A music/computer question

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Is it possible, or would it be technically feasible, to create a "free-locked" music file system?

What I mean by that is, just as with the MP3, you can download it free, replicate it, transfer it to a CD or memory bank, and play it on your computer, CD player, MP3 player, etc. In other words, it's "free".

But simultaneously, it would be impossible to actually hack into the file and change it. It would be impossible to cut the file to pieces, remix it, etc. unless you physically record it onto a cassette or something and play around with that. In other words, it's "locked".

If it would be possible to create something like this, it would totally change the music industry. A band could buy their own home studio [$15,000 max] and record and produce their own songs, probably with the help of a good computer music-editing program. Each track would then be uploaded to the band's website, for free download. The tracks would be entirely free, but at the end or beginning of each song would be a short message informing listeners where to send donations to "keep the band afloat". The band could make more money by licensing deals [selling T-shirts, sheet music, etc], by renting out the use of their studio to other bands, and by selling advertisements on the band website, which would surely receive lots of hits. A portion of donations would be set aside as a Gig Fund - giving fans an incentive to donate, so that the band could play live in local or national tours. The band website could have an "Exclusive Section" with newsletters, press kits, etc - all the things a marketing department normally produces for a band - which would be paid for by signups to the Exclusive Section, hopefully with a profit. Considering how little money from a CD actually goes to the artists, the band would probably profit more by striking out as independents, especially since they "sell" directly to the Internet, where more and more of the listening and advertising [word of mouth] actually takes place. Advertisements for donations would be short and sweet, and there would be no reason for hacker-downloaders to cut them out and resell to the same market, especially since they are directly tied to the welfare of the band.

 

[nihilistic]

No, no, no, no, and um ... no.

The system that you thought of is not possible on several levels. Almost every one of those technical impossibilities involve this idea:

You have to be able to hear the music.

So, let's go down a list of vulnerabilities:

1. Since I must be able to play it and hear it, I can circumvent ANY possible protection by playing the music and holding up a mike to it. Note that this may cause severe degredation is quality, but this option is the most inviolate one.

2. Since it must output to a speaker, that can be looped to a mic input of a non-protected device. This will cause some degredation (since it will convert to analog then back to digital), but not much.

3. Since computers will actually need to decipher the format before outputting it to any device (in windows, i believe everything will have to be decompressed to WAV), one can easily build a phantom sound output device that simply writes a WAV file on the hard disc instead of playing the file.

4. For a media format to gain popularity, it pretty much need to be open. Keep in mind that RIAA is not the only organization producing music media. Private artists, journalists, and almost everybody else may want to produce media, and most of them prefer not to place wacky protection schemes on what they produce.

5. Even closed, encrypted formats can't guarantee security, since, again, there must be some way to play it.

Currently, #5 is in effect. It is highly unlikely that exploit 3 to be voided. For exploit 2 to be voided, every existing Hi-Fi system in the world would have to be confistigated and destroyed and be replaced by something conforming to policy. For exploit 1 to be voided, every device capable of recording sound must be made illegal.

In other words, no way.

 

[funxus]

Like nihilistic said, it'd probably be technically impossible. Whatever protection is developed, someone will find a way to circumvent it anyway.

A bit OT: Sometimes it'll also limit the consumer to certain equipment, which isn't right. Some time ago it became common to protect cds from working on computers, because that's where they're copied, but this was prohibited because people should be free to listen to their music wherever they want, and because the seller can't just assume that all copying of cds are illegal, which it isn't. I think the best way is to provide cheaper alternatives to acquire music (like Itune), raise the morality and raise the stakes of pirating.