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DRM Iphone Music

Cory Doctorow On What iPhone's Missing Headphone Jack Means For Music Industry (fastcompany.com) 394

Rumors of Apple's next iPhone missing a headphone jack have been swirling around for more than a year now. But a report from WSJ a few weeks ago, and another report from Bloomberg this week further cemented such possibility. We've talked about it here -- several times -- but now Cory Doctorow is shedding light on what this imminent change holds for the music industry. Reader harrymcc writes: Fast Company's Mark Sullivan talked about the switch with author and EFF adviser Cory Doctorow, who thinks it could lead to music companies leveraging DRM to exert more control over what consumers can do with their music.From the article:"If Apple creates a circumstance where the only way to get audio off its products is through an interface that is DRM-capable, they'd be heartbreakingly naive in assuming that this wouldn't give rise to demands for DRM," said Doctorow. If a consumer or some third-party tech company used the music in way the rights holders didn't like, the rights holders could invoke the anti-circumvention law written in Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Steve Jobs famously convinced the record industry to remove the DRM from music on iTunes; is there really any reason to believe the industry might suddenly become interested in DRM again if the iPhone audio goes all digital? "Yes -- for streaming audio services," Doctorow says. "I think it is inevitable that rights holder groups will try to prevent recording, retransmission, etc." Today it's easy to record streamed music from the analog headphone jack on the phone, and even to convert the stream back to digital and transmit it in real time to someone else. With a digital stream it might not be nearly so easy, or risk-free."Doctorow shares more on BoingBoing.
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Cory Doctorow On What iPhone's Missing Headphone Jack Means For Music Industry

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  • I can't hear you (Score:5, Informative)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:25AM (#52691253)

    Ultimately DRM boils down to even more labels not wanting their music to be heard. There's a simple answer to that, don't listen.

    If you don't want to produce good quality CD music uncompressed playable through an awesome amplifier to a standard pair of headphones without any bullshit circuitry in between, then by all means don't produce it. There's enough music in the world that we don't need to jump through hoops if we can't hear your stuff.

    • Re:I can't hear you (Score:5, Informative)

      by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:27AM (#52691267) Homepage Journal

      https://modarchive.org/ [modarchive.org]

      http://ocremix.org/ [ocremix.org]

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Yes. Music is ridiculously, almost concerningly abundant. The other day I was struck with the realization that I've never actively pursued an album, illegally or otherwise.

        To be fair, I also realized I actively dislike 99% of music with lyrics. I'm quite content with the pile of... auxiliary music I have. Soundtracks, dumps, batches, stuff from video game music. Rhythm games usually contain plenty of music. Plucking out their audio and putting it on my phone probably runs afoul of some fine print somewhe
      • The Cybernoid II [youtu.be] SID file is apparently ~4.5 Kbytes in size. I wonder how many such gems would fit into a single DRM'd clip at iTunes.
      • by tepples ( 727027 )

        How long until video game publishers start flooding ocremix.org with takedowns for unauthorized use of their copyrighted musical compositions?

    • That's largely where I'm heading. More and more of my music purchases are either direct from the artist, via Bandcamp or similar services. I'm not interested in streaming services, I actually like to own music, and not merely rent it (I'm an album guy). It's not really even a matter of price anymore, it's not like I can't afford to buy music off of iTunes or other online music stores, it's simply that I value my freedom to play the music I own how I want and when I want, and not be beholden to the vagaries

    • who thinks it could lead to music companies leveraging DRM to exert more control over what consumers can do with their music.

      This is exactly what the media companies want to do anyway with. You don't own your music, you simply have an EULA with a subscription service. And you pay a few every time you listen to a song. Software companies have already pushed this subscription model through.

      Of course, for old fogies who grew up copying Pink Floyd and Yes albums to cassette tapes back in the 70's, this will not fly at all.

      However, the media companies are thinking long term. They would like to convince the next generation of Int

    • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

      DRM for sound is completely impossible. CD with DRM? Plug the CD player's headphone jack to your computer's sound inputs and sample. Hell, I get albums weekly; every Sunday night KSHE plays six full albums. I just capture the stream on its way to the speakers.

