Why you may be wondering? Why is DRM so bad? You may also be thinking that this post is VERY old news, however I wanted to share my views in these changing times.
DRM is in everything these days; E-Books, Music, TV Shows, Movies, DVDs and even Software!
DRM is bad because only the paying customers are losing out! You may ask why? The main reason is the restrictions that DRM puts on the paying customer. If I downloaded {Untitled Movie} I can get it in full HD, play it on any device (within reason) and I’m not forced to watch anti piracy or other adverts. However If I was to buy the DVD I would be forced to watch several “Warning Videos” that I’m unable to skip, I’m unable to take a copy for my media centre and much more. There is an image taken from makeuseof.com that clearly shows this.
Process for Pirate Film Vrs. Retail DVD
Lets move on with something more comparable, a DRM movie file and a DRM free version. Despite the fact that movies can only currently be downloaded with DRM there is still thousand’s of copies available to download on the black market free of charge without DRM. Not only does this prove how ineffective DRM is against protecting movies, but that their customers want DRM free movies.
My media center does not support DRM movies, my only choice is DRM free movies, so sadly ease of use is not an option for me, and in order to view the content I buy I have no choice but to remove the DRM. (Currently it is not ilegal to remove DRM in Guernsey). However we do have some very strong copyright laws.
E-books:
I’ve had an Ebook reader for about 9 months now, and its great! The only problem is getting hold of books that work with my Sony Ebook reader. The Kindle has most the rights which only damages their sales overall, (as they are locking out a big share of the market). This is yet another reason to be be against DRM, how can you have a product that you refuse to sell to a customer just because they are not using a known device.
The Way Forward:
So by now you should have a good idea that I think the way things should go are without DRM, and some people are leading the way. However sadly too many companies are sticking to the rule of DRM protects them, while we know from the above DRM does little to protect their products, and only halms their paying customers.
Music Industry:
Ok, so some parts of the music industry have been learning by selling some of their limited music DRM-Free, however this was usually at a more expensive price! How is that fair? They need to sell all their music at a fair price DRM Free, ideally at the same price point at least between the UK and USA.
Paving the way:
One author has to be highly recommended, he gives all his books away for FREE and he refuses to allow any of his E-books to be released with DRM. The only thing he asks if you like the book, please go out and buy the hard copy. I started with one of his short stories (0wnz0red). I’ve just started one of his novels (Little Brother) and due to this I’m now going to start buying his books!
Cory Doctorow does a lot of work promoting DRM-Free and relaxed CopyRight, and all of his books are released under the CC License, Its the same license I publish my blog under which allows you to copy content for non-comercial use, (Please see below for full details). Cory’s views on CopyRight can be found HERE. If you have time, try and take a look at the previous link for more in depth view on the issues surrounding Copyright, it makes for interesting reading. If you are interested in reading any of his books take a look at his site.
What have they got to lose?
While I think Cory Doctorow may be one extreme, I feel there is a very good middle ground.
Books:
For books, they should give away free e-books with their hard back editions. For E-books they should be available in DRM-Free formats. I remember hearing in the news one of the new Harry Potter books was transcribed by a mass of people within hours of being released and put online!
Music:
Remove DRM from all CDs, and make all Downloads DRM-Free
TV & Film:
You guessed it Remove DRM from all DVDs/Blu-Ray as well as from digital copies.
What have the above industries got to lose from trying the above? Nothing as each industry already has people who break the DRM and release it within hours of release, their DRM is doing nothing but make their customers life’s more difficult.
The DRM & Copyright- Only The Paying Customers Lose Out! by lukecummins.me.uk, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
So, Luke, did you actually buy one of Cory Doctorow’s books?
In a related topic, one thing I like about Apples AppStore is that it is so convenient. The same goes for Steam, the service where you can buy games. I will gladly pay for the convenience.
So I agree with you. The legal versions of media must be at least as convenient as the illegal version. If the illegal stuff is both free AND more convenient, it’s a difficult task to convince people to buy it. But switch it around and make the legal stuff as, or maybe even MORE convenient, than the illegal stuff, then sales will soar. That is the case with Steam which is a great success.
Hey Niels,
Not yet, but it’s on my wish list, I plan to buy a couple this year. (I’ve just changed jobs, and am a little short on reading time).
You’re right the apple store is nice, and easy, the only downside is that they really restrict what goes on there (thats both good and bad).
Personally I tend to play games on my PS3 and not on PC so haven’t used Steam yet.
However its good to see people on the same wave length, who are willing to pay for easy legal access to media.