Digital Rights Management as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
1,112 words · ~5 min read
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From almost the moment digital media became a thing, we've seen efforts to
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make sure that movies, video games, and tacky music videos with people in
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parachute pants aren't passed around
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illegally. From ominous looking piracy warnings on films to songs telling us
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not to copy that floppy. It's no secret
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that the companies who produce content see the folks who consume it passing
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around their stuff as a serious problem.
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And not too long ago, well, they stopped asking us nicely, well, somewhat nicely,
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and decided to take matters into their own hands by limiting what users could
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and could not do with their copies of Madmen by implementing a technology
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called digital rights management or DRM.
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But how does it work and why does it bother people so much? Now, most early
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DRM existed in the form of encryption and decryption keys. So, your DVD would
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have all the content on it, but it would be scrambled and then your DVD player
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would have a key that allows it to descramble it. But the problem with
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having all these keys out there is eventually someone's going to figure out
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how to hijack the key and use it in a way that it wasn't intended. So, we've
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got a lot more stuff available in the DRM arsenal today. One very common type
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that you should be familiar with if you buy music on iTunes or games using a
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service like Steam is online authentication. Many games and programs
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control the way that they're used by binding purchases to a specific account,
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then requiring the program to check with a remote server that the device or
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account in use is authenticated before letting the media be played back or in
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some cases even installed. So even if you've got all the files, you're more
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out of luck than Sonic the Hedgehog at the bottom of a lake thanks to well also
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much more advanced encryption schemes that exist today. Some particularly
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obnoxious online protection schemes require constant phoning home during
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use, which offers greater copy protection, but also means that you
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can't play at all if something happens to your connection, something only
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legitimate users will have to contend with since pirates will have figured out
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a way to disable the feature. But what if you're watching movies or listening
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to music? Many streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix use some form of
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DRM to prevent people from downloading things to their hard drive to use
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without a subscription. And although some people have found workarounds, many
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of them don't offer the same level of quality as you'd have with a legit copy.
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And then of course there's physical media. physical media like Blu-rays and
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DVDs is still mostly stuck in the uh
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encryption and decryption key paradigm since they're intended to be played back
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on players that might not actually have
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an internet connection. But there are other schemes like region locking that's
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been around for many years that prevent discs from being played in other parts
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of the world. So, at least if piracy is rampant here, these guys over here won't
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be able to play back that content, unless of course it's ripped in a more
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sophisticated manner. Of course, people
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usually don't like it when they're told what they are or are not allowed to do
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with stuff that they bought. And this has set off a furious debate as to just
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how much DRM is appropriate and even the
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ongoing arms race between coders trying to defeat DRM locks and music movie and
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game studios trying to develop more hacks proof versions of copy protection.
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And this was partially responsible for a famous law in the United States called
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the DMCA, which made it illegal to break
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any sort of DRM, a huge FU to users who
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feel like they should be able to do what they want with the things they've paid
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for, especially when it's not for infringing purposes, like creating
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digital backups in the event of a fire or to be played back on alternate
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devices like their phones if they only own a DVD, which obviously ly isn't
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going to fit in a phone or accessing titles without an internet connection.
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And then of course they're butting heads with the content distributors who say
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that making things available without DRM will lead to rampant piracy in an era
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where people can torrent an entire season of My Little Pony in just a few
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minutes. So who's right here? Well, as
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more and more of what we enjoy goes digital, there's no doubt that both new
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technologies and new policies that try to strike the right balance will
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continue to be tested. And I hope a happy medium can be found. But if not,
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don't worry. I don't plan on encrypting techquicki anytime
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soon. Speaking of a happy medium,
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linda.com is the medium online where
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with a membership, there's a form of DRM right there, buddies. access to the page
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DRM. You can watch and learn from top experts who are passionate about
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teaching. They've got thousands of video courses that you can stream on demand to
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learn on your own schedule and at your own pace. You can browse course
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transcripts to follow along or search for an answer and skip to that point in
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the video. You can take notes as you go and refer to them later. You can
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download the tutorials, more digital rights management, and watch them on the
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go, including access on your iOS or Android device. Create and save your
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favorite playlists and customize your learning path or share with friends and
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all that good stuff. So head over to linda.com and get a free trial today.
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All you can eat for 10 days. And if you decide you like it, then it starts at
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just $25 a month for a membership. So I
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think that pretty much wraps it up, guys. Thanks for watching. Like it if you liked it, dislike the video if you
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thought it sucked. Leave a comment if you have suggestions for future fastest possibles just like this one. And don't
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forget to check out our other channels, too. We did a recent video where I
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actually water cooled a MacBook. So, you guys are going to want to check that
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shizz out if you're into water cooling
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MacBooks. It's also just kind of entertaining.