Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: DRM

  • DRM: Paranoia and panic is the default setting

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Seven years ago, it was an effort to get people interested in DRM issues. Today, as the internet pulsates with rumour, paranoia and conspiracy, there’s a different kind of problem. This constant background noise – and people’s willingness to jump in fear at their own shadows.

    Instead of information scarcity, there’s information overload. So to make sense of this Tower of Babel, people construct a “Daily Me”, establish informal social networks of news sources. These, in turn, tell people how

    … Read More

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  • Free music has never looked so cheap

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    For the major record labels, yesterday’s deal between EMI and Apple doesn’t herald a new beginning, but the beginning of the end.

    From next month, EMI will distribute much of its repertoire without DRM through Apple’s iTunes store. Independent labels have been distributing DRM-free songs for three years, avoiding the lock-ins created by competing hardware manufacturers. But EMI is the first of the “Big Four” majors to recognise that artificially recreating the inconveniences of physical product in a digital form … Read More

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  • Lessig, RMS on DRM

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Professor Lessig tells us that he should have reviewed the Sun Microsystems press release before it went out. It doesn’t fully reflect his position, he says, and he’s emphatic that this blessing doesn’t constitute an endorsement.

    Read more… Read More

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  • Lessig blesses DRM

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Oh.

    Dear.

    If you arrive for work today and discover a grisly pool of brain tissue and bone fragments where a colleague used to sit, we may have the explanation right here. For, n a move that risks causing Scanners-style head explosions across the land, Professor Lawrence Lessig has endorsed DRM.

    Don't read on. This could happen to you

    Not just any old digital rights management, but Sun’s open source DRM initiative, the Open Media Commons.

    “In a world where DRM has become ubiquitous, we need to … Read More

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