Empirical Study Shows DRM Encourages Infringement

Hucko writes "Ars Technica has a story about a study by Cambridge law professor Patricia Akester that suggests (declares?) that DRM and its ilk does persuade citizens to infringe copyright and circumvent authors' protections. The name of the study is 'Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment.'" The study itself is available for download (PDF); there's also a distillation here.

Comments

Re:At last

[Shrike82]

You've missed my entire point. Allowing you to authenticate your identity online and download products you already own anywhere wouldn't work without a Digital system that checks your Rights to re-download a product you own, while performing housekeeping for Management purposes.

You've done what most people do and been brainwashed into regarding these three little letters, DRM, as evil in-of-themselves. I'll say it again: Restrictive DRM is self-defeating and often pointless, but positive, user-enabling features of DRM are never even thought about.