Why HDCP Sucks; Apple, Are You Listening?

Count me in!

Sorry for double post, but in addition to ^^^^^ I would like to add: "any way" or by any means

Tuan, nice job on calling these companies out on this crap!

This is one of the better articles I've seen at Tom's. Well thought out, supporting arguments, minimal spelling/grammar mistakes; and I agree 100%. Keep up the good work.

I completely agree. You buy an original movie, and you're still treated like a thief. Terrible.

Why wasnt this a QOTD: "How much do you hate copyright enforcement, and why?"

I think it's a given that anyone besides those who make money off of copyrights (i.e. the creator and the middlemen) would love to see copyright protection go away, since it adds 0 to their experience and in many cases it makes it harder/more expensive to enjoy media that they paid good money for.

Won't someone think of the copyright holder's children? Let's face it, if we had a world where your only incentive to produce music/movies/etc. was getting famous and you didn't get the piles of cash that go along with that in the current system, we would have a different but equally frustrating media system to deal with.

Just to name one hypothetical, imagine going to your local music store to find that they no longer stocked material based on any rhyme or reason, nor did they coordinate their inventory to resemble any other store. You get to sift through thousands of CDs stacked floor to ceiling, most of them containing utter crap and very rarely do they contain a gem. Oh, sure, you could just hop on nap-tune-zaa and download the music from them, but it's a riddle of millions of different filenames, rarely organized by artist or album, with no way of knowing what other people liked aside from the download count, which may tell you it's a popular song or it may tell you it's a video of a cat doing a backflip that got blogged about a million times.

Is that what you want?

Ive had two expierences with DRM this path month that have utterly pissed me off.

The first, was a retail copy of devil may cry 4. This game no matter what i treid would lock up and crash my computer every time i tried to play it. The demo worked perfectly. After much trial and error i found out the culprit was the DRM, securom. After downloading a cracked copy of the game executable i could play what i actually payed for.

The second ws 2 days ago, with windows media player. It was trying to obtain a license to play a video and that was the last i heard of that windows istall. As soon as it tried to do this i lost my internet connection on that machiene(the others on my network all worked fine). On a reboot the computer refused to boot, in the end i had to do roll back the computer to a backup to get it to load again.

This is a machine that had NEVER crashed or locked up prior to these 2 issues.

This topic is related to another theme where software giants just want you to use their product their way because "everything just works" that way. Everything just works... my ass!

iTunes and many Mac products may be more stable than M$ counterparts but they're meant to be used one way only, just like copy-protected material stated in this article. When will you see iTunes as customizable as Foobar? Never! Lost you iTunes library due to a hard drive move? Sucks to be you (me )!

Hi joebob2000 -

Thanks for the response. Although you have a point, I think the main concern is is the invasive user experience that comes with copy-protection schemes. Piracy has gone up, in part, due to the wide-spread use of online access, but that's on the surface. We have an easy way to get media combined with harder to use media we own, creates this need to be simpler.

There's a difference between pirating software, and what my article is about. The point I was trying to make was that troublesome copy schemes don't affect piracy, it adds to it. When copy protection schemes weren't around, there was already piracy. Then came the Internet, which made getting media easier. Piracy went up. The companies were like "Oh no," and produced endless copy protection schemes. Piracy went up.

This tell you two things:

1. Pirates aren't affected by copy protection schemes.
2. Consequently, only honest users who want to play what they own in the way they want to, are the only ones affected.

Because I don't have an HDCP LCD, I can't buy the movies from iTunes. I would love to, but since I can't play them, why bother? Sadly, I am at a loss, and I can't be Apple's customer even if I wanted to. What do I have to do? Replace my 30-inch LCD for one that is HDCP compliant? No thanks. Frustrating.

/ Tuan

Thanks for the direct reply. I have to say, the articles keep me coming back to this site, and not the tools who troll and thumbs-down comments... but I digress. The problem with the argument that "copyright protection aka DRM is bad, not good" is that it's only half of the story. If it were a perfect world and DRM was totally transparent and artists got properly compensated, that would be great. Sadly, it's not a perfect world. On the other side of the same coin, we cannot have a "perfect world" where all media is free to copy and bears no overhead or quality loss from reproduction, because the media is a product of the media *economy* and it would be fundamentally different if that were to change. That is not to say that the media companies aren't shooting themselves in the foot by trying to tighten their grip on old school media in a rapidly changing landscape; there is certainly a problem with the way they are addressing the change.

