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Analog hole

Ed Felten: DRM Wars, and ‘Property Rights Management’

By: Dan
15-08-2006
Analog hole, Arbitrary, Bad design, Black box, Broadcast flag, Bureaucracy, Business model, Cargo cult, Cartridges, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Deleuze, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designed to be unpleasant, Designers, Digital rights, Discrimination, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, Dongle, DRM, Dystopia, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Entropy, Erosion of liberty, Exclusion, External Control, Feature deletion, Fightback Devices, Firmware, Forcing functions, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Ink cartridges, Innovation, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Internet economics, Intrusive technology, Invention, Killjoy technology, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Norms, Open source, Oppression, Patents, Philosophy of control, Political design, Printers, Product design, Propaganda, Prophecy, Protest, Razor blade model, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Reverse engineering, Sneaky, Social engineering, Software, Specious arguments, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, User experience, User Psychology, Worldwide, Your property

RFID Velcro?

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten has posted a summary of a talk he gave at the Usenix Security Symposium, called “DRM Wars: The Next Generation”. The two installments so far (Part 1, Part 2) trace a possible trend in the (stated) intentions of DRM’s proponents, from it being largely promoted as a tool to help enforce copyright law (and defeat ‘illegal pirates’) to the current stirrings of DRM’s being explicitly acknowledged as a tool to facilitate discrimination and lock-in — and the apparent ‘benefits of this’:

“First, they argue that DRM enables price discrimination — business models that charge different customers different prices for a product — and that price discrimination benefits society, at least sometimes. Second, they argue that DRM helps platform developers lock in their customers, as Apple has done with its iPod/iTunes products, and that lock-in increases the incentive to develop platforms.

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Friend or foe: Battery-authentication ICs?

By: Dan
20-07-2006
1984, Analog hole, Bad design, Black box, Branding, Business model, Cargo cult, Cartridges, Cell phones, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Creeping erosion of norms, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designed to be unpleasant, Designers, Digital rights, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, Dongle, DRM, Dystopia, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Entropy, Erosion of liberty, Feature deletion, Firmware, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Gravy train, Health and safety, Indoctrination, Ink cartridges, Innovation, Interaction design, Intrusive technology, Invention, Liberty, Marketing, Mistake-proofing, Mobile phones, Monopoly, Norms, Orwellian, Patents, Philosophy of control, Political design, Printers, Product design, Propaganda, Razor blade model, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Reverse engineering, Sneaky, Specious arguments, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Worldwide, Your property

Lithium battery from Motorola V220Via MAKE, an article from Electrical Design News looking at lithium battery authentication chips in products such as phones and laptops, designed to prevent users fitting ‘non-genuine’ batteries.

Now, the immediate response of most of us is probably “razor blade model!” or even “stifling democratic innovation!” (as Hal Varian or Eric von Hippel might put it), and indeed that was probably my own instinctive reaction.

It’s not clear, though, that this is a standard architectures-of-control-enforced-razor-blade-model of the kind we’ve seen with printer cartridges.

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DRM now the ‘biggest issue’ in preserving information for the future

By: Dan
11-07-2006
Analog hole, Bad design, Bureaucracy, Censorship, Circumvention, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Design, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Digital rights, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Dystopia, Education, Erosion of liberty, Greasing palms, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Intrusive technology, Killjoy technology, Law, Legislation, Liberty, London, Monopoly, Nonsense, Norms, Philosophy of control, Political design, Propaganda, Public money, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Software, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Treacherous computing, University, User experience, Vague rhetoric, Worldwide, Your property

A model of a library, in a library (Shoreditch College/Brunel University, Runnymede)

The Guardian has an interview with Richard Masters, of the British Library’s digital objects management programme looking at the impact of technology on archiving. The usual worries about file formats, media incompatability and how to select what to preserve and what not to are discussed, but:

“The biggest issue is digital rights management. At the moment, acting as an honest broker between the public interest and the individual rights holders is incredibly difficult. Much more so than with printed material that is physically deposited on your site. Many electronic property holders lease material and specifically prohibit copying for preservation purposes.

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Neuros: ‘Freedom by Design’

By: Dan
05-07-2006
Analog hole, Arbitrary, Broadcast flag, Business model, Cinema, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Creeping erosion of norms, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Digital rights, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Dystopia, Engineering, Engineering design, Entertainment, Erosion of liberty, Fightback Devices, Future, Gadgets, Good design, Gravy train, Greasing palms, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Innovation, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Invention, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Movie industry, MPAA, Oppression, Philosophy of control, Political design, Product design, Propaganda, Protest, Public money, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Social engineering, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Technology underclass, Underclass, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Video, Worldwide, Your property

Following on from the last post about the Neuros MPEG4 recorder, looking on the Neuros website reveals something pretty unusual for a company involved in consumer product design – a clear statement of design philosophy, ‘What do we stand for?’ that’s heavy on content and light on vague rhetoric:

“Your Digital Rights and Why They’re Important to You

Throughout the history of technology, Hollywood has fought innovation at every turn. Even technologies that benefit the studios, and that we take for granted, exist only because someone fought the studios for their very existence

…

The more such legislation [e.g. Analog Hole Bill] gets passed, the less innovation consumers will see, and the fewer options you will have for enjoying your content

….

