DRM and you: this is important
Posted on June 22, 2004
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 54 views |
DRM: digital rights management. On the off-chance that you’re reading this and you’re not a geek you probably just had a very strong desire to skip this post upon reading that acronym. But wait! This is important, for all of us. Honest.
Digital rights management is not some new geek thing you can happily ignore.
Technically-speaking DRM is the ability for the media industry to control how and when and where you can view or listen to the media you’ve purchased.
Practically-speaking DRM is a concerted, aggressive attempt to prevent you from watching and listening to all the media you’ve rightfully purchased in the manner you want to enjoy it. In other words: no matter how much you pay for that DVD, DRM ensures that the media companies own it anyway and you’re just renting it. Its a concerted, aggressive attempt to steal your property from you.
Think of it in terms of your car: it’s as though you went and bought your car, paid for it in full upfront, got the keys and drove it home. And then discovered that:
- no one else but you is allowed to drive your car. If you want to let your friend drive it too you’ll need to pay an extra fee
- your car can only be fueled up at one brand of gas station and that brand only. If you run out of gas and that brand isn’t close by you can call the car company and they’ll send you more gas, but you’ll have to pay an extra fee. Oh, and you can only do this three times. Once you hit four they’ll make you buy another car
- your car can only be driven within the city in which you bought it. If you want to drive in another city you’ll have to buy another car
- you are explicitely prohibited from making any sort of modifications to your car. Want fuzzy dice? No. Want to better tires? No. Though you paid for your car, you don’t truly own it.
If this sounds absurd to you well, this is exactly what’s happening in the digital world right now. We are literally less than a few years from this very scenario as it pertains to CDs, DVDs, and even ring tones for your cellphone.
But don’t take my word for it, instead read Cory Doctorow’s fantastic speech on the topic, the one he gave to Microsoft:
Here’s a true story about a user I know who was stopped by DRM.
She’s smart, college educated, and knows nothing about
electronics. She has three kids. She has a DVD in the living room
and an old VHS deck in the kids’ playroom. One day, she brought
home the Toy Story DVD for the kids. That’s a substantial
investment, and given the generally jam-smeared character of
everything the kids get their paws on, she decided to tape the
DVD off to VHS and give that to the kids — that way she could
make a fresh VHS copy when the first one went south. She cabled
her DVD into her VHS and pressed play on the DVD and record on
the VCR and waited.
…
Except she fails. There’s a DRM system called Macrovision
embedded — by law — in every DVD player and VHS that messes
with the vertical blanking interval in the signal and causes any
tape made in this fashion to fail. Macrovision can be defeated
for about $10 with a gadget readily available on eBay. But our
infringer doesn’t know that. She’s “honest.” Technically
unsophisticated. Not stupid, mind you — just naive.
It’s long. I suggest you print it out and read it on the subway, or over coffee, or on the dock at the cottage. But definitely read it.