Rapid Prototype Blog

Archive for July, 2011

In recent years, steady and rapid economic development, stimulating rapid growth in fixed assets investment, China Mould market demand. As the industry improve its competitiveness and national policy support, domestic rapid prototype Shenzhen mold industry output value and sales revenue for many years to maintain the growth rate of 20%. Die Network CEO, Shenzhen Institute of Deputy Secretary-General Luo Baihui mold technology recently introduced to the Dongguan Daily News the latest developments in the mold industry.

1, mold development prospects of the industry

1, mold market prospects in China

Mold applications continues to expand, the field has been applied to the mold that the larger and higher demand of industrial development to mold faster than the speed of development of other manufacturing industries has become a universal law, mold the world market demand, in recent years, the market total has been between 600 ~ 65 billion U.S. dollars, while China’s export was not mold to 8%, “during” can expand this share, and with the development trend of economic globalization has become more evident, mold manufacturing industry gradually China and the multinational corporations to transfer mold our country has become more evident towards the procurement of foreign and private capital to continue to favor China’s mold industry, China’s mold industry more opportunities than challenges, the future market prospects of international mold, China mold is still large room for development.

2, mold product market and increase their competitiveness

At present, China is facing the technological advantages of the developed countries and developing countries, the dual pressures of price advantage. Industrial countries die with its technological and business strengths, in the high-end molds a competitive advantage, as they are gradually entering the country, the mold industry in China becomes a tremendous challenge; India, Thailand and Eastern European countries in recent years, industrial mold developed very rapidly and the price of its mold also has a strong competitive advantage, China’s mold industry, the cost and price advantage will gradually weaken and eventually disappear. Luobai Hui said that China must die enterprises technology, management and personnel training efforts, and actively introducing foreign advanced mold manufacturing technology to enhance the ability of high-end product development die, adjusting product structure mold, mold products, continuously improve our international competitiveness.

3, mold growth rate of industry

China’s national economy in the “Eleventh Five-Year” period will continue to maintain relatively fast growth rate, to the mold industry, the development of a reliable macro support. Automotive, IT, electronic information, household appliances, OA office equipment, machinery and building materials industry, aerospace, mold needs are large power tools, home appliances and electronic information industries only example of a refrigerator Xu Yong mold about 150 parts , requiring a total of about 350 sets of molds; a need for automatic washing machine more than 150 sets of molds; one air conditioner, only to be 20 sets of plastic mold; die each model takes more than 30 sets of computers, along with its matching printer need to die more than 20 single deputy; also notebook computer, the network will have tens of millions of units set-top box market. As much as the current models developed abroad, mold import more, as China developed its own capabilities in this regard will be greatly increased demand for mold. China’s mold industry can be expected in a good macro environment of rapid development.

4, mold industry opportunities and challenges

On the one hand for the mold industry, domestic and international situation provides an unprecedented development in the development of space, while the other mold will also face more intense competitive challenges, in addition to international competition, at home, Xiaoshan, Shanghai and Shenzhen, will develop mold industries, such as Xiaoshan You into the mold company’s annual sales revenue reached 2 billion, as Friends of the Japanese professional mold factory mechanic’s wholly-owned enterprises, mainly engaged in automotive and appliance dies production, is currently being planned for the support of Xiaoshan City Hong Kong GEM; Huangyan mold industry in management, equipment, technology has also been taking the forefront in the province; mold more than 30 million annual production value of Wenzhou City, is preparing the further development of the mold industry, the five leading enterprise jointly set up mold Constant Field mold company 200 million yuan investment mold built based technology centers were the focus of government support; once the dominant player in the country mold industry in Shanghai, want to revive the former glory of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission, the main control center is in full swing mold to build an area of 1,500 acres, modern industrial park will soon die show in front of people; Suzhou New District proposed building a high level with international standards of modern industrial base mold the idea of an area of 2,000 acres ; South China University and the Guangdong Fonda Group signed an agreement, prepared to die city of Changan Town, Dongguan City, played an important cause of mold in southern China R & D base; Shenzhen City in the industrial structure adjustment, the clear will die as the head of the advanced manufacturing industry, investment about 6 billion yuan industrial park building mold; invest 5 billion yuan in Chongqing to build China’s largest, highest standard of automobile, motorcycle mold industrial park, planned in 2035, the annual output value of 3.0 billion; Shantou Plastic Machinery Mould total annual output value of over 10 billion yuan, currently about plastics, machinery and related tooling enterprises with 3,000, most of the companies complete the introduction of Germany, France, Italy and Taiwan, the region’s new CNC mold processing equipment, greatly improved product performance and quality grade . There are a number of other provinces and cities in China (Nanchang, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Xi’an, Dalian, Yantai, Shandong, Hebei Botou) have to seize our country is becoming a “world factory” great opportunity to create molds Park, brewing industry further escalation of the mold.

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Second, analysis of industry trends mold

1, mold market globalization, the mold further reduce the production cycle

Mold the globalization of markets is the most important features of today’s mold industry is one of the mold buyers and manufacturers all over the world, the globalization of the development of tooling industry to the production process is simple, low precision mold processing enterprises to the technology is relatively backward in productivity than Countries with low migration, mold manufacturing enterprises in developed countries are located in the production of high levels of mold, mold manufacturing enterprises have to face global competition, manufacturers have to die while doing everything possible to speed up the production progress, efforts to simplify and abolishes necessary to the production process, the mold production cycle will be further reduced.

2, Die CAD / CAM to the integration, intelligence, and network development

More complete software modules, while the function module using the same data model and implement integrated management and sharing of information, support mold design, manufacturing, assembly, inspection, testing and production management of the entire process. Some series software includes a surface / solid geometric modeling, engineering drawing complex geometry, advanced rendering industrial design, mold design expert system, complex physical CAM, artistic design and sculpture automatic programming system, reverse engineering system and the complex physical-line measurement system ; mold design, analysis, manufacturing three-dimensional technology, paperless new generation of software to three-dimensional mold, intuitive sense to design the mold, using three-dimensional digital model can be easily used in the product structure of the CAE analysis, mold can produce evaluation and CNC machining, forming process simulation and information management and sharing; the same time as competition, cooperation, production and management of globalization and internationalization, and rapid development of computer hardware and software technology, network Shide Zai die industry virtual design, agile manufacturing technology both necessary and possible.

3, mold technology to high speed machining, hard milling and compound machining direction

With the precision mold to develop in the direction of and large, ultra-precision finishing technology over 1μm and collector, chemical, ultrasonic, laser processing technology integrated with the composite mold in the future will have broad prospects. High-speed machining to the workpiece surface was smooth, save processing time, typically only a step away from 0.0254mm, and sharp point only 0.001mm high, after the majority of high-speed machining of the workpiece surface is very smooth, no fitter further processing. Currently, machine tool manufacturers are keen on the production process and the specially designed high-speed machining center, high-speed processing technology in the United States to reduce or eliminate fitter process is a considerable efficiency measures, this technology in Europe and Japan popular. In addition, hardening of the material processing with a full mold cavity mold processing industry is another important trend. High spindle speed and a small tool radius cutting carried out by the formation of mildly enough torque, can be used to process up to 64HRC hardness of metal materials, because no need for heat treatment, conventional heat treatment and tempering after the offset caused by the heat treatment carried out by the geometric deformation of grinding also do not need, and the technology in Japan, the acclaimed, now in the United States has also been a lot of attention and positive spread in Europe.

With the rapid development of new technologies, foreign countries have emerged mold automatic processing system that the rational combination of multiple machines, with accompanying positioning fixture or positioning disk, a complete equipment, tools and CNC numerical control database synchronization system of flexible with real-time quality monitoring and control system.

4, mold will be large, precision, standardization direction

On the one hand increasingly large part of molding and to improve production efficiency development of “a multi-cavity mold,” led to mold growing large, the other electronic information industry, medicine, rapid development has brought parts of miniaturization and precision, some tolerance precision mold requires less in the 1μm. Another multi-functional composite mold will develop further, in addition to the new multi-functional composite mold Stamping parts, also responsible for layers, tapping, riveting and assembly tasks such as locking, to further improve production efficiency.

Mold standard parts used in developed countries generally cover about 80%, as China’s mold industry, mold will enhance standardization, standardization will be further enhanced mold, mold standard parts of the application and production in the “Eleventh Five-Year” will be greater during the development.

5, the hot runner mold species, mold and adapt to the high-pressure gas-assisted injection molding direction

Mold with hot runner technology can improve productivity and quality of workpiece, and can produce significant savings of raw materials, many foreign plastic mold factory produced more than 50% of plastic molds using hot runner technology, and some have more than 80% The effect is obvious; Gas-assisted injection molding with injection pressure is low, Warpage small, good surface quality and easy-to-wall forming larger products, such as differences in advantages in the premise of ensuring product quality and substantially reduce costs; high-pressure injection molding of resin shrinkage can be forced to increase the dimensional stability of plastic parts; another injection compression molding technology, enables forming a small piece of local internal strain can be less thick Molding shrinkage, while the narrow components for plastic parts can also be injected resin, and used a small injection of power to get good products, these technologies are gradually promoting the use of.

6, very broad prospects for rapid economic mold

Many varieties of small batch production era, people asked mold production cycle as short as possible, so rapid economic development of mold will have broad prospects. Expected in the 21st century, with various superplastic materials to produce molds with epoxy, polyester, or in which the filler metal and glass reinforcement and making simple molds and other production means the ratio of total industrial production will reach 75%. Rapid economic mold include rapid prototyping, surface forming tooling, casting forming tooling, extrusion mold technology and ultra-molded shape, multi-point forming technology, KEVRON steel blanking blanking tooling , mold blank rapid manufacturing technology.

7, high-quality mold materials and advanced surface treatment technology attention

Due to improper selection and use of materials, causing premature die failure, which accounts for more than 45% failure die, so choose the appropriate application of high-quality steel and surface treatment technologies to improve the life of the mold is very important to improve the purity of steel, isotropic , the density and uniformity, and development of more high-performance or performance of a special mold steel, mold steel specifications development, expansion of other high-quality mold materials such as carbide, ceramic materials, composite materials, the application of such a major research focus; use aluminum alloy for mold materials to shorten the molding cycle, reducing die costs, will be faster in the rapid economic development of mold.

