Let's start calling DRM what it really is. It is not Digital Rights Management...it is Digital Restrictions Management. For those of you who may be new to DRM and don't know much about it, I'll do my best to describe what "they" want you to believe and what it actually is....
Here is an exerpt from Microsoft on the benefits to consumers:
Digital distribution offers consumers a convenient way to access their favorite content at any time, and with content protected with Windows Media DRM 10 they'll have even greater flexibility and choice. Today consumers can choose from a variety of content service providers, a multitude of devices, and a variety of "purchase and download" payment options and subscription models. Windows Media DRM 10 ensures that consumers will be able to enjoy even greater flexibility and choice by allowing them to acquire and/or transfer their subscription content to the devices of their choosing.
Here is what this really means:
Digital distribution offers consumers a convenient way to access their favorite content at any time, and with content protected with Windows Media DRM 10 they'll have even greater flexibility and choice.
Digital distribution is absolutely convenient was to access digital content but in no way shape or form does the DRM provide greater flexibility and choice. This in fact, is a complete contradiction to what DRM is.
Windows Media DRM 10 ensures that consumers will be able to enjoy even greater flexibility and choice by allowing them to acquire and/or transfer their subscription content to the devices of their choosing.
This next section is a complete lie as well. Windows DRM will only work on devices that support it. This means that anything wrapped in Digital Restriction Management WILL NOT WORK on your iPod. I don't know about you but this isn't flexible for me.
Here is an exerpt from Apple:
The iTunes Music Store uses FairPlay, Apple's digital rights management system that's designed to be fair to the artist, to the record companies and to you. In a nutshell, your FairPlay agreement entitles you to play your music on up to five computers (and enjoy unlimited synching with iPods), allows unlimited burning for individual songs and lets you burn playlists up to 7 times each.
Here is what it really means:
Apple is a little more straight forward and doesn't lie at all with their marketing. Instead, they conveniently leave out critical information. If you have any other questions, you need to send them a form. So here are some of the things they don't tell you.
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If your hard drive crashes and you haven't backed up your purchased songs, you have lost everything with no way to recover them even though they have a running list of all the songs you have paid for.
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You will most likely NEVER be able to play songs downloaded from iTunes on any other device other than an iPod. Right now this may be fine because the iPod is a great device but at some point down the line it may break or another device may be better. None of your iTunes downloaded songs will work on any other device...EVER!
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Songs downloaded and wrapped with Microsoft Digital Restriction Managment will NEVER play on your iPod.
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iTunes does not really "sync" with your iPod. It overwrites what is in your iPod. So let's say your computer crashes and you lose all of your music. You say to yourself "well, it's on my iPod so I should be fine" but you would be wrong. The next time your hook your iPod to your computer (with a new or fixed hard drive), the iTunes installation will overwrite everything on the iPod with what it has locally. This means that it will wipe out your iPod and replace it with nothing. There are third party software makers that can extract the music off of your iPod but Apple doesn't tell you that.
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You cannot sell or give away songs that you have downloaded from iTunes unless you give out your iTunes account information. This calls into question whether Right of First Sale still exists. With DRM, it doesn't.
These are just two of the main companies that are pushing DRM. They want everyone to believe that DRM is a good thing and that they are fighting this global epidemic called piracy. This is all propoganda. Don't believe a single word. DRM IS ABOUT MAKING MORE AND MORE MONEY. NOTHING ELSE. DRM does not prevent piracy at all. I'll give you an example.
Let's say you're a pirate and you download music from iTunes. Sure, the first time you download it, it's protected and if you give that song to someone else they won't be able to play it without the proper username/password combination. But it is easily defeated. All you have to do is burn the song to CD and like magic, no more DRM. Now the pirate can free distribute the song and do whatever he/she wants with it. All DRM has done is added another step to the pirate process.
You may be saying to yourself, "well why don't you just do that too if you are so concerned" and the answer would be sure. I can do that too but I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO. I paid for it. I should be able to do what I want with it. Play it when and where I want. I have no intention of selling it to anyone. So you see, DRM is not about piracy. It is about making money. They want you to buy the same song over and over again.
I'll say it again, DRM IS NOT ABOUT PIRACTY, IT'S ABOUT MAKING MORE MONEY.