Apparently it reencodes the audio file using iMovie — no reverse engineering of the protection is involved. I suppose iMovie is able to do that because people might want to use the music they purchased on their vacation slideshows. That would be similar to burning the protected files to a CD and importing the CD back into iTunes, which is allowed...
Still I wouldn't put it past the legal department to somehow argue this is a horrible breach of the user agreement ;-)
Here's a dumb question: how really different is it, to copy by hand a part from a book (I've once done a whole chapter... as a school punishment!), or to copy/re-encode digital files that you legally bought? Sure, it's quicker, more convenient, etc... but it's the same at the core.
Ditto for tracing a drawing. Who's never done it? I mean, for us pre-computer age dinosaurs, of course! Fred Flintstone meets the very strange world of George Jetson. Yadda-badda, boo! Is English class dictation from a Harry Potter book still... tolerated? Sounds like mass-duplication by unpaid child slaves in a sweat-shop to me. Complete with copy errors!!!
The only thing that should logically be illegal, is marketing (or distributing for free) unauthorized copies of copyrighted material which is supposed to be earning the authors a living or legitimate profit. I do not include outdated videogames ("abandonwares") from 15 years ago in that category. Nor private copies of ANYTHING that I've legally paid for.
I recall the days when paper books came without a statement threatening you with prison if you ever were to lend it to someone... Somebody should have informed me that I was living the "good old times", then I would've enjoyed them more! ;-P Instead of constantly whining that growing up in the Lebanon civil war "blew", "sucked" and "bit". Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth!
As for "reverse-engineering", ditto! By today's laws, doodling mustaches on the images in one of my class books during a moment of boredom is modification of copyrighted material, and a crime deserving prison. And how about that old series, The A-Team? In EVERY episode, they "pirated" a copyrighted trademarked automotive vehicle and fiercely "reverse-engineered" it from head to heel! And these mercenary delinquents were shown like some rolemodel to our children on NATIONAL TELEVISION, the horror! You'll see: one of these days, people will get pulled over for verification, and hauled to jail if they've dared use non-manufacturer's parts or change the upholstery.
If I buy a PlayStation3 console, I'm free to do anything I damn please with it, as long as I'm not trespassing on the legitimate right of companies to sell their products. A mod chip is constitutional, I say.
Heck, with my modded PS2, my main use for what it allows me to do, is by burning CDs of my MP3, JPEG and AVI computer files, which I can then view on my TV through my console, courtesy of an independent (and fully unofficial) emulation software. [I know, that's adding insult to injury, and with no healthcare plan.]
So what, am I hurting anyone, stealing anything, or breaking any sensible LAWS by viewing my family photos through a PS2? Or by ripping my music CDs to listen to them as MP3s through the best earphone system I happen to have at hand?
Sure, if it relieves me of the "need" to buy an iPod, it's about as abominably criminal as riding the bus to avoid purchasing General Motors' products. ):-P
This reminds me of sex. Yes, sex. These days, under the sempiternal motive that many people do wrong things with it and end up on the Jerry Springer Show, there is now a quasi-worldwide conspiracy to make sex outlawed unless you have a signed permission from the Pope.
"Fornication Under Consent of the King", F.U.C.K. I'm still not sure whether this acronym is made-up or authentic. The e-mail that told about it claimed that in the Middle Ages, people needed royal permission before being allowed to conceive kids.
As for that Digital Rights Management protection, I wonder how many people would buy a house and tolerate being told that by decision of the manufacturer and architect, they're only allowed to enter it throught the front door, the back door being illegal if you pass it to go beyond the garden, "and if you pass through a window I'll sic the goddamn cops at you, so I've put bars on all windows and don't you dare remove them or I'll have up to your grandmother's shirt".
Maybe I'm biased?
Then again, maybe I'm just expressing the common person's opinion, and in part explaining why so many peers-to-peers feel justified to screw "the Man" with massive online piracy.
