Dawn of a New Age

Hello there. I am another one of the (hopefully) interesting bloggers whose work you are going to be reading here. My interests revolve more around the wonders of the digital revolution and the technology that drives it, but I'll also tap into other subjects. Really, over the course of my 'career' here at Chrome Wire I will likely touch upon a little of everything, as everything on this Big Blue Marble is connected in one way or another. So let's get this ride started, shall we?

We are at the dawn of a new age. At least, that's what a few would like for us to believe. This age is a first in the history of humanity, which is usually cyclic and full of repetition. This is an age of instant gratification, all dependent on the speeds you're able to access the Information Superhighway. Welcome, friends, the world of digital distribution.

Everything is going in that direction, and I've heard various ideas of how fast we're going to get there. Some think we will say goodbye to physical media entirely by 2020, while more conservative optimists believe it will take at least another decade or two for that to become a reality. Time is relative, and by that I mean it's entirely dependent on how soon you want to dive into such a future, as it's already here. Between Amazon's Kindle, services like iTunes and the Netflix's download service for the Xbox (which will ultimately expand to other devices – eventually creating a replacement device for the DVD and Blu-Ray player, I'm sure), and Sony's recently released PSP Go, every form of diversion we have will soon be bought, sold, traded, and shared completely as a series of 1's and 0's. Except maybe board games: really, physically taking out an enemy's queen in chess is just too satisfying.

You may find it strange, though, that someone like me isn't looking forward to such a future. Why wouldn't I? I've heard all the promises, from “You'll be able to have access to all your stuff forever!” to “No more having to organize all those DVD and game cases! Imagine all the extra room you'll have!”

Right. Aside from the fact that I love holding the case of a brand new movie or game (really, it helps me accept that what I now have was worth parting with certain green pieces of paper), the above isn't quite accurate. How isn't it? Read on.

Questions of Ownership:
Over the last few years, many people have become aware of the questionable nature of their ownership regarding what they have legally downloaded. Reading the EULA of several services (such as iTunes or the Kindle Store) suggests that you are not buying that song or book, but a 'license of use' for that particular device, with DRM triumphantly making sure you don't illegally play that song on another man's iPod, which is one of the seven deadly sins of the digital world.

Thanks to this lovely fact that you don't actually own what you download, it stands to reason that the party you've bought the license to use from could take it back under any circumstances. Can you imagine a company deleting something you've payed for?

Well, it's already happened. Earlier this year (in July, if I remember correctly), there was something of an occurence. It seems that there was a question regarding the legalities of a few copies of 1984 by George Orwell that had been digitally transmitted to various Kindles around the US. It seems the supplier, MobileReference, didn't have rights to distribute the text here in the States. So Amazon, being the responsible company that it is, promptly reached into people's Kindles and deleted thousands of copies of 1984. The money was refunded, of course, but there was no warning. No notification beforehand. It was like someone from Barnes & Noble breaking into your house and taking back a book you had bought recently. Only it wasn't, because Amazon had the legal rights to do so, thanks to the EULA. You agreed to this when you downloaded it. Welcome to the future!

A similar thing is also applicable to the iPhone App store, though in this case it's there for our protection. Steve Jobs says so, which means we can all rest easy. That man would never lie to us.

Forever?:
With this issue also comes the fact that, in the case of specialized hardware, your items are tied to the device. Using video games as an example here, any SNES on the entire planet can play the SNES games I own. If my SNES dies, I can try my luck at getting it repaired or getting a replacement, and all my SNES games would still work for me. It's like magic. As long as those cartridges work, I'm good to go.

If that classic console only played downloadable games (like the PSP Go), my system breaking would also likely mean I had just lost my entire library. Sure, you can jump through hoops for the company to get your digital rights transferred to your shiny new SNES (or PSP Go), but that SNES can't be a used SNES, because that would be a sin. While DRM security on standard PCs is much easier to get around (allowing your to backup your precious licensed data), doing so makes you a criminal. You're not a criminal, are you?

...what was my second complaint, again? Oh yeah, clutter...

The Magic of Digital Clutter:
Ok, so this isn't really a false promise, as digital clutter is much easier to handle than physical disks piling up to crush your soul with the drudgery of organization. Just create a folder, right click and choose any number of organization methods. Alphabetically? No problem. Try doing that with the hundreds of DVDs you've got lying around.

Even if you're someone who refuses to organize (like me), there's also the search function. Find all your songs, put 'em in a playlist, and save that playlist on your desktop. You will never have to hunt for your music again. Unless, of course, you lose the right to play your DRM'd music for whatever reason. Then you're screwed.

In Conclusion:
The wild world of digital distribution is an enevitable future for humanity. These issues will definitely have to be resolved for it to really succeed in overtaking the entrenched physical world that's been around for thousands of years (in the case of books anyway). Whether it is done by these companies giving us more rights to our downloaded goods or the next generation just accepting that they won't own squat, the solution - and the future - is inevitable. Assuming we're not wiped out by an asteroid soon.

While I didn't cover streaming services much, one thing I'd like to point out that's relatively new is the "cloud computing" model of gaming that's on the horizion. Services like OnLive and Gaikai (I'll write about them another time) are upfront about your lack of ownership, because the entire idea is for you to subscribe to their servers so you can access these games. Nothing is permanently downloaded - the video of the game is streamed to either you computer or a little box, with your response using a controller or keyboard streamed back to the remote server for processing. It's really cool - and defnitely the future, but this kind of service has several issues, most of which go way beyond just ownership and potential loss of access to your games. Perhaps I'll cover this another time.