Live data from Hacker News

US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

boingboing.net

211–220 of 269 posts

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#211
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people also think using animal products isn't ethical and inconvenience themselves to avoid it. But you probably don't want to build a mass market business on that. For the record, I don't pirate music anymore. Spotify has made pirating too inconvenient.

I'm not sure the comparison is just. Using animal products isn't illegal.

[deleted]

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, the blob would detect a virtual machine and refuse access to the content.

In a more modern version, VM just won't be able to support a hardware-assisted DRM conveniently preinstalled straight into your CPU or video card's firmware. Hmm. This leads me to the idea. Why care for software rootkits when PCIe hardware may actively screw with the system? Considering MAFIAA already had success with enforcing HDCP on almost every modern video card out there...

I actually just read a book set in 2040 England where this basically happened, they'd created a system where if you tried to remove the hardware the CPU would be dissolved. The book was called "Pirate [something]" I can't remember the exact name but it had pirate in it...

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think ethics overlaps much with law.

Seriously? Theft, Assault, Civil Liability etc.. I think there's a significant overlap between Ethics and Law. Our systems of laws are based on the work of philosophers studying ethics, of course there's a huge overlap

There's also offshore tax havens, political action committees, and patent trolls. Some unethical things are legal.

There's also underage sexting, media piracy, cryptocurrencies, and marijuana. Some things aren't globally agreed upon as ethical or unethical, but the law still attempts to address them.

Identifying the overlap is difficult.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think ethics overlaps much with law.

Seriously? Theft, Assault, Civil Liability etc.. I think there's a significant overlap between Ethics and Law. Our systems of laws are based on the work of philosophers studying ethics, of course there's a huge overlap

people create laws to enforce ethics, but ethics and laws and law often don't overlap because law gets tinkered with less than ethical people and one man's justice is another man's horror.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#216
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You left out one important point: 6. Convenience. I believe that the content industry is relying on a sufficient number of people still finding it easier to buy a DVD/Bluray rather than pirate. For technical people, pirating is already sometimes more convenient for reasons that you stated. There is also a 7. Ethics Some people do not find pirating ethical under any circumstances, and will inconvenience themselves to…

Some people also think using animal products isn't ethical and inconvenience themselves to avoid it. But you probably don't want to build a mass market business on that. For the record, I don't pirate music anymore. Spotify has made pirating too inconvenient.

> Some people also think using animal products isn't ethical and inconvenience themselves to avoid it. But you probably don't want to build a mass market business on that.

Vegan products are mass market commodity goods like any grocery. Just because vegan goods consist of a smaller slice of all grocery and food sales doesn't mean you'd be a fool to make a business out of it.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the comparison is just. Using animal products isn't illegal.

I don't think ethics overlaps much with law.

Aw, come on, don't sound like a troll. Don't argue for the sake of arguing. THere is a big overlap between ethics and laws. Just because some items don't overlap doesn't warrant such a statement.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Theft, Assault, Civil Liability etc.. I think there's a significant overlap between Ethics and Law. Our systems of laws are based on the work of philosophers studying ethics, of course there's a huge overlap

people create laws to enforce ethics, but ethics and laws and law often don't overlap because law gets tinkered with less than ethical people and one man's justice is another man's horror.

I agree with you, they definitely don't match exactly. But I was arguing that they overlap: Some parts match, or at leats cover the same ground.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#219
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flow of human events isn't bound to individuals. Names merely get played up in the remembering, and the events downplayed. E.g., America was going to revolt regardless of whether T.J., et al had ever been born. Really amazing that a war is misremembered as activism....pass the K-Y.

Not actually true. The colonies could have received the things they wanted had they actually attempted to fight for them (and by 'things they wanted', I mean the things we wrote about England (and specifically a king with little political power at that time (it was all parliament's by that point)) not giving us). The American Revolutionary War was started because of political activism. They saw a chance to start a ne…

I think you're misunderstanding me. It's my claim that any sufficiently profitable colony sufficiently far away from its mother country will inevitably cease to be a part of said mother country. The how is irrelevant.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#220
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#5 Safety (guaranteed freedom from malware, etc.)... was the one thing that legally purchased media had an undeniable edge in over pirated media. Disagreed. Sony rootkit was on the legally purchased media. DRM on streaming services can do all kind of stuff without users consent. DRM built into hardware with cameras can do even weirder stuff (just note the crazy DRM idea patented by Microsoft regarding detecting the p…

I think OP was talking about average-Joe's understanding of safety. The "if I buy original version, it won't have viruses on it that break my computer". This is true so far, DRMs or not, and people trust legal media. But the moment this trust gets broken, there will be little reason to go to shop instead of Pirate Bay.

My point was that such trust is misplaced and baseless. Since the distributors of the original DRMed media don't trust the average person (thus the DRM), there is no reason to trust them in return (and even are reasons not to trust). Though most people just don't realize it.
Post reply on HN