Mark Gilbert’s Blog

Most of the time I’m a fairly happy and content person, but every so often someone does something that really winds me up. For example Internet Exploder only sites really annoy me, HP’s Channel Services Network site only works correctly in IE. Firefox, Opera and other all fail to render it correctly. Is it beyond the powers of HP, one of the largest technology companies in the world to write standards compliant code? Of course it bloody isn’t but they just can’t be bothered to do things right.

I also find myself quite annoyed by a lot of things the government and it’s minions say and do. Appointing Michael Martin as speaker of the house, for example, mean that an incompetent buffoon who deserves to be removed from the post for his disgraceful conduct. At times during commons debates he seems to have very little grasp on what is going off, and since his position is to enforce and keep some kind of decorum, knowing what’s happening would seem like a key part of his role. During the newly appointed Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s second PM’s questions The Speaker completely forgot to call his name. The Speaker has to have wigged clerks pass him advice during parliamentary debates, nothing immediately wrong with a bit of advice but this is becoming all too regular. Besides if the man at the top needs constant pointers on how to do his job, you have to wonder how well suited to the task of advising him the people below him really are.

I could go on down this line but I’d be moving at a tangent away from my main point, which is the latest piece of legislation to come from Whitehall regarding ISPs policing their users. The government has said that ISPs who do no take steps to curb illegal downloads of music and films will face legal sanctions. The suggestion is that ISPs operate on a disconnection after ‘three strikes’ rule. Under the proposals, the first strike would be an e-mail warning from the ISP with the second strike resulting in suspension and finally termination of contract on the third strike.
It would seem that the Labour party has been receiving some rather large donations from the BPI and FACT.
Really how can this be enforced? An ISP would have to block access to every site thought to be offering links to illegal music of films, but this would not do anything to counter the so-called “deep web“. Therefore this would have to be paired with a policy of inspecting individual packets traversing their networks and then block users based on this data. However false positives would be a major problem for all approaches. What recourse would users have if they were wrongly identified as downloading illegal music? What happens when multiple people share the same network, who gets banned? If the person whose name the account is in then another account with another ISP could be opened in a different name.

However the point I think ISPs will be most concerned about is this effectively removes an ISPs “mere conduit” status as set out in the EU Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006). “Mere conduit” status means that ISPs are not responsible for the traffic going over their network when they are not aware of the content, for example an ISP cannot be held liable if a terrorist attack is planned via e-mail or Paedophile ring is run on it’s network. The same applies to telephone companies such as BT and other similar organisations such as Royal Mail. “Mere conduit” status relies upon the fact that the carrier has no idea at all what is being carried, they are simply there to deliver the message, regardless of what it is. Without “mere conduit”, ISPs face legal action over traffic that’s outside of their control. This could drive ISPs out of business or drive customers out of the EU to ISPs based elsewhere.

In my opinion ISPs should not inspect any traffic traveling across their networks. I would not expect Royal Mail to open my post or BT to listen in on my phone calls. It violates my privacy as an individual. Nineteen Eighty Four was supposed to be a warning, not a guidebook. How far can an ISP go before they lose “mere conduit” status? Is spam filtering going too far? Messages have to be inspected to perform this task. Would blocking spyware infested machine that were spewing spam constitute waiving “mere conduit” status? Are ISPs which throttle bandwidth to P2P apps going too far towards monitoring traffic on their networks?

Will ISPs want to enforce this legislation? Probably not, but if it’s the law they will have very little choice. Will businesses be exempt from this monitoring. I work for an IT Services company which uses remote VPN links to other businesses including insurance companies, pension companies, banks and accountancy firms. I think some of our customer would be most upset that our ISP and their own was looking at their data. In some cases it may even be illegal for ISPs to inspect data since it could be in violation of confidentiality or data protection laws. Will ISPs even be able to inspect data that is encrypted? The government has clearly not thought this through properly, which leads me to either one of a few conclusions. Either the law will come into force and be ignored by everyone. The law will be shot down in the commons as it should be. The law will come into force, and will be enforced rigorously, then the whole UK Internet will simply melt down.

Which ever outcome actually happens this just goes to prove that the government is either not aware of the implications and practicalities of legislation it is proposing or is fully aware of both of these but chooses to ignore them anyway.