It's not enough that they make us feel gouged with the prices, they'd want us to practically install a State-controlled chastity belt on every child at birth "to eradicate rape from the planet". And while at it, do away with masturbation, "for the common good".
Speaking of reverse-engineering... In Lebanon, pretty much everywhere I see copies of Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas which I'm sure Rockstar Games didn't approve. The Batman version, Spiderman, Superman, the Mask, Zorro, Son Goku, Pepsiman, Hulk, Arabic bandit, Disney's Tarzan, God of War's Kratos, etc... I've lost count, Dracula! All are mods of the game, with a new skin for the main character, and sometimes tweaked abilities. (For instance, the "Ghetto Spiderman" dude is pretty much like the original character, but he can jump twice higher.)
It seems to me that the age of digital format has made some self-evident individual rights very virtual... My Google mailman now has the right to read all my correspondence in the openly admitted aim to waste my time with adversising. "Bit Brother is scanning you."
No, what I meant was that every software these days (and probably music CD as well) sternly warn you about "lending". Something I had never seen on a prehistoric paper book, in the days of HRH Ramses, Divine Protector of the Papyrus Scrolls.
They make you feel like having a buddy over for a two-player game of Street Fighter might earn you a mortal kontrakt from the RIAA, or whatever their acrimonious acronym is, for "breach of National Security". After all, how much becomes "lending" or "public exhibition"? Is three a crowd, legally speaking?
Ghost in the Shell moment: my Captcha said "conver". How did "IT" know???
Gee, I hope quoting that word up there wasn't unauthorized reproduction of "all or part" of a copyrighted warning! (Oops! There I go doing it again.)
Apparently it reencodes the audio file using iMovie — no reverse engineering of the protection is involved. I suppose iMovie is able to do that because people might want to use the music they purchased on their vacation slideshows. That would be similar to burning the protected files to a CD and importing the CD back into iTunes, which is allowed...
ReplyDeleteStill I wouldn't put it past the legal department to somehow argue this is a horrible breach of the user agreement ;-)
Right.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I couldn't get it to work. It hangs up every time when it tries to save some files to the desktop.
Here's a dumb question: how really different is it, to copy by hand a part from a book (I've once done a whole chapter... as a school punishment!), or to copy/re-encode digital files that you legally bought? Sure, it's quicker, more convenient, etc... but it's the same at the core.
ReplyDeleteDitto for tracing a drawing. Who's never done it? I mean, for us pre-computer age dinosaurs, of course! Fred Flintstone meets the very strange world of George Jetson. Yadda-badda, boo!
Is English class dictation from a Harry Potter book still... tolerated? Sounds like mass-duplication by unpaid child slaves in a sweat-shop to me. Complete with copy errors!!!
The only thing that should logically be illegal, is marketing (or distributing for free) unauthorized copies of copyrighted material which is supposed to be earning the authors a living or legitimate profit. I do not include outdated videogames ("abandonwares") from 15 years ago in that category. Nor private copies of ANYTHING that I've legally paid for.
I recall the days when paper books came without a statement threatening you with prison if you ever were to lend it to someone...
Somebody should have informed me that I was living the "good old times", then I would've enjoyed them more! ;-P
Instead of constantly whining that growing up in the Lebanon civil war "blew", "sucked" and "bit". Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth!
As for "reverse-engineering", ditto!
By today's laws, doodling mustaches on the images in one of my class books during a moment of boredom is modification of copyrighted material, and a crime deserving prison. And how about that old series, The A-Team? In EVERY episode, they "pirated" a copyrighted trademarked automotive vehicle and fiercely "reverse-engineered" it from head to heel! And these mercenary delinquents were shown like some rolemodel to our children on NATIONAL TELEVISION, the horror!
You'll see: one of these days, people will get pulled over for verification, and hauled to jail if they've dared use non-manufacturer's parts or change the upholstery.
