What is DRM?
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management but I like to call it Digital
Restrictions Management because it isn’t about giving you more rights, it is
about imposing more and more restrictions. DRM is a technological way for
someone other than you to control how, when, and where you use content. By
content I mean, electronic books, digital music, DVDs, CDs, photographs, printed
materials, etc. There is a thirst for content by the consumer today and an even
more insatiable thirst to “lock down” that content by the providers.
Don’t we need DRM with all of the piracy?
The plain and simple answer is no. This is complete marketing spin. Content
providers want all of us to believe that piracy is out of control and that
without DRM measures the entire industry would collapse. The truth of the matter
is that DRM does nothing to stop piracy. Every single anti-copying measure on
the market today can be simply and easily circumvented by pirates. The average
person may not be able to do it but this stuff is a no brainer for a pirate.
If DRM isn’t about stopping piracy, what is it about?
DRM is about locking out the competition, whereby locking in consumers. Take the
iPod for example. Songs downloaded from iTunes can never be played on any other
MP3 player on the market because the DRM used is proprietary and only iPods know
how to play it. Apple could license its DRM but it doesn’t because it locks out
the competition which is good for their bottom line. Songs downloaded from
iTunes will not play in any other device on the market. In fact, the DMCA would
make it illegal if they did (more on that later).
So you mean my iPod and iTunes has DRM?
Even though it is probably the most flexible DRM out there, it is the worst
kind; DRM that cannot be licensed or used with any other devices for
interoperability. On top of that, there are a number of content providers (like
Sony) who are creating CDs that won’t allow you to put those songs on your iPod.
There is somewhat of a VHS/Betamax format war going on but this is much worse
because there are a number of competing proprietary DRM schemes.
Well I love my iPod and don’t plan on changing.
This is all good right NOW. But will you be able to say that in say 20 years? I
have CDs from the early 80s that still play on every single CD player made
today. I never have to worry about it. I never have to wonder about
compatibility. It just works. Because there is no standard in DRM, the content
you purchase today will not be compatible with the players of tomorrow. The
chances of your iTunes downloaded songs working on an iPod 20 years from now is
slim to none. It is this way because the hardware and software changes almost
daily. It is hard enough to keep the existing music compatible with the new
software yet along after 20 years and 20 thousand iterations. To think someone
will be able to track this is foolish.
Well, it’s just my iPod, no big deal right?
Wrong. The iPod and iTunes has opened Pandora’s Box so to speak. Apple has
proven that the business model works and now everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Every day companies are inventing new ways to remove you from your money. None
of these ideas truly benefits the end user; aka, you. Books, photos, DVRs
(Digital Recorders), Movies, TVs, DVDs, CDs all have DRM built in and it is
becoming more and more invasive. There are some schemes out there that change
your system config without your knowledge. They “phone-home” without your
knowledge or consent. They have built in mechanisms to “self-destruct”. The best
part about this is that the entertainment industry has lobbied the US government
so hard over the last decade or so that they have support in the law in
something called DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).
Well, it is my right to make a copy for personal use; isn’t it?
No. Not anymore. The DMCA makes it an illegal act to circumvent any copy
protections employed by the right holder. This trumps centuries worth of Fair
Use laws. On top of that, there are current bills circulating Congress right now
that will make it easier to sue “Joe User” for infringement than ever before.
There are countless cases where the courts have sided with companies due to the
DMCA where otherwise would have sided with the consumer.
I don’t care about any of this because it doesn’t affect me.
It currently may not directly affect you but it will affect everything near you
and around you in the next couple of years. Bruce Sterling from Wired magazine
says “You may not be interested in the digital rights war, but that doesn't mean
you'll have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. Because the other side is
very, very interested in you.” I am hoping this resonates with you because it is
a scary thing. Never before have we seen such a full assault on our personal
freedoms in the digital space. We are being assaulted from the courtroom. We are
being assaulted from the PR companies. We are being assaulted from our Congress.
