iTunes plus may not have DRM restrictions, but it does carry a far amount of personal information with it.
There was an early rumor about this that was later disproved. If you have any evidence that this has since become the case, please share and provide a link. To simply make blanket accusations like this merely spread FUD.
1) DVD is digital versatile disc. The "video" part just got stuck to it because people associated it with video for many years. I also don't think the "DVD" and "CD" terms are generic. I think they are both trademarked. They also are NOT the same. CD, DVD, and Blu-ray each use a different color laser to read the disc. These are not interchangable terms.
"DVD" is not trademarked.
is trademarked.
There is a difference between the generic term, and the trademarked term. Also, the acronym was originally "Digital Video Disc" but was changed to "Digital Versatile Disc" when they started being used for data.
As to the applicability of the different terms to one another, consider this, quoted from the trademark for DVD:
compact discs containing digital information for display of filmed products
Compact disc? CD? So a DVD is a CD?
2) If you avoid items with DRM, does that mean you don't use DVDs? Unlike the DRM-free CDs, they use copy protection. I don't know if you can say DVDs specifically have DRM, but you are extremely limited on what you can do with the movie discs (play and, um, play). They don't use HDCP, but that's only because the movie studios didn't think to put such technology in at the time.
HDCP is annoying as heckfire, but I'm still going to buy Blu-ray Disc movies. If you have another suggestion for where to get HD movies, I'm all for it. Any HD downloads will be of lesser quality and still laden with DRM (see this iTunes fiasco).
Okay, so let's consider what DRM is. This is software that links a digital file to a particular playback device or devices. A DVD has no such thing. Sure, they have copy protection, but that's a little different. If I download a movie from iTunes, I cannot bring it with me to my parents house to watch with them. On the other hand, if I buy a DVD, I certainly can. As as far as being limited in what you can do, what else do you want to do with a movie you buy? Re-edit it so it has a different ending? Playing the movie is what you've bought the rights to do. But the problem with DRM is that it restricts your rights to even play the movie. That's why I avoid DRM.
3) As far as iTunes goes, I think it's the record companies that are keeping them from selling DRM-free tracks. I have read many times that one company (Sony?) is purposely letting Amazon sell DRM-free music and not allowing Apple because they don't like iTunes controlling the market so much. I buy music from both, but I can easily take the DRM off my iTunes music. Just burn the music uncompressed to a CD and then rip it right back.
Yes, I believe you're right. Personally, I like the iTS. I'll be happy to buy more music there once they manage to negotiate getting the DRM free versions of more songs.
^^^ Mag has probably one of the best posts on the thread.
I read the DisplayPort entry on Wikipedia. Pretty much summed everything up. Woo, it has a lot of new features. Woo, I can't use it with my HDTV and don't plan on spending $8 million on an Apple monitor. HDMI can do both audio and video, so WHY THE HELL DIDN'T APPLE USE THIS? It's capable of HDCP and in MILLIONS more displays than DisplayPort. The tech specs read like some nerd's wet dream, perhaps why this made it onto the new notebooks.
That video game copy protection has gotten quite annoying. It also applies to big software like Adobe Creative Suite. Have both a desktop AND laptop? NO SOUP FOR YOU! I get that they want people who use this stuff for profit to pay for each copy, but give us homies a little break. Some of you ought to see the annoying problems caused by multiple computers using fonts or needing a lot of connections to a server.
And as the above poster said, the pirates will figure out how to bypass all of this stuff in about a week, leaving the rest of us chained with a bunch of restrictions.
I especially enjoyed the HDMI and DisplayPort comparison. OOH, huge size difference. I should also point out that despite the claims of Dell offering the first computer with DP, I never saw any mention about it when buying a Dell earlier in 2008. Patooey.
If you want a more insightful read about the advantages and disadvantages of each, and why there is going to be a move toward DisplayPort, I suggest the
Electronics Design Strategy News article "DisplayPort versus HDMI: Do we really need two digital-display-interface standards?". The choice to move toward DisplayPort really is in the same vein as the choice to implement USB. And does anyone criticize Apple for moving to USB now?
Because in a world where "everyone does it", movie studios just quit making movies. Good ones that cost a ton of money, anyway.
It was the same thing in the early pre-"Star Wars" 70's; theater attendance was at its lowest ever in the history of film, so movies were absolute lowest of low budget crap. Until Star Wars, and people not only started going to theaters again, they lined up around the block.
Keep stealing, and there soon won't be ANYTHING out there WORTH stealing. Movies, music, video games, or software.
Count on it.
It's time to cork the genie back in the bottle. Apple's on the right side of history on this one.
Well, I see one problem with this argument. Let's consider "Iron Man" as an example. Estimates put the cost of the film at between $140M and $180M. Okay, so that's pretty expensive. But, what about box office returns? This is money from the film before it's on DVD, BR or iTunes download. For Iron Man, the opening weekend box office returns were $206M, worldwide. Now, of course, that's gross numbers, not net. But if we were to assume that the studios got 25% of that (I don't know how much the studios actually see, so this is just a guess), then they'd be at $51.5M after the opening weekend. I think that it's quite reasonable that they'd make more than four times that amount during the theater run. So, the movie paid for itself with just the theater run.
ALL MONEY FROM DVD AND ONLINE SALES END UP BEING PURE PROFIT.
Sure, that profit makes it more attractive to make these movies, but let's not kid ourselves that the movie studios would be losing money on these movies if they didn't have money from the DVD and online sales.
