Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Unidentified flying object

Unidentified flying object (commonly abbreviated as UFO or U.F.O.) is the popular term for any apparent aerial phenomenon whose cause cannot be easily or immediately identified by the observer (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) http://www.hdd-shop.co.uk .

The United States Air Force, which coined the term in 1952, initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators, though today the term UFO is colloquially used to refer to any unidentifiable sighting regardless of whether it has been investigated (Dell Studio XPS 1340 Battery) .

UFO reports increased precipitously after the first widely publicized U.S. sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947, that gave rise to the popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc." The term UFO is popularly taken as a synonym for alien spacecraft and generally most discussions of UFOs revolve around this presumption (Dell Studio XPS 1640 Battery) .

UFO enthusiasts and devotees have created organizations, religious cults have adopted extraterrestrial themes, and in general the UFO concept has evolved into a prominent mythos in modern culture.Some investigators now prefer to use the broader term unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP), to avoid the confusion and the negative connotations that have become attached to UFO (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

Another widely known acronym for UFO in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian is OVNI (Objeto Volador No Identificado, Objeto Voador Não Identificado, Objet volant non identifié or Oggetto Volante Non Identificato) (Sony VGP-BPS13 battery) .

Studies have established that the majority of UFOs are observations of some real but conventional object—most commonly aircraft, balloons, or astronomical objects such as meteors or bright planets—that have been misidentified by the observer as anomalies, while a small percentage of reported UFOs are hoaxes (Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery) .

Between 5% to 20% of anomalous sightings can be classified as unidentified in the strictest sense (see below for some studies).

The likelihood that all UFO sightings are misidentifications of known phenomena inspired some debate in the scientific community about whether any scientific investigation was warranted given the paucity of available empirical data (Sony VGP-BPS13/S battery) .

Very little peer-reviewed literature has been published in which scientists have proposed, studied or supported non-prosaic explanations for UFOs. Nevertheless, UFOs as a cultural phenomenon continues to be the subject of serious academic research and amateur investigators continue to advocate that UFOs represent real and unexplained events, whether or not they are associated with alien encounters (Sony VGP-BPS13A/B battery) .

History

Unexplained aerial observations have been reported throughout history. Some were undoubtedly astronomical in nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye, planetary conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds (Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery) .

An example is Halley's Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and possibly as early as 467 B.C. Such sightings throughout history were often treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery) .

Current-day UFO-enthusiasts have noticed similarities between some religious symbols in medieval paintings and UFO reports though the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by art historians whose commentary and scholarship is generally ignored by enthusiasts (Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery) .

  • Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a Song Chinese government scholar-official and prolific polymath inventor and scholar, wrote a vivid passage in his Dream Pool Essays (1088) about an unidentified flying object. He recorded the testimony of eyewitnesses in 11th-century Anhui and Jiangsu (especially in the city of Yangzhou) (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery) ,
  • who stated that a flying object with opening doors would shine a blinding light from its interior (from an object shaped like a pearl) that would cast shadows from trees for ten miles in radius, and was able to take off at tremendous speeds (Sony VGP-BPL15 battery) .
  • On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying "at wonderful speed." Martin also said it appeared to be about the size of a saucer, the first known use of the word "saucer" in association with a UFO (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) .
  • On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) ,
  • then changed course and "soared" above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after two to three minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.
  • 1916 and 1926: The three oldest known pilot UFO sightings, of 1305 cataloged by NARCAP. On January 31, 1916, a UK pilot near Rochford reported a row of lights, like lighted windows on a railway carriage, that rose and disappeared (HP Pavilion dv6000 Battery) .
  • In January 1926, a pilot reported six "flying manhole covers" between Wichita, Kansas and Colorado Springs, Colorado. In late September 1926, an airmail pilot over Nevada was forced to land by a huge, wingless cylindrical object (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31S battery) .
  • On August 5, 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet's Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich reported that members of his expedition saw "something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp the thing changed in its direction from south to southwest (Sony VGN-FZ31S battery) .
  • And we saw how it disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval form with shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.” Another description by Roerich was, "...A shiny body flying from north to south. Field glasses are at hand. It is a huge body (Hp pavilion dv6000 battery) .
  • One side glows in the sun. It is oval in shape. Then it somehow turns in another direction and disappears in the southwest."
  • In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II, "Foo-fighters" (metallic spheres, balls of light and other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported and on occasion photographed by Allied and Axis pilots (SONY VGN-FZ38M Battery) .
  • Some proposed Allied explanations at the time included St. Elmo's Fire, the planet Venus, hallucinations from oxygen deprivation, or German secret weapon.
  • On February 25, 1942, U.S. Army observers reported unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los Angeles, California region (SONY VGN-FZ31z Battery) .
  • Antiaircraft artillery was fired at what was presumed to be Japanese planes. No readily apparent explanation was offered, though some officials dismissed the reports of aircraft as being triggered by anxieties over expected Japanese air attacks on California (Sony VGN-FZ31Z Battery) .
  • However, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted real aircraft were involved. The incident later became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid (SONY VGN-FZ31E Battery) .
  • In 1946, there were over 2000 reports, collected primarily by the Swedish military, of unidentified aerial objects in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to as "Russian hail", and later as "ghost rockets" (SONY VGN-FZ31J Battery) ,
  • because it was thought that these mysterious objects were possibly Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2rockets. Although most were thought to be natural phenomena like meteors, over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be "real physical objects" by the Swedish military (SONY VGN-FZ31M Battery) .
  • In a 1948 top secretdocument, the Swedish military told the USAF Europe in 1948 that some of their investigators believed them to be extraterrestrial in origin.

The Kenneth Arnold sightings

The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a famous sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington (SONY VGN-FZ31B Battery) .

He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Rainier.

Although there were other 1947 U.S. sightings of similar objects that preceded this, it was Arnold's sighting that first received significant media attention and captured the public's imagination (SONY VGP-BPS13 Battery) .

Arnold described what he saw as being "flat like a pie pan", "shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them… ", "half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. … they looked like a big flat disk" (see Arnold's drawing at right), and flew "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water" (Dell Inspiron 1320 Battery) .

(One of the objects, however, he would describe later as crescent-shaped, as shown in illustration at left.) Arnold’s descriptions were widely reported and within a few days gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk. Arnold’s sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other countries as well (Dell Inspiron 1320n Battery) .

After reports of the Arnold sighting hit the media, other cases began to be reported in increasing numbers. In one instance a United Airlinescrew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to Arnold’s report (Dell Inspiron 1464 Battery) .

American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher, in his comprehensive review of newspaper reports (including cases that preceded Arnold's), found a sudden surge upwards in sightings on July 4, peaking on July 6–8. Bloecher noted that for the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new "flying saucers" or "flying discs" (Dell Inspiron 1564 Battery) .

Reports began to rapidly tail off after July 8,when officials began issuing press statements on theRoswell UFO incident, in which they explained debris found on the ground by a rancher as being that of a weather balloon.

Over several years in the 1960s, Bloecher (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state except Montana (Dell Inspiron 1764 Battery) .

Investigations

UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that vary widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times (Dell Studio 1450 Battery) .

Among the best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946–1947), Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by theUnited States Air Force from 1947 until 1969, the secret U.S (Dell Studio 1457 Battery) .

Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report #14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Brazilian Air Force Operation Saucer (1977). France has had on ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN) within its space agency CNES since 1977, as has Uruguay since 1989 (Dell Latitude D610 Battery) .

A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF, which arrived at a negative conclusion in 1968, marked the end of the US government's official investigation of UFOs, though documents indicate various government intelligence agencies continue unofficially to investigate or monitor the situation (Toshiba NB100 Battery) .

Allen Hynek was a trained astronomer who participated in Project Bluebook after doing research as a federal government employee. He formed the opinion that some UFO reports could not be scientifically explained. Through his founding of the Center for UFO Studies and participation at CUFOs he spent the rest of his life researching and documenting UFOs (Toshiba Satellite M65 battery) .

The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a character loosely based on Hynek. Another group studying UFOs is Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a grass roots based organization known for publishing one of the first UFO investigators handbooks. This handbook went into great detail on how to document alleged UFO sightings (Toshiba Satellite M60 battery) .

Jacques Vallée, a scientist and prominent UFO researcher, has argued that most UFO research is scientifically deficient, including many government studies such as Project Blue Book, and that mythology and cultism are frequently associated with the phenomenon (Dell Latitude D830 Battery) .

Vallée states that self-styled scientists often fill the vacuum left by the lack of attention paid to the UFO phenomenon by official science, but also notes that several hundred professional scientists continue to study UFOs in private, what he terms the "invisible college" (Dell Latitude D620 Battery) .

He also argues that much could be learned from rigorous scientific study, but that little such work has been done.There has been little mainstream scientific study of UFOs, and the topic has received little serious attention or support in mainstream scientific literature. Official studies ended in the U.S. in December 1969, subsequent to the statement by Edward Condon that the study of UFOs probably could not be justified in the expectation that science would be advanced (Dell Studio 1735 Battery) .