If you feel as strongly about this as I do then I suggest you sign this petition to the UK government.

Cheers

Four of the guys who run The Pirate Bay have had legal action brought against them. The plaintiffs in the case include Warner, MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI among others.

If the charges stick the defendants face a maximum of two years imprisonment. The prosecution are also pushing for a fine of £90,000, which they say is the minimum amount of profit which The Pirate Bay has made from the disputed illegal activity.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries said;

“The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music. The Pirate Bay has managed to make Sweden, normally the most law abiding of EU countries, look like a piracy haven with intellectual property laws on a par with Russia.”

Time will tell if the charges will stick or not, although in the past there are more often than not problems with prosecuting charges of this nature.

Cheers

Apple have today pushed out through software update the latest version of iTunes, iTunes 7.2, which includes support for the new iTunes Plus. iTunes Plus is really standard itunes tracks minus DRM, so it maybe should be called iTunes Minus, makes more sense to me.

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.

Currently the iTunes Music Store doesn’t show any DRM music, but that will likely be released later on today.Sources suggest that you will be able to upgrade your current purchased music library to the new iTunes Plus format, which is always nice. The price of this DRM free lovelyness will be 99p in the UK, and $1.29 in the US, so yyou do pay more for DRM free music, but at least you have the choice.Cheers

Popular music site allofmp3.com, which had most of it’s payment services supended late last year was relying on a voucher top-up scheme run by an anonymous man.  The website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk, has been taken offline pending investigation.  People would hand over money to the website owner who would then get you vouchers to spend on allofmp3.com.  Apparently the idea worked quite well, the only problem was the odd delay in getting the vouchers to customers. I never tried the site, after all the trouble allofmp3.com had had I could see only more problems in the future for them, so I moved on.  

Allofmp3 was recently ranked as the second most popular music site after iTunes in the UK.  It does seem they were offering something that a hell of a lot of consumers wanted, and it is a shame that it all has to come to an end.

 Cheers 

I must admit that I have been slack recently with regards to writing for my blog. I am the first to admit this, and so I decided to have a flick trhough my RSS feeds and clear the backlog of unread items. Slightly over 1000 for those who are interested was the number I read through.

Anyway, the point is I saw two reviews of valve amps for iPods. One over at Ars and the other on Reg Hardware. The Reg one is for the Fatman iTube 182, which I was well aware of and have lusted after for quite some time, for reasons which should be apparent when you look at the picture below.

Just imagine the conversation;

“Darling can we have some music on?”
“Yes of course dear, wait on a while and I’ll just get the valves warmed up.”

Fantastic.

The second was an amp I hadn’t heard of, the Roth Audio MC4 Music Cocoon. It looks fantastic, and comes with a fantastic price, $769. This, however simply falls into insignificance when compared to some of Fatman’s other iPod amps. For example the Fatman iTube 402, coming in at a princely £1399.

These amps really do look extraordinary and I would love one, but I can’t justify spending that much money on an amp. However, my birthday is coming up, anonymous gifts are always welcome.

Cheers

Today Apple released it’s first coloured iPod Shuffle. They will come in pink, green, blue, silver and orange. Other specifications remain unchanged though. Availability is immediate and can be bought through Apple’s retail stores and online. Pictures are up at AppleInsider.

Cheers

I found this video courtesy of TUAW. CNN had someone from the NYT in to demo Microsoft’s new Zune player, which was going well until the Anchor decides to start asking some questions.

It really is worth a watch. When the female anchor pulls out a 2nd Gen Shuffle it really starts to go downhill, until the male anchor asks why they dont get some decent design people to make the Zune look better.

Cheers

Microsoft has this week made a rather unprecedented move. They have decided that all Zune owners are actully criminals. They then took it upon themselves to administer a fine as a criminal punishment. How has this not made the news you may ask? Well it has, only with a slightly different air to it. The deal is being touted as a licencing deal. Microsoft are paying Universal an undisclosed sum of money for each Zune purchased to offset supposed loses due to piracy.

Now hold on just a minute, Universal being compensated for a crime which hasn’t happened and might not happen? That strikes me as a little bit wrong. Are we now to expect to be put in prison when we buy a car, since we may kill someone with it, and it’s beter to get the prison time out of the way now right? Wrong, what a load of crap. What on earth gives Microsoft and Universal the right to punish us for what we havn’t done? So a user who buys all their music from the new Zune stores will be charged just the same as those who dont.

