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Star Wars Prequels DRM Sci-Fi

'The Rise of Skywalker' Is a Preview of Our DRM-Fueled Dystopian Future (vice.com) 78

This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Jason Koebler, writing for Motherboard: Emperor Palpatine is back with a fleet of planet-killing Star Destroyers, the masses are scared to fight the Final Order, and the last glimmer of hope for the rebellion is nearly stamped out by ... overbearing DRM? The Rise of Skywalker is an allegory for the dystopian nightmare we are quickly hurtling toward, one in which we don't own our droids (or any of our other stuff), their utility hampered by arbitrary decisions and software locks by monopolistic corporations who don't want us to repair our things. In Skywalker, C3PO, master of human-cyborg relations, speaks six million languages including Sith (spoken by the Dark Side), but a hard-coded software lock (called Digital Rights Management here on Earth) in his circuitry prevents him from translating Sith aloud to his human users. Presumably, this is to prevent the droid from being used by the Sith, but makes very little sense in the context of a galactic war that has relied so heavily on double agents, spies, and leaked plans and documents. The only explanation that makes any sense is a greedy 3PO manufacturer that sells the Sith language pack as a microtransaction and a galactic Congress that hasn't passed strong right to repair laws for the junk traders, droid mechanics, and droid users of the galaxy. C3PO's software lock is a major plot point in Skywalker as he's unable to translate a Sith passage that could lead our heroes to the Sith planet that the aforementioned Palpatine is hanging out on.
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'The Rise of Skywalker' Is a Preview of Our DRM-Fueled Dystopian Future

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  • Spoilers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fabiomb ( 5315421 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @04:39PM (#59556530)
    So do you really need to post an article full of clickbait spoilers for the sake of sell it to more readers?
    • Situational irony (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @05:05PM (#59556568) Homepage Journal

      I don't see how identifying the situational irony of "DRM proponent movie studio includes DRM as a plot point in a tentpole movie" is clickbait. How would you have described this irony without spoilers?

      • How would you have described this irony without spoilers?

        Since it is a stupid point, the best solution would be to refrain from describing it and find something more sensible to write about.

        There is no vast conspiracy to spread DRM across the galaxy. Most music is distributed in non-DRM formats. Most movies are streamed. DRM is becoming less and less of an issue.

        • by tepples ( 727027 )

          Most movies are streamed.

          Did this become the case despite or because of DRM?

          DRM is becoming less and less of an issue.

          Let me know when ebooks and new release video games are DRM-free. Ebooks aren't streamed quite as often because of demand to view them offline, and video games aren't streamed quite as often because of lag and caps.

          • That comment makes no sense. For the vast majority of people, *movie* DRM isn't even a thing they notice. You get a DVD, shove it in a player, it just plays.

            Movies went to streaming because for most people they want to watch any specific movie exactly one time. And people are more environmentally conscious now. So they're less likely to get a throwaway bit of plastic and more likely to stream content.

        • Most movies are streamed.

          With the stream and its playback packed full of layer and layer of DRM that's highly restrictive and limits playback to certain devices, especially for full quality, and intentionally makes it exceedingly difficult to get the decrypted contents of. The fuck are you smoking talking about streaming right before claiming DRM is becoming less and less of an issue? DRM for video is still becoming worse and worse, not better.

          • This would matter if I was BUYING a movie, and wanted to watch it in the future at any time and on any device. Then I would need to worry about formats and revocation of my rights.

            But I NEVER do that. I rent movies for one-time viewing, at a very low price, and often effectively free if it is included in Prime. Since I am never going to watch it again, and I am not going to save it, why should I care what format it is in?

            More and more people are doing the same. For many people, DRM doesn't matter anymor

            • Wouldn't 'DRM is right and good because I support the particular restrictions they're enforcing at the present moment' be a different argument? And it's NOT a reasonable restriction that I can't stream certain content to certain devices.
            • Until they have to replace an otherwise perfectly functional player because its software doesn't support the latest DRM. https://gizmodo.com/heres-why-... [gizmodo.com]
          • I hate DRM as much as the next person, but if you were streaming... why do you care to get the decrypted contents of the stream?