We are being assaulted from our own hardware in our own homes. Whether you care
about it or not, there is, in fact, a digital rights war going on right under
your nose. It is only a matter of time before it affects something you know and
love or something you are bound to know or love in the future.
You mentioned courts. How are the courts assaulting us?
There are thousands of cases where the RIAA is suing its customers. There are
many cases where an 80 year old grandmother is being sued for pirating popular
Gangster Rap artists like “50 cent”. There are cases where the RIAA is suing a
dead person. There are cases where the RIAA is suing 8, 9, and 10 year olds.
There are cases where the RIAA is suing a college student and suggests he drop
out to pay for all of the fines. These are the types of people that want control
over your computer, your TV, your stereo, YOUR legally purchased content. These
are the people influencing YOUR politicians. These are the people who are
writing these ridiculous restrictive laws.
Well if you don’t pirate you have nothing to worry about.
Not so fast. Because distribution of digital content is so fast, easy, and
virtually costs nothing, conventional manual ways of tracking are totally
obsolete. Before the internet, it was fairly easy to track down pirates because
they needed physical space, they had physical media, and it cost them a bit of
money to distribute their pirated wares. Nowadays, anyone with a computer and
internet connection has the power to do this almost unnoticed. The need for
automated mechanisms to track and find pirates is the only way to attack piracy.
The problem is that automated systems see everything in black and white and they
are only as smart as the people that design and program them. Even then, there
are a multitude of bugs, loopholes, and general problems that one could run
into. These systems make mistakes and with all the new bills being make into
law, it will become harder and harder to defend oneself in the event of a false
accusation. So even though you are not a pirate, it is very possible that your
software/hardware may identify you as one.
Well the entertainment industry loses billions of dollars a year to
piracy. Something must be done!
This simply is not true. All of the studies commissioned are from someone that
has a financial stake in the industry. DRM software makers, copy protection and
security software makers, and content providers all want you to believe we need
this because it helps their bottom line. I’m not saying that there isn’t a
problem with piracy. What I am saying is that there isn’t AS BIG of a problem
with piracy as the industry would have you believe. How do you think they get
these numbers? They take the total number of software package installed divided
by the total number of software packages purchased. This gives them a piracy
percentage. How do you suspect they find out how many software packages are
installed on a given machine? The answer is they don’t and they can’t. It is an
impossible number to figure out. Instead, they use surveys and then extrapolate
whatever data they want. Don’t believe me, go check out a BSA study on the
subject. Within my blog I analyzed, paragraph by paragraph, a study done by the
BSA. It is laughable. Bottom line is that it is all propaganda to extend their
influence over your stuff using DRM. The entertainment industry will say that
every illegal copy of a piece of software, or a song, or a movie is a lost sale.
I say rubbish.
Makes sense that an illegal copy of a movie is a lost sale. What gives?
On the surface this may be true but you really need to look a bit deeper to
discover the truth. What is an illegal copy? According to US law, copying any
LEGALLY purchased movie, song, or other content for personal use is ILLEGAL if
there are any anti-copy protection measures at all on the source material. For
instance, if you rip a song from a Sony CD whose DRM only lets you make files
that are NOT compatible with your iPod, and subsequently change the format and
copy on your iPod, you are now breaking the law even though you have been able
to do this countless times in the past.. You are considered a pirate. You are
considered a lost sale. You can thank the DMCA for that. Let’s look at other
“lost sales”. Most of my friends pay for all the content they have but I have a
few friends that continue to obtain hacked or cracked copies of software,
movies, and music. When asked if they would purchase the hacked content if the
pirate copy wasn’t available, 9 times out of 10 they say no. They would NOT
purchase the content. These numbers don’t take this into consideration. They
consider this a lost sale whether the person would buy the content or not. The
entire basis for calculating these figures is flawed and any number derived from
such a study is folly.
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