Now I know what your thinking, ‘Mark why are you complaining your about as likely to buy a Zune as you are to buy a copy of Windows?’ and you would be right in thinking this, but I am concerned about you first of al dear reader. You may want to buy a Zune and why should you be forced to pay money to compensate for a crime you have not committed? That is my first reason for caring. However the second reason has far broader reaching consequences.

Universal essentially is getting money for nothing here. They are not providing anything to the end user and are simply extracting money from them. Microsoft willingly allowed them to do this. How long before Universal start wanting this kind of money from Apple for every iPod sold? Then how long before every other label wants a slice of this pie? So very soon we have a situation where each individual label is charging users for a crime they have not committed and may not commit. Surely this is not the sort of situation we want. It is simply not right that I am charged for something I may do. What ever happened to the presumption of inocence until proven guilty?

So I propose either one of two solutions. Firstly since you are being charged for pirating Universals music and they are already being compensated, then why not go ahead and do just that. Pirate Universals music. As much as you like whenever you like. Why not they’ve already been compensated based on the assumption that you will do this anyway, and if the shoe fits then wear it. If they treat you like a ciminal then why not act like they expect?

The second solution, while far less fun is to simply boycott the Zune and Universal. Do not buy a Zune or music from Universal, since money is all they seem to understand then hit them where it hurts, right in the back pocket. Personally I wont buy a Zune anyway, and I advise you not to either.

Cheers

Apple have released iTunes 7.0.2 tonight. It is available from their website or via software update. This is supposed to improve stability and performance issues found in iTunes 7.0 and 7.0.1, as well as adding support for the new iPod Shuffles due in shops next week.

Cheers

Well really if anyone was going to do it, it would have been him wouldn’t it?

John Lech Johansen recently released a security enhancement for the iPod which tricks it into thinking it is playing a FairPlay protected song. This means users will be able to purchase music from other stores as well as just the iTunes store to play on their iPod.

DVD Jon cracked the DVD CSS encryption at just 15 and now runs an outfit called DoubleTwist which specialises in this sort of thing.

Cheers

According to Ars the US is really gunning for AllOfMP3.com. They have named them as “top of the notorious markets list”

The US and Russia are set to conclude talks by the end of October concerning Russia’s entry into the WTO. This does mean that AllOfMP3.com’s days may certainly be numbered. Some will say that I am stealing by sing AllOfMP3.com. I’m really not though, because if that was not available to me I simply would not buy music. CD’s contain too much crap, such as shit tracks that are just filler material and are now loaded to the gills with DRM. Stuff from itunes is poor quality and loaded with DRM. I have a decent set of speakers and quality is a concern to me. AllOfMP3.com provides me exactly what I want, music at a sensible price, with no DRM and of a quality and format I choose. Now why is that such a hard thing for the music industry to grasp?

Cheers

As if DRM wasn’t bad enough already, Windows Media Player 11 takes the errosion of your rights even further.

Welcome to WMP11, where backing up your music licences, or “media usage rights” as they are now called, is a thing of the past.
WMP11 will make your life better by making sure that recorded programs from premium channels in Windows Media Center expire after 3 days. Going away on holiday? Tough shit. You can’t watch the content you record when you get back.
WMP11 adds new features to ripping your music. Rip your CD’s with the copy protection turned and and you need to restore the licence you might be able to do this. You have to connect to a Micro$oft website and ask permission to play your music that you payed for. Tracking your ripping to take away rights if you rip more than once of course not, your not treated like a common criminal. Oh wait, yes you are, you are a common criminal in the eyes of the media industry.

You really should get used to this feeling of criminality. Whenever you buy DRM infected media this is going to happen more and more. None of this is a word of a lie, it’s all taken from the Micro$oft Windows Media Player 11 release notes which can be read through at your leisure on Microsoft’s website.

You can no longer move content from one PC to a different one, so when it comes to be time to get a new PC, forget easily transfering those music files you payed for. You have to sign all sorts of agreements and use the tools provided by the content industry. If you want to do it in any other way then you’re breaking the law.

