Bah

[Muzer]

DRM/Copy protection fail.


Discuss. I'm interested in people's opinions on these topics.

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

I'm afraid that admin on the forums are a bit agressive about mentioning or in any way suggesting piracy, but, that picture(s) makes a hell of a point!

[Muzer]

I'm not giving steps on how to bypass/remove such protection. I'm just interested in peoples' actual opinions on this subject (regardless of what you actually adhere to), whilst making my own clear.

[omängum fra'uti]

I think it's stupid how far things have gotten, that it is more convenient to get things illegally than it is to actually pay for them.

The policies here aren't a reflection of opinion or ideology or anything like that.  It is merely a matter of practicality, and that old adage, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you".  Like it or not, Fox holds the reins on the Na'vi language, and we're already skirting a grey area here just by having this site.  But what it comes down to is that, in the end, should Fox decide to come down on us, the site will likely have to close.  No matter how much you are in the right, defending a legal battle is expensive, and fan sites like this one just don't have the resources for a legal defense.

So even posting steps on how to watch a movie that you own can be a bad thing if the same steps can be seen as enabling illegal activity.  You may think it's stupid, and you won't have much disagreeing, but in the end it's not your ass on the line here, it's the future of the Learn Na'vi website and forums.  Media companies have been known to pull strange moves and come down on fan sites for smaller reasons than that, and the end result is usually the same; the fan site ends up disappearing.

Edit: For example, the recent story of Discovery Channel shutting down a Deadliest Catch fan-site for embedding youtube videos and copyright infringement from using content sent to them by Discovery Channel. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100808/00114510538.shtml

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

One brilliant example of Copy Protection gone wrong was a thread I saw at Sweclockers.com in the beginning of June. Someone had bought a brand new Bluray player and the Avatar BD, and had problems playing it. It turned out that the BD player brand he had didn't care about releasing a BD+ firmware update for the EU region, so he was basically screwed on seeing it in any legal way. Except for the DVD, but it isn't funny to watch Avatar on DVD if you have the BD, and a BD player..

[Muzer]

Of course, I use Linux, and big corporations are completely afraid of FOSS - so I had great difficulties (which are now, thankfully, resolved) watching Avatar when I bought it on release.

@omängum: I wasn't trying to say that the LN policies suck (they do IMO, but they are in place for a very good reason). I understand and agree with the reasoning behind them. Just the incident got me thinking again about this, and I was interested in people's opinions on the subject. I was not trying to combat the mods' decisions or anything.

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

Well, those policies are there so that the big companies won't go mad, and no admins (except maybe the TPB crew) want to handle such complaints.

My secound most active community, sweclockers.com, have a antipiracy policy which means that a thread is locked almost as soon as anyone mentions piracy.

[Muzer]

I know - as I said, although the policies themselves suck, I know that the reason why they are in place is an important one, and I agree with the reasoning - and so am happy to abide by the policies (though it slips my mind from time to time).

[Swoka Ikran]

My stance on DRM: It needs to die. Period.

If you want DRM-free music, Amazon and iTunes both sell it. Just depends what format you want: iTunes sells AAC files, Amazon has MP3s.

As for why I hate DRM, I know several people who've had issues caused by it. The most notable was a neighbor who couldn't play her $500+ music collection. Her PC refused to play most of her music collection after it was formatted. She called the company she bought the music from, and their response was basically "buy it again". She emailed me about it, and I spent the afternoon unprotecting her music. After I explained to her what DRM was, she agreed that it was annoying, and switched to iTunes.

In regards to the policies on this site, this is one of two boards I belong to that is 100% anti-piracy. Other boards I belong to allow "grey-area" stuff, but prohibit straight piracy (links/serials/etc.) Regardless, whatever the admins here want, I'm happy to follow.

Someone had bought a brand new Bluray player and the Avatar BD, and had problems playing it. It turned out that the BD player brand he had didn't care about releasing a BD+ firmware update for the EU region, so he was basically screwed on seeing it in any legal way.

Had something like that happen. Took my Avatar BD to a friend's house, and his player refused to play it. No updates either. Friend ended up coming to my house.

[Eyamsiyu]

Here's my opinion: go "classy" and buy an actual CD.  Now you've stayed a law-abiding citizen, and you can put it as an music file for anything.

[Muzer]

I don't actually listen to much music at all, so it's never been a problem for me, up until recently when DRM-encumbered software and movies (BD) have come into being.

[Eyamsiyu]

I would have an issue with it as a future recording & studio musician.  I mean, I would be lying if I said I NEVER stole music.  But I stopped that habit VERY early.  Pretty much when 1) I knew I wanted to do music for a living, and 2) I REALLY understood that musicians depend on and live off of records and live performance, a majority of it being studio albums.  Not to mention the MONTHS of work that goes into an album.

[Dreamlight]

You get a karma cookie just for sticking it to DRM and the like.

[Muzer]

(Just to make it clear, I'm not actually advocating not buying the media in the first place - I know that piracy does harm the industry, and I don't engage in it myself, nor do I encourage it (that first xkcd comic was more to make a point than actual advice). Just trying to buy it without DRM, or removing the DRM as soon as you have purchased it, or failing both of those, buying it and then pirating a DRM-free version.)

[Swoka Ikran]

As for DRM, hate the stuff. Even though I bought the music on iTunes, I want to play it on my netbook, on a media server, on public computers, etc. DRM stops me from doing that, so I pretty much always end up converting the music to a more portable format immediately after I purchase it, this is another reason why I like CDs better than iTunes sometimes...

As of early 2009, iTunes doesn't include DRM anymore...at least according to this article.

How exactly are you getting DRM'd iTunes music? Or do you just mean that AAC is not exactly portable?

[bommel]

DRM kills content. It already killed computer games (look at Ubisoft's Game Launcher - what a piece of crap!)! That's why I'm playing on consoles and not on PC anymore! So they don't need to wonder about increasing number of piracy. When you treat the paying customers like this they won't be paying customers the next time!

[Niwantaw]

I've got some game's a can't play because of the f***ing DRM. Like E.g. C&C4 you have to be online to play it single player. Which sucks as I have a rubbish connection for gaming. So 890% of the time I can't play it.

[bommel]

I've got some game's a can't play because of the f***ing DRM. Like E.g. C&C4 you have to be online to play it single player. Which sucks as I have a rubbish connection for gaming. So 890% of the time I can't play it.

That's what I'm talking about. And they wonder why there is so much piracy -.-

[Niwantaw]

I've got some game's a can't play because of the f***ing DRM. Like E.g. C&C4 you have to be online to play it single player. Which sucks as I have a rubbish connection for gaming. So 890% of the time I can't play it.

That's what I'm talking about. And they wonder why there is so much piracy -.-

I'll admit I do some piracy but I'm trying to keep more or less free of pirated software.
But sometimes you just have enough of their ridiculous DRM. although apparently I just heard that Cracking it to run without a CD and modifying it for your own use isn't illegal. (or at least is a bit of a grey area)

[Muzer]

If you live in the US, I'm pretty certain that would be illegal, as their laws on that topic are pretty strict.

Here in the UK, I'm honestly not sure.