WEBVTT - Some DRM Disasters 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.200 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:18.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.000 and how the tech are you so? Earlier this year, 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.400 I did an episode titled the DRM Episode, and it 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:31.000 was fittingly enough about the history and evolution of DRM 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.320 that published back in January. D r M is digital 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.080 rights management, and simply but digital rights management is all 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:44.479 about finding ways to restrict access to digital material to 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:48.600 only those who have permission to access it. Now, we 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.720 mostly think about it as a way of preventing theft 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.680 and piracy, though it does not do those things very 0:00:55.720 --> 0:01:00.000 well at all. DRM has also introduced a legal puzz 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.080 old here in the United States. See it has long 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.760 been held that it is totally legal for someone to 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.920 make a copy of media they have purchased for the 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.520 purposes of having a backup. So, while it would be 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.319 copyright infringement, if I were to go out and say, 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.920 buy a compact disc, and then come back home and 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.920 use my computer to copy that compact disc onto blank 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.520 compact discs, and then I go out on the street 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.640 and start selling those to passers by for a huge 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:35.160 markdown that would be illegal. It is, however, totally legal 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.440 if I were to go out and buy that same CD, 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.959 come home, copy it with my computer, put it on 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.840 a second CD, and use that as a backup for 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:49.920 my own personal use. That's Toad's fine, completely acceptable. Well, 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.040 then we come to copy protection, and there are lots 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.360 of different kinds of copy protection, and it is against 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.720 the law to circumvent or to make or even own 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:06.360 tools intended to circumvent copy protection. So it would be 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.960 legal for me to produce a copy for my own use, 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:14.880 but it's illegal to get around the copy protection. Though 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.160 I should add there's some disagreement on that point. Some 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.600 say technically it is legal to bypass DRM in order 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.680 to make a copy of something if it's just for 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.400 your own personal use. However, it's still illegal to own 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.959 the software that makes it possible to bypass dr M 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.840 in the first place. So again you still run into 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.200 this circular argument. Yes, you can make a copy, but 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.440 it's illegal for you to get around the thing that 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.679 prevents you from making a copy. And if you can't 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.720 get around copy protection, then there's no way for you 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.360 to make a copy. So it might be legal for 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.000 you to create a copy. It's just illegal to get 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.240 around the thing that prevents you from doing that. Because 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:58.480 laws are fun, right, and there are a ton of consequences. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.440 Uh in how DRM was defined in the Digital Millennium 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.639 Copyright Act and section twelve oh one in particular, which 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.240 is the bit that says it's illegal to try and 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:15.480 get around copy protection or DRM. So companies have used 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.960 that passage for the justification of all sorts of shenanigans, 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.880 including denying the right to repair or to restrict who 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.280 can actually make software for their products. There's a lot 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.680 of anticompetitive behavior that has been fueled by this frankly 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:36.160 poorly worded piece of legislation. So there are a lot 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:40.520 of ways where the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or d 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:45.600 m c A has really hurt consumers and companies. So 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.480 today I wanted to talk about a different, unintended consequence, 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.880 one that is particularly infuriating. So the whole point of 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.160 the d m c A was to create rules that 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.880 would stop people from stealing dit dull stuff right to 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.920 stop piracy. However, people are still doing that. There are 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.680 still plenty of people stealing digital content. In fact, the 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.680 folks who are doing the stealing are the ones who 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.640 are breaking dr M and they're getting unfettered access to 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.479 the stuff they stole. So in the process of stealing 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.720 whatever it is they're going after, they're stripping the d 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.640 r M from that thing. That means they get to 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:32.559 experience that thing without any DRM. Meanwhile, law abiding folk 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.400 like you and me, I assume we are stuck with 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.719 the busted products that have dr M all up on them. 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.760 So in other words, the people what are doing the 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.200 stealing have a superior product as the scarlet which once said, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.760 that doesn't seem fair. So in today's episode, we're going 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.279 to look at some examples of how dr M had 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:00.880 a negative impact on legitimate customers. And I was really 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.600 inspired to do this because of something going on at 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:10.640 Microsoft and its Xbox Online service. So, as the name suggests, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.600 Xbox Online is an online component for the Xbox line 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:19.640 of consoles. Microsoft has servers running and Xbox consoles will 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.080 check in with those servers. Now, it was almost a 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.240 decade ago when Microsoft announced how the Xbox One console 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.440 was supposed to work, And when that announcement went out, 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.080 it was that the Xbox one was going to be 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.760 online all the time. It would have a persistent online connection. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.760 In fact, it would require a persistent online connection, and 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.919 that this would end up having big benefits for players. 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.159 There'll be a lot of features that would be enabled 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.960 because of this connection. However, a lot of people got 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.400 really concerned about some elements, like would that prevent you 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.000 from being able to purchase used games, something that a 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.840 lot of people really depend upon. They can't necessarily afford 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.960 to buy a game at full price, so they wait, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.880 they go out, and they buy it used once the 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.280 price comes down, and they play their games that way. 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.599 But would this online component kind of act like a 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.520 type of DRM. Would it check in with that copy 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.440 of the game with the server look to see if 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.840 that copy of the game had been registered with some 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.719 other console, and would it then prevent you from playing 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.000 the game. This was a real concern because it is 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.800 a possibility. In fact, a lot of people are arguing 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.039 that this could have just been a scheme to sell 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.520 more copies of games, eliminate the secondary market entirely, and 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:47.360 hurt the consumer. Ultimately, Microsoft would walk back the announcement 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:51.480 and changed its plans and no longer required the Xbox 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.120 One to have this persistent internet connection, which totally change 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.560 things up. That was a weird E three, But there's 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.400 still an online component it for Xbox, and there still 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.880 is DRM sitting on top of that online component, and 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.080 it's active for lots of games. And on Friday May six, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.240 two thousand twenty two, the servers running this DRM started 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.880 to have some problems, which meant that Xbox owners found 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.160 themselves unable to purchase new games, or to start online 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.720 gaming sessions, or even launch some of their games that 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.760 they already have purchased and downloaded to their machine because 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.480 server side DRM runs a quick check to make sure 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.520 that the copy of a game that is being initiated 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.320 is a legitimate copy of the game, meaning that the 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.680 person who's running it actually bought it. So this is 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.760 kind of like a parent calling in to check on 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:52.440 their kid a lot, and if the answers aren't satisfactory, 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.920 that kid is grounded. So with these servers being down, 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.160 it meant that this check in could not happen. The 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.840 copy of the game not be able to get the 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.360 go ahead from the server to allow the game to load, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.040 so without that verified check in, the games would not launch. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.760 It's now May nine, and some Xbox users report they 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.360 are still experiencing this problem. So people who went through 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.880 all the right steps, they bought their games legitimately, they 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.600 have a connection to the internet, they are finding themselves 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:29.280 unable to play certain titles. They are being punished for 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:34.960 playing properly. Meanwhile, people who might have a pirated copy 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.480 of the game with the DRM stripped from it where 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.840 it's not doing this online check in, they could potentially 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.520 still be playing those games. DRM critics have argued that 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.600 Microsoft should really change it's DRM policy so that games 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.720 that are meant to be played offline can be played 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.920 offline even if the Microsoft servers are down. So, in 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.360 other words, these are games that are not online dependent. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:06.480 There's no competitive or cooperative play. It's meant to be 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:12.160 played on your native Xbox in your home and that's it. 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:14.920 And you know, you have to also remember some folks 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.120 live in places where they might not even have a 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.280 good Internet connection. It seems reasonable to expect that you 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.920 should be able to play an offline single player game 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.320 because you know there's no online component. But here we are. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.640 There are people who are being affected by this, and 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.880 in fact, we've had so many examples of games doing 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.080 this specific thing. In particular I am reminded of the 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.800 hit Man series because I've certainly encountered this. Anyone who 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.080 has played hit Man three has likely run into the 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.040 message that the hit Man servers are offline, or you 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.120 might end up in the middle of a gaming session 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.280 get a temporary disconnection and you can't play anymore, or 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.920 it'll let you play, but it's like nothing's really counting anymore. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.280 In fact, some players would get into situations where server 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.559 disconnects happened so frequently that the game would become unplayable. 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.160 And you would think that shouldn't be an issue because 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.520 hit Man is a game that runs natively on your computer. 