Could this be another nail in the coffin for DRM?

Dr. Patricia Akester, a Cambridge Professor no less has recently published: ‘Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment.’

I’ve not read it, I don’t really have time to wade through 208 pages to be honest. However, trawling the interweb, as Clarkson calls it, apparently the paper concurs with what many of us have already concluded. Which is that DRM actually does the opposite of what it intends to do, inherently pushing people to become pirates as opposed to the heard of placid sheep that we should be.

One of the best examples quoted out there is that of a blind lady who illegally downloads The Bible because the DRM-protected Amazon version she bought won’t allow her to text-to-speech it.

There were also University lecturers who’d had to either limit or pirate their teaching material as they couldn’t transfer it to the right formats for their classes, and daily issues at the British Library when it tries to move documents to new formats for archival. In fact everybody that Prof. Akester spoke with had some problem of their own.

To DRM developers and rightsholders, though, these are just ‘edge’ cases and not worth coding into DRM schemes. Creating DRM that has any sort of security while still accommodating every legal use in every possible market is simply infeasible—though this does lead rightsholders to question the wisdom of DRM.

Shira Perlmutter of global music trade group IFPI told Akester in an interview, “You are not going to get a one size fits all DRM that will deal both with the consumer and the special interests exceptions and, in any case, you do not want to give up a system that works for 99 percent of cases because there is a particular issue with a particular kind of user when you can let the system work and then deal with that user.”

Are rightsholders willing to “deal with users” who experience problems? Some are, but Prof. Akester found that many require a legislative prod before taking any action.

The study confirms what anyone who has ever wanted to rip a DVD to their computer or iPod could have told you: DRM, coupled with anti-circumvention laws, makes pirates of us all.

It’s worth noting of course that the massive lobbying, legislative, legal, and technical effort that underlies all these DRM regimes does so little to stop piracy that it makes you wonder if it is truly worth the effort.

A step in the right direction then but it remains to be seen if the landmark paper will have any effect.

Phil Tolhurst – SEDA Publicity Co-ordinator

Test your DJ skills out to the max!

If you’ve got kids older than mine, or like me you own a Wii and 360 you’ve almost definitely heard of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. These are the rock rhythm games that put you in control of plastic guitars and drum kits while caricatures of your childhood rock heroes rock it out on your 40” widescreen TVs

Well as Agent Smith said in the Matrix “You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability…” and low and behold we now have DJ Hero and Numark Scratch. Even before either game has been released the claws have come out and things have gotten down and dirty in the courts.

But now at last we get a glimpse of the controllers in question. And they both look, well, interesting, not quite what I was expecting. I was thinking we’d get something more like the Hercules I suppose. It’ll be and interesting battle and it’ll probably come down to who has the bigger names and best track lists. I won’t bore you with the technical details of the devices I’ll just leave you to look at the pretty pictures and wonder where it all went wrong with your chosen profession.

Phil Tolhurst – SEDA Publicity Co-ordinator

Ofcom prepares Olympics airwaves

The following article was taken from the BBC news website. The original article is here.

Regulator Ofcom is looking at the best way to provide new spectrum in London during the 2012 Olympics.

Demands on the airwaves will be huge as thousands of wireless devices will be used during the games to serve athletes, officials and broadcasters.

Ofcom is considering temporarily borrowing spectrum from public sector bodies such as the Ministry of Defence.

It believes that it can set aside a sufficient amount of spectrum without having a major impact on current users.

Wireless mics

Other options include using existing civil spectrum more efficiently and using license-exempt spectrum for activities that require low power such as operating remote-controlled cameras.

Wireless devices will be crucial to the smooth running of the games.

Private mobile radios will make sure that the London Organising Committee and athletes can keep in touch at the 36 games venues across the UK. Such radios will be vital for communicating from land to sea during the sailing events at Portland Harbour.

Wireless microphones will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies and by broadcasters for commentary and interviews with athletes.

Wireless cameras will be used by broadcasters, including airborne coverage for events such as the marathons.

Wi-fi hotspots will be made available for spectators.

The Olympics will serve 14,500 athletes, 20,000 broadcasters in 200 countries and transmit to 5bn viewers globally.

Ofcom is set to consult on the best way to provide spectrum for the Olympics until August. A full plan will be published by the end of the year.

NEW COLOUR SCHEME FOR XONE :D SERIES

Following the launch of its latest Xone products – the Xone:4D and Xone:22 – in a new storm grey colour scheme, Allen & Heath has decided to alter the colour of related Xone products to bring them in line.

The British manufacturer received positive reactions to the new colour scheme, which was first adopted by the Xone:4D, launched in June 2008, followed by the Xone:22 in January 2009.

Consequently, the Xone:1D and Xone:2D MIDI controllers will be manufactured in the new colour scheme along with the Xone:4D to complete the Series, and the Xone:42 USB DJ mixer will join the Xone:22 DJ mixer in grey as Allen & Heath’s entry-level mixers.

The change is purely cosmetic, and there are no alterations to the products’ design or performance. The grey versions are filtering into distribution now and will begin to appear in retail outlets around the globe.

www.xone.co.uk

PCDJ “loses” VJ

PCDJ, still licking their wounds following the Reflex news earlier this year are unhappy to report that they are withdrawing PCDJ VJ from their product range.  This obviously now leaves the very popular DJ software house without a video solution.  Existing UK VJ users will continue to receive support from Valeway Technology who are the official licencees of PCDJ in the UK.

The news, as expected has angered the VJ community but probably comes as no surprise to most.  Atomix, the company behind the software product “VirtualDJ Pro” licenced a “white label” version of their software to PCDJ and Numark who branded it as VJ and CUE respectively.  VirtualDJ Pro is about to hit version 6 and is reported to have been re-written from the ground up.  It would appear that Atomix want to keep the new software technology to themselves and have decided to no longer offer white label licences.

A “cross-grade” path is available for Numark Cue users but for VJ’ers there is no news.  Hopefully a deal can be sorted out where existing bona-fide VJ licence holders can “upgrade” to VirtualDJ Pro in return for a small modest fee.  The VDJ website currently displays a cross-grade price “from $49″ – what the actual price is is anyone’s guess.

Interestingly, PCDJ UK are still happy to sell VJ licences and install it on their 00DJ products and will continue to support users for the time being, as for exactly how long this free support will last is anyone’s guess.

PCDJ have been in the DJ software business for many many years, originally writing their own software.  Looking at their product line now it as been “bought-in” and is licenced to PCDJ.  Hopefully these new relationships will not go sour in the future possibly leaving PCDJ with nothing.

For more information, please visit PCDJ.com.

Prolight: An Apology

At the SEDA ShowNight on Sunday, 17th May 2009 at the Village Hotel in Maidstone, a comment was made over a live microphone against Prolight Concepts Ltd.

The comments were derogatry and inferred that goods supplied by Prolight Concepts Ltd. were of sub-standard quality.

We regret that this incident occurred at one of our ShowNights and the SEDA Committee would like to point out that the comment was made by a non-SEDA member and that this comment in no-way reflects the views of the SEDA Committee and as such we would like to apologise to Prolight for the comment that was made.

We trust that our long-standing relationship with Prolight Concepts has not been affected by this unfortunate occurance.