#and I consider the license to redistribute my content revoked | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bugkrumch · 4 months

Text

Physical media discourse on here feels... weird (this is a long post)

I agree on a fundamental level that the move towards drm-based streaming licenses is bad, and that the perpetual-personal-content license (read: the license most DVDs are under) is a thing we should maintain, at least as a stopgap until the vanguard of communism empowers us to rewrite IP law.

That said, the language positioning Physical vs Digital, the insistence that anything other than physical media is bad, and the upholding of DVDs as a gold standard, all read to me as kinda tech-iliterate, and thus ignorant of the real issue at hand.

The primary issue with streaming, which folks on Tumblr *have* correctly identified, is to do with Access control.

The primary issue with streaming is that it requires a regular subscription payment, to exclusively view content under a license that can be revoked at any time for any reason.

This is the mechanism by which Netflix can kick you off your friend's account, this is also the mechanism by HBO can scrub Infinity Train from existence as a tax write-off.

This system is unequivocally bad, and the reason it's bad is because of DRM and Access Control. This may seem pedantic, but is an important distinction.

Let's take a look at DVDs now. Most DVDs are distributed under a license that grants you perpetual access to view in a private setting, but not to redistribute the content.

This is what that FBI warning that plays at the top of every DVD is trying to tell you, and is why ripping a DVD, while simple, is technically illegal.

Because the video file is hard-encoded into the DVD, and its proliferation largely predates the IOT zeitgeist, *most* DVDs don't contain any access control measures beyond that legal text, but this is not universal.

youtube

This is a great video outlining FlexPlay, an ill-faded technology that used a disk with light-sensitive material, that over the course of about a week or two, blacked out the disk rendering its contents un-viewable.

I bring this up because it highlights two issues.

One, DVDs aren't a physically resilient technology.

Disks are fragile, and even moderate scratches or damage can render a disk unreadable. This is a point of contention retro gamers have had for years, because while their NES cartridges still work, their PS1 disks don't.

This is not even to mention how the plastic of every broken disk still exists somewhere in the world, and will for centuries.

Two, it shows that IP conglomerates, have been at this for years, and won't be stopped in putting Access control into DVDs.

This means that buying DVDs of new shows forever is not an end-game solution. Unless you are content to stop consuming new media, eventually you're going to encounter a DRM protected disk.

To use another more recent example, remember when the Xbox One came out? They had this giant controversy over how playing a game locally on the disk still required online access to Microsoft's servers.

Your physical media could be locked right up for any reason by the platform itself. How can we trust that if DVDs or Blu Ray made a comeback that they would not suffer the same fate?

So where do we go from here, if physical media isn't safe?

Let's consider what digital video *is*. It's a file, same as any other. .mp4 .mov

Some, like .mp4 support DRM-encryption (although don't always contain any). Others, like .ogv exist free from DRM, thanks open source software developers.

Likewise, with a DRM encrypted digital file, because all of the data is hosted locally, just encrypted, there are ways to remove or bypass that encryption, because the VAST majority of cyber-security depends on a lack of knowledge.

This website has a number of very good resources both on drm-free digital storage mediums, and the process of removing certain types of DRM from digital files, (and was my primary resource for this paragraph)

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/so_youve_got_some_questions_do_you#:~:text=To%20avoid%20DRM%20and%20other,webm)%2C%20or%20Daala.

Storing your media as unlocked files presents the best of both worlds.

You have full control over access to your media, you own those files just as much as you own the hard drive you store them on.

You can buy media online, so long as the distributor gives you a media file instead of a streaming portal. You can also choose to obtain media files through other means, that's none of my business.

And you can do some really cool stuff like setting up a self-hosted media server, allowing you streaming-like remote access to all of your media, without ceding any ownership over that media. (Jellyfin is the most popular open-source solution but there are others) https://jellyfin.org/

And absolutely none of this is to mention the ways in which you can SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY, WHO MOST LIKELY HAS STREAMING OPTIONS.

In the US most public libraries maintain Kanopy and hoopla memberships, allowing you to access streamed content from your local library.

This has the added benefit of keeping the library's usage statistics up, which often helps them with securing more funding.

While you don't own the media, you also don't have to pay for it, and you crucially don't have to give your money to streaming services and IP hoarders.

It requires 0 technical background, and presents a more sustainable and equitable view of what streaming can look like.

So in conclusion:

Make sure you own the content you're paying for, and accept nothing less.

Don't be convinced that your DVDs are immune.

Learn some basics about networking, filetypes, cyber security and self-hosting if you really care about this stuff.

Support Open Source Software

Support Your Local Library

#physical media #dvds #DRM #Digital rights #self hosting #networks #disk horse #Youtube

4 notes · View notes

philippmichelreichold · 4 years

Link

On Godlike Machines by Johnathan Strahan

Home

Godlike Machines is an anthology edited by Johnathan Strahan that explores the concept of "big dumb objects," or "Godlike Machines." My introduction to the concept was Harlan Ellison's "I Have no Mouth and I must Scream." Of course, his Analytical Menace" inspired the SkyNet of the Terminator franchise. So seemingly all-powerful, enigmatic, and in so far as AM or SkyNet was concerned, inimical. But to create something fresh, you need to let go of old concepts and imagine something that fits the bill of particulars in a different way. So though these machines are enigmatic and potentially deadly, they need not be inimical or particularly menacing. All of these authors are masterful and masterfully write compelling stories that should inspire tomorrow's generation of writers imagine original stories of their own. Certainly well worth the price and well worth reading, I would not be surprised to see them as springboards for discussion in workshops for new writers. The contents in order of appearance are:

Return to Titan - Stephen Baxter

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow/Now is the Best Time of Your Life - Cory Doctorow

Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Alone - Robert Reed

Troika - Alastair Reynolds

A Glimpse of the Marvellous Structure [and the Threat it Entails] - Sean Williams

TroikaAlastair Reynolds Troika is the first story. It tells of a Russian space mission to to an enigmatic artifact, the Matryoshka, that has appeared suddenly in the Solar System. But the real godlike machine of the piece is the even more enigmatic (and deadly) Soviet bureaucracy that Gulag's the cosmonauts for bringing home an unpleasant truth. The Matryoshka plays Prokofiev's Troika from Lieutenant Kizhe, just to let you know what's really going on, though this story is not a comedy. The twist at the end is splendid. Return to Titan

Stephen Baxter's

Return to Titan, one Baxter's Xeelee stories, is about development/progress/exploitation thwarted by those pesky environmental protection laws. The inhabitants of the Solar System use tame wormholes to travel through the system. And there's a wormhole at Titan. But the laws against intruding where there may be sentience prevent development/progress/exploitation on Titan and beyond. This is a great inconvenience to Harry and Michael Poole, who've gotten rich building wormholes and fueling development, and whose continued prospects depend on further expansion. So they induce Jovik Emry, who's in charge of protecting Titan, to take them down on an expedition to prove there's no sentience. What they find is a marvelously imagined world-- an engine that makes life on Titan possible. But even godlike machines can be vulnerable to that most destructive of forces-- human greed.

Jovik Emry may well be the most despicable viewpoint character I've ever read. While one could argue that the Pooles are even more so, and that the only differences between him and them are matters of degree/opportunity/ability, the moral difference lies in motivation. Greed is a factor for both, but the Pooles' failings are mitigated by their goals. They have built something marvelous and are possessed by an overweening drive to go on building, regardless of what obstacles they need to remove. At least backup Michael Poole has the courage and integrity to sacrifice himself for the cause. Emry is motivated solely and admittedly by the desire to prolong his own worthless existence as comfortably as possible. He approves of the Pooles' plan to remove the Titan obstacle, but rails against them over the ultimate results. He is the most despicable character in the entire anthology. No other character matches him. No, not one.

(

Link to Xeelee Timeline

) There's a great big beautiful tomorrow/now is the best time of your lifeCory Doctorow takes the reader on a richly imagined romp through a post-apocalyptic landscape involving machines that turn cities into forests, a UNC commune where happiness is hardwired, superb fighting suits and zombies that uplift you into virtuality. The viewpoint character, Jimmy, has been genetically engineered by his father to be virtually immortal. This sounds really great until you consider the protracted puberty. But then, reversing all that engineering causes its own problems. Jimmy is a character the reader can really empathize with, and being uplifted to a virtual existence makes for a happy ending, right? AloneAlone is among the most enigmatic of the travelers on Robert Reed's Great Ship. He does not have any memory of a time before he was on the ship and does not know how he got there or what he is doing there. For ages, he has walked the surface of the ship, eschewing contact and remaining alone. As activity on the surface increases, he travels for more ages within. The captains of the Great Ship don't lie mysteries, and he escapes capture. After a time he goes through the personal affects of a murder victim and takes his place among the passengers. Things then get a little weird at the end, and we find out something the passengers of the Great Ship would not suspect. A Glimpse of the Marvelous Structure and (and the Threat it Entails)

Sean Williams'

Structure tells the story of a spy, Donaldan, sent to gather information about the Mines of the planet Gevira. They produce an incredible amount of raw material and are the basis for the planet's economy. He's infiltrated the local police, and takes part in the investigation of a mysterious death. The deeper one goes into the Mines, the greater the likelihood of inexplicable death. The victim in this case is also still alive-- an investigator named E. C. Cotton. She takes Donaldan on a tour of the Mines, as the answers to the questions of her death and of the secrets he has been sent to uncover both lie deep below the surface. The "godlike machine" is of course the Structure-- the mines are more than just deep. Temporal mechanics are involved, and Donaldson is shaken to the core of his being by what he uncovers. The story is structured as a series of reports back to his controller and mentor, and is tense and compelling. (He carries an uplink to a Guild satellite in his head.) The Structure is a unique approach to questions of time and space. Hot Rock

Greg Egan's

Hot Rock is about the exploration of the planet Tallulah by two travelers from the Amalgam, a galaxy spanning civilization. Tallulah is an orphan-- it orbits no sun and travels among the stars. What makes the planet unusual is that its surface temperature is warm enough to support life. Members of the Amalgam commonly digitize themselves, a fine solution to mass/energy problem of space travel. They upload themselves into an insect sized drone and they're of. Egan creates a variety of bases for life in the story-- the commonality being life on the planet uses chemical and/or thermal sources as there is too little starlight to support photosynthesis. They become stranded and seek out the planet's inhabitants to learn how the planet is heated and to get help in returning home. Their arrival does not create happiness among the faction of inhabitants that intends to fight of any new arrivals and that does not believe they are merely explorers. This nearly sets off a civil war among the three factions and provides a bit of distraction from the marvelous technical aspects of the story. The godlike machine is the means by which the crust is heated and the planet steered. It has served as an Ark for eons and can continue to do so for eons more. Digitization of the human personality,what Frederick Pohl called vastening in the Heechee Saga, is a plot device in three stories in Godlike Machines. It provides a plot twist in Baxter’s Return to Titan and Doctorow’s Life/Tomorrow and is common practice in the Amalgam universe of Egan’s Hot Rock.

Copyleft of my material

Essentially, my work is Creative Commons Attribution-Required, Share Alike.

Adapted from their Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license summary--

You may Share-- copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt-- remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. I cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Attribution-- You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests that I endorse you or your use. No additional restrictions-- You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Providing a link to my source document should suffice in attributing me. Where any condition(s) I place conflicts with the

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, my condition(s) shall prevail.

0 notes