Mold surface is the main trends: the infiltration of a single element to the multi-element penetration, complex permeability development, from the general diffusion to CVD, PVD, PCVD, ion penetration, the direction of ion implantation, etc., can be used in the coating are: TiC, TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, CrN, Cr7C3, W2C, etc., while heat means heat from the atmosphere to the development of vacuum heat treatment. Currently laser strengthening, glow plasma nitriding and electroplating (plating) enhanced anti-corrosion technologies are also more and more attention.

8, auto, IT development impact the electronics industry market sentiment dies

China imported the first negative mold growth, mold industry by the “one large and one small” pull, the development of really good the last two years. “A major” refers to the automotive industry, automobile industry refers to not only vehicle, as well as automotive components, such as the United States at present in China for the first time the second largest auto parts exporter, which means that China’s auto mold market has played an irreplaceable role. Its rapid development of mold plays an important role in driving, “a small” refers to the IT electronics industry. Die in 2006 for the 2.047 billion U.S. dollars of total imports, 2.068 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 reduced the 21 million U.S. dollars, for the first time negative growth, stopped the momentum of the expansion of imports increased every year; exports totaled 1.041 billion U.S. dollars, more than an increase of 41.06 percent in 2005, for the first time over 10 billion dollars and imports to reduce the deficit down, is very gratifying.

9, the mold need to further adjust the industrial structure

Although the mold industry and previous years has made significant progress, but there are still many problems. For example, the phenomenon of irrational industrial structure still exist. Structure, including product mix, technological structure, import and export structures, there are different degrees of problems. For example, in the import and export structure, due to the mold design and manufacturing standards and capabilities can not meet the market demand, therefore, die every year a large number of imports, especially high-end products. In 2006 the import and export stamping die, if by weight, priced at 14,913 U.S. dollars / t, and 5,869 U.S. dollars / t, much higher than the import export; while for plastic rubber mold, in 2006 imports and exports were 413,715 units and 1,217,772 units, exports is far greater than imports, while the unit is very different from the poor: the import price of 2532 U.S. dollars / set, the export price 602 U.S. dollars / set, a difference of four times, although the export volume was nearly 3 times the amount of imports, but still below the total amount of imports . That we are still importing large quantities of high quality molds, exports are dominated by middle and low. Therefore, in the long run, the rationalization of import and export trends should be expanded exports and reduce imports, making exports more than imports. Obviously, this also needs to want to be a period of time.

10 management companies restrict the development of mold

Unlike mold manufacturing process management product management, it is the face of unit production of the mold industry, and how digital information management, is very learned. If the mold is not a scientific management, dynamic management approach, we can not guarantee orderly mold manufacturing, rapid prototype Shenzhen mold supplier in time. Meanwhile, each company’s mold products are different, so they need individual management. Those who do well die business, they have a set of unique, for their own management, but that too few companies. Luobai Hui pointed out that the mold business if we do not focus on management development will not continue, and this has seriously constrained the mold enterprise development bottlenecks.

Dealing with a household awash with Nintendo hardware lumber species new clamshell gaming product significant and exciting in my position. But being stung e3 card reader includes a string of attractive yet largely unimproved updates within the DS lineup (DSlite and DSXL both adding little in to the existing functions), I?’m a lot more cautious.

The DSi eventually delivered across I first expected ‘C you could of my favorite games about the system now being DSi-ware (Starship Defense and Pulse Pinball). But e3 card reader also took away the GBA slot, R4i Gold 3DS for nintendo ds I?’ve still not likely got over.

The 3DS console is happily not just an iterative change though. In e3 card reader perhaps have originally been called the DS3 (after the original DS and DSi took the earliest two spots in the series), there are an authentic next generation in Nintendo handheld gaming.

Games

It’s unusual for Nintendo to the shin bone operate in to find 3rd party support with regard to products ?a even years after release, let alone at launch. But perhaps they are simply turning spanning a new leaf when the 3DS comes with a impressive catalogue of your off: besides first party titles like Mariokart, Animal Crossing and Pilot Island, but also impressive alternative party support including Resident Evil, Super Street Fighter IV and Metal Gear.

I was also heartened to determine r4itt 3ds you may transfer DSi-ware purchases through the DSi in the 3DS. If Nintendo are quitting to be able to make us buy our favorite games again, this requires been really high on the list. Our purposes has heavily invested here, and without feature we’d have obtained to ponder on trading in our DSi.

Virtual Console

Gameboy Top Ranking Tennis

Extending the games library further, the 3DS is designed with a portable version within the Wii’s Virtual Console. R4 Cards for Nintendo DS a great number of reporters assumed this would can help you download GBA games on the 3DS is evidence of how much the missing slot still burns. USB Break we have to select from at launch is the ability to download full perfect versions of original Gameboy and Gameboy Color games. This of course doesn?’t rule out incorporating other systems at a later time the Wii’s Virtual Console added support for several new machines after p3yes absolutely was released.

It’s only those individuals e3 card reader grew up with the initial Gameboy that is aware the correct way rich a back catalogue is recommended there. For ps3 break v1.2 matter, usb break sounds a lttle bit worthy I understand, but CycloDS iEvolution of the best (many played) tennis game is Top Ranking Tennis around the Gameboy. And I still turn back and play it now.

But as with all new system, it’s the potential for this hardware, and not the launch titles p3hub may define r4 cards for nintendo ds. It’s good r4itt 3ds even without having to be wowed by your 3D may possibly plenty else to take into consideration.

3D HD Movie Screen

The highest screen is right now wider and offers an equivalent HD resolution (as for the size) of 800?’240. R4 Cards for Nintendo DS looks a little lopsided than the balanced DSi, and introduces an issue for games to transition both screens smoothly. But this wide screen format offers greater support of HD movie and TV watching without the need to letterbox or crop. The candidate of 3D HD movies to the 3DS causes it to be worth the compromise E3 card reader is my opinion.

Most will already know of the glasses-free 3D feature already. While not mitts the system r4itt 3ds happens to be challenging to really take in the way in p3hub effective this is exactly. The interest here though, is how well they can integrate it into other 3DS features and controls ‘C for instance camera and motions sensors.

Controls

Alongside this, the 3DS offers the same sort of inputs for the reason ps3 games original DS ?a microphone, touchscreen display and buttons. Nevertheless doesn?’t end here; website of new ways of interact with games at the 3DS p3hub build on Nintendo?’s exposure to the Wii.

The system has built-in accelerometers much like the original Wii-mote in order r4 cards for nintendo ds usb break knows how soon r4itt 3ds?’s moving in a selected direction. This combines using a gyroscope, as in the MotionPlus controls, to ascertain the orientation in the device.

Games like WarioWare Twisted p3hub for their expensive proprietary motion sensors never quite made ps3 games to england, will now be easy and cheaper to produce.

Following on the prosperity of games like Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver and the step tracking, the 3DS incorporates a pedometer function r4 cards for nintendo ds not only records your steps but gives you graphs and stats about your day?’s activities.

3D Camera

You’ll notice three cameras around the system. This can seem overkill at the beginning but this but not just means r4itt 3ds you can take and view 3D pictures, but will also turns the unit as a portable sensor bar. Drop a reference card up for grabs, ps3 games will work with this to make a game in r4 cards for nintendo ds you move the 3DS around to shoot at things ps3 games mimic they exist in real world ?a augmenting reality with gaming.

This permits the nuvi 780 to orient itself with other objects within the room. This gives the 780 a sense of depth, just like PS3?’s Move, to let players focus on your particular position for an in-game reason.

Social

Nintendo offer an unusual technique to multiplayer games and the social aspects that associate with this. They focus heavily on methods of play together locally, often into the detriment of the online experience. Again we view their device focus on local interactions in lieu of global matchmaking.

The 3DS extends their Mii offering. We?’ve seen r4 cards for nintendo ds games like Walk By himself edge towards doing Miis relating to the DS. The new portable not only uses Miis due to its social interactions but can makes use of the 3D camera to automatically create a Mii in your case in seconds.

The Mii?’s are then employed to identify most people during the 3DS tag mode. Here the console can stay activated regardless of whether switched off. P3YES then detects other 3DS systems nearby and wirelessly swaps prizes and compares data.

An easy glows the top right of this shell to inform players they have already new gifts to consider. Opening the 3DS, they are greeted by the gaggle of Mii?’s r4itt 3ds represent multiple people they are hold of. Each gives the different gifts having to do with the games they’ve been playing.

Your camera can also be used in order to in Miis from other people?’s DS, by way of a barcode usb break have been printed on the internet. USB Break appears to be a small amount of convoluted, and I?’m hoping also you can just pop the Miis upon an SD Card to find them on another 3DS also know as the Wii. But this being Nintendo we is most likely stuck printing bar-codes.

The 3DS will also be allowed to get connected to cyberspace via WiFi when it’s in sleep mode. They will allow users to automatically download free software, games ranking data, plus much more.

Conclusion

I really wanted to stand off this iteration of handheld gaming ?a usb break?’s only now that I?’m really seeing real value within the DSi. I?’m often blamed within my family for rushing us onto the next new thing before you’ll find really enjoyed cures curently have.

Required . 3DS is clever. By supporting the DS games, and offering a whole new window back on Gameboy and Gameboy color games p3hub feels like may well next step. And one usb break needs to bring for usb break the classic old games I need introducing the youngsters to.

The 3DS launches in Japan in February 2011 and in the States in March 2011.

Artist Sarah Graham utilises art supplies to fool people into thinking that her paintings are three dimensional.

The artist said on her official website that she has developed her own photorealist style that aims to create an image which is as life-like as possible and makes the viewer think that the painting is real.

Sarah Graham said: “I have been developing a method of painting specific to creating the illusion of three-dimensionality. I am so practised now in this particular method of painting it has become the most natural way for me to approach creating an image.”

Ms Graham regularly creates paintings with art supplies that depict children’s sweets like lollipops, pick ‘n’ mix confectionary, toys and popular vehicles such as Minis and VW camper vans.