The Condon report and these conclusions were endorsed by the National Academy of Scientists, of which Condon was a member. However, a scientific review by the UFO subcommittee of the AIAA disagreed with Condon's conclusion, noting that at least 30% of the cases studied remained unexplained, and that scientific benefit might be gained by continued study (Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Battery) .

It has been claimed that all UFO cases are anecdotal and that all can be explained as prosaic natural phenomena. On the other hand, it has been argued that there is limited awareness among scientists of observational data, other than what is reported in the popular press (Sony VGN-FW11S Battery) .

Controversy has surrounded the Condon report, both before and after it was released. It has been claimed that the report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA… recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs" (Sony VGN-FW11M Battery) .

In an address made to the AAAS, James E. McDonald stated that he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem, criticizing the Condon report and prior studies by the US Air Force for being scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's conclusions and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court (Dell Studio 1555 battery) ."

J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer whose position as USAF consultant from 1948 made him perhaps the most knowledgeable scientist connected with the subject, sharply criticized the report of the Condon Committee and later wrote two nontechnical books that set forth the case for investigating seemingly baffling UFO reports (Dell Latitude E5400 Battery) .

No official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs are indisputably real, physical objects, extraterrestrial in origin, or of concern to national defense. These same negative conclusions also have been found in studies that were highly classified for many years, such as the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party (Dell Latitude E4200 Battery) ,

Project Condign, the US CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, the US military investigation into the green fireballs from 1948 to 1951, and the Battelle Memorial Institute study for the USAF from 1952 to 1955 (Project Blue Book Special Report #14 ) (Dell Vostro A840 Battery) .

However, the initially classified USAF Regulation 200-2, first issued in 1953 after the Robertson Panel, which first defined UFOs and how information was to be collected, stated explicitly that the two reasons for studying the unexplained cases were for national security reasons and for possible technical aspects involved, implying physical reality and concern about national defense, but without opinion as to origins (Dell Inspiron 300M Battery) .

(For example, such information would also be considered important if UFOs had a foreign or domestic origin.) The first two known classified USAF studies in 1947 also concluded real physical aircraft were involved, but gave no opinion as to origins. (See American investigations immediately below) These early studies led to the creation of the USAF's Project Sign at the end of 1947, the first semi-public USAF study (Dell Studio 1737 battery) .

Project Sign in 1948 wrote a highly classified opinion (see Estimate of the Situation) that the best UFO reports probably had an extraterrestrial explanation, as did the private but high-level FrenchCOMETA study of 1999 (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) .

A top secret Swedish military opinion given to the USAF in 1948 stated that some of their analysts believed the 1946 ghost rockets and later flying saucers had extraterrestrial origins. (see Ghost rockets for document). In 1954, German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth revealed an internal West German government investigation, which he headed, that arrived at an extraterrestrial conclusion, but this study was never made public (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

Classified, internal reports by the Canadian Project Magnet in 1952 and 1953 also assigned high probability to extraterrestrial origins. Publicly, however, Project Magnet, nor later Canadian defense studies, ever stated such a conclusion.

Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the latter half of 1952 after being directed to do so by the National Security Council (NSC) (Dell RM791 battery) .

They concluded UFOs were real physical objects of potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to the CIA Director (DCI) in December read, "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention... Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial vehicles (Dell XPS M1530 battery) ."

The matter was considered so urgent, that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the defense research and development community. They also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of top-level scientists to study the problem of UFOs, now known as the Robertson Panel, to further analyze the matter (Dell XPS M2010 battery) .

The OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953.

Some public government conclusions have indicated physical reality but stopped short of concluding extraterrestrial origins, though not dismissing the possibility (Dell Vostro 1000 battery) .

Examples are the Belgian military investigation into large triangles over their airspace in 1989–1991 and the recent 2009 Uruguay Air Force study conclusion (see below).

Some private studies have been neutral in their conclusions, but argued the inexplicable core cases called for continued scientific study. Examples are the Sturrock Panel study of 1998 and the 1970AIAA review of the Condon Report (Acer Aspire One battery) .

American investigations

Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, Army Air Force (AAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, began a formal investigation into selected best sightings with characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, which included Kenneth Arnold’s and that of the United Airlines crew (Toshiba Satellite P10 Battery) .

The AAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether or not "such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled (SONY VGN-FZ210CE Battery) ."

Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around (Dell Precision M70 Battery) ."

A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion, that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," that there were objects in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft (Toshiba Satellite L305 Battery) .

They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb maneuverability," general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar," suggesting a controlled craft. It was thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the phenomenon (Toshiba Satellite T4900 Battery) .

It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.

This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, one of the earliest government studies to come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion (Toshiba PA3399U-2BRS battery) .

In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence estimate to that effect. The Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered it destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J. Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book (Toshiba Satellite A200 Battery) .

Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951, placing Ruppelt in charge. Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Commission's negative conclusion as a rationale, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations (Toshiba Satellite 1200 Battery) .

However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender memo, plus later government documents revealed that nonpublic U.S. government UFO investigations continued after 1970 (Toshiba Satellite M300 Battery) .

The Bollender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national security… are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents were already handled outside of the public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose (WD passport essential (500GB/640GB) ."

In addition, in the late 1960s, there was a chapter on UFOs at the U.S. Air Force Academy in their Space Sciences course, giving serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum became public, the Air Force in 1970 put out a statement the book was outdated and that cadets were now being informed of Condon's negative conclusion instead (WD passport essential (250GB/320GB) .

Use of UFO instead of the popular flying saucer was first suggested in 1952 by Ruppelt, who felt that flying saucer did not reflect the diversity of the sightings. Ruppelt suggested that UFO should be pronounced as a word — you-foe. However it is generally pronounced by forming each letter: U.F.O (WD passport essential SE (750GB/1TB) .

His term was quickly adopted by the Air Force, which also briefly used "UFOB" circa 1954, for Unidentified Flying Object. Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), also the first book to use the term (WD passport elite(250GB/320GB) .

Air Force Regulation 200-2, issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object (WD passport elite(500GB/640GB) ."

The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine technical aspects involved." As to what the public was to be told, "it is permissible to inform news media representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object," but "For those objects which are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC will analyze the data is worthy of release, due to many unknowns involved (WD passport studio for Mac(320GB/500GB) ."

Well known American investigations include:

  • Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947 until 1969
  • The secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951)
  • Ghost rockets investigations by the Swedish, U.K., U.S., and Greek militaries (1946–1947)
  • The secret CIA Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) study (1952–53) (WD passport studio for Mac(500GB/640GB)
  • The secret CIA Robertson Panel (1953)
  • The secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute (1951–1954)
  • The Brookings Report (1960), commissioned by NASA
  • The public Condon Committee (1966–1968)
  • The private, internal RAND Corporation study (1968) (WD Elements series(250GB/320GB)
  • The private Sturrock Panel (1998)

Another early U.S. Army study, established sometime in the 1940s and of which little is known, was called the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU). In 1987, British UFO researcher Timothy Goodreceived a letter confirming the existence of the IPU from the Army Director of Counter-intelligence, in which it was stated (WD Elements SE(500GB/640GB) , "

… the aforementioned Army unit was disestablished during the late 1950s and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation BLUEBOOK." The IPU records have never been released (WD Elements SE(750GB/1TB) .

Thousands of documents released under FOIA also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still collect) information on UFOs, including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI,CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and Navy, in addition to the Air Force (WD Elements desktop(500GB/640GB) .

The investigation of UFOs has also attracted many civilians, who in the U.S formed research groups such as National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP, active 1956–1980), Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO, 1952–1988), Mutual UFO Network (MUFON, 1969–), and Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS, 1973–) (WD Elements desktop(750GB/1TB) .

Famous American cases

The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942, where an unidentified flying object sequently was thought to be part of a Japanese airstrike.

The Roswell Incident involved New Mexico residents, local law enforcement officers, and the US military, the latter of whom allegedly collected physical evidence from the UFO crash site (WD Elements desktop(1.5 TB/2TB) .

In the Kecksburg Incident, Pennsylvania residents reported seeing a bell shaped object crash in the area. Police officers, and possibly military personnel, were sent to investigate.

The Betty and Barney Hill abduction was the first reported abduction incident (WD passport essential SE (750GB/1TB)--USB 3.0) .

1975 Travis Walton abduction case: The movie Fire in the Sky was based on this event, but embellished greatly the original account.

The "Phoenix Lights" March 13, 1997

Canadian investigation

The Falcon Lake incidentreport filed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Stephen Michalak claimed incident with a UFO (WD passport essential (500GB/640GB) .

In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada. In addition to conducting investigations intocrop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still considers "unsolved" the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia (WD passport for Mac(320GB/500GB) .

