What happens with DRM in the real world

[AlexBell]

I interrupt attending to my email this morning to bring you news of a long but very interesting article by Cory Doctorow in this morning's Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ts-management?

I think it's well worth reading.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I interrupt attending to my email this morning to bring you news of a long but very interesting article by Cory Doctorow in this morning's Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ts-management?

I think it's well worth reading.

Thakns for the link, great article.

[crich70]

Thanks Alex. Interesting reading there.

[beachwanderer]

Thanks for directing me towards that one.

[banjomike]

Good article. And I learned a new word, "normative".

As others have said, it is an interesting read. That said, DRM does have benefits in certain circumstances. It is useful in the cases of lending and renting materials. In theory, it could be useful in the transfer of digital goods. (In practice, it does have the failings that Doctorow pointed out.)

The biggest problem with DRM isn't its existence. Rather, it is deceptive marketing. Many vendors present the purchase of DRMed materials as a sale. In reality, it is a license that may be terminated. This license is not perpetual, removes rights that the consumer would normally have, and has a multitude of privacy and security implications.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

As others have said, it is an interesting read. That said, DRM does have benefits in certain circumstances. It is useful in the cases of lending and renting materials. In theory, it could be useful in the transfer of digital goods. (In practice, it does have the failings that Doctorow pointed out.)

The biggest problem with DRM isn't its existence. Rather, it is deceptive marketing. Many vendors present the purchase of DRMed materials as a sale. In reality, it is a license that may be terminated. This license is not perpetual, removes rights that the consumer would normally have, and has a multitude of privacy and security implications.

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

[Catlady]

The article seemed over the top. Isn't it enough that DRM interferes with the paying customer's legitimate use of the material?

[Laridae]

Article is too long to read.

What does it say?

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Article is too long to read.

What does it say?

What does it say to you? Nobody can answer that except you.

[rjcroy]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Article is too long to read.

What does it say?

The irony of that in a forum about reading!

Laridae, take the time. It's a good article.

[ShellShock]

Thanks for posting the link. The article gives another very good reason why DRM is bad that I had not thought about. It would be possible for someone to hide malware (a virus etc) within a DRM'ed ebook; because the DRM encrypts the malware, it would not be spotted by your anti-virus software when you downloaded the ebook, but as soon as you open the ebook, the virus is activated and infects your machine.

I almost wish there was a real world case like this--the bad publicity may make the publishers think twice about using DRM.

The lesson: DRM means our devices are more vulnerable to attacks by malware.

[Katsunami]

Sony had DRM-ed CD's in the past that installed rootkits on the computer as soon as you tried to play the CD, to prevent it being ripped. Many computers had a lot of sudden, unexplained problems during the release of those CD's.

[goldilocks]

Thanks for the interesting article. I didn't think it was too long - I even read the comments!

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The article seemed over the top. Isn't it enough that DRM interferes with the paying customer's legitimate use of the material?

One of Doctorow's points is that at least one court ruled that the uses that DRM interferes with are, in fact, not legitimate uses specifically because the publisher intended that the customer not use their purchased media in those ways. Additionally, it's clear from just reading a few Mobileread threads about DRM and piracy that there is wide disagreement about which uses are considered legitimate.

The author is arguing that the negative aspects of DRM as enshrined in international law exist regardless of any argument about what uses are legitimate.