If I buy a PlayStation3 console, I'm free to do anything I damn please with it, as long as I'm not trespassing on the legitimate right of companies to sell their products. A mod chip is constitutional, I say.
Heck, with my modded PS2, my main use for what it allows me to do, is by burning CDs of my MP3, JPEG and AVI computer files, which I can then view on my TV through my console, courtesy of an independent (and fully unofficial) emulation software. [I know, that's adding insult to injury, and with no healthcare plan.]
So what, am I hurting anyone, stealing anything, or breaking any sensible LAWS by viewing my family photos through a PS2? Or by ripping my music CDs to listen to them as MP3s through the best earphone system I happen to have at hand?
Sure, if it relieves me of the "need" to buy an iPod, it's about as abominably criminal as riding the bus to avoid purchasing General Motors' products.
):-P
This reminds me of sex. Yes, sex. These days, under the sempiternal motive that many people do wrong things with it and end up on the Jerry Springer Show, there is now a quasi-worldwide conspiracy to make sex outlawed unless you have a signed permission from the Pope.
"Fornication Under Consent of the King", F.U.C.K.
I'm still not sure whether this acronym is made-up or authentic. The e-mail that told about it claimed that in the Middle Ages, people needed royal permission before being allowed to conceive kids.
As for that Digital Rights Management protection, I wonder how many people would buy a house and tolerate being told that by decision of the manufacturer and architect, they're only allowed to enter it throught the front door, the back door being illegal if you pass it to go beyond the garden, "and if you pass through a window I'll sic the goddamn cops at you, so I've put bars on all windows and don't you dare remove them or I'll have up to your grandmother's shirt".
Maybe I'm biased?
Then again, maybe I'm just expressing the common person's opinion, and in part explaining why so many peers-to-peers feel justified to screw "the Man" with massive online piracy.
It's not enough that they make us feel gouged with the prices, they'd want us to practically install a State-controlled chastity belt on every child at birth "to eradicate rape from the planet". And while at it, do away with masturbation, "for the common good".
Speaking of reverse-engineering... In Lebanon, pretty much everywhere I see copies of Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas which I'm sure Rockstar Games didn't approve. The Batman version, Spiderman, Superman, the Mask, Zorro, Son Goku, Pepsiman, Hulk, Arabic bandit, Disney's Tarzan, God of War's Kratos, etc... I've lost count, Dracula!
All are mods of the game, with a new skin for the main character, and sometimes tweaked abilities. (For instance, the "Ghetto Spiderman" dude is pretty much like the original character, but he can jump twice higher.)
It seems to me that the age of digital format has made some self-evident individual rights very virtual...
My Google mailman now has the right to read all my correspondence in the openly admitted aim to waste my time with adversising. "Bit Brother is scanning you."
"I recall the days when paper books came without a statement threatening you with prison if you ever were to lend it to someone."
ReplyDeleteI've not seen such a statement.
And I'm quite sure that both lending books and copying anything for personal use is well within Fair Use rights.
... OK, I found a book with such a statement. But I doubt it's legal. How can somebody forbid you to lend or resell your own property?
... No, wait, I missed the bit that you can't lend or resell it *under a different cover*...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you made the same mistake?
No, what I meant was that every software these days (and probably music CD as well) sternly warn you about "lending". Something I had never seen on a prehistoric paper book, in the days of HRH Ramses, Divine Protector of the Papyrus Scrolls.
ReplyDeleteThey make you feel like having a buddy over for a two-player game of Street Fighter might earn you a mortal kontrakt from the RIAA, or whatever their acrimonious acronym is, for "breach of National Security".
After all, how much becomes "lending" or "public exhibition"? Is three a crowd, legally speaking?
Ghost in the Shell moment: my Captcha said "conver".
How did "IT" know???
Gee, I hope quoting that word up there wasn't unauthorized reproduction of "all or part" of a copyrighted warning! (Oops! There I go doing it again.)
Better launch my Turbo Anonymizer© a few times, just for safety.