On that HDCP thread...

Looks like ATI licensed HDMI technology.

It's interesting to note that ATI didn't disclose if they were also licensing HDCP.

That's one license some might want ATI to skip on.

Was HDCP really necessary?

So what is exactly the added value that comes from HDCP?

This is something I will blog about in the next few days...

Law, Technology and strict constructionism...

This is quite interesting... I was reading an article about what is known as the Tariff 22 case, I read this:

The Court [Federal Court of Appeal] held that, although ISPs may rely upon the “intermediary exception” in most situations because they only provide the means of telecommunication, with respect to caching to enhance transmission speed, the exemption was not available, as the ISPs were doing more than is necessary just to communicate.

When I, as a programmer, think about caching, I see technology, speed improvements, a lower use of bandwith, a better internet for everyone, etc.

The supreme court seems to agree:

The Court [Supreme Court of Canada] found that this activity fell within the scope of the intermediary exemption because caching was employed by ISPs to deliver faster and more economic service and is also content-neutral. As such, protection of this activity promoted the public interest in encouraging the development and expansion of entities that make telecommunications possible.

Still, while I think caching does seem to make life better (see note below), this for me spells two of the current buzzwords: "Strict Constructionism" and "Judicial Activism".

Note: Caching doesn't always make life better for a programmer, because you sometimes get confused about why the output of a website isn't what it is supposed to look like. The culprit in these cases can be caching, and it's not very fun!

Filed under COPYRIGHT

In Canada too?

Have any of you ever seen Canadian Bacon? The movie is about the US wanting to invade Canada. It's always fun to see Canada appear once in a while on the US map...

So now we have this story that is gaining some traction in the blogosphere. It's about a politician that appears to be against "pro-user zealots" (or it's the "pro-user zealots" that are against her). It's the first time I see some traction around a (north american) politician on the DRM/copyright topic. I would have thought this fight would have happened in the US first, but... I guess not. Something does happen in Canada once in a while!

You can read more about this on Michael Geist's site.
The website of Sam Bulte is here.

Filed under DRM

Does that count for anything?

Remember when your parents asked you to do something and you waited for the punishment to come before you did anything? Did you deserve any credit?

This really irritates me...

Three lawsuits were launched in Canada. One in Quebec ((English translation by Google) in November 2005. Recently, there were complaints from Ontario and British Columbia. All the moves are aimed at Sony BMG's rootkit technology as well as the MediaMax "spyware". The technology is found in music albums, as authorized by Sony BMG

These lawsuits are in addition to the ones initiated in the US.

Yes it's nice to sue and try to make things better, but I think Sony is being targetted unfairly by this. First, none of those states did anything prior to sysinternals releasing info about this. They all "waited" for this story to become big, and now they see the money train going and want to jump in before it's too late. I put "waited" in quotes because they weren't really waiting for anything.

It's akin to you walking in the street and finding a 100$ bill. Where you looking for it? Not really.

Instead of wasting everyone's time and money (by suing, by hurting Sony, by increasing the cost that we will have to pay), they should be proactive and actually start looking at all solutions on the market and find the next problem and find an industry wide solution... I don't think Sony is alone on this...

Filed under DRM

"Do no evil" and DRM...

Apple, Microsoft, and now Google is joining the DRM train...

What will be interesting are the type of control they build into their drm, and how much control each company has, etc. I hope they come up with a system that is more balanced than the existing one.

Reminder: the do no evil motto...

Let's see if their DRM technology will be as open as the rest of their technologies.

Filed under DRM

Will 2006 be a new beginning or more of the same?

A little bit like for the Oscars, it seems that the best of the year always comes for last. In the case of the DRM, I think the highlight of the year has to be the Sony DRM snafu, which clearly outshined the lost of Grokster. In any event, I wonder where that leaves us for 2006.

Some, like Michael Geist, have suggested that this story could be a starting point for real "rights", but I wonder if that will be the case.

For this to happen, I think something really worse has to happen. I don't think we have hit the bottom of the barrel yet. Clearly, the DRM train is still running full steam ahead.

I believe that the Apple vs. Music Owners current discussion might be the thing that really lead to some balance. If you think that it took a decision like Sony Betamax to give us home videos, maybe it takes one where a big technology maker is pitted against large media companies to come to an acceptable compromise.

Is DRM a fact of life? Probably... Are DRM solutions settled on? Absolutely not.

Stay tuned for 2006.

Filed under DRM