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.680 But there are just enough connected features in hit Man 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:26.040 three that it's required to have these check ins. One 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.400 to verify that the copy you're playing is legit, and 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.680 too to keep track of things like how you're doing 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.679 versus say, your friends who also play hit Man three. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.920 So there are some value added features in there. I 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.440 don't know how many people really use those that much 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.600 compared to just playing the game, but they do exist. Now. 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.199 When hit Man three became available on Good Old Games 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:55.839 or go o G, things got ugly because generally g 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.720 o G has this policy of offering up DRM free games, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.719 specifically because DRM can hinder a legit players experiences. But 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.080 hit Man three has this requirement of checking in with 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.040 a server, and the inclusion of server based DRM prompted 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.720 many g o G customers to review Bomb hit Man three, 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.080 giving it very low ratings due to the server requirement. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.720 Go O G contacted hit Man three customers and gave 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:27.600 them the option to refund their purchase. When we come back, 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:29.439 i'll talk a little bit more about d r M 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.760 and video games, and then we're gonna go beyond that 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.280 to look at d r M in other areas of tech. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:47.360 But first let's listen to these messages, all right. One 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.160 of the big companies that specializes in video game DRM 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:57.280 and also anti cheat technology is called Deneuveau d E 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:02.559 n U v O. Now, anti cheat is really understandable, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.719 right because, at least for competitive online games, it's kind 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.160 of a necessity. It is incredibly frustrating to hop online 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.719 to play a game only to get shut down immediately 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.800 because someone else is using cheat software that gives them 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.600 an unfair advantage. So a strong anti cheat strategy is 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.720 really useful in those respects. And and I certainly like that. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.560 But the d r M side is another matter. So 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:33.640 critics say that Deneuvos software over taxes your you know, 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.760 the players computers and their CPUs, as well as rights 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:43.120 to players storage a lot, which can decrease the lifespan 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.880 of storage, like if it's a solid state drive, it 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:50.520 can start to really affect the longevity of that drive. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.120 These are charges that the company has denied, but several 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.400 journalists have performed tests of games both running with Deneuvo's 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:03.840 software being active of and running with Deneuvo's software disabled, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.080 and the tests seem to support the accusation that the 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:12.120 software has a measurable negative impact on computer performance. And 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.680 that's assuming that the software is working. Like the Hitman 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.760 three example, there have been cases in which games using 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:25.720 Deneuvo solutions became unplayable because of server issues. But let's 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.840 move away from video games. We could spend all day 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.720 talking about how DRM has had a negative impact on 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.120 video games. We could even talk about the earliest times 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.360 where you had computer companies or game companies saying that 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.120 there would be a requirement for an online persistent connection 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.760 even for single player games, and how players reacted to that. 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.319 But there are a lot of other examples of DRM 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.160 going wrong outside of the video game world, so we'll 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.439 look at a few more. So, let's talk about printers 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.720 and toner. Several printer manufacturers have implemented DRM in an 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:06.480 effort to funnel customers into purchasing official toner cartridges from 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.120 those companies. You know, it's a long standing joke that 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.000 buying a new printer is super cheap. It's the toner 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.679 that'll that will really set you back. That's thoroughly a joke. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.880 I mean, it's it's the idea of printer companies selling 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.120 you a printer because it will lock you into their 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.080 ecosystem where they can continuously sell you the toner for 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:31.880 much more money, and they keep making cash off of 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.120 a single customer. Right because you're going to run out 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.440 of towner, you're gonna have to buy new ones. So 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.600 obviously these companies are going to take steps to restrict 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.960 what kind of toner you can use so that you 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.480 have to buy it from them. That's how they're gonna 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.160 make all their money. They can do all they could 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.280 be a loss leader on printers and make it up 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.440 with the toner they sell. HP for example, started doing 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:59.920 this in the HP printer would scan the toner cartridges, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.400 and if the cartridge proved to not be an official 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.600 HP cartridge, the printer would then give the user a 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.680 message reading quote the following ink cartridges appeared to be 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:15.160 undetected or damaged. Replaced the ink cartridges to continue printing 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.160 end quote. The printer wouldn't let you print even if 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:24.360 the third party cartridges were otherwise perfectly compatible, So even 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.400 if for any other reason it should work, the printer 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.840 would say, Nope, these are bad, these are defective, get 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.840 rid of them. Cannon actually went a step further. The 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.600 Pixma MG six three twenty model is like a lot 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.440 of printers, and that it has a built in scanner 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.320 so that you can scan documents and get a digital 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.080 version of your document. But the Cannon, once it would 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:54.480 run out of toner, would disable all functions, including the scanner. Now, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.160 scanners don't use any toner at all. They literally just 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.800 scan a document and create a digital copy, so not 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.360 one dot of toner has to be used to do that. