DRM: Great for screwing your customers
It’s not a big secret that I’m against DRM, or that I think that the actions of Big Content (RIAA, MPAA or any other AA) are just plan wrong-headed.
Every so often I stumble across an article like this, and I just have to laugh.
It is going to be virtually impossible for any content company to make the “perfect” copy protection. The only way to ensure that content is perfectly safe from copying is to make it perfectly safe from consumption. Meaning the only way to prevent Phantastik Phreak the hacker from copying your song is to prevent Joe Average User from ever listening to it. The so-called copy protection that they’re using now excels at stopping poor Joe Average, but does little to nothing against Phreak.
Simply put, there is NO way that a content company can secure their content without eliminating their entire industry. Whatever impediments they try to put in place, whatever tactics they try to implement, are ultimately not capable of stopping someone both determined and skilled enough from copying that content. Pursuing this “arms race” of copyright protection vs. copyright violation is merely delaying the inevitable. Specifically, the content companies must realize that they need to undergo a paradigm shift, changing their entire outlook on the way they make money from their content. Otherwise, they face a guaranteed obsolescence.
Face it: there’s little to no reason to pay for something when you can get a more useful version for free.