      The only way to keep DRM "protected" music from playing on an iPhone is to get rid of wi-fi, bluetooth, the headphone jack, and the USB port. If I can put data on it at all, I can strip the DRM from those data before loading it on a phone.

      DRM is a bad

  • by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:28AM (#52691273)
    Paying $29 for another dongle.
  • Today it's easy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:28AM (#52691275)

    Today it's easy to record streamed music from the analog headphone jack on the phone, and even to convert the stream back to digital and transmit it in real time to someone else.

    Unless they propose to beam music into my brain through a digital only chip then the analogue hole will ALWAYS exist on music. This isn't a monitor where the digital signal is the last easy point to intercept the signal. There aren't 2.3million individual points to accurately record and reproduce. There's just 2.

    If you have a signal that can move two magnetic transducers, I can trivially pump that signal into a recording device after any DRM takes place.
    But I won't, I'll simply copy the CD instead. Keep your locked down piece of crap.

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      This is what I was thinking, but I wouldn't go so far as to say the analog hole will ALWAYS exist. It's conceivable that you could watermark the analog output in ways that are imperceptible to human hearing.

      But clearly THIS decision is driven by form factor considerations. An analog jack makes no difference one way or the other whether or not you can close the analog hole.

  • Idiotic Argument (Score:5, Interesting)

    by macs4all ( 973270 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:32AM (#52691293)
    So, I guess Cory Doctorow has never heard of a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), eh? Once a signal is converted back to analog (which it still has to be to be amplified and heard by us non-digitally-enabled humans), it is once more free for the taking.

    And unlike video, where you can play all sorts of games with resolution, etc, you can't decimate audio data nearly as much.

    Also, if this happens, there will be about 5,000 adapters to use analog earbuds/headphones with the data stream; and again, there's that pesky DAC... So, in reality, this is nothing more than a tempest in a DRM-free teapot.
    • Re:Idiotic Argument (Score:5, Interesting)

      by richieb ( 3277 ) <richieb@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:47AM (#52691423) Homepage Journal
      You missed the point of DRM. The stream of bits coming out of the iPhone can be encrypted and must be decrypted before the DAC can take place. The decryption keys will only exist in approved devices (speakers or headphones).
      • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12, 2016 @11:04AM (#52691581)

        Those Devices will need wires going to the part that makes sound, that part is the point you can install what ever you want to capture the signal. Its like pointing a cam at a movie screen sure, but its better.

      • ...which we can purchase, open, and connect the two wires that run to the speakers to a headphone jack instead. Then some poor SOB will upload a How-To video and end up a felon serving hard time for it. Not that it would stop anyone.
      • You missed the point of DRM. The stream of bits coming out of the iPhone can be encrypted and must be decrypted before the DAC can take place. The decryption keys will only exist in approved devices (speakers or headphones).

        I'm sorry you don't understand how electronics works; but in a word, "No".

        • by richieb ( 3277 )
          Sigh. I know how electronics work. When the speaker/headphone that accepts digital input only is sealed by the manufacturer, opening it up to connect to the analog input is not allowed - you are bypassing DRM, which is not legal under today's law. That's the point.
          • Sigh. I know how electronics work. When the speaker/headphone that accepts digital input only is sealed by the manufacturer, opening it up to connect to the analog input is not allowed - you are bypassing DRM, which is not legal under today's law. That's the point.

            Yea, but what you don't know is that no one but lawyers give a shit if that is legal or not...

            DMCA's rules about DRM are stupid and most normal people don't care...

            • by richieb ( 3277 )
              DMCA's rules about DRM are stupid and most normal people don't care...

              At least we agree here. Most people don't care until lawyers come after them. Remember DeCSS?

          • by tepples ( 727027 )

            When the speaker/headphone that accepts digital input only is sealed by the manufacturer

            Which manufacturer has announced plans to manufacture such a sealed speaker/headphone?