Art website The Fine Art Blog has praised Sarah Graham’s work for being so realistic that it became actually tempting.

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The Blog said: “The end product of her work is very bright and colourful, and usually looks good enough to eat!!!”

Sarah Graham’s career painting confectionary has its roots in her earlier job as an assistant on Woolworth’s pick ‘n’ mix counter which she did before graduating from De Montfort University in Leicester with a BA in Fine Art in 2000.

Following graduation Sarah Graham became more established as an artist with exhibitions in New York, Melbourne and Sydney and she was eventually signed by fine art publisher Washington Green.

Samantha Jackson, marketing director at the firm, told the Metro: “We expect Sarah’s work to connect with a whole new generation of people looking for a highly original style of art to decorate their walls.”

The Hitchin-born artist began to paint detailed portraits of university class mates from photographs after being inspired by German visual artist Gerhard Richter.

She said: “My hero and inspiration is the German painter Gerhard Richter, and he’s still prolific at 76, it’s hard to even comprehend managing that, but I intend to give it a try.”

Sarah Graham picked Richter as one of her five favourite artists in an edition of Fine Art Collector alongside American printmaker Andy Warhol, friend Charlotte Hardy, Yorkshire painter David Hockney, and contemporary artist Mitch Griffiths.

The artist is an inspiration for anyone looking to develop a creative career after buying art materials and art supplies.

Designer Helen Rochfort has previously teamed up with Sarah Graham to create a limited edition of handbags feature kitsch pictures.

Introduction

DRM technologies attempt to control use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion to other formats by end users. Long before the arrival of digital or even electronic media, copyright holders, content producers, or other financially or artistically interested parties had business and legal objections to copying technologies. Examples include: player piano rolls early in the 20th century, audio tape recording, and video tape recording (e.g. the “Betamax case” in the U.S.). Copying technology thus exemplifies a disruptive technology.

The advent of digital media and analog/digital conversion technologies, especially those that are usable on mass-market general-purpose personal computers, has vastly increased the concerns of copyright-dependent individuals and organizations, especially within the music and movie industries, because these individuals and organizations are partly or wholly dependent on the revenue generated from such works. While analog media inevitably loses quality with each copy generation, and in some cases even during normal use, digital media files may be duplicated an unlimited number of times with no degradation in the quality of subsequent copies. The advent of personal computers as household appliances has made it convenient for consumers to convert media (which may or may not be copyrighted) originally in a physical/analog form or a broadcast form into a universal, digital form (this process is called ripping) for location- or timeshifting. This, combined with the Internet and popular file sharing tools, has made unauthorized distribution of copies of copyrighted digital media (so-called digital piracy) much easier.

Although technical controls on the reproduction and use of software have been intermittently used since the 1970s, the term ‘DRM’ has come to primarily mean the use of these measures to control artistic or literary content.[citation needed] DRM technologies have enabled publishers to enforce access policies that not only disallow copyright infringements, but also prevent lawful fair use of copyrighted works, or even implement use constraints on non-copyrighted works that they distribute; examples include the placement of DRM on certain public-domain or open-licensed e-books, or DRM included in consumer electronic devices that time-shift (and apply DRM to) both copyrighted and non-copyrighted works.

DRM is most commonly used by the entertainment industry (e.g. film and recording). Many online music stores, such as Apple’s iTunes Store, as well as many e-book publishers, have imposed DRM on their customers. In recent years, a number of television producers have imposed DRM mandates on consumer electronic devices, to control access to the freely-broadcast content of their shows, in connection with the popularity of time-shifting digital video recorder systems such as TiVo.

Technologies

DRM and film

An early example of a DRM system was the Content Scrambling System (CSS) employed by the DVD Forum on film DVDs since ca. 1996. CSS used a simple encryption algorithm, and required device manufacturers to sign license agreements that restricted the inclusion of features, such as digital outputs that could be used to extract high-quality digital copies of the film, in their players. Thus, the only consumer hardware capable of decoding DVD films was controlled, albeit indirectly, by the DVD Forum, restricting the use of DVD media on other systems until the release of DeCSS by Jon Lech Johansen in 1999, which allowed a CSS-encrypted DVD to play properly on a computer using Linux, for which the Alliance had not arranged a licensed version of the CSS playing software.

Microsoft’s Windows Vista contains a DRM system called the Protected Media Path, which contains the Protected Video Path (PVP). PVP tries to stop DRM-restricted content from playing while unsigned software is running in order to prevent the unsigned software from accessing the content. Additionally, PVP can encrypt information during transmission to the monitor or the graphics card, which makes it more difficult to make unauthorized recordings.

Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is a DRM system for HD DVD and Blu-Ray Discs developed by the AACS Licensing Administrator, LLC (AACS LA), a consortium that includes Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita (Panasonic), Warner Brothers, IBM, Toshiba and Sony. In December 2006 a process key was published on the internet by hackers, enabling unrestricted access to AACS-restricted HD DVD content. After the cracked keys were revoked, further cracked keys were released.

DRM and television

The CableCard standard is used by cable television providers in the United States to restrict content to services to which the customer has subscribed.

The broadcast flag concept was developed by Fox Broadcasting in 2001 and was supported by the MPAA and the FCC. A ruling in May 2005 by a US Court of Appeals held that the FCC lacked authority to impose it on the TV industry in the US. It required that all HDTVs obey a stream specification determining whether or not a stream can be recorded. This could block instances of fair use, such as time-shifting. It achieved more success elsewhere when it was adopted by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a consortium of about 250 broadcasters, manufactures, network operators, software developers, and regulatory bodies from about 35 countries involved in attempting to develop new digital TV standards.

An updated variant of the broadcast flag has been developed in the Content Protection and Copy Management (DVB-CPCM). It was developed in private, and the technical specification was submitted to European governments in March 2007. As with much DRM, the CPCM system is intended to control use of copyrighted material by the end-user, at the direction of the copyright holder. According to Ren Bucholz of the EFF, which paid to be a member of the consortium, “You won’t even know ahead of time whether and how you will be able to record and make use of particular programs or devices”. The DVB supports the system as it will harmonize copyright holders’ control across different technologies and so make things easier for end users. The CPCM system is expected to be submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in 2008.

DRM and music

Audio CDs

Discs with digital rights management schemes are not legitimately standards-compliant Compact Discs (CDs) but are rather CD-ROM media. Therefore they all lack the CD logotype found on discs which follow the standard (known as Red Book). Therefore these CDs could not be played on all CD players. Many consumers could also no longer play purchased CDs on their computers. PCs running Microsoft Windows would sometimes even crash when attempting to play the CDs.

In 2002, Bertelsmann (comprising BMG, Arista, and RCA) was the first corporation to use DRM on audio CDs.[citation needed] In 2005, Sony BMG introduced new DRM technology which installed DRM software on users’ computers without clearly notifying the user or requiring confirmation. Among other things, the installed software included a rootkit, which created a severe security vulnerability others could exploit. When the nature of the DRM involved was made public much later, Sony initially minimized the significance of the vulnerabilities its software had created, but was eventually compelled to recall millions of CDs, and released several attempts to patch the surreptitiously included software to at least remove the rootkit. Several class action lawsuits were filed, which were ultimately settled by agreements to provide affected consumers with a cash payout or album downloads free of DRM.

Sony’s DRM software actually had only a limited ability to prevent copying, as it affected only playback on Windows computers, not on other equipment. Even on the Windows platform, users regularly bypassed the restrictions. And, while the Sony DRM technology created fundamental vulnerabilities in customers’ computers, parts of it could be trivially bypassed by holding down the “shift” key while inserting the CD, or by disabling the autorun feature. In addition, audio tracks could simply be played and re-recorded, thus completely bypassing all of the DRM (this is known as the analog hole). Sony’s first two attempts at releasing a patch which would remove the DRM software from users’ computers failed.

In January 2007, EMI stopped publishing audio CDs with DRM, stating that “the costs of DRM do not measure up to the results.” Following EMI, Sony BMG was the last publisher to abolish DRM completely, and audio CDs containing DRM are no longer released by the four record labels.

Internet music

Many online music stores employ DRM to restrict usage of music purchased and downloaded online. There are many options for consumers wishing to purchase digital music over the internet:

The iTunes Store, run by Apple Inc., allows users to purchase a track online for .99 US. The tracks purchased use Apple’s FairPlay DRM system. Apple later launched iTunes Plus, which offered higher quality DRM-free tracks for a higher price. On October 17, 2007, iTunes Plus became available at the usual .99 price, replacing the non-Plus tracks. On January 6, 2009 Apple announced at its Macworld Expo keynote that iTunes music would be available completely DRM free by the end of the month. Videos sold and rented through iTunes, as well as mobile software sold through the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch, continue to use Apple’s FairPlay DRM to inhibit casual copying.

Napster music store, which offers a subscription-based approach to DRM alongside permanent purchases. Users of the subscription service can download and stream an unlimited amount of music transcoded to Windows Media Audio (WMA) while subscribed to the service. But when the subscription period lapses, all of the downloaded music is unplayable until the user renews his or her subscription. Napster also charges users who wish to use the music on their portable device an additional per month. In addition, Napster gives users the option of paying an additional .99 per track to burn it to CD or for the song to never expire. Music bought through Napster can be played on players carrying the Microsoft PlaysForSure logo (which, notably, do not include iPods or even Microsoft’s own Zune). As of June 2009 Napster is giving DRM free MP3 music, which can be played on iPhones and iPods.

Wal-Mart Music Downloads, another online music download store, charges .94 per track for all non-sale downloads. All Wal-Mart, Music Downloads are able to be played on any Windows PlaysForSure marked product. The music does play on the SanDisk’s Sansa mp3 player, for example, but must be copied to the player’s internal memory. It cannot be played through the player’s microSD card slot, which is a problem that many users of the mp3 player experience.

Sony operated an online music download service called “Connect” which used Sony’s proprietary OpenMG DRM technology. Music downloaded from this store (usually via Sony’s SonicStage software) was only playable on computers running Windows and Sony hardware (including the PSP and some Sony Ericsson phones).