When you buy DRM infected media all you really get is a hollow promise. The promise not to sue you for listening to the music you thought you bought. The media industry will really do anything it can to protect what they say they own. They will even go as far as buying government officials and put rootkits on people’s computers to protect it. Whether they own it or not is a good question though, when money changes hands, more often than not the purchaser gets ownership rights transfered to them, not so anymore with DRM and “media usage rights”. Users being able to backup media was a loophole in the whole DRM system, but it protected consumers rights. Windows can and frequently does arse up, backing up your media ensured that you wouldn’t lose it when the worst happens. Well this loophole has well and truely been closed in WMP11.

If you read the release notes about backing up media, it passes the book and says that it’s down to the store you bought it from. It says, “Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses). The store might limit the number of times that you can restore your rights or limit the number of computers on which can use the songs or videos that you obtain from them. Some stores do not permit you to restore media usage rights at all”
So Microsoft who provides the DRm for these stores to use will take no responsibility if they do not allow you to restore your licences. They have your money, why should they give a toss about you the consumer?

Ripping from CD’s gets better, “If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times.” So if you rip a CD with copy protect turned on, which it will no doubt be by default, you have to beg for the right to play your music. While the copy protect is optional now, whenever they feel like taking the option away they can do, you agree to updates in the WMP licence you accept when you install the thing. What then, you have to go to M$ to get permission to play the music you have on CD. Block it with Windows firewall, oh yes of course the Windows firewall isn’t full of M$ backdoors. They waited to see how WMP10 went down calling home, no big stink was raised so that gives the go ahead to this.

TV recordings from premium channels will die after 3 days. Why? because the media industry says so, that’s why. You’re lucky you don’t get locked up for questioning the notion. So record a program from what they deem a premium channel and it expires after 3 days. Tough hist if you go on holiday that media PC you payed for is useless, back to VHS tapes it is for you if you want to record that program. Your rights are simply standing in the way of them making obscene profits. How long before “premium channels” is removed and simply extended to cover all channels? That wouldn’t be the first time the rules have changed while the game is in progress.

WMP10 was the ice breaker, test the water and see how things go. WMP11 is the first of many ball breakers. Anything that gets in he way of their profits is insignificant. Your rights are have been taken away. Why? So the content industry can make even more money than the silly ammounts they already do. How can they get away with this? Because you let it happen.

I had to revise this piece so many times to remove most of the swearing, this issue just gets me so furious.

Cheers

A piece of software was released on the forums over at doom9.org claims it can strip the DRM from Windows Media Audio files. The software called Fairuse4WM kills off the DRM and removes any kind of usage restriction. The author claims that it should not be used for illegal purposes and that it should simply be used to enable users to excercise their right to use their music where they want to.

Microsoft is quickly tackling the problem and they hope to have a patch ready very soon. Any DRM system will be cracked. It’s as inevitable as the sun coming up. If there’s a will there’s a way. Nice to see that the DMCA hasn’t totally stiffled inovation of this kind though.

Cheers

Well, some firm evidence is now abound as to what Microsoft’s very own iPod digtal audio player will look like. It seems a little on the large side for a 30Gb capacity player and is nothing like as svelte as Apple’s iPod.

Toshiba have filed with the FCC designs and details of a “HDD Portable Audio Player”. This would seem to confirm that indeed Microsoft are not manufacturing their own device and are letting Toshiba do that. The prototypes Toshiba submitted were shown in black, white and brown with the Zune logo very clearly displayed on the back of the device.

This filing confirms pretty much all of Zune’s major features. 30GB storage space with FM tuner and 3″ LCD. It will play music, store pictures, and show video, much like an iPod, and it can be plugged into a TV for a better picture, again much like an iPod. The only really distinguishing feature is it’s support of WiFi. Through this users can send “promotional copies” of songs, albums, and playlists to other nearby users. These promotional copies are expected to be time limited in some way though some form of DRM.

Still it remains to be seen whether Microsoft can take any market share from Apple, personally I think not. Zune will be out by the end of the year, just like Vista was, but hey, Microsoft could get this shipped on time, or not.

Cheers

Apple and Creative Labs have seetled their little patent infingement dispute outside of court, with Apple forking out $100 million which enables them to continue to use the disputed UI. Creative said that Apple infringed on it’s Zen UI when it used the side scroling interface on the iPod. Talks went quickly and got nowhere, and so in may Creative filed a lawsuit.

