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Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

~ from Technology to Music

Phil (aka MP3Monster)'s Blog

Daily Archives: January 15, 2008

DRM Is Dead, But Watermarks Rise From Its Ashes

15 Tuesday Jan 2008

Posted by mp3monster in Music, Technology

≈ 1 Comment

The Wired article – DRM Is Dead, But Watermarks Rise From Its Ashes describes how record labels have seen the sense to drop DRM and are now looking to use Watermarking to try and establish that copyrighted material  is transferring between the machines on the Internet. The article goes to present some rather Orwellian possibilities such as demanding that ISPs scan files that pass through their servers for the watermarks and use such transfers to potentially prosecute people.  Whilst I accept that IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) need to be protected, some of the suggestions may seem sensible on the surface, are actually deeply flawed.

 

A watermark in digital terms is a discreetly placed bit pattern in a file.  Given simple probability, sooner or later I will have a file which will appear to have a watermark.  Given that probability, does my ISP have a right to automatically start interfering with that file?  Next as storage costs drop, and the amount of data people have increases the adoption of net based backup services will accelerate rapidly.  So if I backup my legitimately purchased music files to such a service, but the service is then compromised and my files find their way to peer-to-peer sites – how do you defend yourself from being accused of illegally sharing material?  A far fetched argument, not really we hear of websites being attacked and people’s credit card details being traded in shadier parts of the net, merely the 21st Century version of the pick pocket.  Or even simpler does my ISP have the right (or the music industry for that matter) to prevent my transferring my music between computers using the web?

 

There is also an interesting undertone in the article which suggests that despite the dropping of DRM that the music industry is still failing to embrace technology and exploit it and acting the victim. The reality is that, since music was recorded it has been copied – go back to the days of printed music – and people would hand copy charts; with the arrival of the cassette – people taped albums and radio broadcasts (why else do DJs have to talk over intros & outros). Yes MP3s and the net allow more to be stolen more quickly but it also gives unrivalled access to greater numbers of new ears and potential buyers.  Of course the argument against this is that the amount stolen is far greater than possible returns and profits reflect this, but the RIAA’s  own figures (here) show that CDs are dropping in price by 5 – 10%  per annum in real terms, so when you compare headline figures year on year they’re bound to drop.

 

del.icio.us tags: DRM, watermark, music, RIAA, peer-to-peer

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Love is a Mix Tape

15 Tuesday Jan 2008

Posted by mp3monster in Books, Music

≈ Leave a comment

I recently finished reading Rob Sheffield’s Love Is A Mix tape (currently on Jools Holland’s biography – also proving to be a good read so far).  The book in essence is very simple as brief biography of Rob’s, it doesn’t delve into the glitz and gossip of what has encountered as a music journalist and DJ; but addresses part of his life including the tragic death of his wife after only having been together less than 10 years.

Two things makes this book engrossing; firstly the perspective – by telling his story through some of the mix tapes he received or made at the different points in his life, and secondly the very matter of fact and honest way he describes the feelings and experience of being a bereaved husband at a young age. 

 

Rob closes his book with a some cool words …

A lot of my music friends don’t touch cassettes anymore; they stick to MP3s.  I love my iPod, too – completely love it. I love my iPod carnally. I would rather have sex with my iPod rather than with Jennifer Lopez. (I wouldn’t have to hear the iPod whine about getting its hair rumpled.) But for me, if we’re talking about romance, cassettes wipe the floor with MP3s. This has nothing to with superstition, or nostalgia. MP3s buzz straight to your brain.  That’s part of what I love about them.  But the rhythm of the mix tape is the rhythm of romance, the analogue hum of a physical connection between two sloppy, human bodies.  The cassette is full of tape hiss and room tone; it’s full of wasted space, unnecessary noise. Compared to the go-go-go rhythm  of an MP3, mix tapes are hopelessly inefficient. You go back to  a cassette the way a detective sits and pours drinks for the elderly motel clerk who tells stories about the old days – you know you might be somewhat bored, but there might be a clue in there somewhere. And if there isn’t, what the hell? It’s not a bad time.

 

The book also made me think about whether the art of the mix tape is a dying skill. With the arrival of CDs and then MP3s and their playlists the skill needed to neatly fit music onto a short fixed period and deliver the peaks and lows in tempos (aesthetics) along with the care for editing the tracks together are disappearing as Nick Hornby described in his book High Fidelity or here.

 

del.icio.us tags: mixtape, love Made Visible, book, Rob sheffield, review, music, art, bereavement

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