Daniel Ichbiah, a French technology writer and musician, wants to see an end to the kind of software protection that he argues, is becoming a threat to artists and our digital heritage.
When I saw his cri de coeur in the latest issue of SVMMac, I wrote to Daniel to ask him whether I could translate it for English speakers. With his permission and that of the Mac monthly, here it is:
Working on a book a little over a year ago, I interviewed popular singer Charlélie about the way he uses computers to make music. He was upset that he couldn't remix one of his old albums, because the make of tape recorder he had used 15 years earlier no longer existed. I retorted that with digital technology, this would no longer happen. Everything would be stocked on hard disks or CD-ROMs and the data could be recovered at will.
Charlélie was sceptical and it turns out he was right. The software protection systems recently introduced by some developers are starting to threaten any prospect of redoing tomorrow what's been recorded today. This is an extremely serious state of affairs, just as bad in other creative fields.
When it came to remixing the tracks of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine 30 years after the event, it was enough to play them back on the four-track tape recorders of the time, made by Studer.
Now let's imagine that George Martin had just recorded the Beatles with the latest version of Cubase or Logic Audio, software protected by dongles [USB socket keys]. Let's suppose he used virtual instruments from Edirol, where every two months you need to put the original CD-ROM in the player, or from IK Multimedia, which on installation calls for a authorization code to be obtained over the Internet (these developers are cited merely as examples, with no reflection on widely appreciated software).
Come 2033, George Martin wants to make a remix. He's found the files, the digital equivalent of the tapes of yesteryear. He can read the recorded sound, but this is only minimal information. To work on it (mixing, effects, tracking...), he needs the original software. All being well, the Abbey Road studios have been careful and kept a 30-year-old iMac with the right programmes, still in working order. But if they haven't, that's where the trouble starts.
Martin first has to go to an auction site to track down an iMac which can still use Mac OS X and the right version of Cubase — we've already learnt to our cost that not all software is compatible with any build of the operating system. If he can't find these rare objects, what then? Could he use some kind of hotline service for antiquities that haven't been on sale for two generations?
OK, let's be optimistic. Abbey Road did keep the iMac with the software, and by some miracle, the hard disks have survived. So can Martin start work? Not so fast... If he wants to use the production software, now he'll have to dig out the keys Cubase or Logic Audio accepted 30 years earlier! Then he'd have to put Edirol's original CD-ROM in the drive, otherwise the virtual instruments won't work. With IK, it's harder still: Martin is denied the right to install the software, duly paid for in 2003, because he can't find a website which will hand over the serial number!
Article comments
1 - TDavid
This hypothetical situation of course assumes the logic that these original masters weren't burned over to more timely technology. Pehaps this creates an opportunity for a business to archive masters on the newest equipment ever five years or so. Come to think of it, I have some old masters on 4-track that I need to move to digital ... hmm.