Some of us knew this 30 years ago [LWN.net]

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 25, 2013 19:38 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
In reply to: Some of us knew this 30 years ago by shmerl
Parent article: Android 4.3

LOL. You might have drank Stallman's brand of KoolAid, but the reality is quite simple.

Users like movie rental services. These services are exceedingly popular and they get more users each year. And piracy actually falls in the countries where these services are introduced exactly because they are easier to use.

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Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 25, 2013 22:16 UTC (Thu) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link] (3 responses)

> And piracy actually falls in the countries where these services are introduced exactly because they are easier to use.

What does it have to do with DRM? They can be easy to use and DRM free. There is no reason for them to use DRM, since it's not the DRM that reduces piracy, it's as you yourself said - the comfort of the service. DRM adds nothing to the comfort (it only hinders it), as well as it doesn't stop piracy. So what's the point in using it?

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 0:07 UTC (Fri) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] (2 responses)

First things first: I agree that the use of DRM constitutes Sufficiently Advanced Incompetence. (grr license servers grr)

Nevertheless, there is a reason: it makes them feel warm and fuzzy that their copyrighted content is "protected". It's not a good reason, but it's certainly a reason.

The fact that a certain kind of freeloader has been treating content protection schemes as a challenge - even when they don't want the actual protected content - since the days of 6502 and Z80 home microcomputers is not on the radar of the people making the decisions, and the engineers who could say "no, go away, don't be stupid" find themselves ignored in favour of the ones who say "oh all right then".

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 2:19 UTC (Fri) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]

> there is a reason: it makes them feel warm and fuzzy that their copyrighted content is "protected"

I think they aren't that stupid. Most these days realize fully that DRM does nothing to prevent piracy. DRM is used for different reasons IMHO. Firstly to control the technology advancement (there were a few articles about that). Secondly as an excuse for incompetence. I.e. if some publisher doesn't do well having poor sales, they can always blame the pirates, and say - "at least we weren't sitting idle, we put the DRM on it!". Of course they won't say that they attempted to sell something that few people want to buy to begin with and that's what's causing their poor sales.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 2:22 UTC (Fri) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]

> The fact that a certain kind of freeloader has been treating content protection schemes as a challenge... is not on the radar of the people making the decisions

Yes, a very good point. Existence of DRM itself only motivates pirates to strip it and redistribute the content. It's not exciting for them to pay attention when something is DRM free to begin with.