How DRM Won

Nerval's Lobster writes "In 2009, when Apple dropped the Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions from songs sold through the iTunes Store, it seemed like a huge victory for consumers, one that would usher in a more customer-friendly economy for digital media. But four years later, DRM is still alive and well — it just lives in the cloud now. Streaming media services are the ultimate form of copy protection — you never actually control the media files, which are encrypted before delivery, and your ability to access the content can be revoked if you disagree with updated terms of service; you're also subject to arbitrary changes in subscription prices. This should be a nightmare scenario to lovers of music, film, and television, but it's somehow being hailed by many as a technical revolution. Unfortunately, what's often being lost in the hype over the admittedly remarkable convenience of streaming media services is the simple fact that meaningfully relating to the creative arts as a fan or consumer depends on being able to access the material in the first place. In other words, where your media collection is stored (and can be remotely disabled at a whim) is not something to be taken lightly. In this essay, developer Vijith Assar talks about how the popularity of streaming content could result in a future that isn't all that great. 'Ultimately, regardless of the delivery mechanism, the question is not one of streaming versus downloads,' he writes. 'It's about whether you want to have your own media library or request access to somebody else's. Be careful.'"

Comments

Re:DRM is winning

[girlintraining]

For the same reason the NSA has a mic and camera up everyones bunghole. We are a nation of apathetic, vapid, content consumers whose primary concerns are trivial and shallow.

No. We're currently being run into the ground by Baby Boomers who have sucked the life out of the country's economy, destroyed the environment, let critical infrastructure rot, and have made education and healthcare nearly unattainable for anyone but themselves. As a result of that "we" (as in the non-boomers) are living hand to mouth, and the only thing that gets us through our meager, shitty, two-part-time-jobs-60-hour-a-week lives is the mediocre entertainment products that we can no longer afford to own but merely "rent" at exorbinant fees under the guise of its convenience.

We're not apathetic, vapid, trivial, or shallow -- we're simply working ourselves into an early grave trying to support the dead weight of the assholes that bankrupted our country to support their own vanity and selfishness... which means we hardly have the energy to give a damn about anything but whether we'll make it to the next paycheck and wondering exactly how many pounds of ramen noodles a person can eat before it kills them.