FC: Explanation of audio gear, digital out, RIAA, and copyright law

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

************

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 16:24:23 -0500
To: declan () well com, sameer () bpm ai
From: Pat Farrell <pfarrell () pfarrell com>
Subject: Re: FC: Followup to Audiophiles. RIAA, and electronic merchandisers

Declan,

this is probably a bit long, and maybe too technical, but it is part of the 
RIAA's
attempt to destroy "Fair Use". And this is politech.

At 01:44 PM 12/18/2001 -0500, you wrote:

> http://www.politechbot.com/p-02946.html
>
> From: Sameer Parekh <sameer () bpm ai>
> Subject: Re: FC: Audiophiles find Washington ally in electronic merchandisers
>
>         When did this happen? All the digital audio gear I've ever looked at
> recently has a digital out. Who would buy a piece of digital gear without
> a digital out?

While all modern consumer audio (and DVD) players have digital outputs,
to date, all of the digital outputs are disabled for high resolution audio data
(SACD or DVD-A). Current SACD simply doesn't output anything with SACD
media, altho they will output the PCM stream with 44.1/16 data. The DVD-A
release was delayed as the members of the cartel try to find a suitable
copy-prohibition scheme.

There are two fundamental problem, the first is well know to cryptographers 
such
as Sameer.

First: any digital data can be exactly copied. It can be enciphered so that it
is not useful with out the proper keys and algorithms, but that brings up
the hard problem of key management. Copy protection is impossible with
digital data.  The DeCSS technical failure was one of key management.
Robust key management is anathema to mass production.
You want every key to be unique, with no pattern between keys. You want your
mass production to make identical units.  Rather than solving the key 
management
issue, the current crop of SACD and DVD-A players simply prohibit digital out.

Second, while the fundamental benefit of these high resolution media is to
allow the labels to resell the same old back catalog albums (Led Zeppelin, 
Beatles,
etc.) to the same folks who bought them twice already, the argument that
the labels present is that the sonic characteristics are vastly superior
to PCM 44/16. And they probably are correct (even if many of the folks
who can afford these players, CDs, and suitable speakers can no longer
hear well enough to really tell). The hard problem here is that the
labels want to watermark the analog output. And have it carry
on to second generation copies. Since the analog world is only 20-20kHz,
anything that lives through the copy process will be audible, and make it
sound worse than a 44/16 CD. So if they want to have the copy protection,
they can't sell the improved audio.

The RIAA is simply a front for the five recording labels. To see how It 
does not
represent the interests of the current studios, recording engineers, or
struggling artists, read any of the pro-audio trade magazines, such as
Mix, or Recording. If the labels and RIAA cared about current
performers, maybe they should show some interest in
promoting folks other than Britney, the Back Street Boys, and
60s rock groups.

Pat


Pat Farrell                                         pfarrell () onebigcd com
VP, Engineering                                 http://www.onebigcd.com

************

To: sameer () bpm ai
Cc: politech () politechbot com, gnu () toad com
Subject: Re: FC: Followup to Audiophiles. RIAA, and electronic merchandisers
In-reply-to: <20011218134410.A29950 () cluebot com>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 13:47:39 -0800
From: John Gilmore <gnu () toad com>

> >    Industry Association of America (RIAA), have so far blocked digital
> >    outputs on high-resolution audio players, insisted that watermarks be
> >    inserted into both high- and low-resolution audio data, and have even
> >    started to restrict consumer's fair use of compact discs and digital
> >    downloads.
>
>       When did this happen? All the digital audio gear I've ever looked at
> recently has a digital out. Who would buy a piece of digital gear without
> a digital out?

Almost no portable MiniDisc decks have a digital out.  "Music checks
in, but never checks out."  Most of them don't even have an analog
line-out (only a headphone jack).

The few decks that do have digital outs are twice the price of the
ones that don't.  Even these expensive decks still only have
copy-protected outputs, requiring a piece of pro gear to turn off the
copy protection bit so you can make copies of your own original
recordings of your own original music.

