Once Again, How Does DRM Benefit Anyone?
from the we're-waiting... dept
Drew points us Shane Richmond's blog post about not being able to open legally obtained eBooks due to DRM. There's nothing new in this story -- which has been repeated thousands of times over the past decade or so, but it's just a reminder of the pointlessness of DRM and how the only thing it serves to do is to make the legitimate consumer worse off:Can we pause for a moment to remind ourselves just how absurd this situation is? It's been a problem for so long that sometimes it's easy to take it for granted but we are being sold products that work in one set of circumstances but not others. And there's no good reason for the distinction. It's not as if this is a piece of software that needs to be re-written for each new platform -- it's just text.It really is amazing that anyone still thinks DRM makes sense.
The limitation is artificial and it's only there to prevent unauthorised copying but it's a wasted effort because anyone who intends to share these books can remove the DRM in no time. As always with DRM, it's the law-abiding customer who gets punished.
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Well, for one...
I mean, come on. It's not as if people will stop buying their stuff...
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WELL...
EA has done it, and SCREW'D themselves many times even with Single player games. Its been cracked and broken TONS of times.
The only persons reaping rewards are the person SELLING IT.
Even with the check marks in the program..Audio FAILS if the corp drops out..either one.
All I wish to say...Is IF' you wish a list of public domains ASK...its a BIG LIST, and free.
What I LOVE' is when a public option is available and IDIOTS PAY FOR IT.
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Re: WELL...
It benefits the DRM companies, but that's about it that I can see.
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Re: Re: WELL...
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I know this one.
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I know this one.
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Re: I know this one.
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Re: Re: I know this one.
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Re: Re: I know this one.
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The History Of DRM.
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Re: The History Of DRM.
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Send Them A Message
The advantage of staying right away from DRM-infected products is that, when inevitably the poor sheeple find they have been betrayed and their DRM-infected product stops working, you are unaffected. As a consumer, you should favour only vendors who make their best effort to keep you happy. Vendors have to learn that you hate DRM, you are paying attention and DRM being present will kill any chance of a sale.
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The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
I found, er, a workaround. But I was instantly transformed from a law-abiding content-consuming citizen into a crook, thanks to the DMCA. All because some lame DRM-beholden company decided my home movies were copy-protected when they in fact were not. Happy but ironic ending is that now that I am a crook, I find that I, um, 'enjoy' more things now.
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Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
Maybe we should start a marketing campaign:
"DRM is a gateway drug......to Piracy"
After all, once you go through the trouble of figuring out how to bypass DRM on something you own you realize how easy it is. Combine that with the ill will one is filled with after having to go through such a process for their own property and all of a sudden it becomes very easy to shrug away any "morality" about it and hit up the Bay.
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Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
The hidden cost of ignorance.
User manuals are a wonderful thing.
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Re: Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
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Re: Re: Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
I'm starting to suspect we live in a very stupid place in time.
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Re: Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
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Re: Re: Re: The *hidden* cost of DRM ...
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it's false sense of security...
and it makes them sleep better at night....
and how can you put price on good night of sleep???
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Ubisoft also feeling the heat.
"there was a period of time where all the pirated versions were the only working copies of the game while all the people that legally paid for their game wound up being locked out of their purchase."
You got love pirates for that, offering the only functioning pieces available, without them people would be entrapped by control freaks.
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While DRM is at present more aspirational than actual...
However, there's a bigger purpose for DRM, and that's to *create* "pirates". It's very simple: the gov't needs criminals to justify the police state measures, and small ones will do better than large ones: more of them, easier to catch, less risk for the epsilon minuses. Those who evade DRM self-identify as relatively technically adept, and thereby potentially dangerous to the alphas. It's a quite ingenious scheme, with a cover that's also useful in the interim. So expect an increase of DRM because this paragraph *answers* the title question.
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Re: While DRM is at present more aspirational than actual...
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/22/samsung-blu-ray-players-wont-play-warner-universa l-movies-afte/
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Ummm
But it does nothing else but piss people off.
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LoL ebooks...