Early Canadian studies included Project Magnet (1950–1954) and Project Second Story (1952–1954), supported by the Defence Research Board. These studies were headed by Canadian Department of Transport radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith, who later publicly supported extraterrestrial origins (WD passport for Mac(640GB/1TB) .

Famous Canadian cases

In the Shag Harbour incident, a large object sequentially flashing lights was seen and heard to dive into the water by multiple witnesses. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many local residents also witnessed a light floating on the water immediately afterward, and a large patch of unusual yellow foam when a water search was initiated My book essential 4 generation (640GB/1TB).

Multiple government agencies were eventually involved in trying to identify the crashed object and searching for it. Canadian naval divers later purportedly found no wreckage. In official documents, the object was called a "UFO" because no conventional explanation for the crashed object was discovered (WD My book essential 4 generation( 1.5TB/2TB) .

Around the same time, both the Canadian and US military were involved in another UFO-related search at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, approximately 30 miles from Shag Harbour.

French investigation

On March 2007, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) published an archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online WD My book elite( 1TB/1.5TB) .

French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN (1977–), within the French space agency CNES, the longest ongoing government-sponsored investigation. About 14% of some 6000 cases studied remained unexplained. The official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral or negative WD My book studio(1TB/2TB) ,

but the three heads of the studies have gone on record in stating that UFOs were real physical flying machines beyond our knowledge or that the best explanation for the most inexplicable cases was an extraterrestrial one WD My book essential 4 generation( 1.5TB/2TB) .

The French COMETA panel (1996–1999) was a private study undertaken mostly by aerospace scientists and engineers affiliated with CNES and high-level French Air Force military intelligence analysts, with ultimate distribution of their study intended for high government officials WD My book elite(640GB/2TB) .

The COMETA panel likewise concluded the best explanation for the inexplicable cases was the extraterrestrial hypothesis and went further in accusing the United States government of a massive cover-up Seagate expansion portable (750GB/1TB) .

British investigation

The UK conducted various investigations into UFO sightings and related stories. The contents of some of these investigations have since been released to the public Seagate expansion portable (320GB/500GB).

Eight file collections on UFO sightings, dating from 1978 to 1987, were first released on May 14, 2008, to the UK National Archives by the Ministry of Defence. Although kept secret from the public for many years, most of the files have low levels of classification and none are classified Top Secret. 200 files are set to be made public by 2012 Seagate expansion (1.5TB/2TB) .

The files are correspondence from the public sent to government officials, such as the MoD and Margaret Thatcher. The MoD released the files under the Freedom of Information Act due to requests from researchers. These files include, but are not limited to, UFOs over Liverpool and the Waterloo Bridge in London Seagate Freeagent Desktop (500GB/1TB) .

On October 20, 2008 more UFO files were released. One case released detailed that in 1991 an Alitalia passenger aircraft was approaching Heathrow Airport when the pilots saw what they described as a "cruise missile" flew extremely close to the cockpit. The pilots believed that a collision was imminent. UFO expert David Clarke says that this is one of the most convincing cases for a UFO he has come across Seagate Freeagent Go(250GB/320GB) .

British investigations include the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party. Its final report, published in 1951, remained secret for over 50 years. The Working Party concluded that all UFO sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or phenomena, optical illusions, psychological delusions or hoaxes Seagate Freeagent Go(500GB/640GB) .

The report stated: "We accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available."

A secret study of UFOs was undertaken for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1996 and 2000 and was code-named Project Condign Seagate Freeagent Go(750GB/1TB) .

The resulting report, titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence Region", was publicly released in 2006, but the identity and credentials of whomever constituted Project Condign remains classified. The report confirmed earlier findings that the main causes of UFO sightings are misidentification of man-made and natural objects Seagate Freeagent Goflex(250GB/320GB) .

The report noted: "No artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been reported or handed to the UK authorities, despite thousands of UAP reports. There are no SIGINT, ELINT or radiation measurements and little useful video or still IMINT Seagate Freeagent Goflex(500GB/640GB) ."

It concluded: "There is no evidence that any UAP, seen in the UKADR [UK Air Defence Region], are incursions by air-objects of any intelligent (extraterrestrial or foreign) origin, or that they represent any hostile intent Seagate Freeagent Goflex(750GB/1TB) ."

Famous British cases

In the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980, US military personnel witnessed UFOs in the forest near the air base at Woodbridge, Suffolk, over a period of three nights. The sighting was the subject of an official memo to the UK’s Ministry of Defence Seagate Freeagent Goflex Pro(500GB/750GB) .

Famous Swiss cases

The Swiss contactee, Billy Meier, famously took over one thousand day and night photographs of UFOs, mostly during the latter half of the 1970s, allegedly with the full cooperation and assistance of the extraterrestrial pilots. It is a widely held view that some of these photos are possibly the clearest and most highly detailed photographs taken by anyone to date Seagate Freeagent Goflex desktop(1TB/2TB) .

Many witnesses also saw these craft, or evidence of recent activity by these craft, themselves. The UFO researcher, the late Lt. Col. Wendelle C. Stevens, investigated The Meier Case, as it came to be known, during the 1970s and 80s and remained convinced of the authenticity of it until his death in 2010 Seagate Freeagent go for Mac(320GB/640GB) .

Uruguayan investigation

The Uruguayan Air Force has had an ongoing UFO investigations since 1989 and analyzed 2100 cases, of which they consider only 40 (about 2%) definitely lacking any conventional explanation. All files have recently been declassified Samsung G2 protable (250gb/320GB) .

The unexplained cases include military jet interceptions, abductions, cattle mutilations, and physical landing trace evidence. Colonel Ariel Sanchez, who currently heads the investigation, summarized their findings as follows: "The commission managed to determine modifications to the chemical composition of the soil where landings are reported Samsung G2 protable (500GB/640GB) .

The phenomenon exists. It could be a phenomenon that occurs in the lower sectors of the atmosphere, the landing of aircraft from a foreign air force, up to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It could be a monitoring probe from outer space, much in the same way that we send probes to explore distant worlds Samsung S2 protable (160GB/250GB) .

The UFO phenomenon exists in the country. I must stress that the Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis based on our scientific analysis."

Astronomer reports

The Air Force's Project Blue Book files indicate that approximately 1?% of all unknown reports came from amateur and professional astronomers or other users of telescopes (such as missile trackers or surveyors) Samsung S2 protable (320GB/500GB) .

In 1952, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then a consultant to Blue Book, conducted a small survey of 45 fellow professional astronomers. Five reported UFO sightings (about 11%). In the 1970s, astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock conducted two large surveys of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and American Astronomical Society Samsung S1 Mini (120GB/160GB) .

About 5?% of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO sightings.

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who admitted to six UFO sightings, including three green fireballs, supported the Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs and stated he thought scientists who dismissed it without study were being "unscientific" Samsung S1 Mini (250GB/320GB) .

Another astronomer was Lincoln LaPaz, who had headed the Air Force's investigation into the green fireballs and other UFO phenomena in New Mexico. LaPaz reported two personal sightings, one of a green fireball, the other of an anomalous disc-like object. (Both Tombaugh and LaPaz were part of Hynek's 1952 survey Samsung story station (1TB/1.5TB) .)

Hynek himself took two photos through the window of a commercial airliner of a disc-like object that seemed to pace his aircraft. Even later UFO debunker Donald Menzel filed a UFO report in 1949.

In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations by Gert Helb and Hynek for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) found that 24?% responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification Samsung Story station (1.5TB/2TB) ?"

British records on UFOs

In August 2009 The Black Vault internet archive announced the release by the British government of more than 4,000 pages of declassified records Samsung story station Esata(1TB/1.5TB) .

The records include information on theRendlesham Forest incident, crop circles, a UFO attack on a cemetery and even reports of alien abduction claims.

On 1 December 2009, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) quietly closed down its UFO investigations unit Samsung G3 station (1TB/1.5TB) .

The unit's hotline and email address were suspended by the Ministry of Defense on that date. The MoD said there was no value in continuing to receive and investigate sightings in a release Maxtor one touch 4 mini (250GB/320GB) . stating

"... in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom. The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. There is no Defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources. Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to Defence." Maxtor one touch 4 plus (500GB/750GB)

The Guardian reported that the MoD claimed the closure would save the Ministry around £50,000 a year. The MoD said that it would continue to release UFO files to the public through the National Archives Maxtor one touch 4 plus (1TB/1.5TB) .

Winston Churchill

According to records released on August 5, 2010, British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill banned the reporting for 50 years of an alleged UFO incident because of fears it could create mass panic Maxtor black diamond (320GB/500GB) .

Reports given to Churchill claimed the incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany toward the end of the Second World War. It was over or near the English coastline when it was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing Maxtor cool black(640GB/1TB) .

The plane's crew were reported to have photographed the object, which they said had "hovered noiselessly" near the aircraft, before moving off. According to the documents, details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident Maxtor Black diamond (320GB/500GB) .

