I realize that I am taking an unpopular opinion on here, but I do not see DRM in this regard as absolutely horrible. I would love to live in a fairlyland without DRM, but that is probably not realistic.
I love watching Netflix. If the choice is to have DRM as a standard that means that I can watch Netflix on any computer, or choose no standard DRM so I have to use Microsoft Silverlight or Adobe Flash to watch Netflix on a PC (Linux need not apply). then having DRM as the standard is the less obnoxious of the two.
Putting my asbestos underwear on now…
That’s a weird thing to say, given we’ve been living in that unrealistic fairyland for the past twenty to thirty years.
I am not sure that I understand your point? DRM has not been a part of the HTML standard, that is true. But because of this, I remember having to install Microsoft Silverlight to watch Netflix. I do not really use Amazon video unless it is on my Roku, so I do not know what they used.
Simply stated, movie studios do not want people to stream movies unless DRM is involved. It just makes sense to have the DRM be as simple and unobtrusive as possible.
I wish that we COULD live in a world without DRM. I do not buy games with burdensome DRM. I avoid Electronic Arts because of the bloody abortion that they call “Origin” (I tolerated it enough to finish Mass Effect 3 and then ripped it out of my computer). I do own some stuff that uses Steam, but that is as far as I will go. Generally, I get my games from GOG.com or Humble Bundles (prefer the ones that are DRM-free). When I buy e-books, I try to get DRM-free also (O’reilly books are awesome for technical stuff). However, going completely DRM-free is impractical unless you are willing to not watch any blockbuster movies in the same decade that they are made. Even DVDs have DRM (although it is trivial to crack).
In a sense DRM as merely an extension of Copyright in the printed word we have had it for many, many centuries.
Author Thomas Babbington Macaulay has a splendid rant against the whole idea in the British House of Lords. Macaulay argued that copyright is a monopoly and as such has generally negative effects on society.
Personally I loathe and detest DRM. This even though for much of my life I have been an author and a publisher. I have had my work stolen by some of the best people. I find it flattering.
I may not have had enough experience in the wider area to comment. I do not play electronic games so DRM only applies to me when it comes to books where I gleefully rip it out. Easy to do using the free program Calibre with which I have no connection except as a happy user…
Gareth Powell
sorgai.com
Netflix, the BBC and other big rightsholders…
What an interesting use of the word “rights.”
If any such thing is agreed I hope it actually works better than the Magna Carta - as soon as he got wind of that the Pope issued an edict nullifying it, and even without that happening King John went straight back to scrapping with his barons about exactly the same things as before anyway, ignoring what they’d agreed. The Magna Carta only really became important in retrospect some centuries later
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
