May 4: The day against DRM

So, apparently today is the day against DRM. Every day is a day against DRM in my world, and I'm proud to say I haven't bought a DRM-infested product in years.

Nevertheless I wholeheartedly support any kind of awareness campaign against this evil. So, in addition to a total boycott of the media industry, I signed the iPad DRM petition. How about you?

Voddler - a fiasco in the making

Voddler is supposed to be a kind of Spotify-like service, only for movies and TV-series. This is all good, but according to the article in SvD, Voddler will be burdened by the same antique release window system invented by the movie industry that is killing the DVD market and causing people to illegally download US-released movies and TV-series that won't hit European theaters for months:

Alla filmer kommer alltså inte att finnas i gratisversionen och filmer kommer även att kunna flyttas från gratisvarianten till premiumvarianten och vice versa. Baserat på filmbolagens så kallade releasefönster kommer filmer även att kunna försvinna helt i perioder.

Seriously, who's gonna pay for a premium account?

Unfortunately it seems as long as you want to stay on friendly terms with the entertainment mafia, you're going to have a poor, defective service. If you, on the other hand, decide to give the customers what they want, expect to be persecuted prosecuted by an industry that makes its own laws. It's really a lose-lose situation.

CMX - what is it good for?

The music industry "axis of evil", Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI, are launching a new download format for albums, called CMX. What's wrong with MP3, you might ask. Well, for starters MP3-files don't include lyrics and music videos. But who really cares about that? Do a google search and find the lyrics you're interested in. And music videos? What is this, the 80's?

Most importantly, though, MP3-files don't include DRM, a computer virus that I'm convinced this new CMX-format will be infected by:

"Only playable on a Microsoft Windows computer with Internet Explorer 8 installed. Can only be installed on one computer at a time. We reserve the right to shut down our DRM-servers at any time, rendering your purchase useless".

Ooooh, I can't wait to waste my money on this. Not.