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.880 So users complained that Cannon was purposefully deactivating its printers 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.480 functions to force folks into buying more expensive Cannon toner 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.440 then we got the chip shortage, which caused way more 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.560 headaches for both Cannon and its customers. See, the way 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:28.240 that Canon was implementing DRM in its toner cartridges was 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.360 to include a very small microchip that identified the toner 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:37.200 as being a Cannon branded cartridge. But then we get 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.000 into the pandemic, and then not long after that, we 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.600 started hitting that massive semiconductor shortage that we are still 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.200 into this day. Among the many technologies affected by this 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:53.800 shortage where Cannon toner cartridges. But this created an awkward problem. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.880 The new Cannon cartridges didn't have the DRM chips because 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.640 of the semiconductor shortage. That meant that Cannon printers were 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.399 looking for DRM confirmation and couldn't find it even with 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.560 official Cannon cartridges. So even if you went through the 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.920 trouble and expense of buying an actual Cannon toner cartridge, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.639 your Cannon printer wouldn't recognize them, and Cannon's own d 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:25.560 r M would prevent you from using your printer. So 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.920 Cannon had to send out information to customers on how 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:33.159 to bypass the DRM, which means, of course, that you 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.040 could have tried that same method without using Cannon cartridges 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.600 at all, so Cannon actually had to tell its customers 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.960 how to get around the gate keeping it had put 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.080 into place in order to restrict what kind of ink 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:51.960 you could use. Now, in some cases a company may 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.080 have had no choice but to develop and deploy DRM. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:01.200 So let's talk about Apple's fair Play DRMS solution, which 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.879 hasn't been a thing for many years, so this is 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.320 not a current issue. But back in the day, here's 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:12.160 how you would listen to digital music on a personal 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.240 device like an MP three players. Specifically, we're gonna be 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.399 talking about iPods, So you would go and you would 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.800 buy your brand new iPod. Uh, So you would get 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.480 some sort of music management software. In this case, we 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.840 have to talk about iTunes, the Apple version of that. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.679 So this is how you organize music, how you get music, 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:38.679 and you would put music on that management software iTunes 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.160 in a couple of different ways. So in the very 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.600 earliest days, the only way was really to purchase a 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.000 music c D, put it into your computer that has 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.040 your music management software on it, your iTunes, and use 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:57.520 iTunes to then rip the music off the CD. Not literally, 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:59.159 the music would still be on the CD. You're just 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.880 really copying the music files. Um and converting them into 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.720 a format that is easier to store, and this would 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.679 go into your iTunes software. It would be in a 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.359 database and it would be something you could easily get to, 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.480 and you would have a digital copy of those songs, 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.280 and there'll be no DRM on that music. You would 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.320 have ripped it from the c D and it would 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.880 be DRM free music files. And in the very earliest 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.040 days of iTunes, this was the only way you could 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:33.800 get music the iTunes system, as in the management system 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.200 for music that existed before the iTunes Music Store did, 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.199 so you would use it to really just organize your 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.240 music collection and then transfer that music collection to your iPod. 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.240 But once the iTunes Music Store opened up, well, then 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.760 you had another option. You could buy music, either entire 0:19:55.800 --> 0:20:00.880 albums or often individual tracks off the digital store. Now, 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.520 in either case, if you wanted to put digital music 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.840 onto your iPod, you had to connect your iPod to 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.920 your computer using an actual physical cable and you would 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:18.720 synchronize the iPods library to that of your computer's library. 