DRMed to death

DRM is every where, in software, in music, in movies, even in e-books. Really since MP3's gained popularity various entities have attempted to use DRM to fight piracy. the problem is that the DRM makes it difficult for the people who are actually playing by the rules. If you payed for your music and the store you bought it from laces in DRM then it can complicate things. Want to back up your media? tough luck. would you like to share a track with a friend? no dice. Would you like to use your own player rather than the one forced on you by your media provider? not going to happen. Mean while the people who pirate their music have none of these problems, they can back up, share, and listen any way that technology will allow. Some stores have gotten the point, Amazon's music store for example does not use DRM, which means a user can listen to their music on their phone, MP3 player, or any media player they have, as well as being free to back up their media to guard against loss.

The community has been saying for years, remove the DRM and we will come back, its not that we don't want to pay for the media, its that people who play by the rules are punished because of the people who don't. All it ends up doing is driving the price up and making life difficult for the people who play by the rules. Add to that that even the strongest security can be cracked given enough time which makes this whole thing an exorcise in futility.

according to Engadget it seems that people much smarter than I am have done some work on this, a new study Duke and Rice University. The findings are not that much of a surprise to those of us who often speak out in support of open media. Their findings will appear in the November-December issue of Marketing Science.

I for one hope that companies will take notice, stop spending money on DRM, and start providing their paying customers with a more user friendly and comfortable experience.