He described how his grandfather, who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter. The files come from more than 5,000 pages of UFO reports and letters and drawings from members of the public, as well as questions raised by MPs in Parliament Hitachi simple touch (250GB/320GB) .

They are available to download for free for a month from The National Archives website.

Identification of UFOs

Fata Morgana, a type of mirage in which objects located below the astronomical horizon appear to be hovering in the sky, may be responsible for some UFO sightings Hitachi simple touch (320GB/500GB) .

Fata Morgana can also magnify the appearance of distant objects or distort them to be unrecognizable.

Studies show that after careful investigation, the majority of UFOs can be identified as ordinary objects or phenomena (see Identification studies of UFOs). The most commonly found identified sources of UFO reports are Hitachi life studio (250GB/320GB) :

  • Astronomical objects (bright stars, planets, meteors, re-entering man-made spacecraft, artificial satellites, and the moon)
  • Aircraft (Aerial advertising and other aircraft, missile launches)
  • Balloons (weather balloons, prank balloons, large research balloons) Hitachi life studio (320GB/500GB)
  • Other atmospheric objects and phenomena (birds, unusual clouds, kites, flares)
  • Light phenomena (mirages, Fata Morgana, moon dogs, searchlights and other ground lights, etc.)
  • Hoaxes Hitachi life studio platinum (250GB/320GB)

Lenticular clouds have been reported as UFOs due to their peculiar shape.

A 1952–1955 study by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the US Air Force included these categories as well as a "psychological" oneHitachi life studio platinum (320GB/500GB) .

However, the scientific analysts were unable to come up with prosaic explanations for 21.5?% of the 3200 cases they examined and 33?% of what were considered the best cases remained unexplained, double the number of the worst cases. (See full statistical breakdown in Identification studies of UFOs) Hitachi life studio desk (500GB/1TB) .

Of the 69?% identifieds, 38?% were deemed definitely explained while 31?% were thought to be "questionable." About 9?% of the cases were considered to have insufficient information to make a determination Hitachi life studio plus (320GB/500GB) .

The official French government UFO investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN), run within the French space agency CNES between 1977 and 2004, scientifically investigated about 6000 cases and found that 13.5?% defied any rational explanation, 46?% were deemed definitely or likely identifiable, while 41?% lacked sufficient information for classification Hitachi life studio plus (320GB/500GB) .

An individual 1979 study by CUFOS researcher Allan Hendry found, as did other investigations, that only a small percentage of cases he investigated were hoaxes (<1?%) href="http://www.hdd-shop.co.uk/Hitachi-external-hdd-x-250GB-320GB.html" mce_href="http://www.hdd-shop.co.uk/Hitachi-external-hdd-x-250GB-320GB.html">Hitachi X mobile (250GB/320GB) .

However, Hendry's figure for unidentified cases was considerably lower than many other UFO studies such as Project Blue Book or theCondon Report that have found rates of unidentified cases ranging from 6?% to 30?%. Hendry found that 88.6?% of the cases he studied had a clear prosaic explanation Hitachi X mobile(320GB/500GB) ,

and he discarded a further 2.8?% due to unreliable or contradictory witnesses or insufficient information. The remaining 8.6?% of reports could not definitively be explained by prosaic phenomena, although he felt that a further 7.1?% could possibly be explained, leaving only the very best 1.5?% without plausible explanation Hitachi External HDD –XL (1TB/2TB) .

Monday, November 29, 2010

Digital rights management

Digital rights management (DRM) is a term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the usage of digital content and devices. The term is used to describe any technology that inhibits uses of digital content not desired or intended by the content provider (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) http://www.hdd-shop.co.uk .

The term does not generally refer to other forms ofcopy protection which can be circumvented without modifying the file or device, such as serial numbers or keyfiles. It can also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices (Dell Studio XPS 1340 Battery) .

Digital rights management is used by companies such as Sony, Amazon, Apple Inc., Microsoft, AOL and the BBC .

The use of digital rights management is controversial. Proponents argue it is needed by copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work, either to maintain artistic integrity or to ensure continued revenue streams (Dell Studio XPS 1640 Battery) .

Some opponents, such as the Free Software Foundation (through its Defective By Design campaign), maintain that the use of the word "rights" is misleading and suggest that people instead use the term digital restrictions management. Their position is essentially that copyright holders are restricting the use of material in ways that are beyond the scope of existing copyright laws (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) ,

and should not be covered by future laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other opponents, also consider DRM systems to be anti-competitive practices. This position holds that the rights of the user need legal protection (Sony VGP-BPS13 battery) .

Introduction

DRM technologies attempt to control use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion to other formats by end users. Long before the arrival of digital or even electronic media, copyright holders, content producers, or other financially or artistically interested parties had business and legal objections to copying technologies (Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery) .

Examples include: player piano rolls early in the 20th century, audio tape recording, and video tape recording(e.g., the "Betamax case" in the U.S.). Copying technology thus exemplifies a disruptive technology (Sony VGP-BPS13/S battery) .

The advent of digital media and analog/digital conversion technologies, especially those that are usable on mass-market general-purpose personal computers, has vastly increased the concerns of copyright-dependent individuals and organizations, especially within the music and movie industries (Sony VGP-BPS13A/B battery) ,

because these individuals and organizations are partly or wholly dependent on the revenue generated from such works. While analog media inevitably loses quality with each copy generation, and in some cases even during normal use, digital media files may be duplicated an unlimited number of times with no degradation in the quality of subsequent copies (Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery) .

The advent of personal computers as household appliances has made it convenient for consumers to convert media (which may or may not be copyrighted) originally in a physical/analog form or a broadcast form into a universal, digital form (this process is called ripping) for location- or timeshifting (Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery) .

This, combined with the Internet and popular file sharing tools, has made unauthorized distribution of copies of copyrighted digital media (digital piracy) much easier.

DRM technologies have enabled publishers to enforce access policies that not only disallow copyright infringements (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery) ,

but also prevent lawful fair use of copyrighted works, or even implement use constraints on non-copyrighted works that they distribute; examples include the placement of DRM on certain public-domain or open-licensed e-books, or DRM included in consumer electronic devices that time-shift (and apply DRM to) both copyrighted and non-copyrighted works (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery) .

DRM is most commonly used by the entertainment industry (e.g., film and recording). Many online music stores, such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, as well as many e-book publishers have implemented DRM (Sony VGP-BPL15 battery) .

In recent years, a number of television producers have implemented DRM on consumer electronic devices to control access to the freely-broadcast content of their shows, in response to the rising popularity of time-shifting digital video recorder systems such as TiVo (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) .

Technologies

DRM and film

An early example of a DRM system was the Content Scrambling System (CSS) employed by the DVD Forum on film DVDs since ca. 1996 (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

CSS used a simple encryption algorithm, and required device manufacturers to sign license agreements that restricted the inclusion of features, such as digital outputs that could be used to extract high-quality digital copies of the film, in their players. Thus, the only consumer hardware capable of decoding DVD films was controlled (HP Pavilion dv6000 Battery) ,

albeit indirectly, by the DVD Forum, restricting the use of DVD media on other systems until the release of DeCSS by Jon Lech Johansen in 1999, which allowed a CSS-encrypted DVD to play properly on a computer using Linux, for which the Alliance had not arranged a licensed version of the CSS playing software (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31S battery) .

Microsoft's Windows Vista contains a DRM system called the Protected Media Path, which contains the Protected Video Path (PVP). PVP tries to stop DRM-restricted content from playing while unsigned software is running in order to prevent the unsigned software from accessing the content (Sony VGN-FZ31S battery) .

Additionally, PVP can encrypt information during transmission to the monitor or the graphics card, which makes it more difficult to make unauthorized recordings.

Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is a DRM system for HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs developed by the AACS Licensing Administrator (Hp pavilion dv6000 battery) ,

LLC (AACS LA), a consortium that includes Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita (Panasonic), Warner Brothers, IBM, Toshiba and Sony. In December 2006 a process key was published on the internet byhackers, enabling unrestricted access to AACS-restricted HD DVD content. After the cracked keys were revoked, further cracked keys were released (SONY VGN-FZ38M Battery) .

DRM and television

The CableCard standard is used by cable television providers in the United States to restrict content to services to which the customer has subscribed (SONY VGN-FZ31z Battery) .

The broadcast flag concept was developed by Fox Broadcasting in 2001 and was supported by the MPAA and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A ruling in May 2005 by a US Court of Appeals held that the FCC lacked authority to impose it on the TV industry in the US (Sony VGN-FZ31Z Battery) .

It required that all HDTVs obey a stream specification determining whether or not a stream can be recorded. This could block instances of fair use, such as time-shifting. It achieved more success elsewhere when it was adopted by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a consortium of about 250 broadcasters, manufactures, network operators, software developers, and regulatory bodies from about 35 countries involved in attempting to develop new digital TV standards (SONY VGN-FZ31E Battery) .

