Re: Downloading debate

[Don Smith <dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu>]

Chris wrote:
> some time, SCMS protection incorporated into the hardware of almost all
> *digital* recording devices such as DATs and Minidisc recorders. SCMS
> basically only lets any device make a first generation copy of any original
> digital media. 

See, that *totally* ticks me off.  Many digital recorders, from what I've
heard, don't even have a digital output, so you can't make a digital copy at
all.  So where does all this leave people who have their *own* recorded
material, that they wrote, that they have *every* *right* to copy?  SOL, that's
where.  And that's just wrong.  If I write my own song and record it digitally,
I'm not allowed to make more than one copy?  It's my frikkin song!!!

What's to stop you from making an arbitrary number of copies from the original?

> actually flash SCMS LOCK on it if I try it. DVD players use something
> similar called MacroVision that basically overdrives the video signal to the
> point of complete video scramble. 

That can usually be turned off or bypassed, though, if you know how.  And it
doesn't affect digital copying, anyway.  (Who in their right mind would want to
copy a DVD onto a VHS tape, anyway?  More than 50% loss of picture quality,
tape artifacts, stereo (at best) sound, no extra features, no subtitles...)

:-)

-- 
Don Smith                    Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                          http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"just because you're fighting evil doesn't make you good" - Rabbi Dobrusin
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References:

• RE: Downloading debate
• From: "Chris Hahn" <chris at fumblefactory_com>

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