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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?"

2 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. Re:All bank vaults and locks have also been cracke by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Troll

    Seriously. Sick of hearing about how "hard" it is for average users to do things. Maybe you work in technical support and get all the idiots calling you but the vast majority of people really don't have any trouble using programs like DVDShrink or Roxio.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't. by westlake · · Score: 0, Troll
    Of course not. That's why the MAFIAA and similar parties use the legal system to fill the holes that technology can't. If you can't actually stop everyone from doing it, simply make it illegal, and sue anyone who gets past the initial hurdles.

    It has never been legal in your lifetime. Your parents. Your grandparents.

    Anything less than perfect control is, after all, simply an unexploited opportunity for profit.

    Profit drives production and production is the side of the equation that the geek never quite seems to grasp.

    The Iron Giant. The Incredibles. Ratatouille.

    It takes $150 million to produce animation at this level. Projects can be five to ten years in development. Brad Bird is 50.

    the MAFIAA

    Spare me this adolescent prattling.

    The rights agencies are trade associations representing companies that - in a capitalist society - are accustomed to being paid for the products and services they deliver. Nothing more. Free downloads for the geek with a DVD burner were never part of the deal.