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Re: LoL ebooks...
Theyre too much hassle at this time.
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Re: Re: LoL ebooks...
FWIW There are a lot of ebooks that you can get unprotected, its just a little more work to get them on the device.
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Music Suppliers
Where are the rights of the consumer?
Take a Recent CD and digitize it, and Media players grab/check the DRM on the net and encode it. WHY??
ALL its doing is bulking up the hardware, software, and adding COSTS we dont need. ALL passed onto the consumer.
from Music, TEXT, movies and games..HOW much does it cost to use it? TONS.
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Why do we have DRM anyway, DRM hurts honest people, because of the dishonest ones.
Its as simple as that, do you think they would bother with DRM is there was not a problem with piracy?
Ofcourse not.. that would be stupid.
They see a problem, and have taken measures to rectify that problem. I know you dont see it as a problem, and you expect that it will take "NO TIME" to break DRM, NOT TRUE.
It will always take SOME TIME, and there will be a point where the time it takes to break it would mean its is simply cheaper and easier to purchase a legal copy.
DRM does not worry legal users, there are very very few cases where legit users have problems, they do exist. But the system would not work as well as it has if there were major problems.
And what are you going to do when companies implement hardware encryption, with NO PHYSICAL access to the code or data ?
Its happening now, that technology is allready developed and it is being implemented.
There will be NO CRACKING of DRM or copyprotection then, NONE AT ALL. It will not be physically possible to crack.
Because companies will install encryption in hardware, and before they ship that hardware they will 'blow' the fuse bit on the CPU to physicall disable access to that code. FOR EVERYONE. including the manufacturer.
And your screwed, nothing you can do, except play by the rules.
And why do we ALL have to deal with this ?
Its because of YOU, those who want to break DRM and those who want to break copyright law.
You are screwing it up for the honest people, but it seems you cant see that is what you are doing.
That is the really sad part, your screwing it up for everyone else, and you dont seem to care. As long as you get what you want right... F*&^ everyone else !!!..
Nice attitude..
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Re: Why do we have DRM anyway, DRM hurts honest people, because of the dishonest ones.
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Re: Re: Why do we have DRM anyway, DRM hurts honest people, because of the dishonest ones.
As for the pie-in-the-sky wishing that people won't pirate, it's never going to happen. You'd be better off wishing for world peace, or an end to world hunger. Meantime, I'm afraid you'll have to live in the real world, which the labels and publishers are increasingly struggling to do themselves.
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Stupidity is a poor defense.
"im so stupid that I did not know the law", is right up there with the devil made me do it, or 'voices in my head', or under to influence of some drugs.
There is little wonder that such defense does not work very often. Ignorance is no excust for breaking the law.
"Honestly, officer I did not see the speed limit sign",
So what, it does not change the speed limit here because your too stupid to know what it is !.. here is your ticket, have a nice day..
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In other news
In the wake of the crash in the housing market, the furnitures makers are seeing a significant fall in revenues. In a new initiative to recoup their losses, the the FMAA, the Furniture Manufacturers Associaion of America has announced a new technology they call FRM or Furniture Rights Management.
According to the association, instead of buying new furniture, consumers are simply moving their old furniture from house to house, even from room to room, causing massive losses, billions of dollars according to estimates, to the fruniture industry. The association goes on to underline the vital importance of furniture manufacturing to the economy and security of the nation.
Using advanced GPS and internet technology, FRM allows the furniture manufacturer to lock a piece of furniture to a specific location. In the event that the furniture is moved more than a specified distance, drawers and cupboards are locked.
Says the FMAA :
'Further developments of this technology will allow us to lock other types of furniture such as beds and chairs'
While the technology is expensive, the FMAA is lobbying for congress to mandate FRM in all new furniture and says that with such a measure the industry would recoup its development costs "within a decade".
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Ebooks and DRM
I will not circumvent what is legal, but I can and did stop buying books (and going to movies, and ...) except on a very occasional basis, and my extended family is moving that way because I don't want to.
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DRM (Digital Rip-off Music)
Total waste of money!
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