Former Apple man calls for HD and Blu-Ray boycott
Posted on 24/02/06 17:37 by Dan Bell                             
Former Apple man calls for HD and Blu-Ray boycott

D4rk0n3 is on a roll and used our news submit to tell us about this story from over at the Inquirer. Seems like someone that used to work for Apple is trying to give us a warning about the demise of Fair Use as we know it, if we decide to make the leap to Blue Laser products. He is saying what we have known for sometime, that this new format carries some serious baggage with it, baggage you may not wish to carry. But anyway, here is what the article had to say about this Blue Laser AACS situation.

THE MAN responsible for Apple's Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and iDVD products, Mike Evangelist has called for a boycott of the HD standard. Evangelist said that the AACS specification for the HD standard would mean a complete removal of the concept of fair use. Writing in his blog, he said that music and film industry were setting up a system that will completely control how, when and where punters can use content that they buy."Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have embraced this draconian system, and the studios are salivating at the prospect of you never actually being able to own content again. My reaction to this abomination is simple: no way in hell. I will not buy any product that uses this crap," he said.

Well, thanks for the news flash there, of course those that frequent this site have figured out long ago, that Digital Rights Management or DRM has nothing to do with piracy- it's all about control. When we think of streams we have a certain concept, when those behind AACS and Managed Copy think of streams, they think of them in terms of revenue streams. By the way, here is a direct link to the blog article. Looks like it's getting a lot of attention, this is a good sign.