There are two opposing forces at odds here. On the one hand, there are exciting new technologies that offer more and more choices for consumers to access and enjoy digital media when and where they want it. On the other, there is Big Media and a few of its powerful allies working behind the scenes to limit consumer choices to when and where they want it. How this all plays out will depend on how the rest of us respond in the coming days, weeks and months.”

The statement even exhorts customers to get involved with the EFF and to get in touch with their elected representatives, which is again a great initiative.

This is just the kind of intelligent engagement by product designers & engineers with the political implications of – and influences on – their work for which I’ve been looking throughout the ‘Architectures of Control’ project. Whether it meets the kind of criteria proposed by Jennie Winhall’s ‘Is Design Political?‘, I don’t know, but by standing up for users’ rights in such an open and frank way, and indeed structuring its business around that philosophy, Neuros seems a lot closer to real user-centred design than the vague waffle so often promulgated as such.

Impressive.

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EFF: Another Endangered Gizmo – the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2

By: Dan
05-07-2006
Analog hole, Arbitrary, Broadcast flag, Business model, Cinema, Circumvention, Consumer rights, Control, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Digital rights, DRM, Dystopia, Engineering, Engineering design, Entertainment, Erosion of liberty, Fightback Devices, Future, Gadgets, Good design, Gravy train, Greasing palms, Innovation, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Invention, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Movie industry, MPAA, Norms, Oppression, Philosophy of control, Political design, Product design, Public money, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Technology, Technology policy, User experience, User Psychology, Video, Your property

Neuros diagram
Image adapted from Neuros website

Via EFF DeepLinks, details of the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2, a product specifically designed to allow users to break through the arbitrary architectures of control imposed by other video devices and formats, and hence make the most of the content you own:

“[It] digitizes analog video output and records it to a CF card or a memory stick in MPEG4 format. The video can then be put on your computer, burned to DVD, moved to your video iPod, or slotted right into your Sony PSP. You can also output video to a display device from the R2.

In turn, the R2 helps you make legitimate use of your media and lawfully escape DRM restrictions…

* Free your recorded TV content: TiVo and other PVRs restrict moving recorded video to other devices. The DMCA limits removing these DRM locks, and, if the broadcast flag proposal passes, these restrictions will get even worse. Regardless, you can lawfully use the R2 to create a DRM-free copy, recording straight from your TV or TiVo.

* Free your DVDs: DVD ripping software is widely available, but using it to rip a film to your computer and video iPod may violate the DMCA. The R2 gives you a legal (albeit more cumbersome) alternative. Similarly, though region-free DVD players are available, you can use the R2 to help create a region-free copy of the movie itself.

* Free your VHS tapes: You’ve probably faced the unhappy choice between rebuying your VHS collection on DRM-restricted DVDs or lugging around a legacy player. The R2 helps you liberate your movies from their VHS chains.”

Of course, the R2 device’s legality – as a video analogue-to-digital converter – is threatened by proposed US legislation aimed at ‘plugging the analogue hole‘, hence its ‘endangered gizmo‘ status applied by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This would seem to be a case where a device really has been designed with the users’ needs and convenience uppermost in mind, yet it may be ruled out of existence by a legislature which listens more to (certain) corporate lobbying than to its own citizens.

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‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’

By: Dan
19-06-2006
1984, Analog hole, Arbitrary, Bad design, Business model, Censorship, Cinema, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Deleuze, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designed to be unpleasant, Designers, Digital rights, Discrimination, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Dystopia, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Erosion of liberty, External Control, Foucault, Future, Gadgets, Intrusive technology, Killjoy technology, Liberty, Monopoly, Movie industry, MPAA, Nonsense, Norms, Oppression, Orwellian, Panopticon, Philosophy of control, Political design, Privacy, Product design, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Signal blocking, Sneaky, Social engineering, Specious arguments, Stifling innovation, Surveillance, Technical protection measures, Technology, Technology policy, Technology underclass, Treacherous computing, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Video, Your property

A boot stamping on a camera... forever. Yes, I know this is an SLR. But I was using the digital camera to take the photo!

Via Boing Boing, ‘Researchers develop prototype system to thwart unwanted video and still photography’, news from Georgia Tech of a system that scans and finds the CCDs of digital imaging equipment and shines bright light (or a laser) into them in order to flood them with light and prevent usable images being recorded.

“Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras. A Georgia Tech camera-neutralizing prototype could soon be used to stop movie piracy and other forms of unwanted digital-camera photography…

The prototype device, produced by a team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing (COC), uses off-the-shelf equipment — camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer — to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras…

…the small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings — for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken…

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Written by Dan Lockton, 2004-12

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