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Mexico City (APRO) – Piracy is a huge problem that content creators have had to consider since the existence of computing technology, especially considering that before they made a lot of money that is no longer easy to see. There are several reasons for this: first, the development of technology has made it possible for anyone to copy music CDs, data CDs and DVDs with movies. It is even possible to make devices to copy game cartridges for the different platforms that use them.
What to do? I think we are changing our business model right now. Companies that create content are forced to think of another way to make money, because music is now available in countless places (even at flea markets), all thanks to the revolution in data compression (commonly known as mp3) and the ease of access to magnetic media to store digital information.
However, two technologies have emerged that seem to be immune to piracy: Amazon’s Kindle and the new video game console Zeebo. For example, the Kindle is a device that allows you to read books in Amazon’s proprietary electronic format. This e-reader has a high-resolution black and white screen (they call it electronic ink) and allows users to buy books in this format and receive them over a wireless network. Then, you buy the book that interests you and a few minutes later you can read it on the Kindle, which can also hold hundreds of books in its memory. It’s a fascinating idea, but even more fascinating is the difficulty of copying digital information to other media.
Amazon has thought very well about its e-reader toys, and in my opinion has found a way (at least temporarily) to solve the piracy problem by not transferring the content on any physical medium. The content is now transferred directly to the device over a wireless network, and cannot be copied or transferred to any other media. Of course, part of the success is due to not disclosing the internal format of their books, as this is well known. The protection system may soon stop working.
On the other hand, the Zeebo console has just come out, which also has no CDs, DVDs or cartridges to load games. Now, whoever wants to play can buy the game, which is then sent to the memory of the gaming device via the 3G wireless network. Again, the games, the software, are stored in the console’s memory, but cannot be copied to a physical medium, be it a tape, CD, DVD, hard drive, etc. In this way – I want to believe – companies are looking for a mechanism to free them from piracy.
Of course, these anti-piracy “mechanisms” can’t last long. I remember when Philips demonstrated its anti-copying technology on DVD, before I could finish explaining it, a hacker cracked the scheme and made it possible to copy digital discs.
Software manufacturers have generally found a mechanism that seems to eliminate piracy. When someone buys the software, they register it with their name and password. The software requires the user to be connected to the internet, and when one wants to use the program in question, the system checks if the registration is valid. If for some reason you copy the software and connect from another IP address (which the software doesn’t know about), it asks the user for credentials. However, if the software is run on the first machine, the hacker system warns and sends a message that it will disable the application on that machine. In this way, the program can be used, yes, but only on one computer at a time.
I am astounded by the progress of technology to combat piracy. For a while it will certainly work, and it would be a good time for many manufacturers to join these programs. However, I still think that sooner or later this solution will be temporary, because eventually, when someone gets hold of some digital content, it is (inevitably) stored in physical memory, and if it is there then it can certainly be copied. All it takes is a genius with a lot of free time to come up with a solution.
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