that's the point of the GOD. all grids run by corporations are within GOD jurisdiction.

look, i'm not saying that the GOD is allowed to randomly hack secure communications lines and listen in. i'm just saying that if there's sufficient evidence that a given line of communication over the Matrix is being used for illicit activities, GOD will have jurisdiction over that.

If there's sufficent evidence of a crime then it's a moot point since warrants could be issued. Who are these people that they can possibly montior the communications of 5 billion people in a way that is meaningful?

Where is GOD spelled out? I didn't even see it mentioned in Corporate Download. I suppose Matrix, right? The most I've seen are snipets.

Any script kiddie will be able to redirect their datatrail to look like thier making a PLTG to PTLG communications, which I guess is basic Masking, but the equvilant of proxie servers today.

it's not a moot point, because GOD has the ability to cross 'traditional' jurisdiction lines--that is, they can hop from grid to grid when tracking down a suspect. GOD is described, i believe, in T:Matrix. the ability to redirect one's datatrail is exactly why GOD was created.

*sigh* yeah. i'm not sure why that line is in there--apparently, hardline calls magically aren't part of the Matrix. one wonders about connections that go from hardline to satellite uplink to cell network to whatever. personally, i ignore it--a call/connection is a call/connection, and the medium through which it's being transmitted doesn't make a whit of difference.

I believe that in SR they have given up hope of a anti piracy tool that will stop a decker from copying a file. Thay put protections on so you cant esaly copy music or end user programs without skills

Skillsofts are delivered on a chip that will allow you to copy from as often as you wasn’t (say to your headwear) but it takes a moderately competent decker to make a copy of a copy,

Decker utilities come with source code default (30% discount if you don’t want it) this is because those that want it can duplicate it anyway and if you want to maintain your own programs (sot issues) you need the source code. The first time you maintain it yourself that 30% saving looks like nothing.

Auto soft have almost no copy protections because you need to be able to copy onto your RCD and then copy from that onto your individual drones.

What they do to prevent P2P sharing of these programs is watch the network because the network hard wear is extraterritorial no privacy legislation applies, they filter for there programs and deal with offenders as they see fit (trash there system would be about what I would expect in most cases) also they infiltrate onto the P2P networks bad programs with many bugs and even lethal viruses, eg a slight error in eth targeting subroutine on the black hammer program.

Also most people that use these programs are corporate security, if they get court infringing on copy write it will cost them a fortune, I would expect a large portion of shadow programs to be pirated by criminal organizations. There are to few wiling to distribute freely

Those places that still offer pirated programs useful to a shadow runner (auto softs, Decker utilities, skill softs) are few, small and swamped with low grade, out of date or contaminated code to the point of being useless.

I would not expect a user to be diapered for pirating software, they is not economical, your spending money to disappear them and have to hide the fact to protect your corporate image meaning nobody else will learn, sue them for the value of the programs they have stolen and your legal costs, even without punitive damages that will destroy most individuals.

The psychotropic version of yellow-submarine_music-vidio.simsence will not be a self replicating program, it will sit on a server until somebody copy’s it to there system and plays it. Only those that down load it will be at risk, include a self deleater after furst run to protect later users of the equipment andyour being nicer the corps often are.

Edward

dude, there's no way GOD--or anyone--has the resources to watch every single file on every p2p network. there are too many files, and too many people sending and recieving files. this doesn't even take into account things like private download archives.

Eff it. nothing to see here.

Here's how I see illegal sharenets working: ScriptKid hacks into a remote telecom running a Blue host somewhere on the LTG. He uploads some files and sends an e'vite to his friends giving them the superuser password he created on the host. They upload files and for a week (or until the telecom user discovers the Virtual Machine they locked him into) things are good. They may even co-opt more telecoms to create a larger virtual host, one less likely to be noticed by the telecom owners since less resources are being used - though more likely to be discovered by the Grid. If the sharenet is discovered, at most they lose the files uploaded. Nets like this are probably broken up all the time by law enforcement, but tracking the users is nearly futile; even if they manage to infiltrate the host, finding those responsible and actually making charges stick instead of a slap on the wrist fine will be tough - they need to prove the kid cracked the copyright protection or was responsible for hacking the host.