      • Ultimately it needs to be converted to analog so that it can instantiate some sort of speaker element. This can then easily be recorded with the right impedance match. This was impractical for video due to the complexity of the signal, but two simple analog signals are very easy to record and reproduce. Of course going from the analog to digital to digital compression (I will assume encryption/decryption is lossless), transmit over lossy Bluetooth and back to analog degrades the music to the point of "wh

        • by richieb ( 3277 )
          Yes of course. I can put a microphone in front of the speaker too. But a speaker with a digital input will be sealed, and when you open it you will be "bypassing DRM" and therefore breaking the law.
      • You missed the point of DRM. The stream of bits coming out of the iPhone can be encrypted and must be decrypted before the DAC can take place. The decryption keys will only exist in approved devices (speakers or headphones).

        This is too expensive of a solution and too easy to circumvent, like most DRM. There is a wire with an analog signal going to a speaker. Cut that wire and route it back into your recording device.

        The genie is long out of the bottle on music DRM and the record companies will never get their CD profits back.

  • by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:36AM (#52691323)

    - You need a small adapter for your regular headphones. This can get lost. So don't lose it.
    - They can fit a slightly bigger battery in the phone, so it will last slightly longer
    - The phone can be thinner.
    - Headphone port will no longer break if you yank the cord sideways. It will no longer get plugged up with pocket lint.
    - You can get noise cancelling headphones that are powered by your phone instead of a separate battery
    - Charging while listening remains a question? How can you do it? Wireless charging built in? Y-adapter?
    - Apple will sell bluetooth earbuds

    - People who want attention will complain and make up stories about DRM
    - Other people who want attention will complain and make up stories about headphone lock-in (even though there's an adapter for traditional headphones)
    - Other people who want attention will complain about the horror of paying $12 of an adapter when they just bought a $600 phone
    - Other people who want attention will complain because it's Apple and everything they do is bad
    - Other people will defend because it's Apple and everything they do is awesome

    - Next year, no one with any practicality will care that much because there's a $12 adapter for regular headphones.

    • by NotAPK ( 4529127 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:49AM (#52691433)

      "It will no longer get plugged up with pocket lint."

      NotAPK's First Law of Pocket Lint: All openings in an object with a depth-to-width aspect ratio great than 1, if stored in a pocket, will fill up with pocket lint.

    • They can fit a slightly bigger battery in the phone, so it will last slightly longer - But the DAC and extra circutry will make this die faster
      the Phone can be thinner - so it can more easily bend, and have a slimmer battery so it will die quicker
      Headphone port will still break if you yank the cord sideways. It will still get plugged up with pocket lint. - and will cost more to replace
      Your headphoens will now drain your battery faster ...
      You can't charge and listen

      So less convenient, for no gain except for

      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        Why do you think they'll need a DAC now versus before? What did they use before? Magic? Rastlin's Law: Magic drains batteries twice as fast as circuitry.

      • So less convenient, for no gain except for a phone that is even thinner! (Because thinner is better ....?)

        Considering we started with Bag Phones, yes.

    • by geek ( 5680 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:57AM (#52691511)

      Not sure where you get 12$ for an adapter. I don't think Apple has ever sold an adapter that wasn't 29$. Plus, it's a fucking adapter. One more thing to carry/get lost/deal with.

      Apple is always bitching about simplification. One button mice, as few cords as possible, thinner etc etc. Then to use their shit you have to buy a gym bag full of fucking adapters for it to work with anything else. It's ridiculous.

      That said, those who don't like it can simply buy something else. For me though the problem is that I hate Google more than Apple and refuse to be either companies bitch. I really miss my old feature phone.

      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        I pulled the number out of my ass. But you'll obviously be able to get a cheap third-party adapter within a few months.

        • by geek ( 5680 )

          I pulled the number out of my ass. But you'll obviously be able to get a cheap third-party adapter within a few months.

          You think so? Apple has to license anything thats Lightning capable. Do you really think Apple will allow someone to sell a cheaper adapter then their own? Maybe, but unlikely, and especially not in the first few months.

          • You think so? Apple has to license anything thats Lightning capable. Do you really think Apple will allow someone to sell a cheaper adapter then their own?

            Unless Apple gets the entire U.S. Customs Service on board with it, there's not much they're going to be able to do, practically. Licensing has not been a particularly big concern for Chinese counterfeiters, nor has the Customs Service.
        • All the third party cheap chargers on Amazon are full of shit reviews.
      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        For me though the problem is that I hate Google more than Apple and refuse to be either companies bitch.

