A pox on both their houses.

Microsoft’s willingness exuberance not to bend over to Hollywood, but to forcibly bend over their user base to Hollywood’s ridiculously anti-consumer demands is not only disappointing, but are rapidly reaching the point where the platform will no longer be viable for mass usage.

How about this Hollysoft: Instead of un-skippable ads, why not just remove them entirely and settle on product placement. You already do it. You already make money on it. Don’t beat viewers over the head with it, but if Alias wants to drive around in Ford Focus’ (Foci?) or use Dell or Apple Computers, or pass by McDonald’s, or shop at Best Buy or whatever, as long as it doesn’t take the focus off or interrupt the story, do that.

That, or how about insisting on adds so dang well produced that people who could skip them if they wanted to actively (and personally) CHOOSE to watch them (looking at Apple, Coke’s Polar Bears, and scant few others these days).

The best way to get people to do what you want is not to force them, but to make them want to do it as well.

Microsoft patent could force downloaders to view commercials

A new patent application filed by Microsoft describes methods for “enforcing” advertisements in downloaded media. Traditionally, ads accompany streaming content and, by extension, restrict that content to a browser. But technology that could bring ads to downloaded content would open up new opportunities for digital distribution services, advertisers, and consumers, and could give DRM a whole new leg to stand on.

I wonder why they aren’t calling it Windows Live DRM?

After the debacles of Google Video and MLB, where DRM-based services were either cancelled or switched providers, leaving those who PAID for downloads stuck with useless no-longer verifiable/decrypt-able binary blobs (until consumer outrage made Google and MLB do the right thing and re-enable rights), anyone who buys any sort of dodgy software-based DRM scheme without a fair-rights backdoor (such as burning music to CD to back it up in the event of hard drive or service provider failure) is just plain crazy. (At least as crazy as the marketing wizards at Microsoft, though nowhere near as crazy as the stunningly short-sighted media barons…)

Microsoft rebrands PlaysForSure to Certified For Windows Vista, confuses world - Engadget

Microsofts PlaysForSure DRM just took another step closer to the grave with the help of some rebranding. Those of you with players from SanDisk, Nokia, and Creative among others, looking for compatible music from Napster, Real Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Wal-Mart and such must now look for the “Certified for Windows Vista” logo, not PlaysForSure. Of course, Microsofts Zune is also certified for Windows Vista, just not certified for Windows Vista so it wont play back the same protected files. Man, could DRM get any more consumer unfriendly?

Yet another example of why DRM is so broken. (Though not quite as anguishing-ly funny as Microsoft Zune not supporting Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure DRM, meaning those who have purchased huge libraries in Microsoft DRM format can’t play them on Microsoft’s own device…)

Workaround found for three-play rule on Zune - Engadget

Finding yourself unhealthily frustrated by that annoying “three-play rule” still included in the latest firmware update for the Zune? Fret not, as a solution easier than easy has been discovered. Apparently, users can simply accept a shared track, go into Windows and switch the genre to “Podcast,” and play the tune over as many times as theyd like. Granted, any files which this trick is used for will show up in the Podcast section, but hey, you cant get everything, right?

Light them torches and sharpen up them pitchforks; reckon it’s time for an old-fashioned village mobbin’:

Michael Geist - The Canadian DMCA: What You Can Do

With the Canadian version of the DMCA likely to be introduced within the next two weeks, there has a remarkable outpouring of interest from individual Canadians about what they can do to have their concerns heard.  The unfortunate reality is that there is nothing can be done about what the bill will look like when it is introduced - Industry Minister Jim Prentice has simply decided discard consumer, education, research, and privacy interests, ignore his own party’s policy platform, and the cave into U.S. pressure.  Once the bill is introduced, however, Canadians can send a message to their MPs, the Ministers, and others, calling for a fair copyright bill that addresses Canadian concerns (those in Calgary can do so in person on December 8th as Prentice hosts an open house).

Many people have pointed to the my 30 Things You Can Do posting.  I’ve decided to update the posting - and create a short YouTube video - to better reflect the current situation.  I’ve also launched a Facebook group called Fair Copyright.  The next 60 days are absolutely crucial.  If Canadians speak out in large numbers, the government may rethink its current strategy of fast-tracking the Canadian DMCA.What can you do?

And legit users everywhere, plagued by dodgy DRM schemes, spied upon as if they were criminals, bogged down by paranoid architectural lockouts, collectively let out a Nelson-eque “Ha ha!”

MPAA’s University wiretapping product taken down for violating copyright - Boing Boing

The MPAA’s “University Toolkit” (a piece of monitoring software that universities are being asked to install on their networks to spy on students’ communications) has been taken down, due to copyright violations. The Toolkit is based on the GPL-licensed Xubuntu operating system (a flavor of Linux). The GPL requires anyone who makes a program based on GPL’ed code has to release the source code for their program and license it under the GPL. The MPAA refused multiple requests to provide the sources for their spyware, so an Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAA’s ISP and demanded that the material be taken down as infringing. Link (Thanks, Victor!)