Re: Downloading music from Destra
On 29 Jan 2005, at 8:20 PM, Greg Sharp wrote: Legally as far as Australia is concerned just about every person who owns an iPod is a criminal if you copy music to it. Any law that is so unjust as to make you or your kids a criminal just for copying music to an iPod should be fought to the bitter end. Is the apparent illegality of copying music to an iPod really a new problem? We've been doing it for years copying vinyl and CDs to tapes to protect the original or play them in the car. What about the rampant use of the VCR? I for one would support the replacement of an ineffective copyright law with one which is practical. Surely you should have the right to copy a sound or video recording you have purchased to another device to play it back to yourself. Changing the law can't be that difficult. What about a political campaign to press for a change in the copyright laws? Regards, John Taylor
Re: Downloading music from Destra
In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 07:07:38AM +0800, John Taylor wrote: Changing the law can't be that difficult. What about a political campaign to press for a change in the copyright laws? Copyright laws have been recently revised as part of federal legislation to enable the USAFTA (er...Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, often abbreviated as thought it's AusFTA instead of A-USFTA). Various intellectual property laws came into effect on 1 Jan 2005, and I have been told that these impose *more* restrictions than existed before. Although these FTA conditions have been known for a long time, I seem to recall that the Australian media chose to marginalise the whole affair, then publicised it last year by focusing on sugar and drugs. I also recall a federal election last year which effectively endorsed the free trade agreement. The new government chose to enlarge intellectual property restrictions beyond even the FTA's requirements. Although some people hoped the FTA would introduce fair use or personal use provisions, I don't think any legislation of that type has been passed. If you have a time machine, you might like to start a political campaign about eighteen months ago.
Re: Downloading music from Destra
The new government chose to enlarge intellectual property restrictions beyond even the FTA's requirements. Although some people hoped the FTA would introduce fair use or personal use provisions, I don't think any legislation of that type has been passed. If you have a time machine, you might like to start a political campaign about eighteen months ago. There already is a political campaign in Australia, and it's been running for more than 18 months, c/o the Electronic Frontiers Association. http://www.efa.org.au/ Rather than anyone starting their own, probably better to support the EFA. Have fun, Shay (EFA member) -- === Shay Telfer Perth, Western Australia Technomancer Join Team Sungroper in the Opinions for hire [POQ] 2005 World Solar Challenge http://public.xdi.org/=Shayfnord http://sungroper.asn.au/
Re: Downloading music from Destra
Hi, If people are interested in a campaign, these links might be a helpful start to see what is/has been happening in the Senate. http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/free_trade/ http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/support_open_source/ Tim Democrat member on 30/1/05 12:23 PM, James Devenish at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In message [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 07:07:38AM +0800, John Taylor wrote: Changing the law can't be that difficult. What about a political campaign to press for a change in the copyright laws? Copyright laws have been recently revised as part of federal legislation to enable the USAFTA (er...Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, often abbreviated as thought it's AusFTA instead of A-USFTA). Various intellectual property laws came into effect on 1 Jan 2005, and I have been told that these impose *more* restrictions than existed before. Although these FTA conditions have been known for a long time, I seem to recall that the Australian media chose to marginalise the whole affair, then publicised it last year by focusing on sugar and drugs. I also recall a federal election last year which effectively endorsed the free trade agreement. The new government chose to enlarge intellectual property restrictions beyond even the FTA's requirements. Although some people hoped the FTA would introduce fair use or personal use provisions, I don't think any legislation of that type has been passed. If you have a time machine, you might like to start a political campaign about eighteen months ago. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] WAMUG is powered by Stalker CommuniGatePro
Re: Downloading music from Destra
