[GRLUG] NOT Linux

[Michael Mol]

On Dec 11, 2007 5:38 AM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7136069.stm
>
> I'm not sure exactly what's being
> done here here, but do know that
> the RIAA and the MPAA would
> dearly love to control people's
> computer's so that nothing can be
> stored on people's personal hard
> drives that those monopolies don't
> approve of.
>
> **
> Western Digital has blocked users from sharing more than 30 different file
> types, if they are using the company's software, called Anywhere Access.
> **
>
> People like Orin Hatch, R-UT,  point man
> for the MPAA and the RIAA,  contemptuously
> claimed that if people didn't heed the wishes
> of those monopoly groups their PCs would
> be rendered useless.  Never mind that he didn't
> know what he was talking about - the intent
> is clear enough.
>
> The question is whether a company like WD
> will try to implement a hardware solution -
>  something that looks for a code in a file?
>
> I doubt the industry will stop looking for a
> way to prevent people from storing things
> on their PCs that it doesn't like.  Failing that,
> it will continue to keep suing everyone in
> sight,  but I suspect it would prefer PC control.
>
>      -Bob
>

This is fairly innocuous, as far as copyright is concerned. (Privacy,
on the other hand...)

These drives support a service offered by WD that lets you access data
on them from outside your home network, the idea being that you can
access your personal data from anywhere.   The problem is, WD's
servers are intimately aware of the kind of data that's being
transferred; It's possible that the data actually passes through WD's
servers on its way to you.

The reason for this limitation is that WD doesn't want to get sued in
case you decide to give the access codes to your MP3 collection to the
whole world.  Because of how their service operates, they fear they
would be considered an accomplice in copyright infringement.

Nothing prevents you from storing MP3s, XVid files and the like, you
just can't access them through their remote access service.  It's as
though someone started a P2P network that disallowed access to certain
filetypes: Nothing new. (There are Gnutella clients, for example, that
filter out anything that might be porn.)

-- 
:wq