The point of copy protection (etc.) is to prevent honest people from abusing the media. It has no effect on dishonest people.

Let me put it this way, as someone who does computer programming and development, has followed piracy for twenty years (and, boy, what I have seen), and has read up on the issue:

If Microsoft, who can expend hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of expert personnel, cannot protect Windows and Office from appearing on a street corner in some foreign country at $2/CD (fully cracked and ready to be used), what makes you think there is any way to stop crackers and hackers. Heck, they've been able to defeat the most stringent mathematical encryptions ever invented. 128-bit, bah. 12098123740912874-bit wouldn't work either (yes, that's a randomly typed number).

In other words, DMC is B.S. It only hurts the consumer by causing grief and increasing profits (someone has to pay for all of that expenditure). Now, I don't mind weak DMC (such as used by iTunes). But anything that requires a retinal scan, reformats your harddisk to their specifications, and holds your sister for ransom is going too far.

They're nearly there - this "First 4 Internet" RootKit is reconfiguring the kernel of the OS (Windows). This has ramifications in that there is no simple removal method, it interfers with normal computer operations, causes a constant CPU usage - estimated at 2% to 5% (this alone could result in shortening the lifespan of your CPU), hides itself from detection, may break your OS access after an OS update, and could allow malicious code to be installed and executed without your knowledge or any way to intervene.

Macrovision may be nasty, but it isn't malicious. This move by Sony (and possibly EMI) is!

Sorrily, I have a nice Sony monitor and DVD-R drive. If finances weren't an issue, they'd be replaced just because of this entire affair. ETA: Forgot the moral of the tirade. If huge corporations think this lowly of purchasing customers, why bother? They envision the slippery slope similar to the fallacy that allowing 'gay marriage' would end in Joe-Bob having nuptials with his goat. Customers may abuse the system a little, but it is those who intentionally abuse it to make profit that should be the target. Instead, the customer is the victim and the crackers/hackers sing merrily along to their tune of 'Ka-ching!'

Message edited on: 11/05/2005 00:26

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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