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

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 15:22 UTC (Fri) by shmerl (guest, #65921)
In reply to: Some of us knew this 30 years ago by khim
Parent article: Android 4.3

> DRM ensures that Joe Average will continue to pay - and it does that nicely.

DRM doesn't ensure that. If anything, DRM reduces the number of people who pay. As I said, availability of convenient services makes for people easier to pay. DRM does nothing to increase the amount of paying users - it does the opposite (decreases that amount).

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Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 22:50 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (4 responses)

That's nice theory, but it does not pass the reality check.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 28, 2013 6:16 UTC (Sun) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link] (3 responses)

What reality check is that? Care to share some numbers that demonstrate that DRM reduces piracy? You can't because there aren't any.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 28, 2013 15:24 UTC (Sun) by raven667 (guest, #5198) [Link] (2 responses)

Maybe to explain this another way, the extent to which DRM actually reduces piracy is not terribly important, the _belief_ that it does so by the content distributors _IS_ very important. As long as they believe that DRM is necessary to prevent rampant fraud they will continue to use it and it will be used on the legitimate store fronts for content.

Also, no everyone is comfortable with pirating content at all. I got into Linux and open source so that I could use the best software in the world legally with the appropriate licenses and with a clear conscience.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 28, 2013 22:19 UTC (Sun) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]

Instead of believing in ephemeral benefits of DRM which they can't even evaluate they should pay attention to the very practical and concrete issue of quality and usability which are reduced by DRM. I thought those are business people and not some wild gamblers who make their decisions based on random beliefs.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 28, 2013 22:22 UTC (Sun) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]

But I think they aren't so dumb as to cripple their own products based on some fake beliefs. There is more reason to assume that they use DRM for different purposes which have nothing to do with piracy. And those purposes can't possibly ever be good for end users.