Anthropologists all fear two related things: that we won’t collect any interesting data and if we then proceed to do so, one day it will vanish either in flames, following a computer break down, or theft. This fear perhaps used to be more acute before the digital era, when pen and paper were your only recourse to inscription. One copy in existence meant that if it was lost, well, you were in deep trouble (except if you are Edmund Leach and
Max Gluckman who also lost their field notes for projects and look where that GOT THEM ) Since the photocopy machine, copies could be made and with the computer, multiple copies and backups can be secured.

But there are new dangers for losing data in the golden age of computing having to do with a piece of technology that hackers love to loathe, Digital Rights Management which is usually not the prime concern of anthropologists, but of geeks and other netizens.

However, it is something that anyone who uses digital technologies for data gathering and recording, should really care about. The story below is from a fellow University of Chicago anthro grad student whose data was lost through a hard drive crash. He of course made backups, like any sensible person should do. But since he had to transfer the backups to a new computer, the hardware does not recognize it, being that it can only be used on the original harddrive where it was first placed. Below is the full story. If anyone is interested in cracking this format, or any solution, don’t hestitate to email me as this person is still actively looking for soltutions to this problem.

The story is basically as follows. I’ve been using a Sony Minidisc to record interviews and various other events for the past year, for my dissertation fieldwork. After recording anything, I would come home, transfer the files from the Minidisc onto my laptop, back them up on a CD, and just for safety also on a secure server. I would then delete them from the minidisc. About two weeks ago my HD crashed, looks like a mechanical problem. It would just go dead or restart a few moments after being turned on. A couple of times it lasted just long enough in windows to let me see that the files were all still there, and even open a couple. At a computer lab here they first formatted it, because I told them I had all my important data backed-up, which I thought I did. They realized then it was beyond redemption, and installed a new HD instead. I still have the old one, but it’s now both a mechanical problem and the discs being formatted. After re-installing everything on my new HD and recovering all my backups, I imported the audio files into SonicStage 3.2, which recognized them and added them to it’s library, but wouldn’t let me play them or do anything with them. The files are in Sony ATRAC3 and ATRAC3-Plus formats, with .oma and .omg endings. SonicStage either tells me the there is invalid rights management information in the OpenMG content (for .omg files), or first asks me whether I would like to connent to the internet to download the license for the content, and then gives me the message about invalid rights information (for .oma files). Another program, HiMDRenderer, which can convert ATRAC3 files into wav, also doesn’t let me convert the files or access them in any way. Audio I’ve recorded with the minidisc and imported into my computer after installing the new hard-drive works fine – I can listen to it in SonicStage or convert it to wav. I also tried installing the atrac codec and use sndrec32 to play it, but this won’t work either. In internet forums I’ve seen other postings of people who had similar problems, it seems like the Digital Rights Management system only allows certain files to be played on the original computer, and renders them unreadable elsewhere.