Comments on: “A digital thing lasts forever”

By: AJ

AJ — Sun, 07 May 2006 13:58:31 +0000

AACS players are hitting the market…

how long before….??

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 04:37:16 +0000

Reminds me of a story I heard (I can’t find it, but the source was fairly reliable) about a group that had found a piece of bark with some ancient writing on it in a cave. It was at least 1000 years old. They had written a grant requesting funds to make a “permanent digital copy” (or something like that).

The point was made that if they wanted it to last another 1000 years they should copy it onto another piece of bark and leave it in a cave.

Digital is forever…bah

By: Mothra

Mothra — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:19:39 +0000

The fact that my copy of “Full On Mask Hysteria” by Altern 8 had started to rot (and woudn’t play on my CD PLayer) is what got me into music backups in the first place. I downloaded Exact Audio Copy for that purpose and proceeded to rip all of my CDs as a contingency.

What the morons at the MPAA don’t realise is that all materials degrade over time, expecially the micro thin layer of aluminium that coats the top of a CD (where all the data is stored).

I loved the “back in the days of magnetic media” quote too. That guy’s going to be in for a rude shock the day he’s infomed that the reason his hard disk has failed is because the actuator arms have scratched the magneticc coating off the platters.

By: Håkon & Idun

Håkon & Idun — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 21:17:28 +0000

Hei. Vi skriver på norsk, håper du fortsatt forstår ditt morsmål. Vi lurer på om du oppholdt deg i Moelv natt til lørdag 1. april 2006, nærmere bestemt Café 108 bord nummer tre til høgre utgangen til røykealtanen. Hvis du ikke gjorde det, har du en dobbeltgjenger i Moelvområdet. Måtte dere bli venner, og kunne lure hele verden. Da kan dere for eksempel si til verden at du har klonet deg. Ha en fortsatt strålende dag! Vennlig hilsen Håkon & Idun.

By: V

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:33:56 +0000

I have a friend who bought DRM’d WMA music from an online store 3 years ago. Last month, he tried to play it again, and it didn’t work because the store went out of business.

Digital does last forever. The device its stored on doesn’t, but that’s okay as long as you can move it into different storage.

DRM, especially server-reliant DRM, gives digital content a finite lifespan which is directly related to the limitations on it.

By: Lomi

Lomi — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 12:59:04 +0000

Nothing last for ever. Thought history already taught us that.

By: Brian in San Diego

Brian in San Diego — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:11:17 +0000

Digital things do endure, but as time goes on they are obsoleted by the next standard. When Blueray or some other higher density media becomes accepted, all those old dvd’s with their washed out gradients and compressed images will be like the VHS tapes of the 80′s. The MPAA has nothing to fear because people will buy the same movies all over again in a newer, better format until all movies are stored at max resolution and lossless compression.

LP Records -> Cassette Tape -> Compact Disc. I grew up in the 80′s and I’ve purchased at least 3 versions of the same recording for several releases. I’d agree with the RIAA and MPAA sentiments on copyrights and copy prevention if they allowed you to upgrade your recording for the cost of the media. But it’s a one way street with them.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 12:48:03 +0000

I’ve had a couple of DVDs rot on me. I called the company that produced it and they sent me another one free.

By: TommyOnTrip

TommyOnTrip — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:54:11 +0000

Formats change, it’s irritating and also costs money to constantly having to move your data onto new media. You just have to constantly keep it alive. And if you skip one upgrade you’ve lost. My old Amiga HD-floppies are all gathering dust in the attic, too bad coz I would love to see some of that early DPaint artwork again. Also makes me wonder just how much data that has been lost over the centuries, only stuff set in stone is still around.

By: Block Sheep

Block Sheep — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 04:54:26 +0000

entropy is a fact of life, whether digital or physical