No corp is going to give out good viral code (especially highly illegal psychotropic code that they been trying to keep secret and use only on the deepest darkest red systems). It'd be like hiding a nuke in the cave with Sadam - what happens if they actually pick it a part like they did all the files they uploaded and then incorporate the fragging code into their defenses and attack programs? Counter productive. It's not even worth shutting down most of the sharenets because the corps can find and analyze decker code (even if it's mostly script kiddie code) and thus create better defenses for their hosts. Instead, you have a division for searching and monitoring them and shut down in a very flashy way only those that get too large or flaunt it near enough to the media.

Instead, this is how I see copyright protection: When you sign up to Mitsuhama's Media House they express mail a decryption chip which has half the code needed to decrypt their media files along with part of the decompression utility. When it arrives, you sild out the keychip drawer and insert the chip into an open slot; if you have last year's chip take it out and mail it back for your 2 percent recycling discount. The rest of the software was installed with the activation and credit check, including the sampler that tided you over until the chip arrived. The decryption utility only works on MitsuMedia files, which are encrypted at rating 3. Now a serious decker could crack that no problem, though a script kiddie would need a day or two, but the use isn't too high since the Basic service is all week old music. Hotwire service is the new stuff, encrpyted at rating 5, which most kiddies will spend a week on. The L33t service includes live feeds and in studio performances encrypted at rating 6 or higher. The time required to hack those is now greater than the time needed to pay for the Hotwire service coding SPAM. The encryption changes weekly for a year when they change the entire algorithm.

By keeping a flood of new media to the market, they take less damage from cracking, and keep people paying for higher services to stay ahead of the lagger crowd.

The arms race between the copyright protection and script kiddies helps fuel the megacorporate economy - for every crack there must be a patch, a patch billed as update services. As long as the kiddies are out cracking media files, they have less time to hack corporate hosts (which use totally different encryptions and protections, ect). Everytime a protection is broken, a new one is paid for and put in place.

basicly, "bring back" the good old dongle, a hardware piece that hooks up the system and that is queryed every time you use the software or data or whatever...

basicly make it bothersome for the user to pirate rather then just cash out. hell, just look at the dvd vs divx today. yes many people download but they allso buy the same movies. mostly they buy the collectors stuff tho, with extra dvd's and all that. point is to make it so that its more trouble then its worth to download while at the same time supply a simple to get and use product.

this is why at the moment music over internet isnt realy working, the drm needs to close to unnoticeable so that you can take the music you have available and put it on any device you own for later playback. if your restricted to listening to one copy at one unit at a time people get pissed as they are used to being able to have access to the music at home or anywhere else without haveing to pick up multiple copys (alltho that is exactly what the corps want as multiple copys mean more sales!)...

mp3 players makes this posible in a totaly new way in that the music isnt locked to a physical media but are just digital bits on a chip or hd. this allows one to have one copy on the home media unit (a computer hooked up to your stereo and tv), one in your pocket player and so on.

the problem is basicly how to look upon digital copys, are they seperate units in a marketing sense? if so then anyone can become a pirate basicly by copying the mp3 to a backup unit (i know, fair use and all that. but in a sr world, fair use is the first thing the corps would remove). that is unless the backup system is locked so that you cant read the data of it unless it is to restore the system.

its a mess no matter how you look at it. the problem is to wrap ones head around the idea that a file is equal to a physical single. it sounds simple enough but can i physicaly duplicate the single atom for atom the way i can digitaly duplicate the file bit for bit? and with the same ease?

