I’m with France on this one
Recently France has proposed a new law that would require DRM content to be transferable between devices and players (Apples annoying, RIAA FUDish, response).
I just wanted to throw my support behind this law. The big problem with DRM is that it strips away the rights of the end user to use the content as they wish. If I buy a song from the iTMS I should be able to easily play that song in any other player, and if I owned one, on my iRiver.
Not only does DRM not work, but it pisses off your paying customers.
Another nice possible side-effect for this legislation is the movement of trust away from MS/content providers back to the user of the system in a Trusted Computing system. By requiring the content to be “mobile” you eliminate the ability of the content providers to tie your media to your TPM in a way that makes your system refuse to work with YOUR content the way YOU want to. The Trusted computing system now takes orders from you, not the other way around.
Back to tech-talk on this blog again I guess. Like I have anything else to talk about.
Update (Mar 22): An article on Wired that says a lot.
I’d argue that DRM is a necessary component to bringing commercial content online.
As much as we don’t like it, I don’t see any other valid alternative. It’s unacceptable to have MP3′s floating around; or else we’d get another Napster.
http://hanniganconsulting.com/blog/?p=56
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