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

The Battle Continues

[ScottCooperDotNet]

There's hundreds of plug-ins, extensions, and rip programs to grab the content. It has to be de-coded to be played, moving to streams only turns the tide slightly.

It seems we're coming to a middle ground though, as most streaming DRM does not significantly get in the way of most (read:Windows) users.

Re:The Battle Continues

[chuckinator]

I listened to an OpenBSD release song once. I will never make that mistake again.

Re:The Battle Continues

[thunderclap]

True. Its one of the reasons that I still use Windows rather than abandon it totally for Chromium. The tools to fight the drm to download and archive content still exist for Windows. While Windows thinks its converting to tablet its actually committing suicide. However, that's neither here nor there on drm. Streaming and the cloud have not given DRM a victory by no means. In fact its a sign of desperation. The content distributors are so desperate to continue the distribution that they are willing to lose it entirely. Huh? you say.
What happens if we suffer a terrorist attack? A nuclear 9/11 on silicon valley? Or an earthquake? That cloud will dissipate and with it goes all those songs, movies and games. You don't have it if it doesn't sit on a device in your possession. You rent it instead. Anyone remember those DVDs that lasted 3 days? I loved them. Why? because there had absolutely no encryption on them at all. All I had to do was rip the movie and I owned it. Still do in the original sleeve. of the new disc has a name in sharpie on it.
DRM has never been about copyright infringement. DRM has always been about blocking alterations to the change in distribution. The big names like their money. They don't want it to go away. Short of having all their property seized and them arrested and put in jail, this wont change. (unless aforementioned event above happens)
The cloud is meaningless extension of that interference hailed as progress so those who do it causally will quit. We need to be vigilant to remind that that ownership requires physical possession. If you don't have it so it can play anywhere at anytime, you don't have it.
Will it ever change? Not until either aforementioned event or arrest is made.
We are headed to the world of Continuum. (if you haven't watched this series, you should. Its excellent and very prophetic in a not overt way.)
We must be the change in which we seek. We must continue to fight. DRM has not won. Its hasn't lost either.

Re:Just shows what we already knew

[JaredOfEuropa]

The thing with the rising popularity of streaming is not DRM. The real problem is (as usual) the way they'll ruin it with advertisements, and then DRM will come into play, making sure you cannot edit out or skip ads. And thanks to technology, it's now super easy to inject all manner of interstitials and pop-ups and pop-overs and watermarks and other crap on top of the content.

That is why I hate streaming, and it's why I will cling to media that I *own* for as long as I can. Until they start ruining that with ads too (like Disney and their infamous unskippable trailers).

Re:War on DRM?

[fredprado]

All DRM is bad. DRM is not and never was about protecting content, it is about control. Protecting content from pirates is impossible. Controlling apathetic legal users is feasible and profitable, on the other hand.

Re:XBMC

[Em Adespoton]

XBMC gives you all of the shiny shiny of something like iTunes but with the possibility that you can own and control your own content. You only have to pay for something once and it's yours forever and you never have to worry about some disguised cable TV company going out of business.

Of course it has to work against the framework that large corporations have lobbied for. Although that's not necessarily a show stopper.

Odd; I use iTunes to control my own content. It's on my computer, and is not controlled by Apple (not even in their preferred "Library". The stuff in iTunes is also mirrored in the cloud.

"The Cloud" is a means of distribution; it's equivalent to making backup copies of your DVDs that you use all the time, keeping the originals stored away. Cloud services allow you to access select content from anywhere; I'd stay away from ANY cloud service that didn't allow you to have a local copy of your cloud contents as well (I'm looking at you, Facebook).

As such, this entire article is based on a false premise. While Cloud services could be moving in that direction, right now they are used (and advertised) as an alternate distribution system for content you own. Deleting all copies except what's in the cloud is silly, as you never know when cloud access will vanish.

The big issue with Cloud data is that you lose primary control of the data -- that's fine for disposable/consumable data (music, movies, etc) but for anything you don't want to also belong to other people, don't put it in the cloud.

All that said, DRM still won: it lost in the audio realm, but won in general computing, mobile computing and video. Steam is really a much better example of this than iCloud.