An updated variant of the broadcast flag has been developed in the Content Protection and Copy Management (DVB-CPCM). It was developed in private, and the technical specification was submitted to European governments in March 2007. As with much DRM, the CPCM system is intended to control use of copyrighted material by the end-user, at the direction of the copyright holder (SONY VGN-FZ31J Battery) .

According to Ren Bucholz of the EFF, which paid to be a member of the consortium, "You won't even know ahead of time whether and how you will be able to record and make use of particular programs or devices". The DVB supports the system as it will harmonize copyright holders' control across different technologies and so make things easier for end users (SONY VGN-FZ31M Battery) .

The normative sections have now all been approved for publication by the DVB Steering Board, and will be published by ETSI as a formal European Standard as ETSI TS 102 825-X where X refers to the Part number of specification (SONY VGN-FZ31B Battery) .

Nobody has yet stepped forward to provide a Compliance and Robustness regime for the standard (though several are rumoured to be in development), so it is not presently possible to fully implement a system, as there is nowhere to obtain the necessary device certificates (SONY VGP-BPS13 Battery) .

DRM and music

Audio CDs

Discs with digital rights management schemes are not legitimately standards-compliant Compact Discs (CDs) but are rather CD-ROM media. Therefore they all lack the CD logotype found on discs which follow the standard (known as Red Book) (Dell Inspiron 1320 Battery) .

Therefore these CDs could not be played on all CD players. Many consumers could also no longer play purchased CDs on their computers. Personal computers running Microsoft Windows would sometimes even crash when attempting to play the CDs.

In 2005, Sony BMG introduced new DRM technology which installed DRM software on users' computers without clearly notifying the user or requiring confirmation (Dell Inspiron 1320n Battery) .

Among other things, the installed software included a rootkit, which created a severe security vulnerability others could exploit. When the nature of the DRM involved was made public much later, Sony initially minimized the significance of the vulnerabilities its software had created, but was eventually compelled to recall millions of CDs, and released several attempts to patch the surreptitiously included software to at least remove the rootkit (Dell Inspiron 1464 Battery) .

Several class action lawsuits were filed, which were ultimately settled by agreements to provide affected consumers with a cash payout or album downloads free of DRM.

Sony's DRM software actually had only a limited ability to prevent copying, as it affected only playback on Windows computers, not on other equipment (Dell Inspiron 1564 Battery) .

Even on the Windows platform, users regularly bypassed the restrictions. And, while the Sony DRM technology created fundamental vulnerabilities in customers' computers, parts of it could be trivially bypassed by holding down the "shift" key while inserting the CD, or by disabling the autorun feature (Dell Inspiron 1764 Battery) .

In addition, audio tracks could simply be played and re-recorded, thus completely bypassing all of the DRM (this is known as the analog hole). Sony's first two attempts at releasing a patch which would remove the DRM software from users' computers failed.

In January 2007, EMI stopped publishing audio CDs with DRM, stating that "the costs of DRM do not measure up to the results (Dell Studio 1450 Battery) .

"Following EMI, Sony BMG was the last publisher to abolish DRM completely, and audio CDs containing DRM are no longer released by the four record labels.

Internet music

Many online music stores employ DRM to restrict usage of music purchased and downloaded online (Dell Studio 1457 Battery) .

There are many options for consumers wishing to purchase digital music over the internet:

  • The iTunes Store (run by Apple), allows users to purchase a track online. The tracks purchased use Apple's FairPlay DRM system. Apple later launched iTunes Plus, which offered higher quality DRM-free tracks for a higher price. On October 17, 2007, iTunes Plus became available at the usual US$0.99 price, replacing the non-Plus tracks (Dell Latitude D610 Battery) .
  • On January 6, 2009 Apple announced at its Macworld Expo keynote that iTunes music would be available completely DRM free by the end of the month. Videos sold and rented through iTunes, as well as mobile software sold through the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch, continue to use Apple's FairPlay DRM to inhibit casual copying (Toshiba NB100 Battery) .
  • Apple increased the price of many hit singles and selected classic tracks to $1.29 on April 7, 2009.
  • Napster music store offers a subscription-based approach to DRM alongside permanent purchases (Toshiba Satellite M65 battery) .
  • Users of the subscription service can download and stream an unlimited amount of music transcoded to Windows Media Audio (WMA) while subscribed to the service. But when the subscription period lapses, all of the downloaded music is unplayable until the user renews his or her subscription (Toshiba Satellite M60 battery) .
  • Napster also charges users who wish to use the music on their portable device an additional $5 per month. In addition, Napster gives users the option of paying an additional $0.99 per track to burn it to CD or for the song to never expire. Music bought through Napster can be played on players carrying the Microsoft PlaysForSure logo (which, notably, do not include iPods or even Microsoft's own Zune) (Dell Latitude D830 Battery) .
  • As of June 2009 Napster is giving DRM free MP3 music, which can be played on iPhones and iPods.
  • Wal-Mart Music Downloads, another online music download store, charges $0.94 per track for all non-sale downloads. All Wal-Mart, Music Downloads are able to be played on any Windows PlaysForSure marked product (Dell Latitude D620 Battery) .
  • The music does play on the SanDisk's Sansa mp3 player, for example, but must be copied to the player's internal memory. It cannot be played through the player'smicroSD card slot, which is a problem that many users of the mp3 player experience (Dell Studio 1735 Battery) .
  • Sony operated an online music download service called "Connect" which used Sony's proprietary OpenMG DRM technology. Music downloaded from this store (usually via Sony's SonicStagesoftware) was only playable on computers running Microsoft Windows and Sony hardware (including the PSP and some Sony Ericsson phones) (Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Battery) .
  • Kazaa is one of a few services offering a subscription-based pricing model. However, music downloads from the Kazaa website are DRM-protected, and can only be played on computers or portable devices running Windows Media Player, and only as long as the customer remains subscribed to Kazaa (Sony VGN-FW11S Battery) .

The various services are currently not interoperable, though those that use the same DRM system (for instance the several Windows Media DRM format stores, including Napster, Kazaa and Yahoo Music) all provide songs that can be played side-by-side through the same player program (Sony VGN-FW11M Battery) .

Almost all stores require client software of some sort to be downloaded, and some also need plug-ins. Several colleges and universities, such as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have made arrangements with assorted Internet music suppliers to provide access (typically DRM-restricted) to music files for their students (Dell Studio 1555 battery) ,

to less than universal popularity, sometimes making payments from student activity fee funds. One of the problems is that the music becomes unplayable after leaving school unless the student continues to pay individually. Another is that few of these vendors are compatible with the most common portable music player, the Apple iPod (Dell Latitude E5400 Battery) .

The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property (to HMG in the UK; 141 pages, 40+ specific recommendations) has taken note of the incompatibilities, and suggests (Recommendations 8—12) that there be explicit fair dealing exceptions to copyright allowing libraries to copy and format-shift between DRM schemes, and further allowing end users to do the same privately (Dell Latitude E4200 Battery) .

If adopted, some of the acrimony may decrease.

Although DRM is prevalent for Internet music, some online music stores such as eMusic, Dogmazic, Amazon, and Beatport, do not use DRM despite encouraging users to avoid sharing music (Dell Vostro A840 Battery) .

Another online retailer, Xiie.net, which sells only unsigned artists, encourages people to share the music they buy from the site, to increase exposure for the artists themselves. Major labels have begun releasing more online music without DRM (Dell Inspiron 300M Battery) .

Eric Bangeman suggests in Ars Technica that this is because the record labels are "slowly beginning to realize that they can't have DRMed music and complete control over the online music market at the same time... One way to break the cycle is to sell music that is playable on any digital audio player (Dell Studio 1737 battery) .

eMusic does exactly that, and their surprisingly extensive catalog of non-DRMed music has vaulted it into the number two online music store position behind the iTunes Store." Apple's Steve Jobs has called on the music industry to eliminate DRM in an open letter titled Thoughts on Music (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) .

Apple's iTunes store will start to sell DRM-free 256 kbit/s (up from 128 kbit/s) AAC encoded music from EMI for a premium price (this has since reverted to the standard price). In March 2007, Musicload.de, one of Europe's largest online music retailers, announced their position strongly against DRM (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

In an open letter, Musicload stated that three out of every four calls to their customer support phone service are as a result of consumer frustration with DRM.

Computer games

Computer games sometimes use DRM technologies to limit the number of systems the game can be installed on by requiring authentication with an online server (Dell RM791 battery) .

Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be 'recovered' when the game is uninstalled. This not only limits users who have more than three or five computers in their homes (seeing as the rights of the software developers allow them to limit the number of installations) (Dell XPS M1530 battery) ,

but can also prove to be a problem if the user has to unexpectedly perform certain tasks like upgrading operating systems or reformatting the computer's hard drive, tasks which, depending on how the DRM is implemented, count a game's subsequent reinstall as a new installation, making the game potentially unusable after a certain period even if it is only used on a single computer (Dell XPS M2010 battery) .

