Years ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation came up with an idea to brand "DRM free" products. Now that we're selling recording devices like the Neuros OSD "DRM Free" isn't just a political statement, but a real consumer benefit: such files are compatible with virtually everything, any PC, Windows, Linux or Mac, and virtually any handheld, from iPods and iPhones to Sony PSPs and smartphones of all flavors. Suddenly the idea of branding those "unlocked" files started to make perfect sense. So we decided to create the "Unlocked Media" trademark and logo. The idea is pretty simple, we define "unlocked" in a way that isn't company or product specific, but rather stands for open, standard files, and allow anyone selling or creating unlocked files to use it. Then, of course each time the mark is used in conjunction with a product or store, it reinforces that meaning. Ultimately, over time, the hope is that consumers come to associate the 'unlocked' mark with compatibility and versatility, and to make a distinction that will shame all the DRM vendors (although they are obviously not easily shamed).
We view educating consumers about DRM as something that warrants a multi pronged approach. A consumer brand can be important support for the groups doing great work educating the world about the woes of DRM. We're proud of our relationship with the EFF and We've talked about Defective by Design previously and CEA's Digital Freedom Campaign and the important work they do. We're adding to that a compelling alternative and we've created a series of "Unlocked Demonstration" videos that can easily illustrate the benefits of unlocked media.
For this campaign to take hold, we need your help. First, help us to spread the word about unlocked media , pass along the message, we've created a couple of videos that use the OSD to illustrate the point: short version and long version. Second, encourage your favorite projects to adopt the mark. As anyone familiar with this battle knows, there's a lot more at stake than the future of a gadget or two. DRM and the legislation spawned by its promoters is a threat not only to open product development, but innovation generally. What better way to get the buying public on our side than by giving them a trademark that clearly illustrates the benefit they stand to lose if big media gets its way?
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Comments
I am sympathetic to DRM
I am sympathetic to DRM companies; they just want to stop their stuff from being pirated. But obviously, DRM is stupid, and something better needs to be invented.
they are greedy apes i
they are greedy apes i say
they make a shit load of money in anycase. the whole piracy thing is way overrated..Its like the smoking industry.. Its 'right' because ppl with fat pockets want it to be so
Hello !! I want to put this
Hello !! I want to put this to read it .
London, 2 April 2007 -- EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.
The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.
Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.
"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."
"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."
Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.
EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.
EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.
EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).
Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."
Facebook group created
Please see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22812140680
Freedom
William: Aye, fight and you may die, run and you'll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom?! Alba gu bra! (Unlocked Media forever!)
There is one more step needed here:
OpenSource and DRM free hardware merely balance the scales in the battle for privacy and freedom. To tip the balance in favor of individual rights and privacy, recording devices like the Neuros also need to include strong encryption. If I'm in a public place, and record criminal behavior, official misconduct, negligence, or just something interesting, I should have the right to decide to decide how to dispose of the recorded data. They are part of my memories and my private thoughts, and no subpoena, confiscation, or legal proceeding should be able to take them without my consent. The police and other authorities are seriously afraid of public "sousveillance", and having strong encryption on the recording devices will make it difficult, if not impossible to seize and misuse private data. It may also provide some protection against laws against recording in public areas, since it will be difficult to prove that the law was broken. So my challenge to Joe is to design hardware and software in his products that permit the owner to safely keep his data in a portable, wearable recording device.
No longer available message...
I see the same. This means they are winning. For now. For today. But not forever.
I PROTEST THAT DRM!!
This is what they do.
They just fight us like those gasoline/petroleum/mineral oil "kings". They feel that if we struggle for stealth-free content, we keep our freedom of choice. Appropriately -- the freedom of useless payments.
If we agree to apply those DRM toolkits to our desktops|phones|laptops etc -- we will WASTE OUR MONEY & EFFORTS OF MAKING OUR MACHINES S_E_C_U_R_E!!!! Waste for EVER.
Petition to the Canadian partliament
This is a great campaign, and I want to do anything I can to promote it.
I am a volunteer activist in Ottawa (Canada's capital) dedicated to issues around technology ownership rights. Not only do I believe it should be our legal right to access legally acquired content on the unlocked hardware of our own choices, but that technology owners should have the legally protected right to remove any foreign locks off technology which they own.
I am hosting a Petition to the Canadian parliament to protect Information Technology property rights, to help to ensure that this perspective has a voice in upcoming changes to Canadian law. If you are Canadian, please join us.
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/
And please let us know how we can further help the Unlocked Media campaign.
BTW: My Neuros OSD is in the mail -- it's in Canada, but not yet in my living room. Looking forward to doing reviews/HowTos/etc to help promote this very deliberately unlocked and owner controlled device!
Thanks
Well, that's for the spirited support, please stay tuned, and keep us informed of all the developments in your neck of the woods, I'll post a follow on to draw some attention to your efforts.
About the logo
What is the licence of the logo? If it is to be used by other people, it should be licenced under Creative Commons or other free licence.
About the Logo
Well, remember the logo is a trademark so it's supposed to actually designate something specific:
devices that create files in an open format: open standard formats, and DRM-Free
or stores that sell such files.
so the idea is not that anyone can use it, but only those that abide by these rules. Now, understanding that most places wouldn't want a for-profit company like Neuros to be in control of setting those rules, we're hoping that one of the non for profits will take it on, and we've been keeping EFF and FSF in the loop: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/12/neuros-launches-unlocked-media-brand
logos
Can we use the unlocked logos on our pages or store offering mp3 downloads?
mp3 downloads
you certainly can and should, please send us a link so we can help promote!
Matt Rosoff has some Questions
what should be included in the definition? Patented file formats? Just open source codecs, we did talk about this some and decided to include MPEG-4 at least tenatively since we wanted the mark to be a consumer benefit, but good questions to discuss, for more info see Matt's Blog Posting
Anyone else having the
Anyone else having the videos not available problem?
Joe, the videos "are no
Joe, the videos "are no longer available"?
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