The Case Against DRM (An Opinion)

The Case against Digital Rights Management

I’ve been struggling lately with a dilemma over a TV show. I started watching “Mad Men” after a friend told me about how good it is. I went into iTunes, downloaded the first episode, and enjoyed it quite a bit. After doing this, I immediately wanted more.

My sister Danielle also got into the show with me, and we watched a few episodes together. When schedules changed and I wanted to keep on; I kept watching the show, with the intention to give my sister a copy after I was done.

While in the kitchen cooking one afternoon, I decided to access my Network Attached Storage Device (NAS) from my Linux-based netbook, and open the latest episode of Mad Men I had downloaded from the iTunes store. To my dismay, the episode didn’t open and I wasn’t able to watch it on my netbook. Upon further investigation, I learned that the video was DRM protected. So much for sharing it with my sister.

This irritated me as I had thought the iTunes store had gotten rid of DRM altogether. Upon further investigation, I realized that they had only gotten rid of it for music, not movies and TV Shows. This was my own fault, as a consumer I should’ve been a little more steadfast in my research, before buying DRM-protected video.

While I understand the premise of Digital Rights Management, I feel that the industry view has been skewed on it for sometime. The respective recording and motion picture industries (RIAA and MPAA) have long been combating digital piracy online since the early 2000’s. Compression technologies and increasingly higher bandwidths have been allowing pirates to make 1:1 copies of movies and music and freely distribute them, without any royalties or compensation being paid to the artists. The MPAA and RIAA have been quick to point out all of their estimated losses over time, and how DRM is needed to protect their assets. What no one is pointing out however, is the cost or burden that the end consumer bears in the process.

What I don’t like about DRM is that I feel it takes away my rights. As with any other product, I feel that once I purchase something, I should be able to do with it as I please (within reason). I’ve postulated on this before, trying to see both sides of the fence on the issue.

Here is an example of how DRM irritates me:

My sister and I watch “Mad Men” together. I am paying $2.49 CDN per episode to watch these episodes legally on my AppleTV via iTunes. We can’t meet up to watch a few episodes one week, so I decide to send her the file over MSN/Skype. Once she gets the file, she cannot open it because it is DRM protected.

-Now. If I had purchased the actual season of Mad Men on DVD, I could easily just lend her my discs and let her catch up. What bothers me about this is that I essentially am paying the same price to get a virtual DRM’d copy (which I consider to be inferior to the actual DVDs) for the convenience. The only caveat with this convenience is that it comes with its limitations.

Although I enjoy the convenience of modern day digital distribution, I feel I had more rights 10 years ago. I could take a VHS tape, program my VCR to record a show, and then pass it on to family or friends. Provided they had a VCR, I could do this no problem without limitations. With digital distribution in its current state, this sort of behaviour (which was ok for the first 20 years of my life, btw.) is frowned upon, and I essentially feel I am being punished by a corporation who wishes to maximize profits, and doesn’t trust the consumer.

Aside from lending the TV show to my sister (which in itself can be a contentious issue, lending is typically frowned upon by the MPAA.), I am bothered by the fact that I cannot play the file on the device of my choice. In addition to my AppleTV and iPhone, I also have a Linux netbook, a PS3 and several DVD players. I can’t convert a video to make an archival DVD copy; I can’t stream it to my PS3 either. Now I am not a person that would openly pirate video and share it online; but I do feel that I have the right to use media any way I see fit within my home – provided I am not selling it or exploiting the copyright holder in any way. Also – if Apple were ever to go under (not likely, but what if?) what would happen to my DRM’d material? Would the licenses be revoked on the content server?

What bothers me the most is that I choose to be legitimate and pay for movies and TV shows, unlike many who pirate by way of torrents. What troubles me about this is the fact that I am sold a file that has more limitations on it then that of which I could download free (and illegally) via a torrent website. As a consumer, I feel that I am being punished for doing what is “right”, and we are being driven towards the “wrong” behaviour of piracy for lack of a better option.

I think that there is hope in the future. As of early 2009, iTunes removed all DRM from music content in its store. Since then, there have been little to no complaints from media conglomerates on the ill effects of this action to their bottom line. In fact, this new movement has actually INCREASED music sales! (See link at bottom of post). Here’s hoping the same will apply to video in the near future.



Link: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/article.jsp?content=20080416_105241_7772

I exist, therefore I vacuum.

Technology never ceases to amaze me. Enter the latest addition to our household – the Roomba.

After a lifelong love/hate relationship with vacuuming (I love clean floors, don’t really care for vacuuming), this big puck will autonomously crawl the floor, ridding my world of cat hair, crumbs and dust bunnies. All for 140$. And it does a great job.

Owning a Roomba to me is a momentous occasion; because it essentially is the first real “robot” I have ever owned… …or is it? Humans have been relying on machines to do their dirty work now for at least the last century. I, like everyone else, have devices that do my dirty bidding – the laundry, recording my fave TV show, brewing me some coffee. What makes this little vacuum robot feel so different from the rest of them? I think it is the fact that it makes decisions with no input from the user.

When I first brought the unit home from the store, I let it do its mandatory 16hr charge, and then the next morning, (like a kid on Christmas morning), I tore out of bed to go and give it a try. After unplugging the AC adapter (I got the cheap one without the docking base), I hit “clean”, stood back and watched with awe. Roomba crawled through the room, bumping things and taking different paths, spinning, cleaning and calculating (and occasionally scaring the cats). After watching for almost a half an hour, I was quite impressed with the results.

While watching it go back and forth, I realized that it appeared to be making decisions. It would go in a straight line then bump a wall. “Oh I better turn around, can’t go past here” - or it would decide “Hey this is an edge, why don’t I crawl along it and pick up some dust bunnies?”. On and on it went. “Oh this is a staircase, better stay away” –or- “this seems dirtier than that other area I was just in, I’m going to go over this a few more times”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that this is just a series of algorithms that it is using that tell it what to do, based upon the feedback it receives from its sensors – but it seems more than that to me.

I use many devices to accomplish many things, usually they require minimal input from me, but they repeat the same set of commands over and over again, usually with little to no intervention. The devices don’t seem “intuitive” at all – they don’t usually compensate for changes in the environment when they occur. For example – if my food is burning, the oven won’t recognize this and shut off (even if it is on fire – lol!), or if my laptop is overheating, it doesn’t go after the program that is maxing out the CPU to try and slow it down.

We are entering an era of devices that are “situationally aware”, where they are able to make decisions for us, more and more, based upon current conditions, and adapt. Is it artificial intelligence or just fuzzy logic? We have devices that can teach themselves, we have vehicles that can park themselves, vacuums that can clean rooms without human supervision or intervention. It makes for pretty interesting times, and I am really excited for what is coming next.

On a more humanistic side of these technological musings, I can’t help but to meander down a little bit of more of an existential path – but that is a whole other blog entry. Meanwhile, without getting too deep – I’m just going to enjoy the fact I get to vacuum less now – Saaaaaaa-weeeett!

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