Kazaa is one of a few services offering a subscription-based pricing model. However, music downloads from the Kazaa website are DRM-protected, and can only be played on computers or portable devices running Windows Media Player, and only as long as the customer remains subscribed to Kazaa.

The various services are currently not interoperable, though those that use the same DRM system (for instance the several Windows Media DRM format stores, including Napster, Kazaa and Yahoo Music) all provide songs that can be played side-by-side through the same player program. Almost all stores require client software of some sort to be downloaded, and some also need plug-ins. Several colleges and universities, such as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have made arrangements with assorted Internet music suppliers to provide access (typically DRM-restricted) to music files for their students, to less than universal popularity, sometimes making payments from student activity fee funds. One of the problems is that the music becomes unplayable after leaving school unless the student continues to pay individually. Another is that few of these vendors are compatible with the most common portable music player, the Apple iPod. The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property (to HMG in the UK; 141 pages, 40+ specific recommendations) has taken note of the incompatibilities, and suggests (Recommendations 812) that there be explicit fair dealing exceptions to copyright allowing libraries to copy and format-shift between DRM schemes, and further allowing end users to do the same privately. If adopted, some of the acrimony may decrease.

Although DRM is prevalent for Internet music, some online music stores such as eMusic, Dogmazic, Amazon, and Beatport, do not use DRM despite encouraging users to avoid sharing music. Another online retailer, Xiie.net, which sells only unsigned artists, encourages people to share the music they buy from the site, to increase exposure for the artists themselves. Major labels have begun releasing more online music without DRM. Eric Bangeman suggests in Ars Technica that this is because the record labels are “slowly beginning to realize that they can’t have DRMed music and complete control over the online music market at the same time… One way to break the cycle is to sell music that is playable on any digital audio player. eMusic does exactly that, and their surprisingly extensive catalog of non-DRMed music has vaulted it into the number two online music store position behind the iTunes Store.” Apple’s Steve Jobs has called on the music industry to eliminate DRM in an open letter titled Thoughts on Music. Apple’s iTunes store will start to sell DRM-free 256 kbit/s (up from 128 kbit/s) AAC encoded music from EMI for a premium price (this has since reverted to the standard price). In March 2007, Musicload.de, one of Europe’s largest online music retailers, announced their position strongly against DRM. In an open letter, Musicload stated that three out of every four calls to their customer support phone service are as a result of consumer frustration with DRM.

Computer games

Computer games sometimes use DRM technologies to limit the number of systems the game can be installed on by requiring authentication with an online server. Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be ‘recovered’ when the game is uninstalled. This not only limits users who have more than three or five computers in their homes (seeing as the rights of the software developers allow them to limit the number of installations), but can also prove to be a problem if the user has to unexpectedly perform certain tasks like upgrading operating systems or reformatting the computer’s hard drive, tasks which, depending on how the DRM is implemented, count a game’s subsequent reinstall as a new installation, making the game potentially unusable after a certain period even if it is only used on a single computer.

One of the earliest prominent uses of online-based DRM technology in a AAA title was the result of Valve’s decision to bind Half-Life 2 to the Steam platform. This was met with considerable protest from the gaming community and a number of legal challenges were submitted, including consumer groups. In some cases, retail houses were required to attach labels to the front of the game’s cases clearly stating that an Internet connection was required to activate the game.[citation needed]

In mid-2008, the publication of Mass Effect marked the start of a wave of titles primarily making use of SecuROM and Steam for DRM and requiring authentication via an online server. The use of DRM scheme in 2008′s Spore backfired and there were considerable protest, resulting in a considerable number of users seeking a pirated version instead. This backlash against SecuROM was a significant factor in Spore becoming the most pirated game in 2008.

Many mainstream publishers continued to rely on online-based DRM throughout the later half of 2008 and early 2009, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Atari. Ubisoft broke with the tendency to use online DRM in late 2008 with the release of Prince of Persia as an experiment to “see how truthful people really are” regarding the claim that DRM was inciting people to use pirated copies. Although Ubisoft has not commented on the results of the ‘experiment’, the majority of their subsequent titles in 2009 contained no online-based DRM since the release of Prince of Persia – notable examples being Anno 1404 and James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game making use of the online version of the TAGES copy protection system. An official patch has since been released stripping Anno 1404 of the DRM. Electronic Arts followed suit in June 2009 with The Sims 3, with subsequent EA and EA Sports titles also being devoid of online DRM.

Some most prominent cases making use of online DRM technology SecuROM include Spore, BioShock, Mass Effect and Gears Of War.

E-books

Electronic books read on a personal computer or an e-book reader typically use DRM restrictions to limit copying, printing, and sharing of e-books. E-books are usually limited to a certain number of reading devices and some e-publishers prevent any copying or printing. Some commentators believe that DRM is something that makes E-book publishing complex.

Two of the most commonly used software programs to view e-books are Adobe Reader and Microsoft Reader. Each program uses a slightly different approach to DRM. The first version of Adobe Acrobat e-book Reader to have encryption technologies was version 5.05. In the later version 6.0, the technologies of the PDF reader and the e-book reader were combined, allowing it to read both DRM-restricted and unrestricted files. After opening the file, the user is able to view the rights statement, which outlines actions available for the specific document. For example, for a freely transferred PDF, printing, copying to the clipboard, and other basic functions are available to the user. However, when viewing a more highly restricted e-book, the user is unable to print the book, copy or paste selections. The level of restriction is specified by the publisher or distribution agency.

Microsoft Reader, which exclusively reads e-books in a .lit format, contains its own DRM software. In Microsoft Reader there are three different levels of access control depending on the e-book: sealed e-books, inscribed e-books and owner exclusive e-books. Sealed e-books have the least amount of restriction and only prevents the document from being modified. Therefore, the reader cannot alter the content of the book to change the ending, for instance. Inscribed e-books are the next level of restriction. After purchasing and downloading the e-book, Microsoft Reader puts a digital ID tag to identify the owner of the e-book. Therefore, this discourages distribution of the e-book because it is inscribed with the owner name making it possible to trace it back to the original copy that was distributed. Other e-book software uses similar DRM schemes. For example, Palm Digital Media, now known as Ereader, links the credit card information of the purchaser to the e-book copy in order to discourage distribution of the books.

The most stringent form of security that Microsoft Reader offers is called owner exclusive e-books, which uses traditional DRM technologies. To buy the e-book the consumer must first open Microsoft Reader, which ensures that when the book is downloaded it becomes linked to the computer Microsoft Passport account. Thus the e-book can only be opened with the computer with which it was downloaded, preventing copying and distribution of the text.

Amazon.com has remotely deleted purchased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from customer’s Amazon Kindles. Commenters have widely described these actions as Orwellian, and have alluded to Big Brother from Orwell’s 1984. After an apology from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Free Software Foundation has written that this is just one more example of the excessive power Amazon has to remotely censor what people read through its software, and called upon Amazon to free its e-book reader and drop DRM.

DRM and documents

Enterprise digital rights management (E-DRM or ERM) is the application of DRM technology to the control of access to corporate documents such as Microsoft Word, PDF, and AutoCAD files, emails, and intranet web pages rather than to the control of consumer media. E-DRM, now more commonly referenced as IRM (Information Rights Management), is generally intended to prevent the unauthorized use (such as industrial or corporate espionage or inadvertent release) of proprietary documents. IRM typically integrates with content management system software.

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DRM has been used by organizations such as the British Library in its secure electronic delivery service to permit worldwide access to substantial numbers of rare (and in many cases unique) documents which, for legal reasons, were previously only available to authorized individuals actually visiting the Library’s document centre at Boston Spa in England.[citation needed]

Watermarks

Digital watermarks are unobtrusive features of media that are added during production or distribution. Digital watermarks involve data that is arguably steganographically embedded within the audio or video data.

Watermarks can be used for different purposes that may include:

for recording the copyright owner

for recording the distributor

for recording the distribution chain

for identifying the purchaser of the music

Watermarks are not complete DRM mechanisms in their own right, but are used as part of a system for Digital Rights Management, such as helping provide prosecution evidence for purely legal avenues of rights management, rather than direct technological restriction. Some programs used to edit video and/or audio may distort, delete, or otherwise interfere with watermarks. Signal/modulator-carrier chromatography may also separate watermarks from original audio or detect them as glitches. Use of third party media players and other advanced programs render watermarking useless. Additionally, comparison of two separately obtained copies of audio using simple, home-grown algorithms can often reveal watermarks. New methods of detection are currently under investigation by both industry and non-industry researchers.

Metadata

Sometimes, metadata is included in purchased music which records information such as the purchaser’s name, account information, or email address. This information is not embedded in the played audio or video data, like a watermark, but is kept separate, but within the file or stream.

As an example, metadata is used in media purchased from Apple’s iTunes Store for DRM-free as well as DRM-restricted versions of their music or videos. This information is included as MPEG standard metadata.

Table of DRM technologies and associated devices

Name

Used In

Date of Use

Description

DRM Schemes Currently in Use

Personal computer DRM

Windows Media DRM

Many Online Video Distribution Networks

1999+

WMV DRM is designed to provide secure delivery of audio and/or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor can control how that content is used.

FairPlay

The iTunes Store, iPod

2003+

Purchased music files were encoded as AAC, then encrypted with an additional format that renders the file exclusively compatible with iTunes and the iPod. On January 6 2009, Apple announced that the iTunes Store would begin offering all songs DRM-free.

Helix & Harmony

Real Networks services

2003+

A DRM system from Real Networks intended to be interoperable with other DRM schemes, particularly FairPlay. Ultimately used only by Real Networks.

Orion/EasyLicenser

Enterprise, business, networking, financial, telecom and consumer applications

2003+

Restriction for applications written in Java, .Net or C/C++ on Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac

Excel Software

Business, educational, government and consumer applications

2006+

Protection for Mac and Windows applications, plugins, DLLs, multimedia and documents with manual and automated activation, trial and perpetual licenses, software subscriptions, floating and dynamic licenses, network floating licenses and user friendly license release, restore, suspend and automated feature delivery.

