Stupid copy protection: a player with fingerprint authentication. Really.

[reddragdiva]

Furthering the theory that the music industry's business model is literally to treat its customers as criminals: biometrics vendor Veritouch has been demonstrating iVue, a music player requiring fingerprint authentication, to the RIAA. Never mind that known fingerprint scanning technologies were shown to be utter snake oil a couple of years ago — there's always someone desperate enough for a fix. Slashdot plays out the likely scenarios. As does Mac Hall: 1, 2, 3. "I knew we should have just played MP3s."

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Buying the music they want to protect should be a crime, though.

[poggs.livejournal.com]

That takes stupid to a new low.

[reddragdiva]

Lower than this? Or this?

I don't think the severe rightsizing of the majors will lead to a magical happy land of trees and flowers and fluffy bunnies, but it'll sure be fun to watch.

[reddragdiva]

VNV Nation attempted to copy protect "Genesis.1". Apparently they maintain that they could have been living off their music a year earlier than they did if it weren't for those meddling kids and their MP3s. (Never mind that MP3s were about their only promotional mechanism in the US.) If they have hard numbers proving such an assertion, it would be the recording industry equivalent of turning lead into gold. Because NO-ONE HAS HARD NUMBERS.

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

Have they explained why I'd ever *buy* one of the things, as opposed to listening to my old CDs, getting used CD's without copy protection, or listening to plain old MP3's that I've out and out *stolen* from the Internet?

Anyway, you know that if they actually sell these things that it's just *begging* for a story about how someone got their CDs and player stolen and their finger chopped off so that the thieves could use it.

Hell, I could see a story like that playing well on Jerry Springer or the like, with some inbred white trash waving around a reattached finger and complaining about how his brother stole his wife, his CD's *and* his finger, but how he still loves him in a very real, direct and physical way.

[reddragdiva]

NO! STOP! IT'S A TRAP! If you try to THINK about this thing, your BRAIN WILL MELT FROM TEH STPUID!!!1!!

[zotz]

Have they explained why I'd ever *buy* one of the things

Because in their dreamworld they'll be able to make it illegal not to have this (mis)feature in every mp3 player sold? It's the only method that would get manufacturers to use it. Vastly fewer people would want to buy the things, but as they're not in the hardware business, why should this bother them?

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

I think that I'm just going to take David's advice. I'm afraid that trying to think about it will indeed lead to head-explody, and I have other uses for mine.