton dot net: In Exile (for those of
you that may not recognize him on his IMDB page, he played Wesley
Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame). Admittedly, the
language on his blog does sometimes get a little vulgar, but he
writes some hilarious and poignant entries about being a geek (his
quasi-autobiography is titled, Just a Geek), a husband and father, a
former child star turned writer (he had starred in a hit movie and a
hit TV show before he could get his driver's license) and just about
life in general.

Anywho, enough about Wil and on to what I did.

Over the past few weeks, Wil has written a number of blog entries
about GNU/Linux. Its many capabilities, its openness and its ease of
use (relatively speaking). All of this really got me thinking about
things like Open Source software, DRM, compatibility, etc. so I
decided that I would dip my proverbial toe in the pool.

I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu Linux and created a live CD from which
I can boot and iBook and run everything from Firefox to OpenOffice.
I can't upgrade any of the software or create any permanent
preferences (I'm booting from a CD, I can't really save any changes I
make. The nice thing is, neither can I screw anything up with this
set-up), but it has been an eye opening experience. Any of the basic
things I do on my iBook I can do in Ubuntu (which I knew
intellectually but did not really understand/believe) like taking
notes in class, surfing the internet, or checking my email.

I still love Mac OS X with its ease of use and feeling of how
everything, "just works." I won't be making a full-time switch to
Ubuntu and all Open Source software in the foreseeable future (I just
have the time available nor would I wish to invest it if I had it)but
I figure it couldn't hurt my geek cred to get in a little GNU/Linux
action going on the side.

Stolen Work

This is the original source for the poetic review of Windows Vista.

This is the stolen version, without any credit to the original author

I have to say, I am more than a little dissappointed when someone creative work is stolen and so blatantly used by someone else.

Grrr...

Deja que este sencillo

(By the by, there should be an accent on the second e in este. Just so you know...)

Literally translated it means, “Let it be simple.”

Loosely translated (very loosely) it means, “Keep it simple, Stupid.”

Today Laura and I were watching “Deal or No Deal” on NBC and there was this commercial that came on. You may have seen it. There is a mid to late teenage boy with a blindfold and a Rubik’s cube and he solves the thing blindfolded. Now, I was trying to think of how they might have done the commercial because I am a little skeptical that he actually solved it blindfolded. So I was thinking of all the different ways in which one could digitally play with the video. Digital overlaying a different cube, just using an all blue cube and digitally coloring one square at a time, or some other technical and difficult method.

Remember, I was having this debate mentally. I had not said a thing except that I could not believe that he had actually done it blindfolded.

Laura said, “Maybe they taped it backwards.”

...

Boy did I feel silly/stupid.

Have I said today how much I love my wife? Well, yes. Just not here.

Laura, I love you.