4 ms·

>I can almost picture the meeting of the Moving Picture Experts Group where some random suit demanded there to be a way to indicate a video stream is copyrighte

>I can almost picture the meeting of the Moving Picture Experts Group where some random suit demanded there to be a way to indicate a video stream is copyrighted. And thus, the copyright bit flag made its way into the standard and successfully STOPPED MOVIE PIRACY BEFORE IT EVEN BEGAN. This bit made me laugh out loud :D

ur-whale 5y ago
> This bit made me laugh out loud :D Yeah, it's funny, until you actually go read the MPEG spec. documentation. Then any and all inklings of laughter will very quickly evaporate.
- h4kor 5y ago
  What does it say about these bits? I'm currently tinkering around with mp3s and wondered how many "useless" bits are in each frame. I wonder if they are ever used to trace distributors of pirated music, similar to yellow dots in printers.
  - gnramires 5y ago
    He might be referring to the hundreds of pages (and very complicated implementations, usually of encoders) video formats have. People think of technology as a straight line moving forward. But it's perhaps better to imagine like species in nature. It's just everything getting bigger. The smallest ant or bacteria evolves to better adapt to its niche, as the largest elephant or whale will develop adaptations (sometimes getting physically larger, depending on the environmental changes). The rule is that many scales have a role or niche. I think technology is similar.
barrkel 5y ago
I rather wonder if things like this are used to encode a proof of intent. If something is marked as copyrighted, it may be trivial to remove the mark, but at least you had to remove the mark, and that's evidence of intent rather than ignorance.
- akx 5y ago
  Or a piece of software in your toolchain has been unaware of the bit and inadvertently stripped it. Is that evidence of intent still?
  - barrkel 5y ago
    I'm not arguing in favour of it, I'm hypothesizing why it might be added. Your toolchain should set the bit last thing before distribution, I'd expect. If you're talking about a toolchain on the consumption side after distribution, well, consumers shouldn't be modifying content, is what I'd expect the position to be. No derivative works and all that.
- giorgioz 5y ago
  I was wondering the same with the COPYRIGHT note at the top of all files in a code repo. Clearly someone that have the code can easily remove the COPYRIGHT header but then it will demostrate they had actively red it and decided to remove it. Plus if you add the copyright header in many places it might be forgotten in some.
BlueTemplar 5y ago
Indeed, however remember the mandatory "What colour are your bits ?" : https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23

ur-whale 5y ago

> This bit made me laugh out loud :D Yeah, it's funny, until you actually go read the MPEG spec. documentation. Then any and all inklings of laughter will very quickly evaporate.

h4kor 5y ago
What does it say about these bits? I'm currently tinkering around with mp3s and wondered how many "useless" bits are in each frame. I wonder if they are ever used to trace distributors of pirated music, similar to yellow dots in printers.
- gnramires 5y ago
  He might be referring to the hundreds of pages (and very complicated implementations, usually of encoders) video formats have. People think of technology as a straight line moving forward. But it's perhaps better to imagine like species in nature. It's just everything getting bigger. The smallest ant or bacteria evolves to better adapt to its niche, as the largest elephant or whale will develop adaptations (sometimes getting physically larger, depending on the environmental changes). The rule is that many scales have a role or niche. I think technology is similar.

barrkel 5y ago

I rather wonder if things like this are used to encode a proof of intent. If something is marked as copyrighted, it may be trivial to remove the mark, but at least you had to remove the mark, and that's evidence of intent rather than ignorance.

akx 5y ago
Or a piece of software in your toolchain has been unaware of the bit and inadvertently stripped it. Is that evidence of intent still?
- barrkel 5y ago
  I'm not arguing in favour of it, I'm hypothesizing why it might be added. Your toolchain should set the bit last thing before distribution, I'd expect. If you're talking about a toolchain on the consumption side after distribution, well, consumers shouldn't be modifying content, is what I'd expect the position to be. No derivative works and all that.
giorgioz 5y ago
I was wondering the same with the COPYRIGHT note at the top of all files in a code repo. Clearly someone that have the code can easily remove the COPYRIGHT header but then it will demostrate they had actively red it and decided to remove it. Plus if you add the copyright header in many places it might be forgotten in some.

BlueTemplar 5y ago

Indeed, however remember the mandatory "What colour are your bits ?" : https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23