DRM: Some More Thoughts

Hot on the heels of last night's (or was it this morning's) post on the creepy implications of Digital Rights Management and how they can seriously affect our way of dealing with media (purchased, rented or recorded on TiVO) comes this article, via BoingBoing again, on the more immediate threats DRM promises to bring to our tables. In his article, Mitch Wagner makes some pretty accurate statements on consumer awareness of DRMs:

"My attitude is typical of most consumers. If DRM gets in the way, they hate it. Otherwise, they don't care.

But DRM certainly isn't a selling point. As cyber-rights advocate Cory Doctorow said, "No Windows user rolled out of bed this morning and said, 'I wish there was a way that I could get Microsoft to deliver me tools that allow me to do LESS with the music I buy.'"

Which is essentially, why this worries me. Any technology that has been purposefully designed to be limiting profits only ONE side of the equation: the company who makes it. The very notion that there will only be one party who can decide what the user may or may not do with the gear they have is frightening, to say the least. It seems to me at least that these people are scared of the very innovation that contributes to the evolution of digital media everywhere. Look at the leaps and bounds we've come since .mp3 first appeared, and the fact that the consumer has the possibility of benefiting the most from these advances must make these guys very uneasy. As Mitch puts it:

"DRM makes it harder for consumers to invent their own ways of using technology. A user wishing to listen to digital content on a new type of device needs to go to the media companies first, and ask, "Mommy, may I?"

Hell, if that's not freaky, I don't know what is. And that's not even talking about the Induce Act yet. On the other hand however, it sure looks like the RIAA isn't being as effective as they'd like in chasing after file sharers, as evidenced by this article on Wired. In it, a study by the University of California seems to show that while P2P users may be hiding, they're not stopping their activities for anyone, which translates into good news for me.

Finally, since Halloween's around the corner, I thought I'd do my bit and promote the following legal, hassle free zombie movie media idea, courtesy of the folks at Creative Commons. All you have to do is download a copy of George Romero's 1968 zombie fest Night of The Living Dead (which is free and more importantly, LEGAL), mix it up with another legal download of a 2003 student film called Amid The Dead, and let your creative juices run wild. When you're done, tag it with a special flavour of the Creative Commons copyright, and let it go on the 'net!

This, is how it's supposed to be. Well, at least for me. That should be enough mediapathic ranting for one day. I'll see ya tomorrow, folks!