Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Denial isn't just a river in Egypt

Author:Monty Hayter
Posted:9/8/2000; 10:06:22 AM
Topic:Denial isn't just a river in Egypt
Msg #:21016 (In response to 20993)
Prev/Next:21015 / 21017

Your users want control. and, from your DaveNet: The music industry favors streaming, not downloading. This presumably allows them to retain control of the music, in some way that's not too clear to me.

This is a key point: streaming does not confer the control they want, because at some point the data has to leave the protected stream. How hard would it be to create a virtual sound card driver that, instead of talking to speakers, saved the data to disk? Or a widget that captured digital audio intended for USB speakers? Heck, even running a cable from the line_out to line_in on the sound card - there would be some loss, but sound cards are pretty good these days, and there's lots of spare horsepower.

No, they're just going to have to cope, as the software industry did. Will there be piracy? Of course. Will the majority of people with a conscience pay anyway? I believe so. Will the losses be offset by lower costs of doing business (including fewer lawsuits) and revived interest in music? Again, I think so.




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