feedback to NVidia [was: Nvidia Drivers]

[Greg Trounson]

Frank Tanner III wrote:
> --- Rui Miguel Seabra <rms at 1407.org> wrote:
> 
>>On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 16:37 -0700, Frank Tanner III
>>wrote:
>>
>>>You have your beliefs and I have mine.  And mine
>>
>>is
>>
>>>that people deserve to try to make a living off of
>>>their code, hardware, service they provide.
>>
>>Do not invert roles here, mister.
>>
...
>>>choice.  Me?  I will use their cards, and their
>>>drivers, because I like their products.
>>
>>Do you like MACROVISION? I hope you do, because you
>>get it, wether you
>>like it or not.
>>
>>Rui
>>
> 
> 
> I guess that's the difference between you and I.  I
> don't attempt to pirate video using my NVidia card, so
> Macrovision protection doesn't matter to me.
> 

What about legitimate uses such as backing up videos (DVD or VCD) that 
you bought?  No piracy involved there.

I think that Rui's point about Macrovision leads to another one: 
Macrovision is only one small step.  Hardware vendors are under 
increasing pressure by studios to impose Digital Rights Management upon 
consumers, and with closed-source drivers there is no stopping them. 
Consider a video driver that only allows a DVD to play 10 times before 
it's "life" expires.  Or only allowing videos that are digitally signed 
to play.  How do you edit your home movies then?  Want to play your 
favourite game on your big wall projector?  No such luck, you're only 
licenced to play this game on a DRM-enabled 17" CRT.  Of course that's 
just the tip of the iceberg.

This stuff is scary, and it's starting to happen now.  Stupid 
legislation such as the DMCA and software patents must be abolished or 
this madness will just get worse.

Having said that, I still use the proprietary driver, because Celestia 
and my games do not work with the opensource 'nv' driver, nor does my 
second monitor.  'nv' just isn't an option for anything other than the 
most basic applications.

Greg

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------
  Greg Trounson                          Programmer / Analyst
  Dept. of Maths and Stats,              University  of Otago
  PO. Box 56, Dunedin                    tel:    64-3-4797739
  New Zealand
----------------=[ gregt at maths.otago.ac.nz ]=----------------