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Consumer Electronics Companies Plan Common DRM Standard

Posted by michael on from the one-standard-to-bind-them-all dept.

Rinisari writes "'The world's four biggest consumer electronics companies have agreed to start using a common method to protect digital music and video against piracy and illegal copying, they said on Thursday,' begins a Reuters article on Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, and Sony's new alliance to establish interoperability and combat the evergrowing 'threat' to the music industry. The new alliance is to be called the 'Marlin Joint Development Association.'" The BBC's story on this issue is better, with quotes from several people.

4 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Now watch... by nebaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sales of newer electronic devices plummet as consumers realize the older DRM free players will play MP3 files, and the newer models offer no advantage.

    Will the electronics companies attribute sales loss to piracy too?

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
    1. Re:Now watch... by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
      > Sales of newer electronic devices plummet as consumers realize the older DRM free players will play MP3 files, and the newer models offer no advantage.

      ...sales of current electronic devices skyrocket as consumers stockpile for the apocalypse!

      (They play us all like a fiddle.)

  2. And in other news... by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    And in other news, the four most successful Cackers today announced an alliance to work together and crack this system in record time. In a joint statement released they commented, "It's all so much easier now that there's only one system to worry about."

    W00t!

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  3. Re:work around of the week by Gob+Blesh+It · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "trying to make an unbreakable DRM system is an unwinnable battle"

    Exactly. People don't seem to realize that the real battle isn't about technology at all, but for people's hearts and minds. Drill it into every child's head that only criminals and morally bankrupt thugs would ever circumvent DRM--even if only to timeshift TV programs, for example, or throw a mixtape together for your cross-country roadtrip--and you'll only need a cursory sprinkling of DRM to (as Steve Jobs put it) "keep honest people honest."

    The battle for content creators and copyright holders is to redefine "honest" in as profitable a way as possible.