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New Improved Management Of Your Digital Rights


SneaksieDave

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The fallout will be beneficial to anti-DRM efforts though, since "copy-protected CD" will become synonymous with "contains that software that damages you computer like Sony tried to use" in the minds of many buyers.

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does everyone here routinely re-format their hard drives and re-install windows every 12 months or so? I do, as it is the most certain way of getting malware off my computer, and helps to clean out all the junk that accumulates over time...

Edited by obscurus
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Pretty much as needed/desired - but I try to keep everything very clean using frequent ghost imaging (for things like demos, "try it out" softs, stuff that I don't trust, etc.). Tried a demo out and found out too late that it contains that starforce shit? Never fear! Backup to an old ghost image and it's like it never existed.

 

Ghost is definitely one of the best damn pieces of software you can buy. :)

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does everyone here routinely re-format their hard drives and re-install windows every 12 months or so? I do, as it is the most certain way of getting malware off my computer, and helps to clean out all the junk that accumulates over time...

 

I reinstall Windows every 6 months. I have SuSE Linux, but I don't know how you install it.

Too late to save us but try to understand

The seas were empty -- there was hunger in the land

We let the madmen write the golden rules

We were just Children of the Moon

We're lost in the middle of a hopeless world

Children, Children of the Moon watch the world go by

Children, Children of the Moon are hiding from the Sun and the Sky

 

© The Alan Parsons Project - Children of the Moon

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I am currently about to do a cool thing where I install windows on a 5 gig partion, called my "system drive", install all software onto other drives, then make an image of the system drive, caputring all the registry settings of the installed programs etc.

 

So this image captures windows in a state that is perfectly virginly untouched by any shit off the net.

 

So whenever there is a problem, I just dump the image back onto the system drive.

 

The image will be stored on a different physical drive, so this should happen very quickly.

 

I got the idea of my University computers, which re-image their entire drive (don't know how they do it so fast though which is why i'm limiting mine to just the windows area) every time they re-set, so they are bullet proof. Nothing affects them, because they are reset to virgin installation state when you reset them.

The other place I got the idea from is my friends Toshiba laptop - they give you 2 CDs, and you just run them, and it just images the hard drive to factory installation state. No going through an annoying window setup or installing variuous programs individually. Just start the first CD and 10 minutes later the next thing you're doing is telling windows XP what country your in etc. and then you're looking at a windows desktop. No hassles.

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That is a good idea Domarius.

 

I currently install all of my programs to a separate drive to my windows installation, and I have all of my files on another drive again, so that my important files are separate from the OS - makes it a lot easier to reinstall windows. There are some programs that annoyingly don't let you choose where to install (they default to c:\program files, with no option to change it), but they are in the minority. And there are a lot of programs out there that can do wonders for backing up and reinstalling the OS... I am planning on building a separate Linux machine on a little VIA ITX board and using that for all internet stuff, and using windows strictly for music production and games (I don't play many games these days, so it will mostly be for digital audio work), and it won't be connected to the internet at all, and it will have bugger all software installed on it.

 

The good thing about linux is that you can play those DRM discs without fear of your system being taken over by some dubious malware rootkit, so the other thing you can do to screw Sony over is to just not use their products on Windows...

 

I always find it ironic that Sony gets severely uptight about copyright infringment, yet they make CD/DVD burners and numerous bits of software and hardware that facilitate ilegal duplication of their CDs... It's like they are trying to have their cake and eat it too by putting a foot in each camp.

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That is a good idea Domarius.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to implementing it this week.

 

Yeah I know about some programs that don't let you set where to install them - they will have to be captured in the system image too.

 

Fortuantely since storing the image on a seperate drive is part of my plan, it will be no hassles to re-image, install whatever, then make a new image, if ever I need to permanently update the system drive.

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I got the idea of my University computers, which re-image their entire drive (don't know how they do it so fast though which is why i'm limiting mine to just the windows area) every time they re-set, so they are bullet proof. Nothing affects them, because they are reset to virgin installation state when you reset them.

The other place I got the idea from is my friends Toshiba laptop - they give you 2 CDs, and you just run them, and it just images the hard drive to factory installation state. No going through an annoying window setup or installing variuous programs individually. Just start the first CD and 10 minutes later the next thing you're doing is telling windows XP what country your in etc. and then you're looking at a windows desktop. No hassles.

 

Actually I use this method for years now, because it always was so annoying to reinstall everything. So I have an image with a clean Window base installation (all SPs installed and drivers, but no applications) and one with the current backup. In fact this is the best backup you can do and you can do it with something as simple as a ZIP or WinRar, provided you got a second windows installation, which I have.

