Doctorow on DRM and Activism

Might E. Mouse writes "Cory Doctorow, co-editor of 'the world's most linked-to' blog, BoingBoing, spoke recently at an event in London, UK. Afterwords, he gave an interview with bit-tech discussing topics like DRM and the commercialization of podcasting. He was particularly scathing towards the BBC. From the article: 'If you're in the UK, hold the BBC to account. Why is it shipping the IMP, a DRM crippled player? Is there a point in the future where the BBC imagines that bits are going to get harder to copy? And that the IMP will solve its problem? Really, what the BBC is saying is that there's two ways you can get its content after it airs on the TV; one is that you can get it through the IMP and have a crippled experience, the other is that you can be a criminal.'"

Comments

Re:There is no technical solution to a social prob

[General Alcazar]

So true. I use one of those streaming music services. They have hit the price-point that works for me. For $8 per month, I get access to their library of music, which is something like 1 million songs (I don't know, actually). Yes, I don't get to "own" this music, but I don't really care that much, since the price is pretty negligable. I never buy CDs anymore. I used to buy several CDs per month at about $15/pop, listen to them a few times each, then shelve them. Now, I am spending a fifth of that, and I have more music at my fingertips. This model doesn't necessarily fit everyone's lifestyle, but it works for me.

Technically, I can "steal" as much music as I like from the service by re-digitizing the stream once it gets to the analog phase. But, it is kind of a pain to do, so I rarely bother with it. Like the parent said, make it affordable, and I won't bother circumventing the system.

Sicky Spot

[ChiefGeneralManager]

The BBCs in a bit of a sticky spot with this. The BBCs focus is the UK, and agrees with programme makers to show programme in the UK. Where the content is made available on the web, there are no geographical restrictions, so I understand that programme makers -- and not the BBC -- are the people who mandate that a programme should not be made available outside the UK. I think it's for this reason that IMP includes DRM software.

When the BBC does own the complete rights, it seems to give it away pretty freely for non-commercial use. Examples include the MP3 of Beethoven that BBC Radio 3 gave away; and the BBCs Creative Archive

It is unfortunate that DRM is a part of the BBCs world, but the option would be to not provide content at all. Additionally some of the UK media would whip up a frenzy -- "UK licence payers foot the bill for worldwide quality internet TV". This comes about because of the disconnect between the UK licencing system and the World Wide Web.

Obscurity

[retinaburn]

I recently listened to a talk Cory gave. He discussed that the reason he started releasing his books via CreativeCommons was because of the whole Digial-Book fiasco. Where authors were attacking fans of their work who were either hacking the digital version to use in other means, or digitally copying the books.

He sums up his p.o.v., which I think every artist, be it writer or musician, or Spam carver should listen to before using DRM in their content. His greatest problem as an artist is not piracy, it's obscurity. 99.5% of all the people who never buy his books are doing so because they don't know about his work. The other .5% are people downloading his books, and not paying for them.

The important step is forming a relationship with your readers, then they are more likely to follow your work, and more likely to purchase your products.

It might have been Tim O'Reilly who had said the obscurity quote, but regardless of who says it, more people need to hear it.

DRM... Such a waste

[WolfZombie]

DRM is such a waste of money and time for everyone. The current business models for CDs and Movies can't be hurting that much, as they can still afford to pay these individual actors/acresses millions for a single film, and make a profit. Maybe they should try the alley of not paying the performers quite so much. Not everyone in the entertainment industry needs to be a millionaire. I hate watching an artist on T.V. bitching about how piracy hurts the industry, then they get in their Bentley or Ferrari with their Rolex and 4 million dollar engagement ring and drive off. Obviously they are hurt by this industry.
What hurts is the unwillingness of those who have their hands in the honey pot at the top to reinvest in small time artists.
DRM is just a way for lawyers and a few more executives to get their hands deeper in the honey pot. Imagine how much money has been spent on legal issues that revolve just around this issue, both on the corporate side and consumer side.

Cory is something of a Hypocrite

[delire]

I've seen Cory talk at a few forums/conference and while espousing the virtues of free software and damning DRM he never seems to be able to answer a question from the floor about how he can justify giving money to Apple, a pro DRM company in a ready position to radically monopolise our rights to the music we buy and listen to.

He will however suggest economic boycott of any other company that does support and invest in restricting the rights of users. He just doesn't seem prepared to see that every time he gets up on stage with his Powerbook and in casual chat, espousing the joys of iTunes, he's contradicting his own ethics.

Many questions came from the floor and in forums after a talk he gave in Spain that he was not able to answer to this end. In one forum he claimed that OSX was an open-source OS and he considers himself a BSD user. IMO Cory can be a bit of a margin fudger at times.

Easy to say, hard to do.

[FishandChips]

I think it was brave of Doctorow to say he found Ricky Gervais extremely entertaining. Gervais has been hugely oversold and cannot hold a candle to real comic greats, from Keaton to Sellars, Cook or Cleese. Truth to tell, Gervais really isn't very funny at all.

Second, Doctorow's views on the BBC and DRM are very oversimplified. The BBC buys in many of its programs, but it buys only the right to broadcast them in its territories not the right to distribute them for free world-wide. Second, the BBC reasonably expects to make money, sometimes a great deal of money, from selling successful programs abroad and in the form of all kinds of subsidiary rights. Clearly that after-market would abruptly cease if open streams were avaliable on the net. With it would cease quite a lot of jobs and the licence fee would probably go up.

I don't like DRM either, but the BBC isn't the right place to start reforming the West's foobared intellectual property system. On the whole the BBC is a force for good, which I doubt could be said of many US media moguls with their porno factories and shady deals with Chinese state bully boys.

Re:Easy to say, hard to do.

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I don't like DRM either, but the BBC isn't the right place to start reforming the West's foobared intellectual property system.

Hang on a minute. The BBC's mission is, in essence, to provide content to the British public. They can do this, based on a remarkably low licence fee, because they only have to pay for the broadcast rights in Britain for content they buy in, and because for content they produce themselves they can resell the rights for broadcast elsewhere, so that those who benefit elsewhere contribute to the cost.

It seems to me that this is exactly what the concept of copyright is designed to do: it allows the production of material where any given consumer base isn't contributing excessively just to support others. The DRM is inconvenient for those of us in the UK, but I think claiming the whole system is foobared while ignoring the way it's allowing the BBC to do exactly what it's supposed to do is rather shortsighted.

Re:There *ARE* two ways you can get BBC content

[pjeremyh]

And I say once *we* (the fee paying public) have paid for it and watched it - give it away! - why not give it to the rest of the world? I doubt we'd be out of pocket much and the rest of the world would have Red Dwarf. If the UK pumped out quality TV to the rest of the world it might help balance some of our less savoury outputs.

Not being able to tinker

[robolemon]

Cory Doctorow came to Olin College a couple of weeks ago. I wrote up a short summary of his talk. The take-home message I personally got from his talk was that the biggest danger comes when DRM creeps into hardware, preventing kids from being able to tinker with technology and learn about it when their minds are most open. Here is the abstract of his talk which was entitled "0wned -- how Hollywood plans on making the future subservient on the past" .