still, we must not forget that after the crash the computer was rebuildt in the corporate image. to me that sounds like very heavy use of drm at all levels. with multiple checks to see if the drm was in place at every stage and so on. test fail at any of the stages and you cant access your stuff or worse. its kinda like the worst parts of TCPA and NGSCB rolled into one with a legal system that is activly supporting this kind of technology and have made it into more then a civil offence to pirate anything...

eh, i dunno. physically shipping the chips seems clunky. i see something more along the lines of a firmware chip that you plug into your system's FUP and leave there. every week, it's loaded over the Matrix with a new encryption key, as long as your subscription is paid up. not perfect, but better than dealing with cranky customers that've lost their chips.

The person doing the monitoring is not committing a crime in his extraterritorial location.

The person that moves the psychotropic version of yellow-submarine_music-vidio.simsence into a children’s simsence room will not be guilty pf piracy, he will however be guilty of various other crimes starting with reckless endangerment, all charges hinge on proving he new what was in the file. The corporation that out the file up did so threw nuff proxies (including immoral shadow runners) that it will never be linked to there corporation so there corporate image is safe

The code in the psychotropic version of yellow-submarine_music-vidio.simsence is closer kin to what you find in psychotropic BTLs than psychotropic IC, if its on the BTL market its no longer so secret you can only use it on “the deepest darkest red systems”

I think fair use policys evolved into the system that was described in one of the books.

You buy your item (music, trid feature, simsence feature, skill soft anything not used primarily in an arena where this system makes it unusable (riggers autosofts and program utilities that need upgrading)) it comes on a optical code chip, you rarely play from the OCC, you load the data into your player, deck, headwear memory. You can do this as often as you want but it is almost imposable to make a copy of that copy. The original chip you where provide with is your backup.

Physically shipping chips with the decryption system for online media systems is quite workable, pay TV providers get away with it today.

To my mind however it doesn’t matter to know play how entertainment security is provided, the level you get is based on your lifestyle, weather you pay for your entertainment connection legally or threw some nefarious provider, if a physical chip is needed you deck there system and have them send you one. Of pay someone to do this fore you (comes out of your lifestyle)

Edward

you're mistaken, edward. anything you do on the Matrix falls under the jurisdiction of the Matrix location you are at when you commit the act; physical location does not play into the legality of your actions. besides, i wasn't saying anything about the legality of monitoring p2p systems--i was talking about the sheer impossibility of doing so. i don't think you're really aware of how many users and hosts there would be (and are) in p2p network.

and i don't see everyone going back to the bad old days, either, where you could only purchase media on hardcopy. people are going to demand the ability to download their media. and if they don't get that ability, they'll do what they do now--pirate it.

Indeed, since everyone in the Sixth World seems to be incredibly lazy according to SSG. Ignorant, too.

Right. Anyone from the upper end of poverty (that is, people who have, or think they have, disposable income).

Kind of like, well, now.

not a fair position to take, dude. everything's better with public executions: puppies, soda, furniture--everything.

yes. however, it also pisses off customers who want their media now. and making money is all about keeping the customer happy--not because it's the Right Thing to Do, but because happy customers are repeat customers. if there's a viable alternative to waiting for your Super Music Decoder Ring to arrive by mail, potential customers will take it--they way they are now. media should have as little basis in hardware as possible, because that's what customers are starting to demand.

it's hard to find a lower price than "free, with some hassle", which is what the competition would be against. you're suggesting that "not free, also with hassle" will somehow trump that in the race for a listening/watching/full-sensory-experiencing audience. i don't see a compelling reason for that to happen.

a few days to a week after release is when sales would really be hitting their stride anyway. i don't see any media market becoming so fast-paced and mercurial that media will be considered past its prime a week after release. i also contest the idea that most of the downloads will be lower quality--as a rule, p2p sharers don't have to settle for low-quality copies today, and i don't think they will in 2064, either.

having your decoder ring replaced as part of your yearly upgrade will help, yeah--it's a much better idea than trying to mail the customers something and trusting them to use it themselves.

