Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet
DVDs and Blu-ray also use DRM to prevent rampant unauthorised copying by the general consumer. There are few complaints about that because it also doesn't get in the way of normal usage.
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Actually, I have read a lot of articles on DVD and Blu-ray getting in the way of consumers. This is especially true of Blu-ray, and I know of a number of people that are usually early adopters avoiding them. The issue is the industry decided that DVD encryption was broken too easily and quickly, so with Blu-ray they made a system that could be upgraded when a device was cracked (and could lock out a device if desired). So you have stories of people that buy a movie, take it home, and all of the sudden, they have to go online to upgrade the player to watch the movie. I have read first hand accounts that the person spent over 3 hrs to upgrade to watch the movie they just bought. Worse, is when you find out that your device will no longer play the movie, because the MPAA decided that class of device was compromised and disabled it for all new releases.
What comes from this, is more people turn from Blu-ray, to piracy. Why, simply because they are being locked out and inconvenienced to prevent what is happening anyway. DRM is not working, and is causing the problem it is meant to curtail to actually grow.
Personally, I am voting with my wallet. I don't have a Blu-ray player. I don't buy books with DRM. And I don't download copies of books I don't buy. I would rather force any author/publisher/etc into obscurity rather than support a system that deems me a criminal before I do anything. If I had one wish for the system, it would be that everyone did this. If all users refused to purchase DRM'd ebooks, also refusing to buy paper, but just do without, the system would change quickly. Either the ones DRM'ing content would go out of business, or they would change. The ones respecting their users would grow. Refuse to buy, and let the Author know why they lost you as a customer/reader.
--Carl