On 30/1/05 10:07 AM, John Taylor [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is the apparent illegality of copying music to an iPod really a new problem? We've been doing it for years copying vinyl and CDs to tapes to protect the original or play them in the car. What about the rampant use of the VCR? When I was younger everybody copied records to cassette so they could play them in the car etc but the record companies never cared because the quality was always inferior to the original. By the time beta videos came out the quality had improved markedly and eventually when VHS took over as the most popular format these big companies got together with the manufacturers to put in chips that prevented commercial videos from being recorded. Beta machines never had this chip and you could copy a commercial VHS tape to beta no problems. To kill off beta the big companies insisted that local video shops stop selling blank beta tapes and beta movies. Even today the professionals at tv stations still use beta but for the general public it's a dead technology. They killed off beta to ensure they had total control. Over the last few years the same thing has happened to records. Today audiophiles who appreciate the greater dynamic range of records than cd's are the only people still playing them. Record players are inherently dumb machines with no way to circumvent copying. So once again the big companies got together and phased out record production, ran campaigns denigrating record quality and converted the masses to using cd's instead (remember being told they would last forever and couldn't be scratched with adds showing people hitting them with hammers and then playing them flawlessly in their cd players). The side effect being only those with computers and cd rewriters were able to copy them. Once they realized this loophole they invented the concept of adding copy protection. By the time music downloading from the net became viable and the mp3 format was introduced these companies decided to get involved again. MP3's can't contain copy protection due to limitations in its format, therefore no commercial companies released music in that format instead settling for proprietary formats like AAC, WMA etc. This means for Apple users with iPods in Australia with no ITMS available any copyright material they place on their iPods makes them criminals. DVD's have gone through a similar process. Before consumer DVD Rewriters became available the big companies didn't care, but by the time dvd rewriters were available on computers they introduced copy protection. To date it is easy to circumvent this protection using software however for home users with stand alone recorders this is impossible without getting illegal hacks made to your machine. With the upcoming introduction of blue-ray and similar technologies the big companies will be adding a whole new type of copy protection that they think will be unbreakable. Unfortunately this means we the consumer will be forced to buy brand new DVD recorders since current machines will be incompatible with this new format. With the advent of digital tv this process continues. If you sign up for Foxtel digital and thought you'd be able to copy the Pay Per View channels you'll find you can't because they have implemented copy protection via encryption of the signal. What is also scary is the fact that from July 1 2005 all manufacturers in the US will be adding this new digital tv copy protection mechanisms to all new dvd rewriters, PVR's (like Tivo's), EyeTV's etc. Their plan is to enforce copy protection on digital tv programs as well. Perhaps only movies at first but eventually the tv stations will have total control over what you can record. These huge multinationals pump millions into political parties campaign funds on the understanding the governments will enforce their new regime of copy protection on everything. Personal freedom is a thing of the past. Welcome to a brave new world of total government control sponsored by big business. -- All the best Greg Sharp President/Webmaster [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australian Mac Users Group (AUSMUG) http://australian.macusersgroup.org
Downloading music from Destra
I downloaded a track from Destra music http://MusicandGames.destramusic.com (still waiting for Apple to get their act together!) It was in wma format..wouldn't play on Windows Media player on my Imac (Panther) (says it only plays on Windows WMA player!) Message reads The content you are trying to play is restricted to Windows Media Version 7.1 and above running on Windows Operating systems Downloaded Easywma http://www.carrafix.com/EasyWMA/ which is supposed to convert wma to mp3. This programme says it converts the file but it converts the title and nothing in it. Reading further it says Notice that EasyWMA will not convert wma audio files including DRM. For these files, EasyWMA will problably just create an empty file. Don't have a clue what DRM is. Anybody had better success with playing files from Destra? Rosemary Horton
Re: Downloading music from Destra