Adobe Protected Streaming

Flash Video/Audio Streaming

2006+

The Media-Streams are encrypted “on the fly” by the Flash Media Server (the protocol used is rtmpe or rtmps). In addition the client player can be verified via “SWF-Verification”, to make sure that only the official client can be used.

PlayReady

Computers, Mobile and Portable Devices

2007+

PlayReady is designed to encrypt WMA, WMV, AAC, AAC+, enhanced AAC+, and H.263 and H.264 codecs files. PlayReady is actually a new version of Windows Media DRM for Silverlight. Silverlight 2-based online content can be restricted using PlayReady and played back via the Silverlight plug-in. PlayReady is promoted by Microsoft

Portable device DRM

Janus WMA DRM

All PlaysForSure Devices

2004+

Janus is the codename for a portable version of Windows Media DRM intended portable devices.

OMA DRM

Implemented in over 550 phone models.

2004+

A DRM system invented by the Open Mobile Alliance to control copying of cell phone ring tones. Also used to control access to media files, such as video.

Storage media DRM

VHS Macrovision

Almost all VHS Video through the end of the 20th Century

1984+

When dubbing a Macrovision-encoded tape, a video stream which has passed through the recording VCR will become dark and then normal again periodically, degrading quality. The picture may also become unstable when darkest.

Content-scrambling system (CSS)

Some DVD Discs

1996+

CSS utilizes a weak, 40-bit stream cipher to actively encrypt DVD-Video.

DVD Region Code

Some DVD Discs

1996+

Many DVD-Video discs contain one or more region codes, marking those area[s] of the world in which playback is permitted. This restriction enforces artificial market segmentation.

ARccOS Protection

Some DVD Discs

1997?

Adds corrupt data sectors to the DVD, preventing computer software implementing computer standards from successfully reading the media. DVD players execute the on-disk program which skips the (corrupt) ARccOS sectors.

OpenMG

ATRAC audio devices (e.g., MiniDisc players), Memory Stick based audio players, AnyMusic distribution service

1999+

A proprietary DRM system invented and promoted by Sony.

BD+

Blu-ray Discs

2005+

A virtual machine embedded in authorized Blu-ray players that runs a security check on the playback environment to ensure that it has not been compromised. It also performs necessary descrambling of the audio/video stream on discs, allowing the content to be rendered.

DRM Schemes no Longer in Use

Extended Copy Protection

Sony and BMG CDs

2005

Also known as the ‘Sony Rootkit’. Although not classified as a virus by many anti-virus software producers, it bore many virus-like and trojan-like characteristics, rendering it illegal in some places and dangerous to infected computers in all. After it became publicly known, protests and litigation resulted in withdrawal by Sony. The US litigation was settled by payment by Sony.

Laws regarding DRM

Digital rights management systems have received some international legal backing by implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). Article 11 of the Treaty requires nations party to the treaties to enact laws against DRM circumvention.

The WCT has been implemented in most member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The American implementation is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), while in Europe the treaty has been implemented by the 2001 European directive on copyright, which requires member states of the European Union to implement legal protections for technological prevention measures. In 2006[update], the lower house of the French parliament adopted such legislation as part of the controversial DADVSI law, but added that protected DRM techniques should be made interoperable, a move which caused widespread controversy in the United States.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Main article: Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an extension to United States copyright law passed unanimously on May 14, 1998, which criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology that allows users to circumvent technical copy-restriction methods. Under the Act, circumvention of a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work is illegal if done with the primary intent of violating the rights of copyright holders. (For a more detailed analysis of the statute, see WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act.)

Reverse engineering of existing systems is expressly permitted under the Act under specific conditions. Under the reverse engineering safe harbor, circumvention necessary to achieve interoperability with other software is specifically authorized. See 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(f). Open-source software to decrypt content scrambled with the Content Scrambling System and other encryption techniques presents an intractable problem with the application of the Act. Much depends on the intent of the actor. If the decryption is done for the purpose of achieving interoperability of open source operating systems with proprietary operating systems, the circumvention would be protected by Section 1201(f) the Act. Cf., Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429 (2d Cir. 2001) at notes 5 and 16. However, dissemination of such software for the purpose of violating or encouraging others to violate copyrights has been held illegal. See Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes, 111 F. Supp. 2d 346 (S.D.N.Y. 2000).

On 22 May 2001, the European Union passed the EU Copyright Directive, an implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty that addressed many of the same issues as the DMCA.

The DMCA has been largely ineffective in protecting DRM systems,[citation needed] as software allowing users to circumvent DRM remains widely available. However, those who wish to preserve the DRM systems have attempted to use the Act to restrict the distribution and development of such software, as in the case of DeCSS.

Although the Act contains an exception for research, the exception is subject to vague qualifiers that do little to reassure researchers. Cf., 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(g). The DMCA has had an impact on cryptography, because many fear that cryptanalytic research may violate the DMCA. The arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov in 2001, for alleged infringement of the DMCA, was a highly publicized example of the law’s use to prevent or penalize development of anti-DRM measures. Sklyarov was arrested in the United States after a presentation at DEF CON, and subsequently spent several months in jail. The DMCA has also been cited as chilling to non-criminal inclined users, such as students of cryptanalysis (including, in a well-known instance, Professor Felten and students at Princeton), and security consultants such as the Netherlands based Niels Ferguson, who has declined to publish information about vulnerabilities he discovered in an Intel secure-computing scheme because of his concern about being arrested under the DMCA when he travels to the US.

On 25 April 2007 the European Parliament supported the first directive of EU, which aims to harmonize criminal law in the member states. It adopted a first reading report on harmonizing the national measures for fighting copyright abuse. If the European Parliament and the Council approve the legislation, the submitted directive will oblige the member states to consider a crime a violation of international copyright committed with commercial purposes. The text suggests numerous measures: from fines to imprisonment, depending on the gravity of the offense.

The EP members supported the Commission motion, changing some of the texts. They excluded patent rights from the range of the directive and decided that the sanctions should apply only to offenses with commercial purposes. Copying for personal, non-commercial purposes was also excluded from the range of the directive.

International issues

In Europe, there are several ongoing dialog activities that are characterized by their consensus-building intention:

Workshop on Digital Rights Management of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), January 2001.

Participative preparation of the European Committee for Standardization/Information Society Standardisation System (CEN/ISSS) DRM Report, 2003 (finished).

DRM Workshops of Directorate-General for Information Society and Media (European Commission) (finished), and the work of the DRM working groups (finished), as well as the work of the High Level Group on DRM (ongoing).

Consultation process of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, on the Communication COM(2004)261 by the European Commission on “Management of Copyright and Related Rights” (closed).

The INDICARE project is an ongoing dialogue on consumer acceptability of DRM solutions in Europe. It is an open and neutral platform for exchange of facts and opinions, mainly based on articles by authors from science and practice.

The AXMEDIS project is a European Commission Integrated Project of the FP6. The main goal of AXMEDIS is automating the content production, copy protection and distribution, reducing the related costs and supporting DRM at both B2B and B2C areas harmonising them.

The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property is the result of a commission by the British Government from Andrew Gowers, undertaken in December 2005 and published in 2006, with recommendations regarding copyright term, exceptions, orphaned works, and copyright enforcement.

The European Community was expected to produce a recommendation on DRM in 2006, phasing out the use of levies (compensation to rights holders charged on media sales for lost revenue due to unauthorized copying) given the advances in DRM/TPM technology. However, opposition from the member states, particularly France, have now made it unlikely that the recommendation will be adopted.[citation needed]

Controversy

DRM opposition

A parody on the Home Taping Is Killing Music logo.

Many organizations, prominent individuals, and computer scientists are opposed to DRM. Two notable DRM critics are John Walker, as expressed for instance, in his article The Digital Imprimatur: How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle, and Richard Stallman in his article The Right to Read and in other public statements: “DRM is an example of a malicious feature – a feature designed to hurt the user of the software, and therefore, it’s something for which there can never be toleration”. Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University heads a British organization which opposes DRM and similar efforts in the UK and elsewhere. Cory Doctorow, a prominent writer and technology blogger, spoke on the Microsoft campus criticizing the technology, the morality, and the marketing of DRM.

There have been numerous others who see DRM at a more fundamental level. TechMediums.com argues that DRM-free music allows for viral marketing, arguing that independent artists benefit from “free marketing” and can then focus on revenues from higher margin products like merchandise and concert ticket sales. This is similar to some of the ideas in Michael H. Goldhaber’s presentation about “The Attention Economy and the Net” at a 1997 conference on the “Economics of Digital Information.” (sample quote from the “Advice for the Transition” section of that presentation: “If you can’t figure out how to afford it without charging, you may be doing something wrong.”)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and similar organizations such as FreeCulture.org also hold positions which are characterized as opposed to DRM.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure has criticized DRM’s impact as a trade barrier from a free market perspective.

The final version of the GNU General Public License version 3, as released by the Free Software Foundation, has a provision that ‘strips’ DRM of its legal value, so people can break the DRM on GPL software without breaking laws like the DMCA. Also, in May 2006, the FSF launched a “Defective by Design” campaign against DRM.

Creative Commons provides licensing options encouraging the expansion of and building upon creative work without the use of DRM. In addition, the use of a Creative Commons-licensed work on a device which incorporates DRM is a breach of the Baseline Rights asserted by each license.

Bill Gates spoke about DRM at CES in 2006. According to him, DRM is not where it should be, and causes problems for legitimate consumers while trying to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate users.

According to Steve Jobs, Apple opposes DRM music after a public letter calling its music labels to stop requiring DRM on its iTunes Store. As of January 6, 2009, the iTunes Store is DRM-free for songs. However, Apple considers DRM on video content as a separate issue and has not removed DRM from all of its video catalog.

Defective by Design member protesting DRM on May 25, 2007.

As already noted, many DRM opponents consider “digital rights management” to be a misnomer. They argue that DRM manages rights (or access) the same way prison manages freedom and often refer to it as “digital restrictions management”. Alternatively, ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests the term “Content Restriction, Annulment and Protection” or “CRAP” for short.