You might also notice that the new profusion of "MP3 / MiniDisc"
interfaces only let the music go one way (MP3 onto MiniDisc).  I have
a large collection of home-recorded MiniDiscs that I want to transfer
to my computer, to get them out of the copy-protected MiniDisc format.
But somehow nobody builds a product that will transfer them.  You
probably won't notice this unless you comb through the ads,
specifically looking for that capability.  The sleazy, misleading ads
imply that you can record and play either way with no restrictions.

DVD Audio players are restricted from having high resolution digital
outputs, just as DVD video players will not put the unencrypted video
on a digital video connector (or even on an analog video connector
without Macrovision).  It's all enforced through a web of licenses
that manufacturers have to sign in order to get the CSS "trade secret"
so they can decode commercial DVDs.  If this "trade secret" ever
became publicly known, consumer electronics manufacturers would be
able to build unrestricted DVD players, which consumers would love to
buy.  This is why the movie industry is fighting so hard to keep this
open secret from ever legally entering the public domain, and also
fighting in Congress for laws that would REQUIRE every company to put
copy-protection systems into their products, whether they or their
customers wanted these systems or not.

The California Court of Appeals recently ruled that the First
Amendment right of ordinary citizens to publish known facts prevents
movie companies from censoring those citizens when they publish facts
that they obtained legally but which the industry wants to suppress.
The movie industry is appealing to the Supreme Court of California,
which will consider whether to take that appeal soon.  Meanwhile, EFF
has asked the original San Jose court to dismiss the case, since the
CSS is clearly not a secret any more, and even the movie industry has
stopped chasing after sites that publish it, such as the
Prof. Touretsky's Gallery of CSS Descramblers.  For more details and
updates, see:

  http://www.eff.org/Cases/DVDCCA_case/
  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/

        John Gilmore

************

From: Bill Orme <Bill () repliweb com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: Followup to Audiophiles. RIAA, and electronic merchandisers
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 16:01:12 -0500

there are separate classifications/controls/even tariffs for so called
"professional" digital audio gear (w/the digital in/outs) and "home" audio
gear like $80 CD players etc (w/out the digital ports)
www.aes.org has stuff on it, although apologies I can't remember where
exactly (i'll google it later and have a look)
        -bill

************

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 16:15:34 -0500
From: sempai <emory () incumbent org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: FC: Followup to Audiophiles. RIAA, and electronic merchandisers

Hi Declan!

>       When did this happen? All the digital audio gear I've ever looked at
> recently has a digital out. Who would buy a piece of digital gear without
> a digital out?

        I would.

        Not by choice, mind you, but when I was shopping for a minidisc 
deck and new minidisc MDLP portables, none of them have digital outs.  I'm 
waiting a little bit before replacing my MD gear with MDLP with a digital 
out.  But good luck finding one.

        My portable doesn't have digital out.  Nor does my MD component piece.

        However, my turntables (!!) have SPDIF digital outputs on them.

        Go figure.

he hears the soft sigh of his inhale,
r. emory lundberg <emory () hellyeah com>
PGP Key: http://hellyeah.com/~emory/pgp.html

************

From: "George J. Janczyn" <gjanczyn () ucsd edu>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: Followup to Audiophiles. RIAA, and electronic merchandisers
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 13:06:33 -0800

Methinks it isn't that there are no digital outs, it's that the digital outs
are rigged to lower the quality.

George

************

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 13:04:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Fredric <m_fredric () yahoo com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>

>>    Industry Association of America (RIAA), have so
far blocked digital
>>    outputs on high-resolution audio players,

>       When did this happen? All the digital audio gear
I've ever looked at
>recently has a digital out. Who would buy a piece of
digital gear without
>a digital out?

I can't respond to the bit about watermarks, but the
messed up DAT (Digital Audio Tape) technology is
probably what the original writer was referring to in
the "blocked digital output" comment.  There is a
fairly good summary of the matter at
http://www.libertyhaven.com/noneoftheabove/sciencetechnologyortheinternet/freeingdigital.shtml
(although I don't endorse the linked writer's message,
and only offer the link FYI and FWIW).  Nonetheless,
given how many people (at the consumer level) ever
bought a DAT machine, the comment about "who would
buy" may be very apropos.
--
Michael Fredric <m_fredric () yahoo com>

************




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------