[Vision2020] Media Players - Was:Re: The Auntie Establishmentand Brother Carl Show (November 3, 2007)
Paul Rumelhart
godshatter at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 5 19:04:55 PST 2007
I would also like to rant a bit about DRM (Digital Rights Management).
The RIAA and the MPAA have been scrambling to justify their existence in
this new world of easy distribution and mass storage. One of their
brainwaves is "digital rights management". If they had their way, every
player (whether it be hardware or software), would play nothing but
DRM'd files. What's wrong with that, you ask? A few things:
1 - You bought it, you should own it. You should be able to copy your
music to any device you own, and to play it on any device you own. I
don't know about you, but I've rebought music or videos more than I care
to say. Cassette to CD, CD to online, replacement cassettes or CDs, VHS
to DVD, special edition DVD's, you name it.
2 - It's very likely illegal to watch a DVD you legally own on a linux
PC. To do so, you have to use a hack to decrypt it, and are probably in
violation of the DMCA.
3 - Some DRM won't let you make copies of media you legally own, even
though your fair use rights allow you to make backups in case the CD or
DVD gets scratched.
4 - Legal downloads you own that use a free license or are public domain
can't be played on some DRM'd devices.
I'm sure there are others, but you get the point. DRM is Corporate
America's weapon to enslave me so I can "consume" more. Screw them.
Use formats that are DRM-free, or completely open, or both. Such as ogg
vorbis, ogg theora, mp3, and mpeg.
One of the many reasons I stay away from Microsoft: if they had their
way, you could only play DRM'd music or video files and they would have
it locked down from your desktop to your speakers. That's what "trusted
computing" is all about. They have been caught sending stealth upgrades
for DRM that install whether or not you want them to. When you, oh
intrepid reader, finally get tired of all that crap, give me a call.
I'll burn you an Ubuntu Live CD, and you can try an alternative OS that
is getting to be downright spectacular, without any risk of harming your
current installation. If you find you like it, you can install it also
without harming your current OS.
I, too, like VLC. I use it on my linux computer, although I tend to use
Xine more. I would be hesitant to lump WinAmp in with Media Player or
Real. How can you not like a company that advertises with such taglines
as "Winamp - it really whips the llama's ass" or "Winamp - the new
features will make you giggle like a schoolgirl". I haven't used them
for years. Hopefully, they haven't gone all corporate on me.
Paul
KRFP wrote:
> What we have here is a classic example of what I call the "Battleground
> Syndrome", or "Media Player Wars". The big media players (Windows
> Media Player, iTunes, Real Player, WinAmp, and a few others) all want to
> be YOUR media player, so thay take advantage of the many holes that
> Microsoft left in it's OS to take over YOUR computer just for YOU.
> Un-clicking all (or most of) the boxes when you install can help
> alleviate some of these problems. And of course they won't integrate
> with each other.
>
> But if you read the fine print of the agreement that you just clicked
> away it says essentially: "... and I give Big Brother permission to
> modify my computer's operating system and snoop into my files". And
> they do!
>
> You also give them the right to delete files off of your computer that
> don't have the proper DRM (Digital Rights Management) tags.
> Irregardless of whether or not you actually have the rights to that
> file, if the tags aren't right they have the right to delete them. They
> have not yet exercised these rights, they are waiting for some
> technology to permeate first. See YouTube: "Trusted Computing".
>
> OK, here's a link (if it works, seems my old one didn't), it also
> appears that the industry group has posted a lot of pollution.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuI6SLFnGbQ
>
> So what are you to do? That's hard, if you un-install the media player
> it does not un-install the spy. Some of the spys can be removed with
> SpyBot Search and Destroy and/or AdAware, but these programs are always
> playing catch-up (use both and don't forget to get the new
> definitions). I have found that if you just delete the spy program
> (TKBell.exe for RealPlayer, but this is old news and is probably
> different now) then your system will become unstable until you delete
> the many references to it the the registry, and the many pointers to
> those references, and the pointers to those pointers, and..., and I
> often end up re-building my computer's OS from scratch at this point.
> (In which case I say give Big Brother the finger and install an OS made
> by people for people: Ubuntu Linux, but that's another thread.)
>
> An excellent alternative to the big media programs is the program called
> VLC, it is cross-platform, light, and plays most media formats out of
> the box (but not the new Real formats, as I explained below Real changed
> their format to make sure that everyone installs their program). It can
> also be integrated into FireFox. It doesn't have a media library, which
> many might not like, but I feel that the library's are part of the way
> they take over your computer (by keeping you dumb as to where your music
> files are actually located).
>
> What amazes me is how many people connect to our web stream with the
> default Windows Media Player, they haven't even upgraded (not that I
> recommend "up"grading). I don't think they have ever installed anything
> else. They also seems to have problems connecting, which I've looked
> into but can't figure out what's wrong.
>
> (As always, the views express are my own and do not necessarily reflect
> those of Moscow's finest radio station, Radio Free Moscow, 92.5FM)
>
> Dave
> KRFP Pseudo-Engineer
>
>
> B. J. Swanson wrote:
>
>> KRFP,
>>
>> Thank you. I decided to give RP a try so I could listen to AEBC on the
>> way to work. AAARRRGGGHH! I HATE Real Player. Now I think my computer
>> is crawling with all their spyware crap. And after all that, it
>> wouldnt work with an iPhone anyway.
>>
>> B. J. Swanson
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 5, 2007, at 7:03 AM, KRFP <krfp at radiofreemoscow.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Hey Tom:
>>>
>>> Did you know that installing RealAudio on a a computer is akin to
>>> intentionally installing a virus? This is why the free program called
>>> Real Alternative was developed in the first place. Unfortunately
>>> RealPainInTheAss couldn't handle not being installed (and constantly
>>> running) on everyone's computer so they changed the format making the
>>> open source codex obsolete. The open source guys are working on a new
>>> one but it's not out yet. Leaving the (wise) consumer with a choice:
>>> intentionally install spyware on your computer or not listen to
>>> RealAudio streams, I choose the latter.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> Tom Hansen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Greetings Visionaires -
>>>>
>>>> This week's show was exemplary of Auntie's and Brother Carl's
>>>> punditry as
>>>> they discussed various topics central to Tuesday's city council
>>>> election.
>>>> What was a surprise, though, and developed into a very entertaining
>>>> community service, was the candid call-ins from the Hamilton Aquatic
>>>> Center
>>>> by several of the candidates.
>>>>
>>>> You may listen to the streamed show at:
>>>> 1024
>>>> http://www.AuntieEstablishmentandBrotherCarl.com
>>>>
>>>> As this is a first attempt at creating RealAudio files and streaming
>>>> them
>>>> online, I would sincerely appareciate any comments concerning any
>>>> difficulties you may experience.
>>>>
>>>> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>>>>
>>>> Tom Hansen
>>>> Moscow, Idaho
>>>>
>>>> "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
>>>> students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
>>>>
>>>> - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> =======================================================
>>>> List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>>> http://www.fsr.net
>>>> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>> =======================================================
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> =======================================================
>>> List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>> http://www.fsr.net
>>> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>> =======================================================
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
>
More information about the Vision2020
mailing list