Microsoft Patents DRM'ed P2P, Torrent Method
Could you imagine a Windows Live Torrent client?
Today, the whole idea of P2P file sharing scare copyright holders as it allows for the easily distribution of material. While having convenient and reliable avenues such as Hulu certainly take things in a good direction, Microsoft sees a future in DRM'ed material and P2P networks.
Microsoft has been awarded with U.S. Patent 7,639,805, which is for a "Digital rights management scheme for an on-demand distributed streaming system."
The abstract reads:
A DRM scheme that may be optionally invoked by the owner. With the DRM protection turned on, the media is encrypted before it is distributed in a P2P network, and is decrypted prior to its use (play back). The peers may still efficiently distribute and serve without authorization from the owner. Nevertheless, when the media is used (played back), the client node must seek proper authorization from the owner. The invention further provides a hierarchical DRM scheme wherein each packet of the media is associated with a different protection level. In the hierarchical DRM scheme of the invention there is usually an order of the protection level. As a result, in one embodiment of the invention, the decryption key of a lower protection layer is the hash of the decryption key at the higher protection level. That way, a user granted access to the high protection layer may simply hold a single license of that layer, and obtain decryption keys of that layer and below. The invention further provides for a process for managing digital rights to a scalable media file wherein a different encryption/decryption key is used to encrypt each truncatable media packet with a base layer without requiring additional storage space to store the key.
The whole system works similarly to a torrent network, where content is split up and then shared amongst peers in a secure and encrypted manner. Learn more about it at Cryptopatents.
No conspiracy, just a different method of distributing media - the DRM just makes it so that you can only watch/listen/play if you paid for it. Unless you crack it and pirate it, which once again, is nothing new. We've been using DRM in one form or another for many years. Most DRM doesn't even get in the way or cause any trouble - its the few bad ones (Sony rootkits, etc) that make people really cringe.
Now P2P will have it too!
As we all know everyone loves MS, now combine it with DRM...I see a winner here (sarcasm)
If you value your online privacy and freedom, you may want to check out Linux...
No conspiracy, just a different method of distributing media - the DRM just makes it so that you can only watch/listen/play if you paid for it. Unless you crack it and pirate it, which once again, is nothing new. We've been using DRM in one form or another for many years. Most DRM doesn't even get in the way or cause any trouble - its the few bad ones (Sony rootkits, etc) that make people really cringe.
is it necessary that they make use of all possible ways to put their brand on everything usable by consumers and make more money??
I'm happy with windows 7... that's decent business.
I hate DRM... I HATE WINDOWS LIVE AND I HOPE THEIR NEW DRM FAILS SO BAD THAT THEY NEVER THINK OF INVESTING INTO ANYTHING EXCEPT THEIR OS!!!!!1!1
how much does patenting cost?? :s
paranoid freak. i mean.... nope, i got no other word.
"Trusted" computing sounds familiar? Just wait a bit more, to get
mandatory access control, copy protection, and digital rights management goodies enforced upon.
Really? Just about 10-15% performance penalties, due to overhead... in the current v6.x gamer/drm o$.
Wintarded micro$uxx fankiddies will "love" this one too, like the gamer/drm o$, when it's shoved down their throats by m$ & co.
There will always be wav format, and audio out/in jacks, and open-source players, so it'd be naive to think that we can magically make all audio past and presented into some DRMed form, and furthermore, you could directly record the output of a DRMed file into a non-DRM format. This is incredibly intrusive, considering it's a battle they can't possibly win.
Ipods demand your address and credit card before you can sync them to iTunes, which is why I will never own one. If Microsoft goes to uber-intrusive DRM like Apple already has, then guess what? Your choices as a free, non-sheep person are: GNU/Linux/*BSD.
If Linux is trollware then so be it MS fanboy
Software is neutral in this respect, it's the people behind the screen that can be idiots (on both/all sides of this and other arguments).
Can we please keep this on topic instead of making wild claims with no basis in fact and going on tangents?
by the nature of this technology, there will be a bandwidth overhead as it takes more data to create and maintain an encrypted stream of traffic.
the legit user gains nothing from this, they only loose bandwidth and system performance, and through the nature of permission based DRM, is it requires an internet connection in order to confirm that you are not stealing and if you don't have internet or the company that does the DRM or owns the DRM servers, dies, then your content is gone also
imagine spending hundreds of dollars on content and suddenly loose it because the company that owned the DRM servers goes out of business.
companies need to learn that DRM does not stop piracy it increases it because think about this
if there were 2 people offering you the same content; Person A if offering a video with DRM in which you get the content, it only works on their software and their portable devices and the content has to be validated on their servers so if they ever go out of business, the content you paid for is useless.
Person B is offering the same content which will come with no DRM and will be available in any format you want so it can work with any device.
who would you go with?
what these companies need to do is put no DRM of any media or games and instead offer an experience that cant be pirated. Piracy is not convenient, it requires a user to spend time looking for the content, downloading it and scanning it for infections with multiple scanners, and hoping it is the correct content that they spend all day getting
avoiding DRM makes this worth it for them,
the media companies need to make a service that is very convenient and easier to use than the pirate route, they need to make the content available in all popular formats and make it so that a propitiatory program is not needed to gain access to the content.
look at movies, there available for download and also sold on almost every street corner here in NY days before the movie is out in theaters
on the way to the movies, you will pass by at least 10 people selling the movie on dvd. but theres one thing that cant be pirated, the experience, and quality and guaranteed safety of the content, + you can bring in your favorite meal with you to the movies if you put other stuff on top of the food and put it in a bag
when a few hundred million people go o see a movie, can the media companies really think that they don't know about pirating the content, they do, they just rather go to the movies to see it