I believe customers would accept a monthly mail out card to facilitate there downloading of media provided you can get the cards out on time (preferably a week before the old ones die).

I just recalled that the average home computer was listed as 100MP. This is not enough to store 2 full length tridio features, also a standard legal matrix connection has a bandwidth great enough to transfer full X simsence in real time. I am seeing the real possibility of streaming on demand services becoming the norm. under this model all that is stored on your system is a 5 min buffer and it would take a Decker to pirate the media.

In Australia foxtel digital is trying to simulate this now (of cause their cheating, they just show the same stuff on 5 channels with a 10 minute delay between them)

Edward

i don't see mail-out cards lasting any longer than it would take some company to offer an information-only service. mail-out cards are more hassle than simply downloading the media for free a week after it comes out, ergo they're simply not marketable.

the average computer is only 100Mp, but offline storage is cheap.

Why bother to store it? If you pay for the service, you can download in real time whenever you like.

downloading takes quite a bit more time than simply grabbing files off your computer and throwing them into your mp3 player.

the umts mobile system have a theoretical limit of 300-400 k/s. that plenty to stream atleast audio. and with wimax in the works one can stream video without a problem. hell, all you relay need to do streaming is a return pipe so that people can order up something.

and given the availability of the net, maybe when you want to have the same song on both your home system and your portable player you hook the latter up to the former and use the former, with a special program (itunes anyone) to order a new copy to the player.

allso, itunes show that it works to sell music over the net. what you need is to supply the music people wants, when they want it, at the quality they want, and with a reliable service. compare that to kazza where you may only find mp3s in a bitrate you dont want. or find badly labeld music. or the only person that have the music you want have a bad habbit of going offline for days. personaly i would pay a small sum for every song i download if i can do it when i feel like it, its the price of a cd compared to that of a dvd thats makeing people download...

now if microsoft get their system in the works they may well overtake apple as you have more players that handle windows media then apples format (basicly only ipod).

point is to make it simpler to use and more available then current p2p system...

Having a card mailed to you every month s not a real hassle, 5 min of your time to be able to access the stuff they are actually worried about being pirated for the next month, it arrives in your letter box and you plug it into your machine. Now you have the codes to access the latest files. When you first sign on there will be a 3-7 day waiting period (reduced to 6 hours if you pay extra) after that your new card will be delivered before the old one expires, every month.

As to the utility and speed of download. Look at the matrix connection speeds given in matrix (remembering you have no fear of being traced because your not doing anything wrong and don’t have masking or evasion anyway so if somebody tries to trace you they automatically succeed) and consider that the most data intensive media listed in the books is a wet record full X simsence recording at 4MP/sec (and even the best post production is at least a little smaller than that) you realise that even the slowest matrix connection can handle multiple such feeds simultaneously in real time.

Of cause not everybody has a PDA with a cell matrix link and those that don’t will still want to download files to transfer.

Edward

kanada, matix tech just plain isn't up to providing the kind of service you're talking about. consider that, in 2064, they still haven't managed to get wireless matrix connections to the general populace. right now, it takes a massive hunk of hardware to use wireless simsense--who wants to carry around a pound and a half or more of uplink?

edward, the point isn't that getting a card mailed every month is a huge hassle; it's not. the point is that it's more of a hassle than simply downloading stuff.

hassle of TN2 dex roll to put card in VS hassle of COmputer rolls of TN =(Files subsystem - Read/Write utility)

riiiiiight

True the card is more of a hassle than not having to bother at all

Witch is more of a hassle, dealing with the card or the 50:1 (up to 500:1) signal to noise ratio you will find on P2P networks, including faulty naming, poorly encoded/cracked files and the stuff the corps put out to discourage you witch will range from 30min warning messages with attractive file names and descriptions to spy ware designed to inform them of your illegal activities and possibly even simsence recordings with BTL programming options such as psychotropic and black death (at the very least there will be urban legends about this).

