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The DRM Scorecard

Posted by samzenpus on from the guess-who's-ahead dept.

An anonymous reader writes "InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe put together a scorecard which makes the obvious but interesting point that, when you list every major DRM technology implemented to "protect" music and video, they've all been cracked. This includes Apple's FairPlay, Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, the old-style Content Scrambling System (CSS) used on early DVDs and the new AACS for high-definition DVDs. And of course there was the Sony Rootkit disaster of 2005. Can anyone think of a DRM technology which hasn't been cracked, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the industry just give up and go DRM-free?"

8 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because the ability exists to crack it, doesn't mean that the average Joe on the street can do so.

    It discourages casual copying, nothing more, but I can't imagine it was intended to do any more. Nobody's that stupid.

    --
    "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
    1. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Never assume stupidity for what can be explained as malice.

      To do otherwise is naive at best.

      --
      "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
    2. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Just because the ability exists to crack it, doesn't mean that the average Joe on the street can do so."

      Ummmm, lets think about that:
      1) It only takes ONE person to "crack" and copy music, a movie, etc. and make it available to all the average Joes.
      2) It only takes ONE person to create a patch or an app and every average Joe can use it.

      Where do these newbies come from on here? Sheeez.

    3. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by shark72 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's an interesting viewpoint.

      Are you also of the opinion that auto industry executives hold the naive view that auto theft-deterrent systems are infallible?

      When I first got into the Apple warez scene in the early 80s, I asked somebody older and wiser why, say, they bothered to put copy protection on Wizardry when clever guys like me could easily crack it.

      "Because," he pointed out, "if the copy protection prevents just one person from copying it, it's done its job."

      And that's why copy protection on CDs and DVDs exists today: to deter casual copying. Much to their disadvantage, most people out there just aren't as technically adept as Slashdot readers.

      Can you clarify why you believe that folks who use DRM don't understand this? It requires quite a stretch, but if you think you have solid evidence, I'd like to hear it.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
    4. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by ubermiester · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The question is not whether people can do it, its a matter of whether they actually will.

      To get DRM-less content, they need to:

      • know that a crack exits
      • know how to get it
      • khow how to use it
      • AND...feel as though it was really worth it to go through all that trouble so they can avoid paying for someone else's work.

      Each step filters people, and those people pay. Simple as that.

      The real question is how long the RIAA will take to realize that there are alternatives to this model.
    5. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think it's stupid as in having the intelligence of a slightly age slice of toast. It's more allowing themselves to be BS'ed.

      Here's music exec Joe Shmoe. He's fairly intelligent when it comes to business related topics. He has a masters in BA. He doesn't understand jack about all that computer stuff, but that's not his biz. His biz is music.

      Then here's Alex. He may or may not have a degree, but he sells Joe the DRM tools for his music. He knows both, commerce and computers.

      Joe realized that Alex' DRM tools were cracked. Alex knows that too, and he knows well that the spin of "we make it uncrackable" doesn't hold water. But he also knows how Joe thinks. His selling strategy thus is:

      1. Cracking DRM is another burden, which keeps a few more people from copying.
      2. Cracking DRM has been made illegal, which keeps another few more from copying.
      3. Our DRM solution costs less than the losses due to illegal copying.

      Joe understands that. And thus Joe buys.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. DRM isn't supposed to be foolproof by cavetroll · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The point of DRM isn't to hinder in any noticeable way the large groups that are responsible for most of the copyright infringement that takes place, rather the aim is to annoy and infuriate the average 'consumer' to the point where needlessly buying extra copies of $ITEM is the path of least resistance.

    The same effect has been observed in software for years, Windows XP had an activation thing built in, anyone who knew what they were doing would bypass it, anyone who didn't (and didn't know anyone who did) would eventually go and buy superfluous copies of software they already owned.

  3. Bad arguments and bad reasoning by timholman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Okay, let's try Alex Wolfe's argument in a different context:

    "When you list every major law implemented to "protect" life and property, they've all been broken. Can anyone think of a law which hasn't been broken, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't society just give up and go law-free?"

    DRM doesn't have to be perfect to do its job, anymore than law enforcement has to be "perfect". It just has to be effective enough to keep Joe Average from copying the file. Whether or not DRM is actually "good" or "bad" for media producers is a completely different argument, but Wolfe's sophomoric reasoning does nothing to address it.