        Is that attitude making you happy? Has it ever?

        Consider the pros and cons of just not caring about WTF-ever and just having a nice shiny pocket computer. I like mine.

    • Good luck finding one adapter with a good DAC which is not expensive.
    • - Next year, no one with any practicality will care that much because there's a $12 adapter for regular headphones.

      And you forgot the most important one:

      Next year, no one will care because every other phone will copy the iPhone (again/still) and remove the headphone jack as well. (In fact, Apple already isn't the first doing this).

    • In reality, your $12 adapter will cost $39. There are always licensing fees for proprietary connectors, and the manufacturer has to make money. If it were just a lightning connector on one end, a headphone jack on the other, and just wire in between, it might cost $12. If there is any sort of active component required in between those connectors, expect at least $39.
    • by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @12:59PM (#52692535) Homepage Journal

      - You need a small adapter for your regular headphones. This can get lost. So don't lose it.

      Losing it isn't the problem. Not having it with you when you need it is the problem. If you only have one pair of headphones, that's fine. It's an unholy level of obnoxious if you think, "Oh, I'll plug my iPhone into my friend's stereo system to listen to a song," and your friend uses an Android phone and doesn't have the specialized adapter, because odds are approximately 100% that you won't have it with you.

      - They can fit a slightly bigger battery in the phone, so it will last slightly longer

      About two or three minutes, by my math. The headphone jack isn't very big, and doesn't stick that much farther into the device than a lightning port.

      - Headphone port will no longer break if you yank the cord sideways. It will no longer get plugged up with pocket lint.

      Lightning jacks get clogged at least as badly. And now, if you yank the cord sideways, not only will you break the port, but also you'll be unable to charge your phone. Oh, were you thinking about Bluetooth? Hope you like losing five seconds of audio every time you pause playback and restart it.

      - You can get noise cancelling headphones that are powered by your phone instead of a separate battery

      You can do that now. Nothing prevents headphone companies from building headphones with a Lightning connector. And they'll work all the way back to the iPhone 5.

      - Charging while listening remains a question? How can you do it? Wireless charging built in? Y-adapter?

      Two Lightning ports, I hope. Otherwise, this design is a disaster rivaled in the entire history of computing only by the current single-port MacBook.

      - Apple will sell bluetooth earbuds

      Which will suck because there's not enough space inside an earbud for a battery that will last longer than an hour or two under the best of circumstances. Apple will then insist that you need to grow bigger ears.

  • not what i expect (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eyenot ( 102141 ) <eyenot@hotmail.com> on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:41AM (#52691367) Homepage

    When I heard that the iPhone was "missing" the headphone jack, my first thought was "good call".

    Here you have this insanely popular electronic device that people have with them at all times, and what's the number one complaint about it? No, no, /. friends, no, it's not planned obsolescence. It's "this thing dies if it so much as looks at water."

    Well if you're going to try to take care of that problem one thing you might go for right away is getting rid of that crazy big hole in the top that by its very nature of design is all about exposed metal contacts.

    I guess you could get all crazy in your head about DRM and shit but as someone else points out, at the end of the day however the sound is delivered it must end up being converted into a signal that can be used by standard speakers or headphones.

    The only way around that is if Apple plans on making it so you have only two options:
    * play the sound directly through the iPhone's built-in speaker
    * send the sound via some Apple-proprietary encrypted cousin of bluetooth to one of Apple's own special speaker systems that if they get large enough to entertain a party probably cost many thousands of dollars

    If that's the direction they're going to go I'd like to imagine it's going to be a complete failure because people don't have the money or wherewithal to spend on special speakers from Apple (the computer company, not the music company).

    But then again you only have to know a handful of Apple users to understand that they would do exactly that, and would be glad to go broke doing it.

    • Here you have this insanely popular electronic device that people have with them at all times, and what's the number one complaint about it? No, no, /. friends, no, it's not planned obsolescence. It's "this thing dies if it so much as looks at water."

      I highly doubt this is the #1 complaint. I doubt it's the #100 complaint.