Personally I would never pirate anything I can get at the local video store. It may take me an hour to find it at the video store but it’s still easier than messing with the p2p networks.

Edward

The authors of Shadowrun faced an interesting dilemma when they created the game. There are huge quantities of things a decker can steal if he has a great deck and some very expensive utilities. However, he can't steal those expensive utilities because that would unbalance the game.

And you can't easily steal a Hermetic library, because that would unbalance the game.

And you can't easily steal Skillsofts because that would unbalance the game.

And you can't easily steal piloting software for drones because that would unbalance the game.

I'm willing to live with this in order to enjoy the game.

hmm, that credstick comment made me think, what if the files are locked to your credstick? ie it will have to be inserted before you can install or access the application?

but still, look at cellphones today. you can install a java app, but there is currently no way to get it back out. only thing you do is delete or use it. computers in sr seems to be of the same system in that the os is embeded on a rom chip or similar. if you want to upgrade it you either have it stream down a update from the net or take it in for service, no home install. when installing a app you lock it to that os and there is no way to copy the app. if you do backup its most likely done with a tool buildt into the os and the files are encrypted with a key embeded in the os itself.

your own data files however (ie non-datasofts) are fully copyable unless you restrict them somehow.

yes there will be ways around this, but for the avarage person the number of hoops to jump tru just to get a pirate app to install will be nasty as the os may have ways to identify a pirate app and refuse to let it install (and may even report you to lone star or the corp that made it). the chips themselfs seems to be able to selfdestruct its content if read in the wrong way and so on...

like i have said, they are trying to do this today. do a seach for TCPA (a encryption, identification and application verification chip thats going to be embeded on motherboards) and NGSCB (formerly known as palladium, a system buildt into windows to verify applications when they access server resources and similar). when personal computers start shipping with these in place things will get interesting...

I wish people would get off the 'Black Ice disgused as a song' thing. No, a corp wouldn't be dumb enough to try that.

However, a Tar Pit or Tar Baby program would work. All that does is trash the utility that accessed the file (your media player), making it a real inconvenience to file-sharers, but not actually damaging the user's system. Even better is if it deletes itself after running, so there's no claim of lasting harm to the system. It's not a virus, it's just a trojan... and the corps, with the legal control they have, get to say "Hey, you shouldn't have been pirating in the first place! Reinstall your media player and don't do it again. BTW, you did read the EULA when installing your media player, right?"

That said, I'm sure DRM is standard. Ever seen SD cards? Unlike a CD, they're made to keep a user from copying the chip itself... you can install it wherever you like, but not copy the installer. I'd expect that, after the Crash, practically everything is on chips like this, allowing you to 'install' it to headware memory or whatever, but not make copies left and right.

Cyberdecks and their programs are (sometimes) an exception, but they're illegal for private citizens anyway. So, anything you download is either cracked or home-written anyway, and stuff on chips were made by deckers in the first place (for the most part).

bingo, this is why i said before that chips, unline cds, are smart. a cd is just read bit by bit, a chip however have current passed tru it and then the bits comeing out the other end is read. god knows whats going on inside...

yes, the raw data can be tapped and copyed over to somewhere else. what how do you know that the raw data dont somehow embed a fingerprint of the computer your performing the install on?

a raw datadump will allways be one way to copy something. but the datastream may well contain more then you want.

btw, you can allso take a look at some threads over on forums.minidisc.org. some people there where trying to figure out the hi-md format useing a hex editor. while they made some progress there where not able to perform unlimited cloneing of whole discs. most likely this was a effect of them not being able to raw read the content of the disc, but it still points out that acombo of hardware and software can make it troublesome for people. and this in a hostile enviroment that current windows installs are. then think what they can do with some of the stuff being prepared...