For it’s $100 million Apple can continue to use the UI and Creative have been allowed to enter the iPod accessory market and label their products as “made for iPod”

This is a shrewd move as far as Apple is concerned, it’s books are healthy and it can afford $100 million to continue to use the iPod UI, while the money will be a welcome boost to Creative poor bottom line.

Cheers

Well to quote Mr. Burns “Well huzzah, huzzah. I’ll just throw back my legs and pollute my britches with delight.”

To be honest though this is quite a good ruling. I despise Sony, I truly do. Anyway what’s ahppened is that the EU court of First Instance has overturned the EU Commission decision on the merger.
The Commission descided that the merger did not pose any anti-trust issues and so approved it. However the EU Court has decided that the Commissions analysis of the market was wrong and that the merger does pose a problem. What this means is that Sony/BMG will have to go back to the EU Commission and get permission for the merger again, meaning if they are denied the company will have to split up.
If that happens, while it will not change the market dramatically it will mean that there is more competition and should result in less large mergers in the music industry being approved in the future.

So there you have it, something does come out of Brussels other than hot air.

Cheers

The British Phonographic Industry has been given permission to sue AllOfMP3 in the British High Court. They intend to prove that the site is illegal and will attempt to get it shut down.

Personally I think they’re bloody stupid. AllOfMP3 is the second most popular music download site in the UK, falling just behind iTunes. They have shown a very workable business model. Even though people could get what they want on P2P networks they go to AllOfMP3 because they can choose file formats, bitrates and get a nice preview before they buy. I feel people would pay more than the current price on the site for these features, but instead the BPI will just go in stomp around and piss off a lot of people. If they really go and do that then it will be absolutely clear at that point that they have completely lost and understanding of their target audience.

I personally have spent more on AllOfMP3 in a month than I would in a year on iTunes, the quality on iTunes is poor and it’s DRM’d up so I can’t do what I wish with it.

I can’t see how they intend to enforce any descision made by the High Court anyway, it has no jurisdiction in Russia, and they couldn’t shut down ThePirateBay which was EU based, what chance do they stand in Russia where the backhander still reigns supreme? (Some would argue it still does in this country too). They could just ensure that use of the service is outlawed in the UK, but I feel this is wrong. Companies who look for labour cna shop around the world for the cheapest workers, why can I not do the same and take advantage of the global market in which we live and shop around, taing advantage of local laws to get myself the best deal?

AllOfMP3 has shown the public has a desire for DRM free music in a format they choose in a quality they choose, and they are not averse to paying per Mb for the higher quality. The record industry is used to being able to fix prices and rip people off, they want to keep it that way, so they will try to shut AllOfMP3 down, but I really hope they don’t succeed, it would be a terrible blow for consumer choice.

Cheers

Apple have re-released the U2 iPod. The main difference, other than the fact that it says “U2″ in the title is that it’s all black with a red click wheel. It also comes with a special download of U2 material including some videos of some sort.

I do wish they had made the black iPod’s and iPod Nano’s with back backs too. I think it would have looked much cooler.

Cheers

As usual a very mixed selection this last week. Personal favourite would have to be either Snow Patrol or Stevie Wonder - Superstition.

Propellerheads - History reapeating
Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You
The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
The Eagles - Hotel California
Marvin Gaye & kim Weston - It Takes Two
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Roan Keating - All Over Again
Snow Patrol - You’re All I Have
Mavericks - Dance The Night Away
Stevie Wonder - Isn’t She Lovely
Stevie Wonder - Don’t You Worry About A Thing

Cheers

I know I havn’t put any music up on here lately and that’s for the simple reason that I havn’t downloaded much of it recently. I have got one or two things to add though, so here they are;

David Gray - Please Forgive Me
Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
Nina Simone - Sinnerman
Erasure - A Little Respect
Turnadot - Nessun Dorma
Swan Lake - Act I Finale
Messiah - Hallelujah Chorus
Romeo & Juliet - Montagues And Capulets
Bolero (Conclusion)
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Nimrod
Canon In D
Piano Concerto - I. Allegro Molto Moderato
Symphony No.5 In C Minor - I. Allegro Con Brio

A hell of a lot of classical stuff. I am trying to build up my classical bits.

Cheers