MediaSentry Hired By People's Republic of China 267
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "MediaSentry, now called 'SafeNet,' the RIAA's illegal, unlicensed investigator of choice, has been hired by the People's Republic of China to provide DRM for the Olympics coverage. The PRC says it 'owns exclusive rights to the broadcast of all audio and video content via online and mobile distribution channels across Mainland China' and wants to protect it from 'piracy.' I wonder if the Chinese government is aware of MediaSentry's track record — i.e. all the good things it has accomplished so far for the Big 4 record companies."
BWAHAHAHA (Score:5, Interesting)
This is such a crock.
China doesn't own the broadcast rights to the Olympics. The Olympic Committee does.
I wonder what other compromises the Olympic Committee made in Red China?
Besides, Media Sentry is a joke. They will soon be hacked out of existance.
pot, kettle. (Score:1, Interesting)
Can I point out that the Chinese government make the RIAA types look fluffy by comparison?
Why, incidentally, would anyone want to pirate olympic coverage? The only thing to see in sports coverage is who won. You need only see it once for that. Piracy is for getting a persistent copy that can be viewed over-and-over. Unless the PRC are actively trying to prevent their people from watching the olympics, in which can one would assume that men with guns are the order of the day, not dishonest nerds.
Re:a match made in heaven . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
This surprises you? (Score:1, Interesting)
Someone who has reasonable claim to being "the industry leader" based on quantity (certainly not quality) of related work was awarded a government contract. Stop the presses!
Seriously, this is the same reason Diebold (or whatever they're called now) sells so many voting machines in this country, or Windows 95 was chosen in the UK for "Windows for Warships".
Quality is a surprisingly low concern for MANY government contracts. If anything, it impresses me that our countries are so similar.
China's Cultural and Political Issues (Score:1, Interesting)
Several friends have visited China over the years and all of them have said the same thing: Things just don't fit right. I mean, it all looks modern, spit and polish, but it just not fit in or fit right with what China is. They promote what they call a "progressively minded society" but restrict their citizens on so many levels it does not make sense in any way, shape or form. Their political infrastructure hearkens back to the bad old days after the Second World War, and is so insular in their thinking they do not understand why we wish their people to have more freedom. They think of themselves as the "Middle Kingdom" and believe that they are so above everyone else that their rules do not matter, only theirs. I think it might take a revolution just to kick loose a few basic rights for their people to enjoy. They may have had their Cultural Revolution that happened back in the 60's and 70's, but they still do not grasp the base logic of having a strong nation; it starts with giving the people their basic freedoms to criticize without being prosecuted, to have peaceful assemblies to protest certain issues, to have multiple religions of light, peace and tranquility, and to vote in people to steer the country towards whatever future they may have in mind.
Re:Who'd want to pirate the Olympics? (Score:4, Interesting)
If I want to watch people running, I can go to my local park and do so for free.
Out of curiosity, does this kind of fallacy have a name yet?
Try this: Why would anyone pay for WoW? If I want to play a game, I can fire up GnuChess [gnu.org] for free.
Although, it would still be more interesting to watch what the athletes do [scotsman.com] in their time off...
sprit of freedom and openness my arse (Score:4, Interesting)
"Aren't they supposed to be held in the spirit of freedom and openness?
Not in China."
yeah, blame china... The IOC doesn't have a track record for sending takedown notices / sueing to people displaying anything remotely Olympic branded:
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/ioc_sues_website_using_olympics_logos_552593 [sbs.com.au]
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7217512_ITM [accessmylibrary.com]
the IOC are just as bad as the MAFIIA, but they've got a perfect scapegoat to trial DRM this time around because the West aren't big fans of china as it is, so the IOC spin doctors say "we didn't want drm" publicly, while privately supporting the concept.
Re:Tell me again (Score:3, Interesting)
I hadn't thought of it before but realised when I saw the starting time for the Opening Ceremony.
08:08pm 08/08/2008.
8 is a very lucky number in chinese culture. So I imagine they had a very big incentive to "win" the 2008 Olympics. Add this to Chinas amazingly strong economy, and the IOCs......questionable ...ethics in regards to bribes/payoffs then I think you can get the picture of how this one played out.
A merger in the future I think (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:a match made in heaven . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
Why would anyone want to Pirate the Olympic broadcasts?
I'll name one. Compare TV coverage in the United States versus a truly free country like Japan. Exclusive broadcast rights truly sucks, big time.
Are you allowed to change channels if you do not like the particular Olympic event being shown?
Re:a match made in heaven . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny that you should bring up Adolph Hitler. This is a replay of the 1936 Olympics and I was in Beijing the week before the Olympic commmittee traveled there to choose it - there was an army of people out picking up garbage and what not. I guess they did not have vacuum cleaners large enough to clear out all the dirty[1], polluted air though.
Indeed, Media Sentry + PRC is a match made in ... well somewhere I'd rather not go.
[1] On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the least polluted air and 10 is max polluted, Los Angeles CA USA, where I lived for almost 2 decades ranked about a 5 when I moved away. Tokyo Japan ranked about a 7 when I lived there 2000-2003, and Beijing in 2001 ranked 10. I hope someone does not die in the marathon, but I won't be watching to find out.
The geek is invincibly parochial (Score:3, Interesting)
.
Rarely, if ever, do any of these participants return for another try at Olympic glory after they have achieved -or failed to achieve- the brief stardom of the podium
Athletes do return to the games.
That is an extraordinary achievement in itself. It means, among other things, that there is training and financial support for the older athlete who wants to remain competitve in world competition.
Look at the ages of some of these men and women:
John Dale III. USA. 58, Sailing.
The oldest athlete on the American team. His first Olympics.
Libby Callahan. USA 56. Shooting.
The oldest US female Olympian ever.
Dara Torres. USA. 42. Swimming
Her fifth Olympics. U.S. record time in the Olympic. trials. Oldest swimmer ever to qualify for the games.
Hiroshi Hoketsu. 68. Japan. Equestrian.
Retired Johnson & Johnson executive. Returning to the Olympics for the first time since Tokyo, 1964.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:a match made in heaven . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
What pisses me off is the over-patriotic broadcasting of whichever country you're in. If you're in Sweden- they mostly show heats that have Swedish athletes involved - all the other heats are judged uninteresting - and so they prefer to spend their time building up in the studio to the next time when a Swede appears in a heat. As I recall coverage in the UK was similarly biased to UK athletes - perhaps things have changed more recently. If you want to follow the progress of another country other than the one you reside in - you need to pay for Eurosport or something similar. Why cant they just stream the whole thing free on the web so we can choose what we want to watch and when?
Re:Victims don't have a choice. (Score:4, Interesting)
These thugs punish innocent people.
How do Chinese censorship laws differ from American drug laws? If the Chinese "thugs" punish innocent people, the American secret police (AKA "undercover agents" and "plainclothes police") and the masked thugs from the DEA also punish innocent people. I was one of their victimes last year; searched without warrant, made to stand in the July Illinois heat for an hour, and let go because there were in fact no drugs.
Glass houses, folks. If you're American, rather than working to free the Chinese, how about working to free us Americans?