The Tao Of DRM

from the seeking-enlightenment dept

Ed Felten has posted a humorous look at the Digital Media Project's recommendations for an interoperable DRM platform. The inherent contradictions in "interoperable DRM" aside, the recommendations read more like a Taoist tract than a technological treatise. (And one that incidentally ignores specific application of copyright law.) A work is defined with phrases like "logical construct" and "physical representations," topped off with this line: "The Work is somewhat like an invisible hand that gives shape to a glove." Ah, we get it now. It's just like the way Music is the invisible voice that gives shape to the stereo. Or how DRM is the invisible technology that gives hope to the dying business model.