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Originally Posted by tribble
Have you ever thought, of what resources you need to do those things? Energy would be a major factor here. If you dont have that, you get shortages and delays. Who is paying for all that in the Star Trek Universe? Ever thought about that?
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Well, that's a natural barrier. But DRM is an unnatural barrier - it's deliberately reversing the new benefits technology has brought us for the sake of an old business model. It's not like running out of energy to make free food, it's like deciding apple farmers' income is more important than free food for everyone.
Before copyright existed, and before DRM, authors wrote books. Musicians wrote music, and artists created art. Suggesting that these things would cease without copyright and DRM is disingenuous. Business models made need to change, certainly. But to draw out the old chestnut, creating artificial barriers to hold back the march of progress is like creating laws to protect the buggy-whip manufacturers at the turn of the century. Sure, having automobiles changed many things for our society, some for the worse, but trying to hold back that progress is misguided and doomed to failure. Putting DRM on ebooks so that they act exactly like paper books is like putting speed limiters and hay-consumers on cars, so that they act exactly like horses.
Whole industries were wiped out when the world made that transition, and I'm sure it was difficult for those who had to change their way of doing things, but humanity as a whole is better off for it.