Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Jeremy Allison On Why DRM Will Never Work

Posted by Zonk on from the we-come-in-peace-shoot-to-kill dept.

eldavojohn writes "At the ZDNet site, Jeremy Allison (a well-known employee of the Google corporation) goes on a hilarious rant against Digital Rights Management. He compares the access restriction technology with underwear gnomes & Star Trek while ending with: 'Believing in a DRM business model is like joining Star Fleet security, putting on your red shirt, and volunteering to beam down to the new unexplored planet with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Someone will be coming back from that mission, it's just not likely to be the security guard. Always a true engineer, Scotty had the good sense to stay safely on board the ship.'"

2 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Correction by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The big problem is that there is an entire generation of college kids that think everything digital is free for the taking unless it is properly secured, and if it is not properly secured then it is basically an invitation to take it. The big media companies have only themselves to blame for this. If they had been a little more savvy, they would have started selling online a long time ago. Instead, they let the ad hoc P2P services pave the way and they lost control of their own product. I have no sympathy for them at all. Restricting your paying customers is a bad idea when no-cost alternatives exist, especially when most of your income comes from people with more time than money.

    Not that you need an example, but here I go anyway. I have been downloading Southpark for years (I don't have cable, and Southpark isn't worth $100/month). iTunes started offering it, which is great because I value my time and think that $2 is money well spent. HOWEVER, I can't watch the episodes on my stinking TV! With P2P I could just burn them to a CD and watch the AVI on my $25 DVD player. So now I'm left with the situation where I can buy the episode for $2 and watch it on my monitor, or download it for free and watch it anywhere I like. Not to mention that the free version is higher-quality!

    Tell me how restricting the paying customer is a sound business strategy?
    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. Re:Yes, I know by edraven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Very, very simply, here is the premise behind DRM.

    1. I know a secret
    2. I want to tell you the secret
    3. I don't want you to tell anyone else the secret
    4. I don't trust you

    Perhaps you can see now why there's no solution to that scenario.