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Fully loaded A rundown of emergent media piracy technologies by MICHAEL CITROME Back in the day, when kids were trading warez on dialup bulletin board systems, the only barrier to complete global warez-d00d domination was bandwidth. Ah yes, even if you had mad warez connections and you were validated on all the best boards, you were still limited by your modem speed. With a 14.4k, that's one megabyte every 10 minutes, homeboy, and that's if you're lucky. As technology progressed and pipes got bigger, your wait time began to decrease. Today, everyone with a computer is able to redistribute media, an ability once reserved for the mighty titans of the mainstream. The technologies that make this possible are changing the role and nature of media for net.citizens in the know. People are now hijacking data at never before seen rates. As a result, big media is running scared, and these technologies are the reason why. MP3 This is the best-known media piracy technology. MP3, short for MPEG-1 Layer 3, is a format that compresses CD audio into small, easily downloadable chunks, without losing the sound quality of the original. Much has been said and written about MP3 in the past two years, and it's been credited as one of the killer apps that makes the net great. Originally, MP3s were only playable on computers, but in the past year several companies, including Sanyo and Diamond Multimedia, have released portable MP3 players that hold more than an hour of CD quality audio, at a size smaller than an audiotape. They dock with your PC or Mac to download the latest sounds. The Definitive MP3 resource: http://www. mp3.com/ The Diamond Rio Portable MP3 Player: http://www.diamondmm.com/rio/ MP4 and AAC AAC is the would-be successor to MP3, based on MPEG-2 technology, the same system inside DVD and DSS mini satellite dishes. This would be all good, if AAC weren't the brainchild of the same big media corporations that are so very frightened of MP3. Built into AAC is a tagging mechanism that only allows the file to be played back on the computer that originally downloaded it. This makes redistribution pretty much impossible. Also, there are competing AAC formats in use, including a2b from AT&T and MP4, from Australian company Global Music, which actually embeds the song in a program and only runs on Windows 95. Best avoided. Home of AT&T's AAC format: http://www. a2bmusic.com/ The other AAC format and Public Enemy associates: http://www.globalmusic.com/mp4/ The only non-commercial player that supports AAC: http://www.aegis-corp.org/skjofol.html CD When the first CD recorders appeared, they were slow and prohibitively expensive. Now they're almost a standard accessory. CD-Rs, also called writers or burners, come in two flavours: write-once and rewriteable (CD-RW). Many drives support both functions. Drives also range in speed from 2x to 6x. These numbers refer to the speed at which the drive writes the disc. A 2x drive will write a 60-minute CD in 30 minutes. CD-Rs can also copy CD-ROM discs and Sony Playstation games. CD writers are available at any computer store, and blank discs, called CD-R media, sell for between $25 each. You'll find the best disc prices at places like Ly Electronique on Ste-Catherine, and the various Micro-Bytes locations. Good CD-R prices for all your piracy needs: http://www.microbytes.com The finest in CD writing software. Copies the uncopiable: http://www.ahead.de DVD The latest consumer electronics success story, Digital Versatile Disc, has been a challenge for would-be pirates because of a lack of availability of recording hardware. Basically, copying DVD is divided into two phases: encoding and writing. If you wanted to take your home videos and put them on DVD, you'd need an MPEG-2 encoder, which takes video and compresses it into the format DVD players play. It used to be that this piece of hardware would go for about $3,000, but recently STB Systems announced the DesktopVCR, an MPEG-2 compression board due out this spring for $300. The DesktopVCR even has a built in TV tuner to let you record your favourite shows to DVD. Right now, there are two mutually incompatible ways to write DVDs at home. The first is a format called DVD-RAM, which uses a rewriteable double-sided 5.2 gb cartridge. Although DVD-RAM is a real DVD format, its discs are not playable in standalone players, but if you only play DVDs on your computer, this may be your solution. Creative Labs sells their DVD-RAM recorder for about $700, and rewriteable blank cartridges are $225 for a pack of 5. The competing format, DVD-R, is write-once, and far more expensive, but can be played in any DVD machine. Pioneer has a new DVD-R deck called the DVR-S201 coming out in the spring at $6000, with media at $50 a pop. Keep your eye on this. MPEG-2 encoding on your desktop: http:// www.stb.com DVD-RAM recording: http://www.soundblaster.com/mmuk/dvdram/ Order the Pioneer DVR-S201 and DVD media online: http://www.proh.com/ |