In mid-2008, the publication of Mass Effect marked the start of a wave of titles primarily making use of SecuROM and Steam for DRM and requiring authentication via an online server. The use of DRM scheme in 2008's Spore backfired and there were protests, resulting in a considerable number of users seeking a pirated version instead (Dell Vostro 1000 battery) .

This backlash against 3 activation limit was a significant factor in Spore becoming the most pirated game in 2008.

Many mainstream publishers continued to rely on online-based DRM throughout the later half of 2008 and early 2009, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Atari (Acer Aspire One battery) .

Ubisoft broke with the tendency to use online DRM in late 2008 with the release of Prince of Persia as an experiment to "see how truthful people really are" regarding the claim that DRM was inciting people to use pirated copies (Toshiba Satellite P10 Battery) .

Although Ubisoft has not commented on the results of the 'experiment', the majority of their subsequent titles in 2009 contained no online-based DRM since the release of Prince of Persia - notable examples being Anno 1404 and James Cameron's Avatar: The Gamemaking use of the online version of the TAGES copy protection system (SONY VGN-FZ210CE Battery) .

An official patch has since been released stripping Anno 1404 of the DRM. Electronic Arts followed suit in June 2009 with The Sims 3, with subsequent EA and EA Sports titles also being devoid of online DRM.

Ubisoft formally announced a return to on-line authentication on 9 February 2010 through its Uplay on-line gaming platform, starting with Silent Hunter 5, The Settlers 7 and Assassin's Creed 2 (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

Silent Hunter V was first reported to have been compromised within 24 hours of release, but users of the cracked version soon found out that only early parts of the game were playable.The Uplay system works by having the installed game on the local PCs incomplete and then continuously downloading parts of the game-code from Ubisoft's servers as the game progresses (Toshiba Satellite L305 Battery) ,

making cracking games using the system a daunting task. It was only more than a month after the PC release in the first week of April that software was released that could bypass Ubisoft's DRM in Assassin's Creed 2, demonstrating its strength. The software did this by emulating a Ubisoft server for the game (Toshiba Satellite T4900 Battery) .

Later that month, a real crack was released that was able to remove the connection requirement altogether. No fully working crack for Silent Hunter V has been confirmed.

In early March, 2010, Uplay servers suffered a period of inaccessibility due to a large scale DDoS attack, causing around 5% of game owners to become locked out of playing their game (Toshiba PA3399U-2BRS battery) .

The company later credited owners of the affected games with a free download, and there has been no further downtime.

Some most prominent cases making use of online DRM technology SecuROM include Spore, BioShock, Mass Effect and Gears Of War (Toshiba Satellite A200 Battery) .

E-books

Electronic books read on a personal computer or an e-book reader typically use DRM restrictions to limit copying, printing, and sharing of e-books. E-books are usually limited to a certain number of reading devices and some e-publishers prevent any copying or printing (Toshiba Satellite 1200 Battery) .

Some commentators believe that DRM is something that makes E-book publishing complex .

There are four main ebook formats at present. Mobipocket, Topaz, ePub and PDF. The Amazon Kindle uses both Mobipocket and Topaz format ebooks. Other ebook readers mostly use ePub format ebooks, but with differing DRM schemes (Toshiba Satellite M300 Battery) .

There are four main ebook DRM schemes at present, one each from Adobe, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Adobe's Adept DRM is applied to ePubs and PDFs, and can be read by several third-party ebook readers, as well as Adobe's Adobe Digital Editions software (WD passport essential (500GB/640GB) .

Apple's Fairplay DRM is applied to ePubs,and can currently only be read by Apple's iBooks app on iOS devices. Barnes & Noble's DRM scheme is implemented by Adobe, and is applied to ePubs and the older Palm format ebooks. Amazon's DRM is an adaption of the original Mobipocket encryption, and is applied to Amazon's Mobipocket and Topaz format ebooks (WD passport essential (250GB/320GB) .

Two software programs to view e-books are Adobe Reader and Microsoft Reader.Each program uses a slightly different approach to DRM. The first version of Adobe Acrobat e-book Reader to have encryption technologies was version 5.05. In the later version 6.0, the technologies of the PDF reader and the e-book reader were combined (WD passport essential SE (750GB/1TB) ,

allowing it to read both DRM-restricted and unrestricted files.After opening the file, the user is able to view the rights statement, which outlines actions available for the specific document. For example, for a freely transferred PDF, printing, copying to the clipboard, and other basic functions are available to the user (WD passport elite(250GB/320GB) .

However, when viewing a more highly restricted e-book, the user is unable to print the book, copy or paste selections. The level of restriction is specified by the publisher or distribution agency.

Microsoft Reader, which exclusively reads e-books in a .lit format, contains its own DRM software (WD passport elite(500GB/640GB) .

In Microsoft Reader there are three different levels of access control depending on the e-book: sealed e-books, inscribed e-books and owner exclusive e-books. Sealed e-books have the least amount of restriction and only prevents the document from being modified (WD passport studio for Mac(320GB/500GB) .

Therefore, the reader cannot alter the content of the book to change the ending, for instance. Inscribed e-books are the next level of restriction. After purchasing and downloading the e-book, Microsoft Reader puts a digital ID tag to identify the owner of the e-book (WD passport studio for Mac(500GB/640GB) .

Therefore, this discourages distribution of the e-book because it is inscribed with the owner’s name making it possible to trace it back to the original copy that was distributed. Other e-book software uses similar DRM schemes. For example, Palm Digital Media, now known as Ereader, links the credit card information of the purchaser to the e-book copy in order to discourage distribution of the books (WD Elements series(250GB/320GB) .

The most stringent form of security that Microsoft Reader offers is called owner exclusive e-books, which uses traditional DRM technologies. To buy the e-book the consumer must first open Microsoft Reader, which ensures that when the book is downloaded it becomes linked to the computer’s Microsoft Passport account (WD Elements SE(500GB/640GB) .

Thus the e-book can only be opened with the computer with which it was downloaded, preventing copying and distribution of the text.

Amazon.com has remotely deleted purchased copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from customer's Amazon Kindles (WD External HDD ---Elements SE(750GB/1TB) .

Commenters have widely described these actions as Orwellian, and have alluded to Big Brother from Orwell's 1984.After an apology from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Free Software Foundation has written that this is just one more example of the excessive power Amazon has to remotely censor what people read through its software, and called upon Amazon to free its e-book reader and drop DRM (WD Elements desktop(500GB/640GB) .

DRM and documents

Enterprise digital rights management (E-DRM or ERM) is the application of DRM technology to the control of access to corporate documents such as Microsoft Word, PDF, and AutoCAD files, emails, and intranet web pages rather than to the control of consumer media (WD Elements desktop(750GB/1TB) .

E-DRM, now more commonly referenced as IRM (Information Rights Management), is generally intended to prevent the unauthorized use (such as industrial or corporate espionage or inadvertent release) of proprietary documents. IRM typically integrates with content management system software (WD Elements desktop(1.5 TB/2TB) .

DRM has been used by organizations such as the British Library in its secure electronic delivery service to permit worldwide access to substantial numbers of rare (and in many cases unique) documents which, for legal reasons, were previously only available to authorized individuals actually visiting the Library's document centre at Boston Spa in England (WD passport essential SE (750GB/1TB)--USB 3.0) .

Watermarks

Digital watermarks are features of media that are added during production or distribution. Digital watermarks involve data that is arguably steganographically embedded within the audio or video data.

Watermarks can be used for different purposes that may include (WD passport essential (500GB/640GB) :

Watermarks are not complete DRM mechanisms in their own right, but are used as part of a system for Digital Rights Management, such as helping provide prosecution evidence for purely legal avenues of rights management, rather than direct technological restriction (WD passport for Mac(640GB/1TB) .

Some programs used to edit video and/or audio may distort, delete, or otherwise interfere with watermarks. Signal/modulator-carrier chromatography may also separate watermarks from original audio or detect them as glitches. Use of third party media players and other advanced programs render watermarking useless My book essential 4 generation(640GB/1TB) .

Additionally, comparison of two separately obtained copies of audio using simple, home-grown algorithms can often reveal watermarks. New methods of detection are currently under investigation by both industry and non-industry researchers (WD My book essential 4 generation( 1.5TB/2TB) .

Metadata

Sometimes, metadata is included in purchased music which records information such as the purchaser's name, account information, or email address. This information is not embedded in the played audio or video data, like a watermark, but is kept separate, but within the file or stream WD My book elite( 1TB/1.5TB) .

As an example, metadata is used in media purchased from Apple's iTunes Store for DRM-free as well as DRM-restricted versions of their music or videos. This information is included as MPEG standard metadata.

