The anti-DRM crowd has to be encouraged by some of the
latest bashing comments from researchers and thinkers.
Dr. Ian Brown,
Cambridge-MIT Institute senior research manager, spoke at the
Changing Media Summit this week, and he suggested that DRM wouldn't protect the music and film industries, who have spent the last decade lobbying for new laws to protect their content but neglected trying to find better ways to monetize their offerings.
"Software companies have sold DRM as solving problems it can't solve... Damaging to copyright law and public's respect for it, this 'newspeak' that goes on around DRM. Industry make blood-curdling pronouncements, conflating opening up standards with protecting copyright which is very damaging... As people come to understand the technology they see that it's the business models that need to change," he said.
As an example how to commercialize music without relying on DRM he mentioned the rock band U2, who, he claimed, doesn't make their money primarily from selling music, but instead use music as a tool to successfully promote their touring and merchandise.
On Brown's website I found
this older presentation which is related to what he said on the conference.