Is the Digital Living Network Alliance selling us out?
145 different computer and electronics companies have agreed to work together to find ways to sell out consumers and cave in to the entertainment industry. The members of the Digital Living Network Alliance (which includes Sony and Microsoft but not Apple and RealNetworks) are supposedly working together to create a standard for interoperability that'll make it easier to network together stuff like PCs, stereos, TVs, digital video recorders, and digital media adapters (it used to be called "convergence"). The thing is, you don't need a standard if you're working with unrestricted file formats like MP3 and DivX, and what they're really trying to hash out is a digital rights management scheme that'll prevent piracy while at the same time make it a little easier for people to move DRM'd media around their home network.