            Trust me, I want a better experience for consumers since I am one. But we aren't going to get any support if our reasoning for changing DRM is so that you can get something you didn't pay for. You paid for a streaming service, and they delivered a stream. Why do you want the unencrypted contents? If you want more freedoms, buy the content outright. If they screw you then, you hav
            • by tepples ( 727027 )

              If you want more freedoms, buy the content outright. If they screw you then, you have my full support.

              So-called "purchases" of movies on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, and the like don't come with the freedoms (that is, unregulated uses) traditionally associated with ownership of a copy of a work.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Interesting that Disney would use this plot point though. Their own streaming service had a similar issue, not working on some devices because of an arbitrary lock.

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          This is before a flood of AI driven content. So think not so far in the future. You engineer your story, it's structure, the plot points, content elements, desired speech and motion, the nature of scenery, its story content and then the AI converts that story content into animation using virtual robotics to do the animation. Virtual robots are far easier to program than real world robots, because you can define the inputs the robot does not have to recognise and react.

          This allows a whole lot of imaginative

        • Tell that to the farmers who can't repair their tractors because of DRM. https://www.vice.com/en_us/art... [vice.com]

          Or tell it to the people who can't repair their Mac computers. https://www.pcmag.com/news/364... [pcmag.com] You may argue that they can take their computers to the Apple Store to be repaired... except that they get a quote for thousands of dollars to fix a computer that could be repaired by far less by somebody else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          It's not just about entertainment any more. And if we don't do

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • How would you have described this irony without spoilers?

        You can't, so you wait two weeks to publish it retard.

        • wait two weeks

          Who decided, and on what grounds, that two weeks after first publication or first public exhibition was the appropriate embargo period?

          retard

          Please don't use such slurs.

    • Re:Spoilers (Score:4, Funny)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @07:21PM (#59556852)

      Lol type “rey” into google and it spoils the movie.

    • so who cares? it's a plot point that DOES NOT MATTER in the movie.

      it doesn't matter. it's just something jj came up with to make c3po have a "moment".

      anyways, it's supposedly because just hearing the sith talk will make you corrupt. maybe the sith speak in spoilers or something.

      and yes, yes they do need to do that. also they think a sw fan wouldn't know what drm is. but it's quite clear even from the spoilers of the movie that the sith lock is there to protect people as you shouldn't go out just reading sit

      • ...anyways, it's supposedly because just hearing the sith talk will make you corrupt. maybe the sith speak in spoilers or something, and yes, yes they do need to do that. also they think a sw fan wouldn't know what drm is. but it's quite clear even from the spoilers of the movie that the sith lock is there to protect people as you shouldn't go out just reading sith stuff as it's soooo eeeeviiiiiiiilll. they have to wipe his memory too about it since it's soooo eeeviiiiiiiiilll. so the droid will have some issues itself with reading it.

        Ah, linguistic determinism, AKA the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, also featured in the central plot role of the movie, "Arrival." Nope. Can't corrupt people with a language. Language doesn't work that way. But it's a space opera fantasy movie so they can make whatever shit up they want as they go along. Without credible constraints on plot devices & script-writing, you end up with fantastical plot lines & scripts that don't seem credible & lose their dramatic impact, & empty, vacuous, disappointin

      • it's supposedly because just hearing the sith talk will make you corrupt

        He says it was passed by the senate so obviously Palpatine pushed for this rule so that others could not easily learn what he had learned from any found Sith artifacts or texts.

        It's not just there for a moment, it's a pretty interesting plot device. Interesting enough it warranted a whole single article about it here...

    • And wow did it fall flat..