Laws regarding DRM

Digital rights management systems have received some international legal backing by implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) WD My book studio(1TB/2TB) .

Article 11 of the Treaty requires nations party to the treaties to enact laws against DRM circumvention.

The WCT has been implemented in most member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The American implementation is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) WD My book essential 4 generation( 1.5TB/2TB) ,

while in Europe the treaty has been implemented by the 2001 European directive on copyright, which requires member states of the European Union to implement legal protections for technological prevention measures. In 2006, the lower house of the French parliament adopted such legislation as part of the controversial DADVSI law WD My book elite(640GB/2TB) ,

but added that protected DRM techniques should be made interoperable, a move which caused widespread controversy in the United States .

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an amendment to United States copyright law passed unanimously on May 14, 1998, which criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology that allows users to circumvent technical copy-restriction methods Seagate expansion portable (320GB/500GB) .

Under the Act, circumvention of a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work is illegal if done with the primary intent of violating the rights of copyright holders. (For a more detailed analysis of the statute, see WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act Seagate expansion portable (750GB/1TB) .)

Reverse engineering of existing systems is expressly permitted under the Act under specific conditions. Under the reverse engineering safe harbor, circumvention necessary to achieve interoperability with other software is specifically authorized. See 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(f) Seagate expansion (1.5TB/2TB) .

Open-source software to decrypt content scrambled with the Content Scrambling System and other encryption techniques presents an intractable problem with the application of the Act. Much depends on the intent of the actor. If the decryption is done for the purpose of achieving interoperability of open source operating systems with proprietary operating systems Seagate Freeagent Desktop (500GB/1TB) ,

the circumvention would be protected by Section 1201(f) the Act. Cf., Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429 (2d Cir. 2001) at notes 5 and 16. However, dissemination of such software for the purpose of violating or encouraging others to violate copyrights has been held illegal. See Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes, 111 F. Supp. 2d 346 (S.D.N.Y. 2000) Seagate Freeagent Go(250GB/320GB) .

On 22 May 2001, the European Union passed the EU Copyright Directive, an implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty that addressed many of the same issues as the DMCA.

The DMCA has been largely ineffective in protecting DRM systems, as software allowing users to circumvent DRM remains widely available Seagate Freeagent Go(500GB/640GB) .

However, those who wish to preserve the DRM systems have attempted to use the Act to restrict the distribution and development of such software, as in the case of DeCSS.

Although the Act contains an exception for research, the exception is subject to vague qualifiers that do little to reassure researchers. Cf., 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(g) Seagate Freeagent Go(750GB/1TB) .

The DMCA has had an impact oncryptography, because many[who?] fear that cryptanalytic research may violate the DMCA. The arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov in 2001, for alleged infringement of the DMCA, was a highly publicized example of the law's use to prevent or penalize development of anti-DRM measures Seagate Freeagent Goflex(250GB/320GB) .

Sklyarov was arrested in the United States after a presentation at DEF CON, and subsequently spent several months in jail. The DMCA has also been cited as chilling to non-criminal inclined users, such as students of cryptanalysis (including, in a well-known instance, Professor Felten and students at Princeton ) Seagate Freeagent Goflex(500GB/640GB) ,

and security consultants such as the Netherlands based Niels Ferguson, who has declined to publish information about vulnerabilities he discovered in an Intel secure-computing scheme because of his concern about being arrested under the DMCA when he travels to the US Seagate Freeagent Goflex(750GB/1TB) .

On 25 April 2007 the European Parliament supported the first directive of EU, which aims to harmonize criminal law in the member states. It adopted a first reading report on harmonizing the national measures for fighting copyright abuse. If the European Parliament and the Council approve the legislation, the submitted directive will oblige the member states to consider a crime a violation of international copyright committed with commercial purposes Seagate Freeagent Goflex Pro(500GB/750GB) .

The text suggests numerous measures: from fines to imprisonment, depending on the gravity of the offense.

The EP members supported the Commission motion, changing some of the texts. They excluded patent rights from the range of the directive and decided that the sanctions should apply only to offenses with commercial purposes Seagate Freeagent Goflex desktop(1TB/2TB) .

Copying for personal, non-commercial purposes was also excluded from the range of the directive.

International issues

In Europe, there are several ongoing dialog activities that are characterized by their consensus-building intention Seagate Freeagent go for Mac(320GB/640GB) :

  • Workshop on Digital Rights Management of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), January 2001.
  • Participative preparation of the European Committee for Standardization/Information Society Standardisation System (CEN/ISSS) DRM Report, 2003 (finished) Samsung G2 protable (250gb/320GB) .
  • DRM Workshops of Directorate-General for Information Society and Media (European Commission) (finished), and the work of the DRM working groups (finished), as well as the work of the High Level Group on DRM (ongoing).
  • Consultation process of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, on the Communication COM(2004)261 by the European Commission on "Management of Copyright and Related Rights" (closed) Samsung G2 protable (500GB/640GB) .
  • The INDICARE project is an ongoing dialogue on consumer acceptability of DRM solutions in Europe. It is an open and neutral platform for exchange of facts and opinions, mainly based on articles by authors from science and practice.
  • The AXMEDIS project is a European Commission Integrated Project of the FP6. The main goal of AXMEDIS is automating the content production, copy protection and distribution, reducing the related costs and supporting DRM at both B2B and B2C areas harmonising them Samsung S2 protable (160GB/250GB) .
  • The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property is the result of a commission by the British Government from Andrew Gowers, undertaken in December 2005 and published in 2006, with recommendations regarding copyright term, exceptions, orphaned works, and copyright enforcement Samsung S2 protable (320GB/500GB) .

Controversy

DRM opposition

Many organizations, prominent individuals, and computer scientists are opposed to DRM. Two notable DRM critics are John Walker, as expressed for instance, in his article The Digital Imprimatur Samsung S1 Mini (120GB/160GB) :

How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle, and Richard Stallman in his article The Right to Readand in other public statements: "DRM is an example of a malicious feature - a feature designed to hurt the user of the software, and therefore, it's something for which there can never be toleration Samsung S1 Mini (250GB/320GB) ".

Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University heads a British organization which opposes DRM and similar efforts in the UK and elsewhere. Cory Doctorow, a prominent writer and technology blogger, spoke on the Microsoft campus criticizing the technology, the morality, and the marketing of DRM Samsung story station (1TB/1.5TB) .

There have been numerous others who see DRM at a more fundamental level. TechMediums.com argues that DRM-free music allows for viral marketing, arguing that independent artists benefit from "free marketing" and can then focus on revenues from higher margin products like merchandise and concert ticket sales Samsung Story station (1.5TB/2TB) .

This is similar to some of the ideas in Michael H. Goldhaber's presentation about "The Attention Economy and the Net" at a 1997 conference on the "Economics of Digital Information." (sample quote from the "Advice for the Transition" section of that presentation: "If you can't figure out how to afford it without charging, you may be doing something wrong Samsung story station Esata(1TB/1.5TB) ."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and similar organizations such as FreeCulture.org also hold positions which are characterized as opposed to DRM.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure has criticized DRM's impact as a trade barrier from a free market perspectiveSamsung G3 station (1TB/1.5TB) .

The final version of the GNU General Public License version 3, as released by the Free Software Foundation, has a provision that 'strips' DRM of its legal value, so people can break the DRM on GPL software without breaking laws like the DMCA. Also, in May 2006, the FSF launched a "Defective by Design" campaign against DRM Maxtor one touch 4 mini (250GB/320GB) .

Creative Commons provides licensing options encouraging the expansion of and building upon creative work without the use of DRM. In addition, the use of a Creative Commons-licensed work on a device which incorporates DRM is a breach of the Baseline Rights asserted by each license Maxtor one touch 4 plus (500GB/750GB) .

Bill Gates spoke about DRM at CES in 2006. According to him, DRM is not where it should be, and causes problems for legitimate consumers while trying to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate users.

According to Steve Jobs, Apple opposes DRM music after a public letter calling its music labels to stop requiring DRM on its iTunes Store Maxtor one touch 4 plus (1TB/1.5TB) .

As of January 6, 2009, the iTunes Store is DRM-free for songs. However, Apple considers DRM on video content as a separate issue and has not removed DRM from all of its video catalog.

Defective by Design member protesting DRM on May 25, 2007 Maxtor black diamond (320GB/500GB) .

As already noted, many DRM opponents consider "digital rights management" to be a misnomer. They argue that DRM manages rights (or access) the same way prison manages freedom and often refer to it as "digital restrictions management". Alternatively, ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests the term "Content Restriction, Annulment and Protection" or "CRAP" for short Maxtor cool black(640GB/1TB) .

The Norwegian Consumer rights organization "Forbrukerrådet" complained to Apple Inc. in 2007 about the company's use of DRM in, and in conjunction with, its iPod and iTunes products. Apple was accused of restricting users' access to their music and videos in an unlawful way, and of using EULAswhich conflict with Norwegian consumer legislation Maxtor Black diamond (320GB/500GB) .

