skajake - Slashdot User

The DRM Scorecard 543

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 01, 2007 @08:26PM from the guess-who's-ahead dept.

An anonymous reader writes "InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe put together a scorecard which makes the obvious but interesting point that, when you list every major DRM technology implemented to "protect" music and video, they've all been cracked. This includes Apple's FairPlay, Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, the old-style Content Scrambling System (CSS) used on early DVDs and the new AACS for high-definition DVDs. And of course there was the Sony Rootkit disaster of 2005. Can anyone think of a DRM technology which hasn't been cracked, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the industry just give up and go DRM-free?"

Submission + - Open Wifi Hardware Project

Submitted by

rnmartinez

on Monday July 16, 2007 @12:38PM

rnmartinez writes: "I have been a Linux "newbie" for close to 10 years now. Sounds like a long time to be a novice user, but I find that one application or piece of hardware brings me back to Microsoft applications. I am trying to finally get away from MS completely, but my current dilemma seems to be with wireless. I am trying to encourage my employer to move away from MS solutions, but several factors, like the ones I encounter personally seem to get in the way.

My most recent headache was when my wireless adapter, that worked out of box with Ubuntu 7.04 physically broke. Trying to find a replacement has not been easy, and while I have compiled drivers before, it is such a struggle and this time I was not able to get it to work.

I would like to see a permanent solution to this, so does the slashdot group think that it would be worthwhile to try and either purchase:

A) an 802.11 a/b/g/n design — have someone make one from the ground up for a group or company x, and completely open it up

or
B) purchase a small or struggling semi conductor manufacturer (as part of a group effort — it could be run as a profit or non profit)

And try and come up with an open solution? I know that manufacturers like Intel have excellent driver support, but they do not have PCMCIA, USB or PCI solutions (unless if you use some type of adapter, which I am going to do for now). Ideally I would like to see an open USB wifi dongle, that would have completely open driver support and eventually be submitted into the kernel. If this were to be successful, then of course other types of hardware, i.e. webcams, RAID, etc... could also be considered.

Is this too ambitious a project? Has it already been done? Any comments and criticisms are welcome. While my knowledge of Linux and open projects in general is a bit limited, I think that something like this makes business sense. I feel that outside of Canada and the U.S. there is an enormous market for Linux and other open source projects, and by removing the hindrance of hardware many other things could fall into place.

I only need to look at my frustration as a consumer trying to completely replace a mainstream o/s with Linux, and feel that there must be many more in the same situation. (if anyone replies to this, I'd also be glad to tell you about my RAID woes, but that might be best for another project/post).

Thank you.

P.S. I haven't invested in a domain or a site of any type for this yet, but if there is some interest, I would definitely move forward. If this makes it to Slashdot and the feedback is good, then I will come up with a url somewhere."

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