  • by fph il quozientatore ( 971015 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @04:42PM (#59556540)
    I'm sure that it is a line of thought that the folks over at Disney have explored carefully.
  • ...programming DRM into his own droid way back in Episode 1. ed
  • by timholman ( 71886 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @04:51PM (#59556556)

    I think it's a mistake to conflate one of J.J. Abrams' seat-of-the-pants plot devices with some sort of philosophical statement about the evil of DRM. Abrams wasn't thinking of DRM. He just needed an excuse to send the protagonists on a chase for another MacGuffin.

    If he hadn't thought of making C-3PO being unable to translate the Sith inscriptions, then Abrams would have caused the dagger to strike them all magically blind through the Force, or he would have made them chase another dagger with the key to the inscriptions, or some other head-scratching revelation that came from out of nowhere.

    Abrams just makes up things as he goes along, as the plot of TRoS makes abundantly clear. One could just as easily argue that the entire Star Wars saga is a warning about the evil of cloning, which would make just about as much sense as this Motherboard article.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      It may be an accidental commentary, but the commentary remains.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by BKX ( 5066 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @08:26PM (#59556942) Journal

          That whole "shit used to last longer" argument is tired and needs finally die. Shit used to last less time. It's just that the few devices that were really good are still around. All the junky stuff from back in the day died a long time ago and lies under 100ft of rubble. Since that stuff is long gone all the old stuff that's left is really good. It's an illusion that you think that everything from back in the day lasted as long as the old stuff that made it until now.

          Case in point: my family owns restaurants. We end up replacing microwaves about once a year each. We've been doing this consistently since the eighties. Except that every once in a while a microwave will last longer than normal, and a few die in a couple of months. It's been like this since the eighties. We happen to have a few microwaves in service that are really old and still work fine. One was made in 1991. Were early nineties nukes better than today's? Hell no. They only lasted a year except for the one that lasted ten and the one that still works. All the rest are long gone. If you looked at the ages of our current microwaves, you'd see that several are really old, so the old last longer, right, but, no, that's an illusion. They all last around a year, just like they always have. The few really old ones are just the ones on the right of the bell curve. Some of the ones we buy today will last thirty years as well, but no one knows which ones until it happens. In fact, in the case of microwaves, they've been lasting more like two years for the last decade or so, so if anything it's better now. Same with cars, computers, phones, everything.

          • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @09:05PM (#59556986) Homepage Journal

            Some stuff legit used to last longer, because they made it heavier in one or more senses. Some things used to be more repairable for the same reason.

            Examples? The best example is toasters. They used to last much longer because every part of them was thicker. The case, the element wire, the electromagnet wire, the handle, the arm the handle was on, even the feet. Another great example is auto body/frame. Not only were full frame vehicles more repairable, but the body sheet metal used to be thicker mild steel, and even early unibody vehicles had more repairable "frames" because of the metallurgy. For that matter, full frame vehicles like pickup trucks have had heat treated frames since the nineties, so you're not supposed to weld frames any more.

            So yeah, a lot of it is just survivor bias, but not all of it. Cost cutting really has made some things more failure prone, and/or harder to repair. There are often good reasons for the changes, but that doesn't mean there haven't been deleterious effects.

            • With respect to cars, at least, you are just wrong.
              Detroit invented planned obsolescence [wikipedia.org]. It wasn't until foreign competition began crushing the domestic industry in the 1970s and 1980s that American auto manufacturers started making their cars to last.
              In 1980, the average lifespan of an American car was 6 years.
              In 2010, the average lifespan of an American car was 12 years - and still rising.

              • With all due respect, nothing you just said conflicts with what I said in the least. I was talking about repairability, you are talking about reliability.

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I'm the case of cars though the fact that the body does crumple more easily will reduce the damage done to you in an accident.

              Is that better or worse?

