The UK Parliament on DRM

The UK Parliament on DRM

Posted Jun 9, 2006 2:50 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
Parent article: The UK Parliament on DRM

Whatever the dangers are perceived to be, locking up material "forever" is somewhat of a theoretical issue at the moment, since, in practice, material is very seldom available in a single format; and, for new material created today, unfettered access will not be an issue until very much later this century.

While it's true that "unfettered access will not be an issue until very much later this century" it's not a reason to be complacent. Open this page and scroll down to "Looking for Astro Boy film prints". As you can clearly see it's real practical problem already: some materials are only available as "customer copies" (DRMed is media industry will have it's way). Copyright holder does own copyright (Astro Boy copyright will not expire for a long time yet), yet it does not have copies anymore! While this situation is not ideal (often master-copy has better quality - or higher bitrate in digital age) sometimes it's the only option available.

If we are forced to use customer copies of TV shows back from 1960th then what reason do we have to claim that this process will not be necessary 50 years later for today's shows ? While this is "far in the future" it's valid concern as the history shows!

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