Digital Rights Management: We're Screwed

Thanks to BoingBoing, here's a link to an article on how the record and media companies are screwing the hell out of the consumer by implementing their so-called DRM policies and "fair use" laws. I quote:

"When he bought the media centre, it did the thing he wanted it to do with the shows he wanted to do it to: it's like buying a VCR to record the World Series, taking it home and satisfying yourself that it works. It worked.

Then, months later, it stopped working. He could no longer record his favorite shows. Why? Well, because the cablecaster decided to remove a right from him. And because Gateway, the company who sold him the equipment, decided to collaborate with the cablecaster in screwing him out of that right."

This article partly explains why P2P apps and bootlegging is so damn ubiquitious these days. No one's looking out for the consumer, and in the end the power remains concentrated in the hands of the rich execs who in turn decide which lip-synching artitse (intentional) we want to fawn over next.

Fun? Yeah, definitely. Welcome to the future, folks.