      • by eyenot ( 102141 )

        Heh. Maybe you just haven't done enough phone repair. The entire world of tech doesn't fit inside a review blog, you know.

        http://www.alphr.com/apple-iph... [alphr.com]

        • I used to sell Jeep's when I was younger. From my perspective everyone I met at work wanted to buy a Jeep. So I guess I should extrapolate that out to assume that everyone everywhere wanted a Jeep right?

      • Here you have this insanely popular electronic device that people have with them at all times, and what's the number one complaint about it? No, no, /. friends, no, it's not planned obsolescence. It's "this thing dies if it so much as looks at water."

        I highly doubt this is the #1 complaint. I doubt it's the #100 complaint.

        Outside of the Apple-Hating walls of this site, you'd be wrong. Very wrong.

    • by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:51AM (#52691453)

      The #1 complaint is "I saved $86 getting an Android phone instead, so Apple sucks balls".

      • How about $286
      • How much longer before Android devices start appearing without the jack? How much longer, as Doctorow suggests, before the music industry starts insisting on getting rid of analog ports entirely, and DRM is put in place so that even with a dongle, you're still faced with the limitations that DRM put in place? Then, of course, it will carry on to computer manufacturers, and you'll be using USB speakers and headphones on them, and the music industry will get the end-to-end DRM on music just like they're getti

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          How much longer before Android devices start appearing without the jack? How much longer, as Doctorow suggests, before the music industry starts insisting on getting rid of analog ports entirely, and DRM is put in place so that even with a dongle, you're still faced with the limitations that DRM put in place? Then, of course, it will carry on to computer manufacturers, and you'll be using USB speakers and headphones on them, and the music industry will get the end-to-end DRM on music just like they're getti

      • The #1 complaint is "I saved $86 getting an Android phone instead, so Apple sucks balls".

        You mean "All I saved was a paltry $86 getting an Android phone instead, and it has 10 vulnerabilities that will never get fixed, and now one Russian and three Chinese Servers have all my personal information..."

    • by JasterBobaMereel ( 1102861 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:58AM (#52691527)

      There are devices with a headphone socket that is sealed and waterproof ... this is not usually the entry point for water on most devices ...

      • by arth1 ( 260657 )

        There are devices with a headphone socket that is sealed and waterproof ... this is not usually the entry point for water on most devices ...

        Indeed. Sony had a waterproof Walkman or two back in the 80s, so the technology isn't exactly new.
        The mic and speaker are bigger concerns for humidity getting in.

      • There are devices with a headphone socket that is sealed and waterproof ... this is not usually the entry point for water on most devices ...

        You mean like the not-so-water-resistant-after-all [consumerreports.org] Galaxy S7?

    • by cpotoso ( 606303 )
      Because it is so technically difficult to make the headphone jack be water proof? Of course it is not. Stop making stupid arguments to defend Apple, fan boy.
      • Because it is so technically difficult to make the headphone jack be water proof? Of course it is not. Stop making stupid arguments to defend Apple, fan boy.

        Apparently, Samsung is finding that it is [consumerreports.org], indeed...

    • It's very easy to engineer a waterproof headphone jack and I believe this has been used on Galaxy S4/S5.
    • If that's the direction they're going to go I'd like to imagine it's going to be a complete failure because people don't have the money or wherewithal to spend on special speakers from Apple (the computer company, not the music company).

      Not to mention the fact that Apple actually tried to sell a set of amplified speakers back in the heyday of the iPod, and it was a dismal failure. Not because they sucked (they didn't); but because it just wasn't the right product for Apple.

    • Re:not what i expect (Score:5, Informative)

      by danbob999 ( 2490674 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @12:00PM (#52692017)

      many Android phones are doing just fine with both IP67 certification (underwater) and a 3.5mm jack.

    • It's "this thing dies if it so much as looks at water."

      Well if you're going to try to take care of that problem one thing you might go for right away is getting rid of that crazy big hole

      That's not a difficult entry point to seal off. The speaker and mic are, I believe, much more difficult.

