Microsoft Patents In-Home Consumer Monitoring System

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KoudelkaMorgan

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Jul 31, 2009
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Honestly in 7 years I assume that in order to log on to the internet at all you will be required to a transvaginal ultrasound to ensure that their are no fetuses present that might be sponging off of your licensing agreements.
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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RedEyesBlackGamer said:
And people could pirate the media and never have to put up with any of that. See the problem?
Only problem I see is that a few morons would actually buy the media instead of pirating it and give these douchebags the idea that this type of development is acceptable. xD
 

GTwander

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Mar 26, 2008
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So, technically I could have a movie or tv show made inaccessible because one-too-many people walked into my living room?
"Pay me more, bitches!"?

Worst invention EVER!
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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I truly hope MS is aware that this is illegal everywhere but France? Right?
 

Vigormortis

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And with that bit of news, that other patent Microsoft has for their "holodeck" technology seems suddenly far more sinister.
 

BeerTent

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May 8, 2011
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So... Under this system, you buy a movie that has a license for a "maximum of three users to watch." And there's a system in place to make sure there's no more than three users watching.

Yyeeaaahhh... No.
 

gardian06

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tsaweeos said:
snip.............
/rant
broken tag for the love of God broken tag.
GTwander said:
So, technically I could have a movie or tv show made inaccessible because one-too-many people walked into my living room?
"Pay me more, bitches!"?

Worst invention EVER!
actually it's more like.
"Honey why is this bill from Microsoft $50 I thought those movies were only $2 each"
"It was only $2 for 1-3 people, but it was like $10 for 7-10"
"So when _____ Soccer team came through the living room"
"Ohhhhh" (throws Kinnect out window)
 

RhombusHatesYou

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BeerTent said:
So... Under this system, you buy a movie that has a license for a "maximum of three users to watch." And there's a system in place to make sure there's no more than three users watching.
It doesn't count how many restreaming boxes you've got connected that can stream to other devices out of camera range.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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doggie015 said:
RicoADF said:
meh, if they ever impliment it I'd just sit back with popcorn and watch them be smashed by the law. Heck in Australia they'd be charged with filming minors without permission, numerous privacy laws etc etc, it'd never be allowed.
Yeah... unless the put provisions in the EULA which invalidates these laws for the purposes of "Copyright enforcement"
No contract, and EULAs are in very questionable status in Australia, can override State or Federal law in Australia.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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doggie015 said:
RicoADF said:
meh, if they ever impliment it I'd just sit back with popcorn and watch them be smashed by the law. Heck in Australia they'd be charged with filming minors without permission, numerous privacy laws etc etc, it'd never be allowed.
Yeah... unless the put provisions in the EULA which invalidates these laws for the purposes of "Copyright enforcement"
Actually I've already looked into it, EULAs must abide by our laws, not the other way around. When I got bf3 it had a sticker with the federal emblem and a msg saying that our local consumer etc laws override the EULA.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Evil Smurf said:
simple, Just don't buy that product Microsoft are making.

Actually the point of them patenting this is so that if they develop the technology they can then liscence it to other companies. Microsoft would make the money off of something like this by selling it to movie companies, digital rental services, and similar things.

It pretty much goes down to the old arguement that if you buy a book, you don't actually own the book or the story, but simply have bought permission to personally view/read/consume it. Technically if you lend someone else your book to read, or make copies of it, your comitting a crime since everyone else consuming it should have paid the creator. Harlan Ellison (the science fiction writer) was fond of championing such arguements, and there have been cases against schools and such for photocopying sections of books for students, rather than forcing every student in a class to buy a copy of the book themselves. This being especially true in colleges where they are private businesses, and there is some motivation by teachers to try and cut costs due to the cost of books already being insane.

In the scope of a digital product like a movie, the point would be that a rental of a movie is for one person, if more than one person wants to watch the movie, they should all have to pay "admission". Something you don't currently see because there is no way to track it. If there was a way to track it, it would be embraced however, especially if all the services offering rentals collaberated to ensure there were no alternatives. Microsoft selling the tech to everyone, making a bundle, while the companies themselves make more money through rentals.

On the subject of books, they are rapidly getting to the point where they will probably be digital only. With the right tech, your reading devices could monitor how many individual users have tried to access to content. Devices are already becoming hybrids with cameras and such, and pretty much anything they put a camera on (or could put one on) could be used to monitor and control content consumption, especially as recognition software becomes more effective.

To argue that this is wrong and people would never stand for it, is more or less irrelevent. As things stand now, if big business decides to push for something en-masse there is little stopping them. people choosing to go entirely without media is probably not going to happen. As time goes on and people grow up not knowing it any other way, the complaints will vanish. We already see it now with gouging over things like video games, people complain about the abuses inherant in DLC, microtransactions, and similar things, but as every year goes by you see more people growing up (each generation outnumbering the last) who have never known it any other way. For someone who is in their late 20s, 30s, or 40 to talk about how things were or should be is kind of meaningless, as some teenager or early 20-something who has never known things to be any other way it doesn't matter since they really can't quite visualize it. This is also why there is never any kind of uprising, there are new, sheepish consumers coming into any kind of scam, in greater numbers than the ones who know better at any given point. Today's sheep will be the same way, complaining about the new flock, as they themselves are overrun when business gets even greedier.

I don't like the idea, I think it should be stopped, but honestly I just don't think people have it in them to put their foot down. This won't be here tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it, or something like it, will be coming.

To be honest, having read a lot of speculative science fiction I always felt we'd see a retina scanning system doing the same basic thing, rather than the kinect-like camera system being talked about here. I figured the start would be when they decided to put retina-locks onto things like iPhones and iPads as a new "security system" to cut down on theft and hacking and such, once in place for those reasons it would be used for content control, and then it would gradually expand into household electronics and such, to the point where eventually you'd need a retinal scan for just about everything, with this lock "protecting your property" actually becoming one that "ensures only a paying customer" can use it. Going so far as to not only limit media, but to make it so that you'd have to pay for everyone in your family to have their retinal scans enabled to turn on the microwave, work the coffee machine, or open the fridge. I guess it's like Jules Verne and books like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, the basic idea is shockingly accurate to what we'd actually see, but the implenetation and specifics are far differant.
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
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Could get awkward when porn gets involved somehow XD

Well, it's a service I won't be part of, I'm going to go back to the less insane part of the net now.
 

vasiD

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Oct 28, 2012
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Whelp, the next windows can officially suck my dick as I'm sure it will have this shit imbedded in it.

I really do hope Microsoft keeps this absurd shit up for two reasons:

1) I want them to fail. Hard. And HOPEFULLY their fans will eventually wake up to how thoroughly disgusting their business practices are. Then I can watch them burn. ^_^

2) I want to see how long the fans will take it. I just keep seeing them do more and more evil shit, but their fans still love them.. and I'm like "O_O.... Really? You like that?"... It's entertaining, at least so long as I'm not on the receiving end.
 

madster11

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Aug 17, 2010
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Hold on, companies want me to STOP pirating and yet they talk about shit like this?
Excellent idea. I'm sure that now i'll totally stop downloading those massively convenient 700mb, full 720p movies with no DRM for free.

I'm going to buy myself a fucking VPN service.

Hopefully MS start quickly patenting a bunch of other stupid invasive shit and put out a statement where any other company can use their technology - for $100bil/yr.
That's the only way MS doing this can make sense, otherwise the word will get out and Ubuntu will be like 'sup?' to everyone.
 

Arakasi

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Jun 14, 2011
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Because this won't drive piracy to an all-time-high if implemented.
Smart move there.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Five hours after this announcement, the codes were already cracked. Betcha'.