Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Greg London" <email AT greglondon.com>]

On 8/11/06, rob AT robmyers.org <rob AT robmyers.org> wrote:
> If only SuckCorp (or SuckCorp's restricted licencees) can encode
> iSuck files, iSuck files are not free.

I could see that scenario as possibly creating
problems for the FLOSS version of the project,
and the community that created it.

>> But I don't understand DRM enough to know
>> if a "FLOSS-to-DRM" converter is like a compiler
>> or not. I.E. is it hard to implement or reverse engineer?
>
> You may be able to reverse engineer some current DRM. iTunes DRM is
> typically cracked as soon as it is upgraded. But to do so is illegal
> because of the DMCA, and when Trusted Computing comes in you won't be
> physically able to analyse it.

I sort of figured DRM was probably a no-brainer
for the community to crack. I was pretty certain
doing so would violate the anti-circumvention
clause of the DMCA.

So, if the next hardware version of iPod

(1) only allows it to play DRM'ed works
(removing the option to play non-DRM versions
of teh work on the device. i.e. no raw mp3 play
capability), and

(2) there is no software available to legally
convert the FLOSS work to a DRM'ed version of
the work without violating DMCA, then

I believe we have a problem.

In this scenario, Apple would be the sole-source
distributer of music that can be played on the iPod,
even to the point that the FLOSS community can't
distribute a derivative of the work that would play
on the iPod. Worst case scenario, the FLOSS community
might have to -pay- the company to get a iPod
playable version.

that would suck.

It sounds a bit extreme until you consider the
PSP business model was to build a system around
proprietary hardware so no one could burn their
own discs, meaning that even if you had a copy
of some CD on your bookshelf, you would have to
by another copy of the song through Sony if you
wanted to play it on the PSP.

So, it seems extreme, but corporations have already
tried similar gambits.

I think there ought be some sort of protection
in the license to prevent this sort of end-run.

Greg
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Wikipedia and the Great Sneetches War
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