SunnComm - Bomb or DRM Success Story? 164
pacopico writes "The Register has one of best tech feature stories done in a long time on SunnComm - the infamous Shift key problem DRM makers. The story charts the awesome path SunnComm took from being an Elvis impersonator company eventually to creating CD protection technology almost out of thin air. Great read!"
"protection" (Score:3, Interesting)
From whom does this "protection" "protect" the CD?
DRM? (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Turn off auto-run on all CD drives.
2. While the computer is off, put in a CD in the drive.
3. Upon boot, retrieve the music you paid for using a program like EAC [exactaudiocopy.de].
Most DRM relies on #1 to begin with.
Now once Longhorn comes about, that's a different story (for Windows users).
Re:Focus people! FOCUS!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
The stores do generate revenue through selling inventory. It's not clearing the shelves, but every day a certain amount of goods are sold, and the money first goes to the employee salaries, 'cause without them we might as well pack up now.
Now if you have no product, you'd have to get outside investment (read: suckers) to keep you afloat. Or you buy/sell parts of businesses.
The really big reason why the creditors don't ram your door down probably comes down to the managers negotiation skills, and power relationships.
The owner/manager I worked for had a heck of a sharp tongue and could deal with all sorts of angry collections people, if he decided to actually take their calls through the secretary filter. Small suppliers need every account they can get and he really takes advantage of their lack of power
Okay fine, if you want, you can bring in the lawyers. But that'll take months to go through the courts, and alot of times the wholesaler just doesn't want to bother and will settle for a fraction of the bill. The business has had time to save up some cash to pay off a settlement so it's clear then.
Now, if you're a large important supplier with hot products, say, Nike, you'll always get paid. Power, again.
This is probably why collection agencies are actually very useful to wholesalers, having 20 suppliers bound to not ship things to you if you get too far behind on the payments gathers up some negotiation power back to the suppliers.
Re:Amazing story (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Resizes your browser (overrides the nView desktop manager to maximize it across both monitors).
2. Refuses to let you in without Flash.
Eesh.
Re:Not About DRM... (Score:5, Interesting)
Legal doesn't mean ethical.
I don't care what someone's "job" is, if their job requires them to do something unethical, then their only way of not being complete scum is to resign their job. The investors would be better off losing their money, so they'll learn not to invest in stupid scams again. Rewarding this behavior does not result in a healthy society.
Moron (Score:1, Interesting)
When you are in a position to make money for someone other than yourself, re-read my post to see if you feel differently on your ethical responsibilities.
This was never about someone's "responsibility" to make money. It's about how that money gets made. People who invest their pension check in companies that don't even have a product have made a bad investment. You seem to be claiming that this guy is "just trying to make money for investors." Wrong. This guy is trying to do just well enough to attract more investors which means more money for him.
Your amoral view of business is downright disturbing. "Make money by whatever means necessary." That's some evil stuff, man.
Philips & the CD tradmark? (Score:3, Interesting)