The complaint was supported by consumers' ombudsmen in Sweden and Denmark, and is currently being reviewed in the EU. Similarly, the United States Federal Trade Commission held hearings in March 2009 to review disclosure of DRM limitations to customers' use of media products Hitachi simple touch (250GB/320GB) .

The use of DRM may also be a barrier to future historians, since technologies designed to permit data to be read only on particular machines, or with particular keys, or for certain periods, may well make future data recovery impossible — see Digital Revolution.

DRM opponents argue that the presence of DRM violates existing private property rights and restricts a range of heretofore normal and legal user activities Hitachi simple touch (320GB/500GB) .

A DRM component would control a device a user owns (such as a Digital audio player) by restricting how it may act with regards to certain content, overriding some of the user's wishes (for example, preventing the user from burning a copyrighted song to CD as part of a compilation or a review) Hitachi life studio (250GB/320GB) .

An example of this effect may be seen in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system in which content using a Protected Media Path is disabled or degraded depending on the DRM scheme's evaluation of whether the hardware and its use are 'secure'. All forms of DRM depend on the DRM enabled device (e.g., computer, DVD player, TV) imposing restrictions that (at least by intent) cannot be disabled or modified by the user Hitachi life studio (320GB/500GB) .

Key issues around digital rights management such as the right to make personal copies, provisions for persons to lend copies to friends, provisions for service discontinuance, hardware agnosticism, software and operating system agnosticism, contracts for public libraries, and customers´ protection against one-side amendments of the contract by the publisher have not been fully addressed Hitachi life studio platinum (250GB/320GB) .

(see references 80-89) It has also been pointed out that it is entirely unclear whether owners of content with DRM are legally permitted to pass on their property as inheritance to another person.

Tools like FairUse4WM have been created to strip Windows Media of DRM restrictions Hitachi life studio platinum (320GB/500GB).

Valve Corporation President Gabe Newell also stated "most DRM strategies are just dumb" because they only decrease the value of a game in the consumer's eyes. Newell's suggests combating piracy by " greater value for customers through service value".

"DRM-Free"

Due to the strong opposition that exists to DRM, many companies and artists have begun advertising their products as "DRM-Free" Hitachi life studio desk (500GB/1TB) .

Apple began selling "DRM-Free" music through their iTunes store in April 2007. It was later revealed that the DRM-Free iTunes files were still embedded with each user's account information, a technique called Digital watermarking generally not regarded as DRM. In January 2009, iTunes began marketing all of their songs as "DRM-Free", however iTunes continues to use DRM on movies, TV shows, ringtones, and audiobooks Hitachi life studio plus (320GB/500GB) .

Impossible task

Bruce Schneier has written about the futility of digital copy prevention and says it's an impossible task. He says "What the entertainment industry is trying to do is to use technology to contradict that natural law. They want a practical way to make copying hard enough to save their existing business. But they are doomed to fail Hitachi life studio plus (320GB/500GB) ."

He has also described trying to make digital files uncopyable as being like "trying to make water not wet". The creators of StarForce also take this stance, stating that "The purpose of copy protection is not making the game uncrackable - it is impossible."

Both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have historically opposed DRM, even going so far as to name AACS as a technology "most likely to fail" in an issue of IEEE Spectrum Hitachi X mobile (250GB/320GB) .

Shortcomings

Methods to bypass DRM

There are many methods to bypass DRM control on audio and video content.

One simple method to bypass DRM on audio files is to burn the content to an audio CD and then rip it into DRM-free files Hitachi X mobile(320GB/500GB) .

This is only possible when the software that plays these DRM-restricted audio files allows CD-burning. Some software products simplify and automate this burn-rip process by allowing the user to burn music to a CD-RW disc or to a Virtual CD-R drive, then automatically ripping and encoding the music, and automatically repeating this process until all selected music has been converted, rather than forcing the user to do this one CD (72–80 minutes worth of music) at a time Hitachi External HDD –XL (1TB/2TB) .

Many software programs have been developed that intercept the data stream as it is decrypted out of the DRM-restricted file, and then use this data to construct a DRM-free file. These programs require a decryption key. Programs that do this for DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs include universal decryption keys in the software itself (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) .

Programs that do this for TiVo ToGo recordings, iTunes audio, and PlaysForSure songs, however, rely on the user's own key — that is, they can only process content that the user has legally acquired under his or her own account.

Another method is to use software to record the signals being sent through the audio or video cards, or to plug analog recording devices into the analog outputs of the media player (Toshiba Portege 335CT Battery) .

These techniques utilize the so-called "analog hole" (see below).

Analog hole

All forms of DRM for audio and visual material (excluding interactive materials, e.g. videogames) are subject to the analog hole, namely that in order for a viewer to play the material, the digital signal must be turned into an analog signal containing light and/or sound for the viewer, and so available to be copied as no DRM is capable of controlling content in this form (Dell Vostro A90 Battery) .

In other words, a user could play a purchased audio file while using a separate program to record the sound back into the computer into a DRM-free file format.

All DRM to date can therefore be bypassed by recording this signal and digitally storing and distributing it in a non DRM limited form, by anyone who has the technical means of recording the analog stream (Toshiba Satellite P15 Battery) .

However the conversion from digital to analog and back is likely to force a loss of quality, particularly when using lossy digital formats. HDCP is an attempt to restrict the analog hole, although it is largely ineffective.

Asus released a soundcard which features a function called "Analog Loopback Transformation" to bypass the restrictions of DRM. This feature allows the user to record DRM-restricted audio via the soundcard's built-in analog I/O connection (Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 Battery) .

DRM on general computing platforms

Many of the DRM systems in use are designed to work on general purpose computing hardware, such as desktop PCs apparently because this equipment is felt to be a major contributor to revenue loss from disallowed copying. Large commercial copyright infringers ("pirates") avoid consumer equipment, so losses from such infringers will not be covered by such provisions (Toshiba Portege 3110 Battery) .

Such schemes, especially software based ones, can never be wholly secure since the software must include all the information necessary to decrypt the content, such as the decryption keys. An attacker will be able to extract this information, directly decrypt and copy the content, which bypasses the restrictions imposed by a DRM system (Toshiba Portege R600 Battery) .

DRM on purpose-built hardware

Many DRM schemes use encrypted media which requires purpose-built hardware to hear or see the content. This appears to ensure that only licensed users (those with the hardware) can access the content. It additionally tries to protect a secret decryption key from the users of the system (Toshiba Satellite 1900 Battery) .

While this in principle can work, it is extremely difficult to build the hardware to protect the secret key against a sufficiently determined adversary. Many such systems have failed in the field. Once the secret key is known, building a version of the hardware that performs no checks is often relatively straightforward (Toshiba Portege R200 Battery) .

In addition user verification provisions are frequently subject to attack, pirate decryptionbeing among the most frequented ones.

A common real-world example can be found in commercial direct broadcast satellite television systems such as DirecTV and Malaysia's Astro (SONY VAIO VGN-FZ21m Battery) .

The company uses tamper-resistant smart cards to store decryption keys so that they are hidden from the user and the satellite receiver. However, the system has been compromised in the past, and DirecTV has been forced to roll out periodic updates and replacements for its smart cards (SONY VAIO VGN-FZ18m Battery) .

Watermarks

Watermarks can very typically be removed, although degradation of video or audio can occur.

Mass piracy failure

Mass piracy of hard copies does not necessarily need DRM to be decrypted or removed, as it can be achieved by bit-perfect copying of a legally obtained medium without accessing the decrypted content (Dell Vostro A90 Battery) .

Additionally, still-encrypted disk images can be distributed over the Internet and played on legitimately licensed players.

Obsolescence

When standards and formats change, it may be difficult to transfer DRM-restricted content to new media (Dell Vostro A860 Battery) .

Additionally, any system that requires contact with an authentication server is vulnerable to that server becoming unavailable, as happened in 2007 when videos purchased from Major League Baseball (mlb.com) prior to 2006 became unplayable due to a change to the servers that validate the licences (Dell Vostro 2510 Battery) .

Microsoft Zune - When Microsoft introduced their Zune[84] media player in 2006, it did not support content that uses Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM scheme they had previously been selling. TheEFF calls this "a raw deal".

MSN Music - In April 2008, Microsoft sent an email to former customers of the now-defunct MSN Music store: "As of August 31, 2008 (Dell Vostro 1700 Battery) ,

we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008 (Dell Vostro 1400 Battery) .

If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."

However, to avoid a public relations disaster, Microsoft re-issued MSN Music shutdown statement on June 19th and allowed the users to use their licenses until the end of 2011 (HP Pavilion DV7 Battery)

: "After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers (HP Pavilion DV4 Battery) .

This means you will continue to be able to listen to your purchased music and transfer your music to new PCs and devices beyond the previously announced August 31, 2008 date."