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Declaration of InDRMpendence (ZDNet)
ZDNet's David Berlind is beginning to understand the problem with DRM schemes. "You shouldn't take any of this to mean that I don't believe in compensating content copyright holders with whatever royalties they're due (DRM's other role is to assure such compensation to some extent). But as long as DRM technology stands in the way of legitimate use of the content that I've paid for, I as an informed buyer will vote with my dollars by going elsewhere for my content (for example, sites where the artists offer their music for free). You should too."
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Declaration of InDRMpendence (ZDNet) Posted Oct 6, 2005 17:58 UTC (Thu) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link] >I as an informed buyerWhat about the big lump in the middle of the distribution, whose money, like the wool of the sheep, awaits shearing by some mediocre 'artist' with recycled product and a primo advertising campaign? DRM, like narcotics traffic, wouldn't exist in the absence of a market. I think a better question is, how can we ensure that untainted hardware remains available?
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 6, 2005 19:20 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link] The only way I see to keep DRMed hardware off the market is to persuade journalists (like this Berlind) to pan any such hardware. The problem is that you can't necessarily tell it's there until some DRMed content hits it, and if they are clever they'll wait a couple of years before putting the screws on content. Then, reviewers won't be able to point to anything the hardware can't play, or won't let you extract, etc., and it will all seem moot until it's too late.
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 6, 2005 20:03 UTC (Thu) by thoffman (subscriber, #3063) [Link] Why do we care about DRM'ed content and the "content industry", really?
There's a lot of options. First, as long as you can buy CDs which play in old CD players (many of which have digital outputs) there will be perfect digital transfers available to encode and play on your player of choice.
Second, if the industry transitions away from real CDs to a new DRM'ed format, well, there's hundreds of millions of good used CDs out there. Cheap!
Third, there are lots of groups and individuals creating great new music which is either not yet (or never will be) commercially successful. It's available for free or paid download, or by purchasing unrestricted CDs directly from the bands.
And if all else fails, you can listen to live music in bars and coffeeshops everywhere, and even learn to play an instrument or sing!
Outside of music... well, there's books, magazines, movies, TV, and software.
I don't see the end of the paper book & magazine publishing industry any time soon, and that's my preferred format for text.
For movies, I rarely want to see anything more than once so I don't mind getting whatever restrictive player is required (DVD players cost about $50 now) and just renting the content for a few bucks. No, I don't really want to watch movies on my Linux laptop, I want to watch them on my big TV with surround sound. So the DRM on movies doesn't affect me at all.
I don't watch TV, and I've been free-software only since 2003.
So what's the problem?
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 6, 2005 21:44 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] First, as long as you can buy CDs which play in old CD players (many of which have digital outputs) there will be perfect digital transfers available to encode and play on your player of choice. "As long as" is imperative word here. How easy is it to buy vinyl today ? You can be prtty sure CD will be just as rare 10-20 years from now. Second, if the industry transitions away from real CDs to a new DRM'ed format, well, there's hundreds of millions of good used CDs out there. Cheap! Audio CD are not everlasting - vinyl was numbered in hundreds of millions as well. Outside of music... well, there's books, magazines, movies, TV, and software. And there are also legal papers, notes from your boss (with MS Office 2003 they can be non-forwardable and non-printable) and a lot of other things. I don't see the end of the paper book & magazine publishing industry any time soon, and that's my preferred format for text. There are a lot of places where you already obliged to use some computer format. And DRM makes it effectively first-amendement-free zone. With quite nasty consequences in the future. So what's the problem? The problem is that if we don't fight DRM not this future will be in 2015, not in 2047... DRM is not just about music and films. It's just problems with music and films are the most acute today... Once DRM will be firmly established we'll live in Orwell's world - no changes to law are required!
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 7, 2005 11:20 UTC (Fri) by climent (subscriber, #7232) [Link] There's a lot of options. First, as long as you can buy CDs which play in old CD players (many of which have digital outputs) there will be perfect digital transfers available to encode and play on your player of choice.Unless your player of choice refuses to play something that is not DRM protected...
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 13, 2005 13:07 UTC (Thu) by MathFox (subscriber, #6104) [Link] There's a lot of options. First, as long as you can buy CDs which play in old CD players (many of which have digital outputs) there will be perfect digital transfers available to encode and play on your player of choice.CDs and DVDs are the most common media formats at the moment and they will remain best-sellers for the immediate future (say 5 years). There will be a market for CD capable players for the next 15-20 years. The only way to get rid of those players earlier would be to outlaw production and/or sales. Parliaments will avoid supporting a law that will devalue the CD collections of their voters... The pigopolists can not strongarm the electronics manufacturers without being hit with antitrust investigations and sanctions. So I have reason to believe that players for ordinary CDs will be available for another 15 to 20 years. (Those players might play dozens of DRMdisks at that time too...)
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 10, 2005 7:07 UTC (Mon) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link] Third, there are lots of groups and individuals creating great new music which is either not yet (or never will be) commercially successful. It's available for free or paid download, or by purchasing unrestricted CDs directly from the bands. And for how long will they be able to get hold of CD writers to put their stuff into a format you can play? Cheers,
The uninformed masses Posted Oct 7, 2005 16:19 UTC (Fri) by fergal (subscriber, #602) [Link] I'm hoping that the tragedy of the commons will kick in here. Although it makes sense for the industry to collectively hold off on "putting the screws on", the individual companies will hopefully be too short sighted and greedy to resist.
Also the manufacturers are unlikely to add an expensive part to their products now for content that won't be available for another 2 years, at least, many of them will not do it, those tied to labels might.
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