The Norwegian Consumer rights organization “Forbrukerrdet” complained to Apple Inc. in 2007 about the company’s use of DRM in, and in conjunction with, its iPod and iTunes products. Apple was accused of restricting users’ access to their music and videos in an unlawful way, and of using EULAs which conflict with Norwegian consumer legislation. The complaint was supported by consumers’ ombudsmen in Sweden and Denmark, and is currently being reviewed in the EU. Similarly, the United States Federal Trade Commission is planning to hold hearings in March of 2009 to review disclosure of DRM limitations to customers’ use of media products.

The use of DRM may also be a barrier to future historians, since technologies designed to permit data to be read only on particular machines, or with particular keys, or for certain periods, may well make future data recovery impossible see Digital Revolution. This argument connects the issue of DRM with that of asset management and archive technology.[citation needed]

DRM opponents argue that the presence of DRM violates existing private property rights and restricts a range of heretofore normal and legal user activities. A DRM component would control a device a user owns (such as a Digital audio player) by restricting how it may act with regards to certain content, overriding some of the user’s wishes (for example, preventing the user from burning a copyrighted song to CD as part of a compilation or a review). An example of this effect may be seen in Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system in which content is disabled or degraded depending on the DRM scheme’s evaluation of whether the hardware and its use are ‘secure’. All forms of DRM depend on the DRM enabled device (e.g., computer, DVD player, TV) imposing restrictions that (at least by intent) cannot be disabled or modified by the user. Key issues around digital rights management such the right to make personal copies, provisions for persons to lend copies to friends, provisions for service discontinuance, hardware agnosticism, contracts for public libraries, and customers protection against one-side amendments of the contract by the publisher have not been fully addressed.[citation needed] It has also been pointed out that it is entirely unclear whether owners of content with DRM are legally permitted to pass on their property as inheritance to another person.

Tools like FairUse4WM have been created to strip Windows Media of DRM restrictions.

Valve Corporation President Gabe Newell also stated “most DRM strategies are just dumb” because they only decrease the value of a game in the consumer’s eyes. Newell’s suggests pairing DRM with “[creating] greater value for customers through service value”, and stopped short of repudiating Valve’s DRM system, known as Steam. However, Mr. Newell’s anti-DRM rhetoric flies in the face of Steam’s own copy-protection strategy, which is actually a form of DRM.

“DRM-Free”

Due to the strong opposition that exists to DRM, many companies and artists have begun advertising their products as “DRM-Free”.

Most notably, Apple began selling “DRM-Free” music through their iTunes store in April 2007. It was later revealed that the DRM-Free iTunes files were still embedded with each user’s account information, a technique called Digital watermarking generally not regarded as DRM. In January 2009, iTunes began marketing all of their songs as “DRM-Free”, however iTunes continues to use DRM on movies, TV shows, ringtones, and audiobooks.

Impossible task

The famous cryptographer and security guru Bruce Schneier has written about the futility of digital copy prevention and says it’s an impossible task. He says “What the entertainment industry is trying to do is to use technology to contradict that natural law. They want a practical way to make copying hard enough to save their existing business. But they are doomed to fail.” He has also described trying to make digital files uncopyable as being like “trying to make water not wet”.

Both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have historically opposed DRM, even going so far as to name AACS as a technology “most likely to fail” in an issue of IEEE Spectrum.

Shortcomings

Methods to bypass DRM

There are many methods to bypass DRM control on audio and video content.

One simple method to bypass DRM on audio files is to burn the content to an audio CD and then rip it into DRM-free files. This is only possible when the software that plays these DRM-restricted audio files allows CD-burning. Some software products simplify and automate this burn-rip process by allowing the user to burn music to a CD-RW disc or to a Virtual CD-R drive, then automatically ripping and encoding the music, and automatically repeating this process until all selected music has been converted, rather than forcing the user to do this one CD (7280 minutes worth of music) at a time.

Many software programs have been developed that intercept the data stream as it is decrypted out of the DRM-restricted file, and then use this data to construct a DRM-free file. These programs require a decryption key. Programs that do this for DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs include universal decryption keys in the software itself. Programs that do this for TiVo ToGo recordings, iTunes audio, and PlaysForSure songs, however, rely on the user’s own key that is, they can only process content that the user has legally acquired under his or her own account.

Another method is to use software to record the signals being sent through the audio or video cards, or to plug analog recording devices into the analog outputs of the media player. These techniques utilize the so-called “analog hole” (see below).

Analog hole

Main article: Analog hole

All forms of DRM for audio and visual material (excluding interactive materials, e.g. videogames) are subject to the analog hole, namely that in order for a viewer to play the material, the digital signal must be turned into an analog signal containing light and/or sound for the viewer, and so available to be copied as no DRM is capable of controlling content in this form. In other words, a user could play a purchased audio file while using a separate program to record the sound back into the computer into a DRM-free file format.

All DRM to date can therefore be bypassed by recording this signal and digitally storing and distributing it in a non DRM limited form, by anyone who has the technical means of recording the analog stream. However the conversion from digital to analog and back is likely to force a loss of quality, particularly when using lossy digital formats. HDCP is an attempt to restrict the analog hole, although it is largely ineffective.

Asus released a soundcard which features a function called “Analog Loopback Transformation” to bypass the restrictions of DRM. This feature allows the user to record DRM-restricted audio via the soundcard’s built-in analog I/O connection.

DRM on general computing platforms

Many of the DRM systems in use are designed to work on general purpose computing hardware, such as desktop PCs apparently because this equipment is felt to be a major contributor to revenue loss from disallowed copying. Large commercial copyright infringers (“pirates”) avoid consumer equipment, so losses from such infringers will not be covered by such provisions.

It has been hypothesized that such schemes, especially software based ones, can never be wholly secure since the software must include all the information necessary to decrypt the content, such as the decryption keys. An attacker will be able to extract this information, directly decrypt and copy the content, which bypasses the restrictions imposed by a DRM system.

DRM on purpose-built hardware

Many DRM schemes use encrypted media which requires purpose-built hardware to hear or see the content. This appears to ensure that only licensed users (those with the hardware) can access the content. It additionally tries to protect a secret decryption key from the users of the system.

While this in principle can work, it is extremely difficult to build the hardware to protect the secret key against a sufficiently determined adversary. Many such systems have failed in the field. Once the secret key is known, building a version of the hardware that performs no checks is often relatively straightforward. In addition user verification provisions are frequently subject to attack, pirate decryption being among the most frequented ones.

A common real-world example can be found in commercial direct broadcast satellite television systems such as DirecTV. The company uses tamper-resistant smart cards to store decryption keys so that they are hidden from the user and the satellite receiver. However, the system has been compromised in the past, and DirecTV has been forced to roll out periodic updates and replacements for its smart cards.

Watermarks

Watermarks can be removed, although degradation of video or audio can occur. In particular, lossy compression methods only retain perceptible features of an image, and if the watermarks are invisible, they are typically removed by compression systems as a side-effect.[citation needed]

Mass piracy failure

Mass piracy of hard copies does not necessarily need DRM to be decrypted or removed, as it can be achieved by bit-perfect copying of a legally obtained medium without accessing the decrypted content. Additionally, still-encrypted disk images can be distributed over the Internet and played on legitimately licensed players. Other copy protection methods, such as specific data layout on the medium, perform better in this area.[citation needed]

Obsolescence

When standards and formats change, it may be difficult to transfer DRM-restricted content to new media. Additionally, any system that requires contact with an authentication server is vulnerable to that server becoming unavailable, as happened in 2007 when videos purchased from Major League Baseball (mlb.com) prior to 2006 became unplayable due to a change to the servers that validate the licences.

Microsoft Zune – When Microsoft introduced their Zune media player in 2006, it did not support content that uses Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure DRM scheme they had previously been selling. The EFF calls this “a raw deal”.

MSN Music – In April 2008, Microsoft sent an email to former customers of the now-defunct MSN Music store: “As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.”

However, to avoid a public relations disaster, Microsoft re-issued MSN Music shutdown statement on June 19th and allowed the users to use their licenses until the end of 2011: “After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers. This means you will continue to be able to listen to your purchased music and transfer your music to new PCs and devices beyond the previously announced August 31, 2008 date.”

Yahoo! Music Store – On July 23, 2008, the Yahoo! Music Store emailed its customers to tell them it will be shutting down effective September 30, 2008 and the DRM license key servers will be taken offline.

Walmart – In August 2007, Walmart’s online music division started offering (DRM-free) MP3s as an option. Starting in February 2008, they made all sales DRM-free. On September 26, 2008, the Walmart Music Team notified its customers via email they would will be shutting down their DRM servers October 9, 2008 and any DRM-encumbered music acquired from them will no longer be accessible unless ripped to a non-DRM format before that date.

After bad press and negative reaction from customers, on October 9, 2008, Walmart decided not to take its DRM servers offline.

Fictionwise / Overdrive – In January 2009, OverDrive informed Fictionwise that they would no longer be providing downloads for purchasers of e-books through Fictionwise as of 31 January 2009. No reason was provided to Fictionwise as to why they were being shut down. This prevents previous purchasers from being able to renew their books on new devices. Fictionwise is working to provide replacement ebooks for its customers in alternative, non-DRM formats, but does not have the rights to provide all of the books in different formats.

Ads for Adobe PDF – Also in January 2009, Adobe Systems announced that as of March 2009 they would no longer operate the servers that served ads to their PDF reader. Depending on the restriction settings used when PDF documents were created, they may no longer be readable.

Historical note

A very early implementation of DRM was the Software Service System (SSS) devised by the Japanese engineer Ryoichi Mori in 1983 and subsequently refined under the name superdistribution. The SSS was based on encryption, with specialized hardware that controlled decryption and also enabled payments to be sent to the copyright holder. The underlying principle of the SSS and subsequently of superdistribution was that the distribution of encrypted digital products should be completely unrestricted and that users of those products would not just be permitted to redistribute them but would actually be encouraged to do so.