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.840 So with Apple is pretty easy assuming you were working 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.880 with all Apple products. Uh, if you had a Mac 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.840 and an iPod, it was pretty easy. If you had 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:31.800 a PC and you were running iTunes on it, it 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.320 was more of a headache. So you could rip music 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.160 from your CD s where you could buy new music 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.359 tracks which would get added into your iTunes management software, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.919 and then Apple would just automatically add those tunes to 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.600 your iPod the next time you connected it to your 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:54.920 computer to synchronize with your iTunes database. But the big 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.679 music publishers were wary of digital music. They had already 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.919 weathered the storm of recy in the napster days, and 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.520 so the music labels, which pretty much had the leverage, 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:10.440 demanded that Apple create and used DRM to protect music files. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:14.399 And so Apple did because if it didn't, it wouldn't 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:19.439 have access to these massive companies music libraries, and the 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.399 iTunes music store would have gone nowhere. You wouldn't have 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.160 had anything to sell on it. So Apple thus created 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.879 fair play. Now, one of the things Apple did was 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.600 that it would not allow any other d r M 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.359 music onto an iPod. It had to be fair play, 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:40.760 DRM or nothing, which meant if you bought a track 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.879 from a different digital store, you would be out of 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.880 luck when it came to putting that track on your 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.280 iPod because these other digital stores also had to comply 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.800 with the music labels and include DRM on their tracks, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.160 and Apple would not allow any DRM other than fair 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.960 Play in its ghos system, and Apple wouldn't license fair 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.320 play to any other company. So it essentially was either 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.240 you rip music from CDs or you have to go 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.040 through the iTunes music store. Those are the only two 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.240 options you have. You can't buy music from other digital stores, 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.000 so companies like real Player or real Play began to 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.880 reverse engineer Apple's fair play in order to develop similar 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:29.600 DRM that would fool Apple's ecosystem into thinking it was 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:33.320 fair play. That way, you could purchase music from these 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.760 other stores and get that music on your iPod. That 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.520 would give you operate options to buy music that's not 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.320 on Apple's store, or you can buy it for less money. 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.040 Like you know, real Plays tracks were sometimes half as 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:50.959 much as what Apple was charging. So Apple then accused 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.199 the real Player company of essentially acting like a hacker, 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:58.000 and Apple updated its fair play systems, and subsequently, once 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.040 the update went out, when you synchronized your iPod with 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.040 your computer, you would find that any tracks you had 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:09.080 bought from those other digital stores like the Harmony store 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:12.600 would go bye bye. They'd get deleted. And there was 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:15.119 a whole class action lawsuit brought against Apple for this 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:18.320 because people wanted the freedom to buy music wherever they 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.399 liked and then put it on their iPods. Apple actually 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:25.119 ended up winning that lawsuit, however, and ultimately it all 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:27.720 became a moot point because a few years later, Apple 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.639 discontinued fair play entirely, and at that point it was 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.359 Apple that had the leverage over the music companies. Steve 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.200 Jobs himself actually argued that DRM really only hurt legitimate 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.720 customers and so it was just a terrible business idea 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:45.680 to use it. Okay, We've got a couple more examples 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:48.080 I want to give before we end this episode, but 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:58.520 first let's take another quick break. Earlier in the episode, 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.600 I mentioned that you could music on an iPod by 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:04.560 ripping the music from a compact disc, and that is true, 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:09.119 but compact discs could also have their own DRM copy 0:24:09.119 --> 0:24:11.760 of protection on them, and this brings us to one 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:16.159 of the most famous DRM catastrophes, that of Sony b 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:21.040 mg s copy protection strategy in two thousand five. So 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.280 Sony b MG decides that it wants to really control 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:29.200 how customers can listen or rip music from Sony b 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:33.679 MG albums, and to do that they leaned on some 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.879 software XCP, which was a copy protection software, and another 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:41.920 best called Media Max c D three. Now, this pair 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:46.920 of software programs were included on something like fifty different 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:50.680 albums within Sony b mg s library, and there were 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:54.679 thousands and thousands of copies of these fifty albums. So 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.399 if you were to purchase one of those c d s, 0:24:57.880 --> 0:24:59.760 and then you were to put that c D in 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.240 or a computer, you would be presented with an end 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:07.000 User License Agreement or you LA e u l A. 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:12.719 Now we all know that hardly anyone reads those things. However, 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:15.360 it turns out that even if you had read it, 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.200 you wouldn't have known about what would happen next because 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:22.000 there was no mention of it within the u LA, 0:25:22.640 --> 0:25:27.679 And what would happen was ridiculous. Whether you clicked on 0:25:27.880 --> 0:25:32.760 accepting the ULA or not, the CD would surreptitiously install 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:37.159 that DRM software on your computer. Those two programs. Now, 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:39.520 if you had a Mac, there was some good news 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:43.320 because the software would be secretly installed on your computer, 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:45.840 but you would get a message from the Mac operating 0:25:45.880 --> 0:25:49.960