    • one thing you might go for right away is getting rid of that crazy big hole in the top that by its very nature of design is all about exposed metal contacts

      Waterproofing a headphone jack is trivial. I've done it myself to a variety of consumer gear- there's nothing to it, really.

      Yes, water may get inside the jack itself, but if the jack is sealed properly there's nowhere for the water to go. Shake it out or blow it out and you're back in business. In most cases residual water in the jack won't even affect the connectivity once a plug is inserted. The metal-to-metal contact area forces water out of the way and the connection works just fine.

  • by kimvette ( 919543 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:45AM (#52691411) Homepage Journal

    Speakers will always be analog so the easy workaround would be to source "digital speakers" that utilise a single high quality full-range driver, snip the leads to the driver and hook up a LOC and record the analog level coming out of the LOC. There will always be an "analog hole" which can be used to bypass any and all DRM.

    • by richieb ( 3277 )
      "Approved" speakers will take in digital input and decrypt just before playing the sound. What you are proposing is bypassing DRM, which currently is not legal...
      • Your point?

      • Yes. You will become a felon, face heavy fines, and prison time for plugging two wires into where your speaker used to be. But they could threaten the death penalty and people will still do it.

  • A few weeks ago... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @10:50AM (#52691443)
    The media content industry wants to get rid of all analogue output jacks because an analogue jack cannot be locked down. .

    The media content industry has already done away with analogue video output jacks. Now they are focusing on audio.

    https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

  • In which a a stereo bluetooth speaker is paired with a pair of bluetooth microphones, encased in a soundproof case. To make DRM music non-DRM, simply play it to the bluetooth speaker and record to MP3 from the bluetooth microphones.

  • A very interesting article. But people fail to understand that there are other phone vendors besides Apple. Unless all of them remove the jack, then we have no problem. Apple has a problem. No user in his right mind would consider buying a jack-less iPhone. I bought my first phone just because of the integrated MP3/radio player, not the ability to make calls. That was secondary. I never heard anyone say anything good about Bluetooth transmissions. So let's see if Apple pulls it off, but I doubt it.
    • A very interesting article. But people fail to understand that there are other phone vendors besides Apple. Unless all of them remove the jack, then we have no problem. Apple has a problem. No user in his right mind would consider buying a jack-less iPhone. I bought my first phone just because of the integrated MP3/radio player, not the ability to make calls. That was secondary. I never heard anyone say anything good about Bluetooth transmissions. So let's see if Apple pulls it off, but I doubt it.

      Better begin to like (or at least accept) "jackless" phones. Apple already isn't the first, and if history is any predictor, if Apple does away with the headphone jack, you won't be able to find 5 phones with one by next year, and zero in two more years.

  • If Apple creates a circumstance where the only way to get audio off its products is through an interface that is DRM-capable...

    Idiotic statement. There is ALWAYS a bulletproof way to get audio off any device that can play it. It won't be a perfect copy but until they can outlaw speakers we can always just do what we did when I was growing up and record it by putting a mic up to the speakers. Works just fine unless you are a snob about it.

  • company... removes headphone jack.

    Seems legit.

  • Yeah, so Apple is going to not only ditch the analog TRS connector, but also going to get rid of the DRM-less Bluetooth A2DP standard we've all been using for years, because they want to throw their entire music strategy in reverse and go BACK to DRM, inviting useability hassles and customer complaints, and instantly making their devices incompatible with 100% of all playback devices on the market today?

    Seems like a legit strategy. Or a lot of paranoid hand waving.

  • they'd be heartbreakingly naive in assuming that this wouldn't give rise to demands for DRM,

    No, they'd be lying. Does anyone believe that they have not already received demands for such DRM? Surely, they've been receiving such demands for years.

  • Every person who buys an iPhone with no headphone jack will end up paying an extra amount of money for some shitty dongle or even shittier iPhone Beats by Dr Drm.

    Consumers will be the losers in a war with no win condition. As many people have mentioned, it will simply be ripped after the port instead of at the port. Meaning all of this industry re-tooling will do nothing against imaginary pirates, and plenty of measurable harm for poor sods who pay for the things they want to license.
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  • May just require some tools. If they think they can lock down music completely, then they are mistaken.

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