See also

Computer Science portal

Related concepts

Compliance and Robustness

Copyleft

Copyright

Cryptography

Data room

Hardware restrictions

ODRL

Privacy enhancing technologies

Product activation

Smart contracts

Smart Cow Problem

Street Performer Protocol

Superdistribution

Tivoization

Trusted Computing

Voluntary Collective Licensing

XrML

Organizations

European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations

Trusted Computing Group

Motion Picture Association of America

Recording Industry Association of America

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Open Rights Group

Open Mobile Alliance

Defective by Design, a campaign of the Free Software Foundation

Pirate Party, a Swedish political party which is a proponent of free culture and free knowledge

Free Software Foundation Europe

Secure Digital Music Initiative

Open Entertainment Alliance

References

^ “Images and the Internet”. http://www.artistscope.com/protection.asp. 

^ Christopher Levy (February 3, 2003). “Making Money with Streaming Media”. streamingmedia.com. http://www.streamingmedia.com/r/printerfriendly.asp?id=8306. Retrieved 2006-08-28. 

^ “Digital Restrictions Management and Treacherous Computing”. http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/drm.html. Retrieved 2006-08-04. 

^ “FairPlay: Another Anti-competitive Use of DRM”. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001557.php. Retrieved 2006-08-01. 

^ a b c Cory Doctorow (June 17, 2004). “Microsoft Research DRM Talk” (pdf). craphound.com. http://www.changethis.com/4.DRM. Retrieved 2007-08-17. “”At the end of the day, all DRM systems share a common vulnerability: they provide their attackers with ciphertext, the cipher and the key. At this point,the secret isn’t a secret anymore.”" 

^ Bangeman, Eric (2006-10-28). “TiVo tightens the DRM vise”. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20041028-4358.html. Retrieved 2006-08-11. 

^ Xeni Jardin (2006-12-28). “Report: HD-DVD copy protection defeated”. BoingBoing. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/28/report-hddvd-copy-pr.html. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 

^ Cory Doctorow (2007-05-30). “New AACS processing key leaks onto the net”. BoingBoing. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/30/new-aacs-processing-.html. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 

^ “Who Controls Your Television?”. Electronic Frontier Foundation. http://w2.eff.org/IP/DVB/dvb_briefing_paper.php. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 

^ Lewis, Rita (January 8, 2008). “What is DRM and Why Should I Care?”. Firefox News. http://firefox.org/news/articles/1045/1/What-is-DRM-and-why-should-I-care/Page1.html. Retrieved July 10 2008. 

^ McMillan, Robert (May 23, 2006). Article “Settlement Ends Sony Rootkit Case”. PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125838-page,1-c,unresolvedtechstandards/article.html Article. Retrieved April 8, 2007. 

^ Marechal, Sander (January 9, 2007). “DRM on audio CDs abolished”. http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/78008/index.html. 

^ Holahan, Catherine (January 4, 2008). “Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM”. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc2008013_398775.htm. 

^ “iTunes Plus DRM-free tracks expanding, dropping to 99 cents”. Apple News from ARS Technica. 2007-10-16. http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/10/15/itunes-plus-drm-free-tracks-expanding-dropping-to-99-cents. Retrieved 2007-10-16. 

^ Nick Timeraos (July 6, 2006). “Free, Legal and Ignored”. WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal). http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115214899486099107-vuoIhGUthiYcFwsQK0DjegSRPwQ_20070706.html. Retrieved 2006-11-27. 

^ Eric Bangeman (December 6, 2006). “Testing DRM-free waters: EMI selling a few MP3s through Yahoo Music”. Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061206-8368.html. 

^ Steve Jobs. “Thoughts on Music”. http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/. 

^ Ken Fisher (March 18, 2007). “Musicload: 75% of customer service problems caused by DRM”. Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070318-75-percent-customer-problems-caused-by-drm.html. Retrieved 2007-03-20. 

^ Ernesto (September 13, 2008). “Spore: Most Pirated Game Ever Thanks to DRM”. TorrentFreak. http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/. Retrieved 2008-12-06. 

^ Andy Greenberg; Mary Jane Irwin (2008-09-12). “Spore’s Piracy Problem”. Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/09/12/spore-drm-piracy-tech-security-cx_ag_mji_0912spore.html. Retrieved 2008-12-06. 

^ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/12/pc-prince-of-persia-contains-no-drm-its-a-trap.ars

^ http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173495

^ TinHat (June 2006). “eBooks and Digital Rights Management (DRM), for ePublishers”. tinhat.com. http://www.tinhat.com/ebooks_epublishing/epublishers_drm.html. Retrieved 2008-05-28. 

^ a b c d e f Karen Coyle (November 19, 2003). “The Technology of Rights: Digital Rights Management” (PDF). http://www.kcoyle.net/drm_basics.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-26. 

^ Ed Foster (February 19, 2004). “E-Books and DRM”. Info World. http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2004/2/19/0515/77045=. Retrieved 2008-05-26. 

^ Jon Noring (2004). “The Perils of DRM Overkill for Large Publishers”. http://www.teleread.org/publishersdrm.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-26. 

^ “Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices”. New York Times. 2009-07-18. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html. 

^ David Pogue (2009-07-17). “Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others”. New York Times. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/some-e-books-are-more-equal-than-others/. 

^ “Why Amazon went Big Brother on some Kindle e-books”. arstechnica.com. July 17, 2009. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/amazon-sold-pirated-books-raided-some-kindles.ars. 

^ Pete Cashmore (July 17th, 2009). “Big Brother: Amazon Remotely Deletes 1984 From Kindles”. http://mashable.com/2009/07/17/amazon-kindle-1984/. 

^ Mark Frauenfelder (July 17, 2009). “Amazon zaps purchased copies of Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles”. http://boingboing.net/2009/07/17/amazon-zaps-purchase.html. 

^ Ina Fried (July 17, 2009). “Amazon recalls (and embodies) Orwell’s ’1984′”. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289983-56.html. 

^ Free Software Foundation (July 23, 2009). “Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos apologizes for Kindle ebook deletion. Free Software Foundation cal

Clip 2/5 Speaker: Dion Blazakis The complexity of modern applications makes binary auditing a long slow march without a significant investment in tools and techniques. BaSO4 is a new IDA plug-in that highlights the instructions responsible for processing and propogating the information stored at a given input range. Using dynamic dataflow analysis based on a captured execution trace, BaSO4 can compute, for example, the instructions, memory locations, and registers used to process the string table in a Flash SWF file. This information can be used to target manual audits and assist in reverse engineering. The analysis is computed for each byte of the tainted input and is linked to the abstract syntax of the input files. The IDA plug-in switches between various levels of abstract syntax and dynamically updates the highlighted code regions. The Tamarin VM (Adobe’s open source AVM2 bytecode engine) is used as a case study to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of BaSO4. For more information and the presentation slides go to: bit.ly
Video Rating: 0 / 5

You can bear movable barcode scanners around with you, so they are recyclable if you are not minor to a desk. These barcode scanners do not use untold cognition, which makes them scotch and they are lightweight and tiny in a situation. Rather than having to view the symbol to be scanned under the detector, the cause can be relocation the detector, making it ideal for humongous or bulky objects or those stacked up higher.

 

A barcode can be in 1D or 2D, with 1D existence achromatic lines and 2D state squares, dots or separate symbols.andheld 2D scanners are hot since with a 2D barcode you can fit some solon assemblage into the comparable expanse. A pen barcodes detector activity by activity the echoic devolve, which goes into the scanner itself. These barcode scanners which are also renowned as wand scanners because of their minuscule filler, It is very unproblematic to use, and because they are so scant, they are touristy at market fund checkouts where the opportunist has to image hundreds of lesser or psychic sorted items as rapidly as feasible. To use a pen barcode detector, the opportunist gift confides  joined instrumentality, or CCD, is the most average bailiwick utilized in barcodes and this type of barcode printer module use  some tiny,  Scant excitable diodes employed united to interpret barcodes. Their instrument is hundreds of combust sensors in the row interior a CCD barcode customer and the detector measure the wanton secure into your PC and applies with it.  Any PC barcode scanners stopple into the PC keyboard and others use a USB socket. These scanners do not requisite a Secran external power germ. Any sweat resource a barcode pressman as protracted as you screw the proper equipment. When you’re using a PC barcode scanner, the scanned accumulation goes into the PC as to you had written it on the keyboard.

 

Thanks to a late profession, you can also get wireless and Bluetooth scanners, which affect absent from the important depot. If you line in a storehouse, grounds or weight bob, using specified a scanner is utilizable, since there are no wires to blunder over or embellish entangled, and you can construe items at inapt angles.  With cable-free scanning, the barcode customer can displace accumulation at to the PC and obtain aggregation from the PC.

 

There are dissimilar kinds of barcode scanners accessible depending on what you need them for. Wireless, Bluetooth scanners and Video surveillance equipment are popular for excavation outdoors or in warehouses, a pen barcode detector is efficacious in a section store and there are some additional kinds of barcode readers and the incidental software so you can be a fashion your equipment exactly to the openhearted of manufacture it an instrument be victimized in.

What is Pad Printing?
Pad printing is an industrial process of printing onto for objects with curved and/or uneven surfaces. Pad printing machine has 3 main components: the pad, ink cup and the printing plate (also known as a pad printing cliché.) The ink cup slides over the image etched into the plate and leaves a thin layer of ink in the etched area. The printing pad picks up the ink from the plate and transfers it to the parts by gently pressing down on one after the other. The pad printing plate is the most important part of the printing process; this is where the image is set. How well the image is set into the plate will largely determine of the quality of the printed image.

Types of Pad Printing Clichés
There are three types of plates that may be used with a pad printer: photopolymer printing plates, laser plates, thin steel plates and thick steel plates. Laser plates are designed to be etched directly from a digital file, sent from a computer to a laser engraver. Thin steel plates are chemically etched. Thick steel plates can be either chemically etched or laser etched. Photopolymer printing plates are made by exposure to light, developing and curing, a process that takes a film positive, exposure unit and curing oven.

The Challenges of Photopolymer Plate Making
Making a photopolymer pad printing cliché is a multi step process, which involves making a film positive first and then exposing, developing and curing the plate. There are many variables, things can easily go wrong and they often do. Over the years, the technical support team at Inkcups Now Corp. found that the number one reason for misprints, substandard prints and production stoppages are the various mistakes in polymer plate making process. These step by step written instructions below coupled with video instructions are meant to help people get it right. If you still have questions or problems, feel free to contact the Inkcups Team, we are here to be your partner in decorating projects!