So, what are we all doing here exactly? Why not propose a system that can protect the artist's right to get paid for their creative work, while allowing users an unencumbered, enjoyable media experience? Why not work toward that ideal environment where DRM is still there, but it manages the users' rights just as much as it manages the artists? That's where I think your frustration should be vented, since it won't do *anyone* any good to propose swinging our culture the other way toward a completely 'free' media society where we are drowned in bad music and movies since there is no way for the truly talented to rise to the top.

And HDCP is the pits, too. I can't use my LCD monitor to watch cable HDTV since apparently it would be harder for me to use a component capture device (same resolution as HDMI) than it would be for me to use a HDMI capture device if I wanted to rip shows off of cable.

I think the solution is to make media accessible to the customer. Allowing the customer to truly enjoy their purchased goods on any device, anytime, anywhere they want. The user experience is--in the end--what matters most. Make more enjoyable to use services. Make it so the purchase can enjoy more and buy more.

There are other ways to promote a healthy business tactic, than simply policing people. That's what I mean.

/ Tuan

Your article points to Apple and seems to indicate that they and they alone are responsible for the content being sold (through iTunes) with DRM protection. And you end with:

To Apple: iTunes is definitely the market maker out there in terms of content distribution. From music to movies, it's the top service. News like this though, don't help your cause, especially when you're trying to appease to the crowd here, on Tom's Hardware. With ads boasting about great life style, user experience, and how "everything just works," this is a slap in the face.

Do you honestly believe that the decision to saddle these downloads with DRM-protection is 100 percent at the discretion of Apple? If the answer is "no," the article is misleading since you do not mention the other parties that are obviously involved with these decisions.

I, too, would prefer DRM-free legal downloads of movie content in HD. And as such, will wait until (hopefully) they become available. But I think an article such as this should expose ALL the players, not just shoot the messenger (or deliverer of the content).

Hi sammydaddy99 -

Thanks for the response.
I'm aware that it's not all up to Apple, just like the decision the U.S. government makes is not all up to the President.

However, Apple has a dominance over online music, in a very big way. This is why they were able to go DRM-free with iTunes Plus. Based on iTunes size, revenue, and dominance, Apple has a way with the music industry. iTunes is an extremely powerful force in the music industry.

To be clear, though, I understand what you're saying. However, if I was a big music or movie publisher, I'd want my content on iTunes, no matter what. The sales that iTunes provides far exceeds the numbers representative of people who want to use iTunes to do illegal things. If I was a publisher and Apple told me I could sell more content without HDCP or music-DRM, I would sure do it.

/ Tuan

Good job Mr. Nguyen, well written article that I can whole-heartily agree with... Of course, all my HD content comes through netflix, are they HDCP compliant as well? I mean, I don't think I've run into this problem... yet

I couldn't agree more, you would think while hemorrhaging cash media companies would find way to cut cost of their products not add to it. The ignorance and arrogance of these companies is astonishing, to believe that they can produce a lock that cannot be broken. I find the physical medium itself to be punishment enough. Those stupid stickers they put on dvd's to keep thieves from stealing it while in the store, HA! HDCP and those stupid stickers are about the same thing for me, a delusional attempt to stop someone from stealing. If jail time does not sway a person do you think a sticker will? Give me a break... I don't advocate piracy, but I think the market has a way of balancing itself out and piracy plays an important role in this.

People steal music and video because they want something but don't see the value in your pricing or just because they can get it for free.

What does this tell us? That music and media is highly overpriced. Would you wait 3-4 hours for a new release movie torrent if you could buy the DVD for 5 bucks? Would you put up with infections and searching Limewire and waiting if iTunes songs were 5 or 10 cents?

The old buck a song ($20 to fill a CD in CD audio format) and $20 a movie and $35 a bluray is WAY TOO MUCH for a download or mass produced disc in a case.

blame intel, they made it

Tuan, you write great articles

Great Job.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I'll be doing more and more investigative reporting in hopes of revealing bad or dishonest products or services from companies. We'll call them out here so you guys get to know the full story before any hard earned money is put on the counter.

Thanks!

/ Tuan

Totally agree, pricing for media is way off base and is the main reason for rampant piracy. Oh and TV stations seem to be actually going in smarter direction than the movie and music industry. They just put their shows online (at least for viewers in the US) so that people can watch them at their leisure, while they still can make some advertising revenue.

Is it the pricing, or the DRM? Or the lack of quality? Or excuse XYZ? It is also perfectly logical that piracy scales with ease: it was perfectly possible to pirate whatever you wanted to 20 years ago, and videos were just as "overpriced" back in the VHS days... Music too.

