Quote:
Originally Posted by poshm
Rant away  Actually it's very educational to me and I'm sure other people. I can't say I've ever spent too much time thinking about it, just always accepted that that's the way it is. Not that I'm a pushover because if there was an issue say that involved family or close friends then I wouldn't just accept it. But then I feel very strongly about family and friends. |
Well the realities are conveniently arranged in the favor of DRM advocates. For example, I'm an Apple fan. Seriously. I really like what Apple produces. So of course, every media device I own is an Apple device. I have 3 iPhones, one is my wife's one is inactive and one is mine. Then I have several iPods of various generations/sizes. I have an Apple TV (Which I love, btw) and then of course, I am one of those rare people who actually like organizing their media collection with iTunes (I have 920GB of media). So I use iTunes on my PC's that I have to use on occasion as well as all my Macs.
What does this have to do with DRM? Well I could go off buying all my music and movies with iTunes DRM on them, and never run into any trouble consuming said media in every place a person would normally expect to do so. But I still hate the DRM. And it's partly because I also own a Sony PlayStation 3 which plays all the same formats that apple sells but doesn't support the DRM. It's little things like that which break the facade of acceptability.
I mean really, what valid reason is there that I shouldn't be able to buy a movie on iTunes and play it on my PS3? Or hey, how about the opposite? I can't buy a movie on the Playstation network and play it on my iPhone either.
But my iPhones, PSPgo, PS3's, Sony Vaios, MacBook Pros, my *KINDLE 2* and even the Nintendo DSi can all play DRM-free m4a files (AAC) without issue. I have these things so I like having the choice of using whichever suits my scenario the best at any given time. DRM uselessly restricts that choice and that's what grinds my gears about it.
Another good example is DVD. I don't know for sure, but I seriously doubt that any normal consumer has the slightest clue that DVD's are encrypted and that they can't be decrypted by any random DVD drive out there. Your PC drive can't even decrypt the data (though it is a participant in that process) without software that does it. And that software, well it has to include code that is licensed by the DVDCA and the same thing goes for every DVD player out there that is legitimate. This is why the Wii doesn't play DVD's. It would reduce profits.
But, because DVD is such a ubiquitous format, and the exact same DRM scheme is used across 99.9% of DVD's ever made, nobody notices. So sometimes DRM doesn't produce that same kind of mass inconvenience for most people. It inconveniences me, because I like having all my media on a hard drive so I can stream it and search it and stuff. I ripped my DVD's but I think that's legally dubious under the DMCA (but I stand by fair use doctrine as I never share my ripped copies or even my original DVD's with anyone, they are all boxed up and serve as back-ups only.) It's totally legal to rip a CD though. No problems there, because there is no copy protection on a CD. CD ripping is popular enough (or was, anyway) that I think you might have really had a highly visible public backlash at copy protections there. Actually, to some degree this has happened in the rare cases that companies tried to inflict copy protection onto a CD (like Sony's rootkit, which is a kind of malware or virus, that degraded audio quality of a cd ripped on a windows computer.)
So.... I guess my point is that I completely understand why the general public doesn't get up in arms about these things. In fact, the most logical reaction to the limitations set by say... the Kindle, is to just not buy a kindle or any eBooks. I only care because I really like eBooks. I can't stand reading paper books because I'm born into the era of increasing convenience and it's shocking to me that one of the simplest forms of media to digitize–the written word–is only now becoming a big commercial concern. I, plain and simple, will not willfully read anything on paper. There's far too much content out there for me to feel like I'm missing out on anything truly fantastic. All the important works are public domain anyway, in one country at least, heheh. And for modern works, they're coming along... eventually. I have The Lord of the Rings! I mean... what else in the fantasy genre even matters? Wheel of Time? That's coming along and is enough to keep me busy for approximately 27 years...
So since I'm a big fan of eBooks, I can't help but constantly run into the DRM frustration. That frustration I recently found freedom from in the music world. The same frustration that controls the video world. 1 out of three... ain't... good... I just hope these other fearful "Intellectual Property" owners will see the light the way record companies finally did.
Wow, that was another long one. I think I'll try to make this my last iteration on the tired old DRM hate-parade. There is one last comment I wanted to bring up though.
I am fascinated by how little people care about DRM in certain specific areas. The main one is on video games. Video games have used copy protection mechanisms ranging everywhere from basic obfuscation all the way to literally intentionally damaged media (like cd's that are damaged in such a way that can be detected by copy protection software and prevent their use when the data comes from an image). And these days, all console games are encrypted one way or another. Nobody seems to care about that. And I suppose it's because those games won't work on another console anyway so there is little consumer value to having unfettered access. I think I'd like the ability to buy a nintendo DS game at the story then copy it onto an SD card and carry only that one card around with me, for example, but short of that... it doesn't affect me (the DRM that is).
Another area with a middle range of concern is video. Streaming video is becoming very popular with services like Netflix streaming or so on. It has DRM. Nobody cares. I've never read any complaints about DRM on these services. But I do see complaints about downloads. So perhaps it's a matter of the sense of ownership. If you don't feel like you own something you're less concerned with your freedom of usage of it maybe? Surely ubiquity plays into it as well. I used to subscribe to Rhapsody for music but I gave up because of the restricted number of ways I could access it.
Okay, enough novel-writing for tonight. I've got an obscure book by a little known author to read, um what is it called... Patriot Games by some Tom Clancy or something? I dunno ... He's sure no Ian Fleming though!