63 lines
1.7 KiB
HTML
63 lines
1.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
|
<html>
|
|
<version>1</version>
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>
|
|
Endings and Beginnings - 17th September 2004
|
|
</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
<h1>
|
|
Endings and Beginnings
|
|
</h1>
|
|
<p>by Georg Greve</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Originally published in German Handelsblatt Nr. 181, 2004 September 17th,
|
|
Page 19
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Do you know what "Digital Rights Management" - aka DRM - is? Here's how it
|
|
works: Your newspaper is available via subscription only - buying from
|
|
a kiosk isn't an option. The publishing house make you agree to only read
|
|
the paper at home. As soon as you leave your house, the letters on the
|
|
page disappear - unless you paid an additional fee. And if you cancel your
|
|
subscription, all the letters on all the papers you've collected also
|
|
disappear.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
You think I'm delusional and need to visit a psychiatrist? Well, this
|
|
scenario is completely based on reality: "Janus" is a service from
|
|
Microsoft to "rent" music and exactly follows the model described above.
|
|
And if the customers accept it, then the company can look forward to
|
|
easy money.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
And there are other IT companies who also want to profit from rights
|
|
management: There is a notebook chip provided by IBM, Utimaco delivers
|
|
encryption software.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
But what does this have to do with your rights? In choosing a name, Microsoft
|
|
went back to Roman mythology: Janus was worshipped as god of the
|
|
beginning and the end. And in name Microsoft have begun the end of user
|
|
rights and the beginning of user restrictions: Digital Restriction
|
|
Management - the acronym DRM remains the same.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
<translator/>
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|