              • by sjames ( 1099 )

                Crumple zones are a thing. OTOH, I've seen an SUV back into a pole in a parking lot at a blazing 5MPH and do thousands of dollars of damage to itself. That's taking crumple zones WAYYYY too far!

                • Crumple zones are a good thing, but there's no reason for today's cars to be so exceptionally fragile. In a high speed accident, I expect the car to be demolished. But a minor parking lot accident shouldn't be cracking an expensive bumper cover, smashing pricey light fixture, and stuff like that. The battering ram bumpers of the mid 70's and early 80's may have been ugly, but there is something to be said for requiring cars to be able to withstand a 5 MPH collision without damaging anything important. S

              • Me: "There are often good reasons for the changes, but that doesn't mean there haven't been deleterious effects."

                You: " the fact that the body does crumple more easily will reduce the damage done to you in an accident."

                Me: RTFC.

          • by Wargames ( 91725 )

            Alas, I in fact, have an HP-12C calculator that is over 30 years old and it still works with the original battery in it.

          • Sometimes old tech is better. Sometimes new tech gets tried out, then goes away because it isn't reliable.

            1. Refrigerator tech for cooling.
            Had a mini fridge in the early 1990s. It still works.

            Bought a mini fridge around 7 years ago using new technology a few years ago... it broke in a year. Bought another new fridge using old tech... it's been working for 6 years. I can't even find the name of the tech... maybe it has died out because it's so bad.

            2. Refrigerator tech for doing nothing more than cool.
            Before

    • I did wonder why C3P0 couldn't simply write down the translation (he said, iirc, only that he couldn't SPEAK it) until I remembered that a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, they lost the ability to write, and/or to make pencils and paper. Or styluses and writing tablets, etc.

      But ... C3P0 also couldn't export a translation to another droid who didn't have this lock, either, apparently, as there were any number of droids around (D-O for example, I think was befriended by then?) who could speak Common/G

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Koebler should have waited a few days before posting this so we could have "Worst Analogy" and "Most Tortured Bullshit" awards for 2020 all sewn up right at the start of the year.
  • Isn't news and doesn't matter, maybe you misread your slogan as "stuff for nerds." Bah humbug.
  • So let's put the spoiler on the very front page.

    • I'm pretty sure the spoiling happened when they signed Abrams on as director.

      • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        I'm pretty sure the spoiling happened when they signed Abrams on as director.

        Another spoiler. First Abrams culturally reset Star Trek and has come for Star Wars. Now Lucas's failure is complete, if he won't turn to the dark side then perhaps she will.

    • Did you ever hear the tragedy of The Lone Gunmen [slashdot.org]?

      I thought not. It's not a story the Slashdotter would tell you. It's a Slashdot legend.

      • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        Did you ever hear the tragedy of The Lone Gunmen [slashdot.org]?

        I thought not. It's not a story the Slashdotter would tell you. It's a Slashdot legend.

        You mean they have the power to erase memories so I don't figure out plot lines?

        • by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

          You mean they have the power to erase memories so I don't figure out plot lines?

          Man, they need someone with a brain to fix their plots and make the sci-fi into sci-fi instead of outright BS in places. Like the projection across the universe bit, that kills him? Powers because they wrote themselves into a corner.

          Everyone do yourself a favour, don't see it.

  • I and only I speak Biglese, you low-ratings losers!

  • There are better ways to tell the public about the evils of DRM. Using a throwaway bit from a critically-panned Star Wars film with poor audiences scores is a really bad idea. It's already a stretch to say that C3PO is infected with DRM . . . but the movie is otherwise viewed in a negative light. Do you want your cause to be viewed in a similarly-negative light?

    Only a few diehards will actually remember that bit about C3PO well enough to make the connection between his linguistic limitations and real-wor

    • But it's a critically panned film with poor audience scores that has already done over $250 million at the box office in the US and over $500 million worldwide. Like it or not, a lot of people have seen it and will continue to see it. And that plot point will plant a seed about right to repair in at least a few of the viewers.
  • by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Wednesday December 25, 2019 @05:56PM (#59556646)

    I guess that evil corporation my ass.

