There's another possibility [LWN.net]

There's another possibility

Posted Aug 1, 2005 18:25 UTC (Mon) by felixfix (subscriber, #242)
Parent article: Microsoft's DRM vision

Remember (the original) DivX, where you paid $100 more for a DVD player with less functionality, and video rental shops couldn't quite figure out why they should stock DVDs that didn't require the renter to come back to the store to return them?

Remember copy protection on floppies?

Remember copy protection on CDs?

The great unwashed public has better things to do than worry about theoretical hassles in the future. They'd rather worry about what's on the bbq next weekend. But when they get hit directly by stupidity, they revolt. I simply can't see the mass of people putting up with such nonsense. Microsoft can put in all the DRM they want, but when people find they can't play CDs under normal circumstances, if they find out they can only play their rental DVD on one machine, and then only once, that they can't take it over to a friend's house for a second showing, that if they install certain games, the CD player stops .... people will complain, and it will be to Dell, or Gateway, or Microsoft itself, and those 800 calls will pile up. The advantage of having a great uninformed public is that when things go wrong they complain, without knowing they are supposed to put up with it. And when they find out the powers that be are trying to ram such stupidity down their throats, they get mad.

I simply do not believe this is going anywhere other than the same trash bin that holds the late unlamented DivX evaporating DVD.

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There's another possibility

Posted Aug 1, 2005 19:59 UTC (Mon) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

All true but don't extrapolate too far. Remember copy protection on DVDs?

There's another possibility

Posted Aug 1, 2005 21:19 UTC (Mon) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link]

I also know that the last three DVD players I have owned are region free and ignore Macrovision. Region encoding affects almost nobody, yet region free players are easy to get. Copy protection has an even more pitiful effect, yet is also ignoreable to those who want to.

I believe that if DRm were to intrude into Joe Sixpack's ability to share movies and record football games, there would be such an outrage at 800 call centers and people returning computers to stores so fast, that the DRM would be rescinded within days.

There's another possibility

Posted Aug 2, 2005 8:50 UTC (Tue) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Ross is right, don't extrapolate too far. Remember iPods, iTunes store and "FairPlay" DRM restrictions? Are people returning them to stores like crazy?

The difference

Posted Aug 2, 2005 14:04 UTC (Tue) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

But there is a difference here. The copy protection on DVDs hasn't ever
gone away. In fact, people don't seem to care about it. It is true that you
can pretend that CSS was never created but only if you are willing to break
the law. That's not the same as the other copy protection measures which
people outright rejected leading the company to go out of business or remove
the protection. Note I'm not arguing the protection is good or useful, just
that it is still there.

It's entirely too possible, given some self-control by the Dark Side

Posted Aug 1, 2005 23:21 UTC (Mon) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link]

The great unwashed public has better things to do than worry about theoretical hassles in the future. [....] But when they get hit directly by stupidity, they revolt.

If the studios have any self-control, they can take over. MS, Intel, Dell, HP, and friends, will happily sell the HW. Hold off invoking any of the restrictions, and people will buy it. Face it, those following this issue are a very small minority. Most of the public won't hear the warning voices, and those who do won't listen, because it's not affecting them.

Given the replacement rate, courtesy of Moore's Law, two-thirds of the hardware in use will quickly be subverted. (Three years? Five?) If the vultures hold off enforcing the restrictions until then, it'll be too late.

My hope, I believe well-founded, is that the studios won't be able to control their greed, and people will start getting hit while there's still time to reject the hardware.

Max ``who, me paranoid?'' Hyre

But that misses my point

Posted Aug 1, 2005 23:45 UTC (Mon) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link]

My point is that people WILL revolt, since in all their ignroance, they assume that once they have rented a DVD, they can play it anywhere, any number of times. Sure, if only a few geeks revolt, no one cares. But if even 1% of the Joe Sixpacks call 800 numbers or bring their PCs back to stores, it will destroy the system. Suppose the stores refuse to accept the returned PCs, or the 800 call centers tell them too bad. If even 1% of those who complain follow up with complaints to the PUC or the congress critters, that will get someone's attention.

Look. How many PCs are sold every year? Suppose it's 10 million in one shape or another. Suppose 100,000 (1%) try to take them back or call the 800 number. Suppose 1000 (another 1%) follow up with complaints to the political or legal system. That's a HUGE number. Congress critters don't like getting 1000 complaints. And it wouldn't be long before some class action lawyer smelled the money.

Even lead balloons fly for a short while, given enough launch money.

There's another possibility

Posted Aug 2, 2005 19:45 UTC (Tue) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

" Microsoft can put in all the DRM they want, but when people find they can't play CDs under normal circumstances, if they find out they can only play their rental DVD on one machine, and then only once "

You are forgetting about "global revocation list". they will allow people to do all that as long as they run only windows. Better they will force people to run only MS approved stuff, since common end users are not that so much more stupid then professional developers ans sellers since those later ones dont rebel to the point of adapting and overcome, and you expect end users to do so.

Soon will be the notion that only MS approved stuff work, and even as soon you put Firefox on it, the system can came to a very reduced functionality state.

Then it will be clear that the open source philosophy on Linux will be an effective proprietary party for big vendors, thought the code *is* open, and zealots of any kind only see this openess and forget that real freedoom only cames from controlling your live not from be habble to run all over the world, no matter how nice this last possibility looks.