A Pragmatic Reason To Oppose DRM

05-05-2008 | 09:34 PM EST

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a general-purpose term that refers to technologies that limit or control the ways that an end-user can interact with a product. A great example of this is digital music that is stored in a file format that can only be used on a particular device or with specific software. If you've ever purchased a song off of Apple's iTunes music store, chances are you've encountered Apple's FairPlay DRM. And, if you ever wished that you could play that same song from iTunes on something that doesn't recognize the AAC format, you know what it feels like to hit a DRM wall.

Now, I've heard a lot of arguments against DRM that I found personally very convincing, but I can't count how many times I've seen these same reasons fall completely flat against other people. In these cases, it seems like the argument against DRM goes something like this:

Person 1: What will you do when you want to watch that movie on something other than what the DRM restrictions allow?

Person 2: But, I don't use anything else to watch movies.

Person 1: Okay, then how about when you want to listen to that music on something else?

Person 2: But, this is the only way I listen to music! I'm pretty happy to use everything exactly as the manufacturer suggests, so this DRM stuff really isn't an issue for me.

Okay, maybe that conversation was a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture. The bottom line is that there are some people that say they're happy doing what they're currently doing, they don't ever want to do anything different, so DRM's not a problem for them. I've often had a hard time knowing what to say to people like that, because I just can't imagine not at least wanting to know the freedom is there to do whatever I want with what I bought — even if I never do anything different than exactly what the manufacturer suggests. But, a recent article by the EFF about MSN Music and DRM got me thinking about a new angle to try when explaining the potential risks of using DRM restricted media and devices.

You can (and should) read the complete EFF story over there, but in a nutshell here's what they say:

"MSN Music sold song downloads encumbered with digital rights management (DRM), allowing the music to be played only on approved devices. If you upgraded your computer or operating system, you needed to 'reauthorize' your music files with MSN Music's DRM server. But last week, Microsoft announced that it would deactivate those servers because of the complexity of maintaining the technology -- meaning that customers face losing the ability to play their purchased music if they get a new computer or if the hard drive crashes on the old one. Microsoft's only suggestion for customers so far is to export all purchases onto a CD and then recopy it back onto new computers."

So, here's my new response to people who say DRM's not a problem, because they don't want to do anything different. Sure, you might be happy to keep doing whatever you're doing right now, but what happens when the manufacturers decide they don't want to do it anymore? At best, you'll get an apology and maybe some technically difficult or time-consuming way to recover your purchase; at worst you'll get an expensive pile of unusable media and devices!

COMMENTS

Be the first to post a comment!

ADD YOUR COMMENTS

NOTE: Required fields are marked with * below.

Please note that your name and URL, if provided, will appear with your comments on this website. Your email address will be kept for record keeping purposes only. For more information, please read the complete privacy policy.

Your Name:
Your Email:	Registered Users: You must enter your registered email address here to have your comment automatically posted.
Your URL:
Register Me:	What does this mean?
* Comments:
	Please enter the characters in the image below