5 ms·

> Where "product", a.k.a. data, is artificially made hard to access. That is going to die as a business model at some point I actually see a different future.

> Where "product", a.k.a. data, is artificially made hard to access. That is going to die as a business model at some point I actually see a different future. Artificial scarcity becomes easier with improvements to cryptography. I think the future is full of artificially scarce goods, such as music, video, crypto kitties, etc.

ses1984 7y ago
Music, video, etc are easy to break. Any crypto designed to protect content from people consuming that content is doomed to be broken. Crypto kitties or hats as part of a central service like a game, that stuff can actually be kept artificially scarce.
jbay808 7y ago
Cory Doctorow argues that you can't encrypt people's media and also hand them the decryption keys they need in order to consume it, and not expect those decryption keys to leak. https://corydoctorow.miraheze.org/wiki/DRM_and_MSFT:_A_Product_No_Customer_Wants#DRM_systems_don.27t_work https://corydoctorow.miraheze.org/wiki/DRM_and_MSFT:_A_Produ...
- the_pwner224 7y ago
  This is only possible if the user can examine what their computers are doing. These days we have restricted boot ("secure boot") and "trusted platform modules" (which can be used for good though) that allow computers to do decryption without the user being able to see it. For example my Galaxy S9 phone has a locked bootloader. It only boots software signed by Samsung's private key. Google makes DRM software, Netflix and co. sign on, Samsung puts the DRM in their phones because they're useless without Netflix. The only way to find out how to decrypt the video is to crack the hardware. And some companies might make shitty hardware, but Apple has shown that it's very possible to make a locked down device that takes millions+ of dollars to hack. Intel iirc had special paths in their processors for video DRM. Google's Widewine DRM is available in all the major browsers. MS has been pushing restricted boot for a while. All that's left is for them to make it mandatory. Of course none of this matters because you can just record the screen or the speakers... If you're serving content into Bob's eyes or ears then he can use fake eyes or ears to record it.
  - vnorilo 7y ago
    There's also the analog loopback, which for audio, has way less signal degradation than the compression consumers readily accept. For video, they already tried to restrict any analog outputs with DRM, but for audio, that would hurt much more.
    - isostatic 7y ago
      Give it 30 years - iphones done have 3.5mm jacks any more, apple have patents on shutting down cameras with certain invisible patterns on a screen
      - vnorilo 7y ago
        Presumably the people who siphon media out from a walled garden on a large scale wouldn't do it on mobile, but given your timeframe of 30 years, who knows if we even have general purpose computers then.

ses1984 7y ago

Music, video, etc are easy to break. Any crypto designed to protect content from people consuming that content is doomed to be broken. Crypto kitties or hats as part of a central service like a game, that stuff can actually be kept artificially scarce.

jbay808 7y ago

Cory Doctorow argues that you can't encrypt people's media and also hand them the decryption keys they need in order to consume it, and not expect those decryption keys to leak. https://corydoctorow.miraheze.org/wiki/DRM_and_MSFT:_A_Product_No_Customer_Wants#DRM_systems_don.27t_work https://corydoctorow.miraheze.org/wiki/DRM_and_MSFT:_A_Produ...

the_pwner224 7y ago
This is only possible if the user can examine what their computers are doing. These days we have restricted boot ("secure boot") and "trusted platform modules" (which can be used for good though) that allow computers to do decryption without the user being able to see it. For example my Galaxy S9 phone has a locked bootloader. It only boots software signed by Samsung's private key. Google makes DRM software, Netflix and co. sign on, Samsung puts the DRM in their phones because they're useless without Netflix. The only way to find out how to decrypt the video is to crack the hardware. And some companies might make shitty hardware, but Apple has shown that it's very possible to make a locked down device that takes millions+ of dollars to hack. Intel iirc had special paths in their processors for video DRM. Google's Widewine DRM is available in all the major browsers. MS has been pushing restricted boot for a while. All that's left is for them to make it mandatory. Of course none of this matters because you can just record the screen or the speakers... If you're serving content into Bob's eyes or ears then he can use fake eyes or ears to record it.
- vnorilo 7y ago
  There's also the analog loopback, which for audio, has way less signal degradation than the compression consumers readily accept. For video, they already tried to restrict any analog outputs with DRM, but for audio, that would hurt much more.
  - isostatic 7y ago
    Give it 30 years - iphones done have 3.5mm jacks any more, apple have patents on shutting down cameras with certain invisible patterns on a screen
    - vnorilo 7y ago
      Presumably the people who siphon media out from a walled garden on a large scale wouldn't do it on mobile, but given your timeframe of 30 years, who knows if we even have general purpose computers then.