On 29/1/05 3:39 PM, Roger and Rosemary Horton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I downloaded a track from Destra music http://MusicandGames.destramusic.com (still waiting for Apple to get their act together!) It was in wma format..wouldn't play on Windows Media player on my Imac (Panther) (says it only plays on Windows WMA player!) Message reads The content you are trying to play is restricted to Windows Media Version 7.1 and above running on Windows Operating systems Downloaded Easywma http://www.carrafix.com/EasyWMA/ which is supposed to convert wma to mp3. This programme says it converts the file but it converts the title and nothing in it. Reading further it says Notice that EasyWMA will not convert wma audio files including DRM. For these files, EasyWMA will problably just create an empty file. Don't have a clue what DRM is. Anybody had better success with playing files from Destra? I'm pretty sure that means it has digital protection to stop copying. This won't work on the Mac and thus the need for Windows Media Version 7.1 and above running on Windows Operating systems. Don't waste your money on that site. All the best Greg Sharp
Re: Downloading music from Destra
Rosemary, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. iTunes Music Store uses a version of DRM called Fairplay, which allows purchasers to do certain things with the tracks they own, but not others. For example Fairplay allows a song downloaded from iTMS to be used on up to 5 macs/pc's, burnt to any number of CD's, or downloaded to an unlimited number of ipods when they are connected to one of the abovementioned 5 computers. So what you have probably come across is a track that contains a Windows DRM (or Destra's own) that will only allow the track to be played on a computer that has specific software, in order to try and limit the end users ability to share the track with everyone else that hasn't gone to Destra's website to download the track. As for how to get around it, I don't know!! Daniel F. On 29/01/2005, at 12:39, Roger and Rosemary Horton wrote: I downloaded a track from Destra music http://MusicandGames.destramusic.com (still waiting for Apple to get their act together!) It was in wma format..wouldn't play on Windows Media player on my Imac (Panther) (says it only plays on Windows WMA player!) Message reads The content you are trying to play is restricted to Windows Media Version 7.1 and above running on Windows Operating systems Downloaded Easywma http://www.carrafix.com/EasyWMA/ which is supposed to convert wma to mp3. This programme says it converts the file but it converts the title and nothing in it. Reading further it says Notice that EasyWMA will not convert wma audio files including DRM. For these files, EasyWMA will problably just create an empty file. Don't have a clue what DRM is. Anybody had better success with playing files from Destra? Rosemary Horton -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] WAMUG is powered by Stalker CommuniGatePro
Re: Downloading music from Destra
On 29/01/2005, at 1:52 PM, Claire Forsdyke wrote: Rosemary, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It also stands for Digital Restriction Management Digital Revenue Maker Doesn't Really Matter (In the case of DVD's) ... depending on who you ask. In any case, it's a pain in the butt for consumers. - Matt
Re: Downloading music from Destra
Reading further it says Notice that EasyWMA will not convert wma audio files including DRM. For these files, EasyWMA will problably just create an empty file. Don't have a clue what DRM is. Digital Restrictions Management (or Digital Rights Management, depending on which side of the debate you're on). Designed to stop you playing music you paid for (or designed to stop people ripping off your music, also depending on which side of the debate you're on). More likely to inconvenience and frustrate people than anything else. Anybody had better success with playing files from Destra? Personally if they make it that difficult I'd rather not give them my money. Have fun, Shay -- === Shay Telfer Perth, Western Australia Technomancer Join Team Sungroper in the Opinions for hire [POQ] 2005 World Solar Challenge http://public.xdi.org/=Shayfnord http://sungroper.asn.au/
Re: Downloading music from Destra
On 29/1/05 3:55 PM, Shay Telfer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Personally if they make it that difficult I'd rather not give them my money. I agree totally. I have no interest in supporting companies that use DRM. I only buy real CD's that give me the ability to copy/backup. I would never sell a copy illegally but if I pay for music I want to be able to use it the way I want not the way Sony or some other greedy multinational company tells me. Legally as far as Australia is concerned just about every person who owns an iPod is a criminal if you copy music to it. Any law that is so unjust as to make you or your kids a criminal just for copying music to an iPod should be fought to the bitter end. All I can say is boycott DRM and let everyone know exactly why you are. These multinationals only care about profits so hit them where it hurts, their bottom line. -- All the best Greg Sharp President/Webmaster [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australian Mac Users Group (AUSMUG) http://australian.macusersgroup.org