The only annyoing thing is, that you can't transfer this image to other machines, unless they have the same hardware. Being badly designed Windows, as it is, the installation only works on the hardware that you installed it to.

Gerhard

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I always find it ironic that Sony gets severely uptight about copyright infringment, yet they make CD/DVD burners and numerous bits of software and hardware that facilitate ilegal duplication of their CDs... It's like they are trying to have their cake and eat it too by putting a foot in each camp.

 

It is more than likely that there is absolutely no communication or coordination between Sony BMG and Sony Electronics (or whatever it's called). If you think how disorganised even a single large company can be, this is nothing compared to two essentially separate companies that are linked only by name and overall ownership.

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It is more than likely that there is absolutely no communication or coordination between Sony BMG and Sony Electronics (or whatever it's called). If you think how disorganised even a single large company can be, this is nothing compared to two essentially separate companies that are linked only by name and overall ownership.

 

 

Along similar lines, an engineer I work with who is heavily into programming told me during one of our frequent windows bitch sessions that when Microshaft designs their various programs, Outlook, Excel, Word, whatever, each program is designed and constructed seperately by individual teams that have little or no communication between them. in fact, he painted a picture of intra-company competition where each project team has to struggle to get their concerns and issues on the table versus their colleagues. Given the poor quality of the software, I say this as a non-expert because I personally see things I know could be made better and then I read of people who know what they are talking about saying much the same thing with many more specific details to support them, it would not be surprising if this is really how the work gets done but I would like some of the computer wonks on the list to give their 2.5 cents.

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It is the same in my company - the department that produces software actually "licenses" its software internally for other accounts to use, at considerable cost. This never makes sense to me since "licensing" is just granting somebody a defense against what would normally be copyright infringement, and a company cannot infringe its own copyright.

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Along similar lines, an engineer I work with who is heavily into programming told me during one of our frequent windows bitch sessions that when Microshaft designs their various programs, Outlook, Excel, Word, whatever, each program is designed and constructed seperately by individual teams that have little or no communication between them. in fact, he painted a picture of intra-company competition where each project team has to struggle to get their concerns and issues on the table versus their colleagues. Given the poor quality of the software, I say this as a non-expert because I personally see things I know could be made better and then I read of people who know what they are talking about saying much the same thing with many more specific details to support them, it would not be surprising if this is really how the work gets done but I would like some of the computer wonks on the list to give their 2.5 cents.

 

 

I am amazed that Linux systems work at all, given that on the surface they appear to be assembled in a very peicemeal and fractured way, yet they are often more cohesive than Windows, and better structured. I am even more amazed that Windows works, given the needless complexity of the OS and component software. I think the key is that people in the open source community tend to cooperate and share resources, while people in commercial companies, even within different sections of those companies, often compete viciously with each other, share little if anything, and spend little effort cooperating. I'll take Linux bloat over Windows bloat any day (If I could run any of my favourite apps on Linux that is)...

 

Competition that is not tempered with cooperation is not a good business strategy, and competing within divisions of the same company is just insane. A lot of Japanese automobile manufacturers cooperate on technology as much as they compete, and it is part of that business model that makes companies like Toyota the biggest vehicle manufacturers in the world....

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  • 1 month later...

Well whaddya know? A new one:

 

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/01/coldp...new_cd_has.html

 

It worked the first time; spread the word again, and put a stop to this one too. They're probably hoping enough poor suckers will get it home and open it before word spreads, so do ruin their plans, won't you? I wish I could see their faces when it all gets pirated anyway (despite their lame attempts to stop it), and from this stunt they end up losing legit buyers, too. :laugh::wub:

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It looks like that CD will likely only play in a handful of CD players... what a joke. I've never liked Coldplay, but if any artist I generally like pulls a stunt like this they can forget about any continued patronage from me...

 

Apparently you can rip this CD with Exact Audio Copy just fine, but I would be so offended by such ridiculous infringments on fair use that I wouldn't even bother pirating the CD.

 

Once again, another brilliant example of a technology that does nothing to thwart pirates, but greatly inconveniences legitimate users.

 

Fucking morons. I wouldn't be surprised if such technology is banned by some governments, as it is very close to being of un-merchantable quality. The more they go down that path, the more people will pirate.

 

Simple lesson for any CEOs of record companies: Anti-piracy measures that inconvenience legitimate users will only encourage more piracy. Put out a decent product at a reasonable price, and you will have enough legitimate paying customers that piracy will not be worth worrying about (there will always be pirates, but they won't affect your sales - they will either pirate the product or not buy it in the first place, so you are not losing out).

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