Yet, somehow, it only became fashionable to stockpile tons of pirated music right about when computers and internet connections were fast enough to handle transferring them in short periods without much cost. And strangely enough, pirating movies didn't take off until a few years after that, right around when the bandwidth and disk space caught up.

You guys can go on all day about how ATI and Apple are evil since they are puppets for "the man" and they are pushing DRM down our throats. What you don't seem to get is that this is a war worth fighting to them, since WE are doing things just as dirty as they are (torrenting full res movies, high def audio, whatever we want, out in the open.) Do you want this to end? It won't end when the hardware manufacturers give up, the media companies will just come down harder somewhere else.

What no one seems to be willing to talk about is how this will actually end, you just want to talk about the next big thing that will prolong the fight. And as this comment gets thumbed down, just remember, for every one of you who shouts "down with the mass media overlords!" there is a guy waiting to wrap stronger DRM around the next HD movie format just so he can keep the fight going.

joebob, I think you've got a lot of things wrong with your arguments:

1. "Just to name one hypothetical, imagine going to your local music store to find that they no longer stocked material based on any rhyme or reason, nor did they coordinate their inventory to resemble any other store. You get to sift through thousands of CDs stacked floor to ceiling, most of them containing utter crap and very rarely do they contain a gem."
- Well, that's basically what has happened for the last 20 or so years. At one time, record companies were there to help people like you and I sift through the piles of crap that was produced so that we had quick access to good music. However, that is totally not the case anymore. The fact of the matter is that the record companies are the ones producing the piles of crap, which people with a good ear for music must then sift through to find the rare gems. I don't see how they should be rewarded for making bad music.

2. "Oh, sure, you could just hop on nap-tune-zaa and download the music from them, but it's a riddle of millions of different filenames, rarely organized by artist or album, with no way of knowing what other people liked aside from the download count, which may tell you it's a popular song or it may tell you it's a video of a cat doing a backflip that got blogged about a million times."
- Well, that's why we have concerts and word-of-mouth. It seems to me that word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. If a friend of mine or someone who is a regular in my scene suggests that I check out a certain band/song, then I can check it out. Then I believe that I can decide whether to spend the money on a concert ticket. (Not forgetting the added bonus of seeing opening acts there as well to help promote a group/artist I may not have heard of) But, I certainly have never had any problem finding good music to download through file sharing programs. In fact, most of the bands I listen to rely on the internet for exposure.

Last but not least 3. "Yet, somehow, it only became fashionable to stockpile tons of pirated music right about when computers and internet connections were fast enough to handle transferring them in short periods without much cost. And strangely enough, pirating movies didn't take off until a few years after that, right around when the bandwidth and disk space caught up."
- Well, if you ask me, the cost of most products have gone way down comparatively, if you look at prices we used to pay in the past. Computers and technology have completely changed the way we do business in the world. Unfortunately, the big record companies are still holding onto an antiquated buisness model and trying to overcharge on a product that the cost just isn't properly reflected in the price that we have to pay.

I could guarantee that if record companies were pushed to the back end of the music industry, and people knew that a lot more of their dollar (or pound, euro what have you) was actually going directly to the artist, you would actually see not only a drop in the cost of music, but a willingness by people to go out and buy the songs that they love to listen to.

So, before you come onto a forum filled with a group of people who (for the most part) understand what exactly is going on with regards to music/movies and drm, please try to get your facts straight by understanding what is really going on between the entertainment business and the consumer.

Thanks.

get a HDFury. Works great !!

HDCP Frustrates me to no end... I purchased an HDCP compliant, 52" LCD TV for my aging parents. They also have AT&T U-verse. For some infuriating reason, the DVR and TV always seems to have trouble when they are both turned on at the same time. HDCP will not sync, no matter how many DVRs and TVs I've gone through. Who the heck would ever want to record through a cable (hdmi) when they most likely have the media source available to work with, and programs that could access that media directly?! *Shakes fist* Now, I acknowledge that most people probably don't encounter the same problems as I have... but I never had any problems with any other A/V equipment in my life.

I am in that same situation only with a 24-inch monitor that basically does serve as my TV right now as well as a monitor. I am not willing to buy a new LCD just so I can have some stupid chip in it that says I can watch HD, its Bulls***. In every other sense that monitor would work. I have made the exact same argument as your article here to numerous people, I hope these big companies will wake up one day and realize they are losing business in people that are more than willing to pay a Reasonable price on a product that I can enjoy where I want to enjoy it. iTunes still hasn't gotten me to switch from buying CD's, 256kb/s audio encoding still isn't as good of quality as a CD is. Anyhow, Great work on the article!