Source: The Inquirer

Reactions
Discuss this article with your fellow community members! We appreciate your valuable input, but please keep the reaction policy in mind and make sure your reaction is constructive.
By steven2874, Fri 24 Feb 2006 18:04
This is what many of us at CDFreaks have been saying for ages. No way in hell will we buy this DRM "crap". Start the BluRay and HD DVD parties without me!
By Crabbyappleton, Fri 24 Feb 2006 18:16
CrabbyappletonHa ha! I just read his blog...and here is a snippet where he has a new meanig for AACS: Today the AACS (aggressive automatic consumer screwing) organization announced availability of the interim version of their system for protecting content providers from their criminal customers. LOL Stick Out Tongue
By ChiefNuts, Fri 24 Feb 2006 18:57
ChiefNutsWell, it's not far from the truth... Damn movie studios.
By shaolin007, Fri 24 Feb 2006 19:30
shaolin007Well I am for sure not going to buy any of this crap. I guess the good ole days of actually owning what you bought is forgone conclusion. I am satisfied with DVD and I will probably stick with it for next 10 years or so. Besides, I can't afford the prices for these HDTV's, HD DVD players, and BlueRay players. They are, in my opinion. overpriced junk for the most part. puke
By tomwil, Fri 24 Feb 2006 21:03
In a couple of years, you may not have a choice, as DVDs will be discontinued for the higher formats. Just like records, cassettes and 8-tracks. Seems everything goes full circle. When I was a kid, I had to use a microphone to record an LP. In the near future, I may have to aim a camcorder to a TV screen to be able to record any video. So sad! cry
By steven2874, Fri 24 Feb 2006 23:32
DVD will NOT be dropped in favour of Blu-ray or HD- DVD if we continue to support DVD and boycott the proposed new formats. Vote with your wallets. It's the only thing these people understand or respect.
By SilverBlade2k, Fri 24 Feb 2006 23:52
I've already decided to boycot HD and BR. I'm also telling my friends to do the same. They screw us, we screw them in return. They wany money, listen to what *we* want. If they don't, oh well, no sale.
By petera, Sat 25 Feb 2006 02:07
peteraI think I'll just wait for the Korean / chinese grey imports that can play multiple formats and "forget" to add all this protection into the players. I may have a long wait though....
By crustyteacup, Sat 25 Feb 2006 03:27
crustyteacupanybody else get the feeling that the movie industry have got themselves into this situation (i.e "ripe" piracy on the net, "loss of $1.9 billion a year" etc) on purpose so they could draft in a new set of standards in order to control what users watch and when under the disguise (or excuse) of piracy. i agree with previous posts, if there is little demand for a new format then they will have no choice but to drop it.
By thcz, Sat 25 Feb 2006 06:35
pretty unlikely the educated consumer will go for that bluray HDdVD crap, the truth is these new formats have a pretty good chance of dominating the market because of the sheepish majority. i really hope there will be an easy solution to circumvent the DRM crap they put out and that it wont take too long.
By DJ Specs, Sat 25 Feb 2006 09:36
"the studios are salivating at the prospect of you never actually being able to own content again." Damn right! Cuz I will NEVER buy any of this crap. They will NEVER get my money, and I will find better ways to spend it.
By cynicalbastard, Sat 25 Feb 2006 15:19
While I love this guy's gusto, I feel his blog at: http://writersblocklive.com/part-156 coulda/woulda/shoulda been a bit more detailed and informative to the average non-tech reader (and maybe a bit less emotional). He also writes, as a response to this question: --------- # John Says: February 23rd, 2006 at 10:56 am So do you consider AACS fundamentally different than CSS? (Or FairPlay, for that matter&hellipWink What's your personal policy on CSS, FairPlay, and other DMCA-enabled content protection schemes? ----------------------------- # Mike Evangelist Says: February 23rd, 2006 at 11:08 am John '“ CSS never bothered me that much because everyone in the industry knew it was just a placebo to satisfy the movie studios. Nobody expected it to actually do anything. AACS on the other hand is being designed to work, by some very smart and very serious people. I view the DMCA as a criminal conspiracy that should be prosecuted under RICO statutes, but of course it won't be, as the conspirators are in charge. But the big difference with AACS is that they can change the rules after the fact. If you buy an high definition DVD, you'll have no certainty what rights you will be granted in the future. It's insane. PS I find FairPlay to be a reasonable compromise, but it doesn't work for me because I want to play my music from my server using devices that don't support it. Hence, I buy my music elsewhere. =============== I really dunno if I agree with his reasoning about CSS there, but you know, keep up the good fight. CSS might have been proven 'weak' eventually ('cause it took a fair few years for it to be cracked - as far as I remember it was a software manufacturer that didn't encrypt what they should have in their DVD playing software that allowed it to be more easily cracked), but both AACS and CSS do the same thing, essentially, regardless of his quoted "nobody in the industry expected it to do anything". The fact is it did, for many years. And still does. As do the laws that were changed to benefit the majors. AACS might just be more hardcore, and the rules might change as they go, and analogue might be phased out according to bits of the AACS agreement he read (no doubt Hollywood wants this, but I haven't read the AACS manufacturer agreement)...but the argument shouldn't really be so different to CSS, so I don't know if I can agree with him on his CSS points here. Or other forms of DRM for that matter. I don't find Apple's FairPlay a reasonable compromise to anything. Like it's been mentioned before, they're all forms of lock-in. This is, of course, is ignoring the masses are paying gold prices for lossy content, which nobody seems to care about. Quality aside, some have questioned the health effects of being subjected to lossy content (which is an area new to science). That's another argument for another day but I believe these concerns will be proven in time. As has been proven time and time again, Joe User will buy crappy lossy content with his hard-earned as long as its easy for him to get it (iTunes, etc). DRM lock-in is anti-consumer and no amount of slicing and dicing and presenting it in a nice package is gonna change my perception of that. Just my opinion, of course. Again, I don't regard CSS different to AACS at all. The video-watching public just happen to have gotten a lucky break with it being cracked (at great cost to the cracker). After that, things really exploded for the average user. And many applications were built around the DVD for Average Joe to benefit from. And hardware sales really exploded (and prices went down, competition went up, etc). And yet people still did not stop buying original DVDs. Tells u something, doesn't it? Again, another argument for another day... I guess my point is that what is happening now with the new formats and AACS could have just as easily happened with regular DVD in time. All that would be needed is a change to their policies and licensing agreements and blah blah...lockdown central. We are seeing new forms of anti-copy protection all the time on DVD, too. But the cat is out of the bag. Only just. Anyway, yes, a boycott. It would be great to see both formats never gain critical mass and eventually be dropped (or another technology to take it over completely, which I think will happen before too long). Things are moving fast in storage and there's lots of money to be made without concerning oneself with greedy hollywood content distribution.
By Matt_382, Sat 25 Feb 2006 17:00
I fear that anything we can mount will be too little too late.. the handwriting is on the wall. Too few people will go beyond just a passing concern to make a dent in their armor. When good people keep silent..........cry
By nuggetreggae, Mon 27 Feb 2006 03:58
two competing formats.... fierce DRM... These systems are aimed at movie buffs, people who know what they're doing. And anyone who knows what they're doing will not buy this nonsense. Because of the limitations. Because one day the studios can stop the disk from working on the player at their call. Look at DVD-Audio and SVCD. I still havent seen one yet!!!!!! but cd's,, yeah I seen a few(!) of them... The only people buying this nonsense will be rich yuppies who want the best money can buy aka "All the gear, No idea" Stick Out Tongue
By Shadowman69, Mon 27 Feb 2006 09:53
I'll surely will tell anyone I know to boycott both formats. Besides the older normally relay on the younger to advance in technology and any young person who know a little about technology should know something about all the s**t that is put on the new standards... puke

Name: Email:



Your comment:

Receive notification on new comments?