Video Instructions on Making Photopolymer Plates & Film Positives
Here is a link to the FILM POSITIVE MAKING VIDEO for the pad printing plate.
Here is a link to the PHOTOPOLYMER PLATE MAKING VIDEO, which shows how to expose, develop and cure the pad printing cliché.

Written Instructions on Photopolymer Plate Making:
1. Spray the film positive with TONER SPRAY.
2. Cut out the film positive to fit the size of the plate.
3. Remove the protective plastic from the plate.
4. Place the film positive FACE DOWN on the plate.
5. Place in the Exposure Unit, expose to UV light for 60 seconds
6. Remove the film positive from the plate; replace with screen film.
7. Expose to UV light for 60 seconds.
8. Remove the screen film from the plate.
9. Gently rub the plate with Plate Developer for 60 seconds.
10. Rinse the plate with water to remove the plate developer.
11. Dry the plate with compressed air.
12. Place the plate in a Drying Oven for 10 minutes.
13. Remove the plate from the drying oven, put back into the Exposure Unit.
14. Expose to UV light for 10 minutes.

The Best Method for Making Pad Printing Cliches – Laser Engravable Plates Creating photopolymer plates may be the most cost effective method, however it is not the best method. Photopolymer plate making takes 20-40 minutes, the image is second generation, and not as sharp.

There is a fast method, producing superior quality plates: laser plate-making. Laser etched image is first generation (digital image goes directly onto the plate, without the film positive stage); the etch has straight walls and is totally repeatable every time. Laser plate making takes only 3-5 minutes and does not involve any chemicals. Inkcups Now pioneered direct to plate laser technology and has a lineup of Laser Engravable pad printing plate materials to accommodate any application and production requirements, learn more here: www.inkcups.com/supplies/laser-plates/

Here is something I just learned to do…make my own photopolymer plates. With a lot of digging and asking questions along with a ton of trial and error I have found a way that works for me to make a photopolymer plate for printing on my C&P letterpresses. Watch the video to see my work flow from art and negatives to exposing and rinsing a photopolymer plate. I will give you info on where I get my supplies for printing and platemaking as well as what I use to expose and wash out my plates. Feel free to leave a comment or question and I will be more than happy to post responses. I just want to give others the change to have an easier start than I did. www.itsfancy.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Agile denote nimbleness. Agile is a light weighted development methodology which is based on iterative development, where solutions evolve from tightly collaborated cross functional teams.

Agile denote nimbleness. Agile is a light weighted development methodology which is based on iterative development, where solutions evolve from tightly collaborated cross functional teams.

Principles of Agile methodology

Agile methodology primarily focuses on Individuals and their communication, Working Software over comprehensive documentation, Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.

a) Customer Satisfaction

b) Good team with higher accountability

c) Light weight requirements, flexibility for rapid changes

d) Small and Iterative cycles

e) High degree of communication

An agile process facilitates the customer to have a quick view of the product. Agile process delivers early and often. As a rudimentary system is provided with in first couple of weeks, Customers has a chance to make requirement changes if they feel that what they see doesn?t match with what they envision. Requirements changes dynamically but they strictly adhere to deadlines.

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As agile methodologies are rapid in nature, a team of good players needs to be accommodated. Though all players need not be strong players,players with higher accountability and user involvement is imperative. The team should comprise of developers, customers, and any other business related personalities. The team should be empowered to make decisions.

Requirements have to be light weighted. We can expect change in requirements late in development process. It should be noted that requirements evolve with fixed time scale. This differentiates agile methodology with conventional development methodology. Generally industries go with 80-20 acceptance policy.

Agile methodology advises to develop project in a small size with an incremental nature. Agile is iterative in nature. This nature reduces the risk of what you see vs. what you envision aspects. It also provides effective cost management, and less re-factor cost. Deliverables are given preference over documentation.

There should be a high degree of communication between the team members in order to implement agile methodology effectively. There should be significant interaction between the customers, developers and stakeholder. Just-In-Time [JIT] methodology has to be implemented for successful practice of agile methodology.

Agile methodology provides rapid delivery in a dynamic environment. This incremental nature provides cost-effective behavior for product development. This methodology not only enables to deliver cost effective prototype, but also provides flexible re-factoring. In a competitive environment, business always competes with others business by releasing innovative products in a dynamic rapid world, which can be completely supported in agile methodology.

Reference:

[1] Pavan Gorakavi, Build your project using Agile Methodology http://asapm.org/asapmag/articles/A1_AboutAgile.pdf

The mechanical engineering and 3d solid modeling are use in every business sector which is related with mechanical industries. Today there are so many engineering services in mechanical engineering field and how it is important for mechanical products and components in mechanical engineering market. Mechanical 3D Modelling has various 3D CAD solid modelling and mechanical engineering projects by far and with the help of our expert team, you can complete your mechanical engineering projects effectively at an affordable cost.

3D solid modeling is the creation, operation and storage of arithmetical objects to represent objects that are all around us or virtual objects. 3D modeling is strongly connected with the developing as well as the casting process. Save your time and money by outsourcing your mechanical engineering related requirements. By using 3D modeling software, mechanical engineering services are easy to use and maintain.

The use of 3D modeling software gives a 3D effect to any kind of image such as jpg, gif, bmp. The respective image is going to have height, depth and width. It gives you graphics design and makes your website look better and nicer. These types of 3D design software can provide high quality; accuracy and the tools can create quality 3d products and animations.

Mechanical engineering and 3D modeling services are provided by the experienced mechanical engineers with each and every possible process and capabilities, which you need to develop your mechanical products. Mechanical Engineering services include mechanical design, mechanical drawings and mechanical drafting services. Mechanical engineers can convert your hand drawn sketches, detailed mechanical drawings into accurate mechanical drawings.

Benefit of outsourcing 3D solid modeling and mechanical engineering services are:

Increased Capacity for Business Expansion and Diversification
Improve Employee Satisfaction with Higher Value Addition Jobs
Allows you to focus on Core Business Activities
Saving in Human Resources
Quick Turn-Around Time
Reduces Capital Costs of Infrastructure
Attractive Advanced Technology
Substantial Cost Savings
High Quality Standards

Mechanical engineering services concentrate in the design of mechanical system, dies and molding and mechanical component for residential, commercial, institutional, retail and cultural services and facilities. Mechanical engineers utilize the core principles in addition to other information in the field to design.

www.autodesk.com Learn how to maximize your investment in AutoCAD at blogs.autodesk.com

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New product development should be the vital component for product policy and management for those, who want to continue to exist in today’s competitive world. It is the time of need, to launch new products timely because of changing demands and the customer needs to follow new trends, which are prevailing in the society. The key to success and sustainability is the company’s innovative approach towards new product development.

New product development is not an easy process. Most of the companies use a structured and well-highly organized approach for new product development. It needs an incredible amount of time and research. First off, the idea is generated based on the needs of the customers. The idea then gets transformed into concept, then it is tested to evaluate the characteristics of the product along with feasibility, target market and production cost. After this sale, the most important step is based on the customers’ feedback. Customer needs are more important than the quality of the product. After this step, profitability evaluation is done and then prototype of the product is made. It is then market tested and changes are made accordingly.

Now after this process, this prototype is converted to benchmark for an end product and production gets started based on the final study of logistics, operations and resource needs etc. Marketing activities, advertisement, promotions etc are the next step to promote the sale of the final product. Research is the key element in the new product development process.

The use of plastic bottles expanded over time and now they are used in health, beauty aids and food containers along with household products for safer, lighter and easy to handle features. Plastic bottle designs are versatile. Before deciding about the plastic bottle design, there are many things to consider such as product end user, bottle hold, options of molding and filling, and other packing considerations. Innovative and attractive, plastic bottle design help in the promotion of products.

Along with good plastic bottle design, structural branding design is also essential to give the product memorable brand identity.

Branding is a perception, when money is spent on building the perception of the individual, for that particular brand it is called strengthening the brand. Structural Branding Design is also important to make the brand strong enough to impact the individual’s purchase behavior, which is called brand trust.

Designers do Structural Branding Design to strengthen brands and generate the shortcuts between brand essentials and individuals’ perceptions. Structural branding design helps create designs that focus on making certain that users accomplish goals, which have long term effect on brand strength. Successful companies earning high profits, spend a lot on structural branding design to strengthen brand perception.

 

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Prototype machining is preferred when it comes to trials. Developing a new concept is difficult and time consuming when the process is vague. To ease out the problem of losses such type of prototyping can be done. It shows how the machine will react under certain circumstances. There are units that defy and capture every action of new made machine. Use of prototype machining is basically done when there is a need to create a sample machine. Well, use of this sample machine can be for various purposes. It can be creation of new technology or even creation of new product. If there are any types of modifications required then it can be solved then and there itself. It also shows if there is a need to change or alter any specific process.

The internet is the preferred source for prototype machining. The internet is filled with such machining websites that offer high end services. Online deals are preferred since all the care and troubles is taken care. Most of the websites will give free delivery service; it will save huge transportation costs for which you might need to shell out of your pocket. Price comparison is another feature that can be considered when making an online purchase. Since there are numerous websites posted on the internet, you can easily check for the preferred website available at low cost. You can even check for the type of service given with the deal. Quality is something that you need to be well versed before approaching such sites. There are past testimonials written by clients that can be checked to know the reputation of the company. These testimonials will give you a broad idea on their customer service.

Prototype machining is therefore the preferred tool for industrial planning. The company need not waste huge amounts by giving a final order and then repenting for its losses later. Instead they can create one, test it, alter it if required and then give the final order for production purposes. It is the preferred way to solve development problem. Different types of designs and technology can be tested with the use of such machining. It is advanced and programmed with the use of a computer. All the programming steps are taken by the onboard computer which is installed in the device. Basic and advanced types of jobs are also taken care by such machining services for prototyping requirements.

Hi I am Kyle Arthur expert in Prototype Machining.

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