Hi Tuan,

I admire your courage to take on unpopular subject in the media. From your previous posts I can tell we don't see eye-to-eye on many thinks, but I like that you are trying to explain your point of view and at the same time your are accepting that there are different opinions.

Personally I saw the true nature of the big media companies when they invaded the emerging markets in East Europe after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Since then I never purchased a single CD and still enjoy my old CDs and it is not bad. I read much more today then ever.

But I would like to point-out one inconsistency in your view:

1. Apple's iTunes become #1 because the DRM. They was the first one to introduce it and tide iPod with iTunes. That is why they able to secure contracts with big labels.
2. Apple is the last one from the big online music stores to offer popular music without DRM and Apple did it 2 year after Amazon, eMusic, and etc.
3. Apple still sells DRM crippled music.
4. Steve Jobs has expressed his opposition against DRM on music because there is unprotected media like CDs, not because DRM is bad for his customers. In fact he still supports the DRM on movies. Why?...
5. Steve Jobs is the biggest single share holder in Disney. So he has direct influence over the industry, but I don't see him acting like a true leader instead he is supporting the DRM.

Never the less you have my support in your quest to find the true. What I would like you to see your take on guys like http://www.defectivebydesign.org
They are political organization and I have my reservations when it comes to political organizations. I lived under communist propaganda for very long and I don't trust any politician.
I would love to see your comments on some of their arguments:
Day 15: Steve Jobs
Ask Apple about the iPhone
They are advocating for elimination of DRM for several years, but the media companies are ignoring them and this is not good for anyone.

My personal take on DRM is that is useless:
1. It prevents me to enjoy any digital content: Music, Movies, eBooks, and etc. on devices of my choice.
2. Technology that prevents the enjoyment of the art simply can not be good for any artist. It is simply bad karma.

Cheers,
SAL-e

I agree with the fact that price movie and music media is really expensive, and that if they lower their prices it would be way better and actually works, I live in Mexico city and here piracy is extremely common and cheap(sometimes you can be inside the subway and you can find pirated movies inside the train at about 1 dollar or even less), because of this 3 or 4 years ago the companies started to release older movies at special prices, now you can find a lot of movies that were released on dvd less than 6 months ago at prices of 6 dollars (current exchange rate of 14 pesos for a dollar i bought batman begins dvd for this price less than 6 months after the dvd was released) and in some cases even newer releases in strip down versions that only contain the movie for this 6 dollars, and that isn't the only price for example i can go and buy a trainspotting brand new dvd for about 3 dollars at many stores, but this pricing strategy only works here in Mexico city because in other cities in this country where piracy is less of an issue they still charge higher rates (in Monterrey Nuevo Leon the same batman begins movie costs around 10-15 dollars).

As you can see they can do a lot better but the people has to make them do what is right and to charge the right amount for the movies

Itunes is a POS anyway, at least on Windows. I can think of quite a few programs that "just work" waaay better than that. Thumbs down to digital content protection

The bottom line is that those things do NOT work. If the new-media culture was really successful, why can't they out-compete the old-media one? The fact of the matter is that if the grassroots systems you propose that are the solution to the "problem" of you not liking any of the music on the top 40 actually worked, they would have proven it with sales. The reality is that the money still flows in great quantities to the old-media companies, while grassroots bands and distribution systems twist in the wind fighting for the scarce dollars spent by people like you who think the world is changing. It is not.

Learn a thing or two about capitalism before you dismiss my assertions simply because you don't like how they sound. Your argument is terribly thin.

Just for the record, I am not here to troll, to discredit this pretty decent article, or even to argue. I want you guys to hear what you sound like to the rest of the world. If you keep making this thin "drm is trash, get rid of it or people are gonna pirate" argument you are just fueling the fire. Until you can make a compelling argument that addresses both sides of this, you are going to be stuck where you are for a long long time. I really want to see something better DRM come out of the media economy (what we have now is crap, no doubt.) But, since it's going to be there no matter what, you guys need to give up this radical stand and start coming up with a solution that works for both sides.

Great article on HDCP Tuan!

On the more general issue of copyright reform in the US, I know of one stanford professor who is on the case:

Lawrence Lessig.

Give his lecture on media reform and legislature a check if you like - it might provide you with a deeper perspective regarding how we have come to the copyright laws currently in place - even though they contradict the Constitution and 7 Nobel Prize winners in economics including Milton Friedman have called for reform of these laws.

http://odeo.com/episodes/22593106- [...] -NCMR-2008

If people like you and me can't be bothered to step up and contribute to solving these problems, then I guess we just deserve what we get.