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360-HQ.COM :: UPDATE: Kinect 2's visual DRM may threaten user choice
UPDATE: Kinect 2's visual DRM may threaten user choice
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thelox2013
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Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 4:20 pm   
Post subject: UPDATE: Kinect 2's visual DRM may threaten user choice
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Friday, 24th May 2013 at 11:00 am


User privacy may be invaded as Microsoft patent suggests 'snooping tech' in motion sensor

Kinect 2 will be able to employ certain DRM measures depending on what it observes in the living room.

That’s the conclusion suggested by a patent filed by Microsoft, and corroborated by sources talking to MCV in the weeks leading up to this week’s Xbox One reveal.

ExtremeTech reports that Microsoft has filed for a patent that allows Kinect to monitor the number of viewers in the room. It then cross-checks this with the maximum number of viewers permitted by the licence that a user agrees to when purchasing or renting content.

If it is deemed that too many people are present, the user will be prompted to pay an additional fee to upgrade the licence.

Says the filing: “The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.”

It should be noted too that Kinect is designed to continuously observe its roommates. It also adds that the T&Cs for any particular piece of content can be determined by the copyright holder.

It’s also hard to stop yourself pondering where such a tech ideology could lead. Could Kinect block 18-rated content if it detects minors in the room? What if the owner of the content licence leaves mid-viewing?

And how much of this information is being fed back to Microsoft? And even more importantly, its affiliates?

Are content owners paying to receive information about what part of a film viewers enjoyed the most? Or whether they continued to look at the TV screen when an advertisement was aired?

Big questions lie ahead.

When contacted by MCV Microsoft said it does not comment on rumour and speculation.

UPDATE: To address the question of the age of the patent. Yes, the patent is old. But we have been told by UK industry sources within the last month that this system will be implemented on Xbox One.

UPDATE 2: Microsoft has now issued MCV with the following comment: "Microsoft regularly applies for and receives patents as part of its business practice; not all patents applied for or received will be incorporated into a Microsoft product.

This story was originally pubished on our sister site MCV
http://www.develop-online.net/news/44300/Kinect-2s-visual-DRM-may-threaten-user-choice[/url]

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thelox2013
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Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 4:23 pm   
Post subject: Microsoft’s new Kinect patent goes Big Brother, will spy on
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Microsoft has filed for a Kinect-related patent, and it’s a doozy of an application. The abstract describes a camera-based system that would monitor the number of viewers in a room and check to see if the number of occupants exceeded a certain threshold set by the content provider. If there are too many warm bodies present, the device owner would be prompted to purchase a license for a greater number of viewers.



No, really. It’s that blunt. From the abstract: “The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken.”

It’s refreshing to see Microsoft eschewing its play-nice-with-everyone approach to business for some old-fashioned, straight-up evil. The patent’s various claims can endow a device with a limited number of performances in a given period of time, a limited number of users allowed to view such performances, and the continuous monitoring of viewers during those performances. It also covers the determination of “when performance of the content to an identified user exceeds a threshold.”

MS Kinect Patent

The really interesting thing about this patent is that it suggests that copyright holders are allowed to govern performances in otherwise private dwellings. The application describes how the patent could be applied to head-mounted devices, large screens, gaming and media products, computers, and even mobile phones. Clearly, this isn’t just a method for cracking down on illicit big-screen viewings of movies and television that might plausibly be called a public performance.

UltraViolet: awesome but terrifyingPerhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. This is the logical extension of the “you only buy a license” philosophy that rules the content provider universe. Microsoft’s misstep here is in filing for a patent on devices that can only provide a personal viewing experience. Getting 50 people together to watch a movie on someone’s 84-inch television may indeed count as a public performance, as far as copyright law is concerned. Two people watching a movie on a 10-inch iPad, on the other hand, isn’t quite the same thing. MS’s new patent covers both scenarios.

Recent developments in US copyright law could leave a patent like this without much of a bite. Last summer, Judge Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court ruling that claimed embedding a video in a website qualified as copyright infringement. In the decision, Posner held that viewing an uploaded video does not infringe on copyright law’s reproductive or distributive rights. The law, he wrote, is unclear on whether or not the act of viewing content infringes on a copyright holder’s performance rights.

This question could have a significant impact on whether or not copyright holders spring for systems like the one Microsoft is trying to patent. If viewing a video online constitutes a performance infringement, rightsholders could mandate a user-detection scheme under the auspices of the DMCA. If it doesn’t, no electronics company on Earth will want to touch the idea for fear of a consumer backlash.

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Amiga1200
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Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:42 pm   
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^^ it's a GIVEN!
anybody who buys into this "xbox one" bullshit DESERVES all they get!
they have the variables in their hand and both side to the coin, if they choose "orwel" then let the great culling begin!
i have no sympathy for them, besides, it's the EMPTYHEADS and GRELBIES that screw it for the (keep themselves to themselves) SANE folks, we have to pick up their tab!
........
i guess what i'm saying is, it's NO surprise, i expect a dark tomorrow!
(since thatcher, bloomberg and rupert, the tomorrows have gotten progressively darker, why should now be any different?)
.....
i'll fight this "xbox one" shit all the way....
glad i'm not onboard with it! Rolling Eyes (xbox one! yeahhhh! come take our rights away while you blow up smaller countries and label them terrorists and indoctrinate the stupid into COD and urban wargames, desensitize us against mass graves! nice on GVT LACKEYS and M$ MONEYSUCKERS!)

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to all my friends... farewell and all the best to future prosperity... and remember, be excellent to each other! Wink


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