A couple of days ago, Steve Jobs posted an open letter regarding DRM. Since then several others have responded to the letter. Some against it (RIAA of course :neutral: ), others in favor of it.
Today, I ran into an open letter by MacroVision. These are the guys that made it impossible (euh.. well... a bit harder actually) to copy the old VHS tapes. They can't agree with Steve, cause that would put them out of business. So they came up with some bery intelligent (NOT) reasons why DRM is good for the consumer:
DRM is broader than music
Sure, for them. Just put the bloody stuff on everything. Music, Video, Software. If they have the chance they'll probably put it on a sandwich.
DRM increases not decreases consumer value
With DRM, I can't put my purchase music or movies on another player or play it under Linux. If I want to do that, I have to BUY it several times. And that puts more money into their pockets.
The funniest line in that paragraph is probably: "Abandoning DRM now will unnecessarily doom all consumers to a "one size fits all" situation that will increase costs for many of them."
[sarcasm]Indeed going for plain-old mp3's, or mpg's/avi's cripples me to hell and back. Can't play it on anything these days.[/sarcasm]
DRM will increase electronic distribution
I don't get this one. It is well known that people don't want protected stuff. They want to play the things they bought on players they choose, and not just the players the RIAA and others decide. So removing DRM would mean that more people are able to play the content on their devices of choice. It would also open the entire Linux market (they are left out with all the DRM protected stuff).
More prospect customers means more transactions, or at least the number of customers / transactions would be the same. But if they stay the same, you get a bigger margin on sales, because you don't have to pay for the DRM licensing.
DRM needs to be interoperable and open
Can't argue with this one, but it means that they have to open the sourcecode, so that the Linux communitie can also use the technology. And we all know what that means... It means that all DRM will be cracked/circumvented within days, so that's not gonna happen ever.
Today, I ran into an open letter by MacroVision. These are the guys that made it impossible (euh.. well... a bit harder actually) to copy the old VHS tapes. They can't agree with Steve, cause that would put them out of business. So they came up with some bery intelligent (NOT) reasons why DRM is good for the consumer:
DRM is broader than music
Sure, for them. Just put the bloody stuff on everything. Music, Video, Software. If they have the chance they'll probably put it on a sandwich.
DRM increases not decreases consumer value
With DRM, I can't put my purchase music or movies on another player or play it under Linux. If I want to do that, I have to BUY it several times. And that puts more money into their pockets.
The funniest line in that paragraph is probably: "Abandoning DRM now will unnecessarily doom all consumers to a "one size fits all" situation that will increase costs for many of them."
[sarcasm]Indeed going for plain-old mp3's, or mpg's/avi's cripples me to hell and back. Can't play it on anything these days.[/sarcasm]
DRM will increase electronic distribution
I don't get this one. It is well known that people don't want protected stuff. They want to play the things they bought on players they choose, and not just the players the RIAA and others decide. So removing DRM would mean that more people are able to play the content on their devices of choice. It would also open the entire Linux market (they are left out with all the DRM protected stuff).
More prospect customers means more transactions, or at least the number of customers / transactions would be the same. But if they stay the same, you get a bigger margin on sales, because you don't have to pay for the DRM licensing.
DRM needs to be interoperable and open
Can't argue with this one, but it means that they have to open the sourcecode, so that the Linux communitie can also use the technology. And we all know what that means... It means that all DRM will be cracked/circumvented within days, so that's not gonna happen ever.