    It was his toy, and, Anakin being a sith lord, he (re)programmed it as 100% fit for purpose.

    • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      It was his toy, and, Anakin being a sith lord, he (re)programmed it as 100% fit for purpose.

      Ah, so the real story is that the New Republic isn't happy that Anikan could "go dark[side]" by storing his sith language pack on an encrypted partition that couldn't be accessed during a criminal investigation.

      Obviously the solution is to mandate that all droids carry a government decryption key that can be used with a warrant, because "think of the light side."

    • by leonbev ( 111395 )

      I'd imagine that C3PO protocol droid probably came in a kit, and came pre-installed with whatever DRM infested firmware the Empire deemed appropriate at the time. Come to think of it, I don't remember him ever singing any copyrighted songs, either.

      Or, perhaps this added this "functionality" in a firmware update. It certainly wouldn't be the first time where software developers were forced to remove functionality under political and legal pressure.

      • The Empire didn't exist when Anakin built C-3PO. C-3PO was cobbled together from parts of Cybot Galactica's 3PO protocol droid line. Any "DRM" infesting C3PO likely came from that company.

      • by Holi ( 250190 )
        Sure, I am sure some unpaid child slave could afford to buy a droid kit.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Presumably 3PO was a kit or made up from salvaged parts. There are other droids like him so he isn't a one off custom build. Also his brain must have come from somewhere, no way that was built from scratch.

      I like that they developed his character a little bit more in this movie.

  • Where do I flush this post?

  • A Lucas Arts holdover underhandedly taking a jab at the evil business practices of Disney, his new imperial dictator ... would deserve it's own new subreddit category. Reminds me of the "Bless your heart" tactics of southern belles, but I don't have a term for it.
  • Chances are that prohibition on 3PO is a standard Republic thing because it prevents the spread of Sith knowledge which corrupts people to the Dark Side. The author just seized upon something he barely knows to make a really stupid point. Ranks up there with the moron who claimed Prometheus was misogynistic because the medical pod on the shop would not perform an abortion on Noomi Rapace (because it was foreshadowing that Weyland was on board)

  • Critical Drinker [youtube.com] said it better than I ever could [youtube.com] have.
  • That it's not even a micron high.

    Seriously, DRM in Star wars?

    Look it's dead. I'm never going to see another one again. I forbade my children from anything star wars, and all they said was "what is that again? We don't care". My daughter is 10000% vested in super man. My son is all about transformers. Neither care about star wars.

    This is the state of the world. And this native ad is just sad.

    • Now, how about bringing Firefly back?

      There's a show that left off with plenty of room to drain the green blood out of viewers.

  • The analogy is weak and just feels like an expedient to plug into the star wars social media fad. This will of course help Disney, the champions of imaginary property and of DRM, the very thing that the article's author would like to criticize.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • C3PO was "manufactured" by a young Anakin Skywalker not some greedy monopolistic corporation.
  • That franchise is played out

  • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @11:43AM (#59558816)
    The negative of DRM is that what content someone has cannot be accessed by that person because the copyright holder has locked it away and refused to give a key to unlock for continues monetization. In the case of C3PO, it is not clear who put restrictions on his programming whether it was done by Anakin (his owner) or his model (protocol droids). If I were to guess, it may have been Anakin to prevent anyone from learning any Sith secrets from C3PO. Either way the problem was not Sith held some unlocking method that they kept from everyone unless you paid them more credits.
  • Reversed deus ex machina. Because it's more dramatic to put up obstacles that the heroes must overcome, even if only arbitrary delusions of hack writers.

  • In a time of LOL, this is a great fucking write up. LOVE IT! "The only explanation that makes any sense is a greedy 3PO manufacturer that sells the Sith language pack as a microtransaction" is so good. :)

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