Why DRM is such a fucking stupid idea
Mar. 15th, 2013 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerDigital comics publisher JManga is collapsing. Two weeks from now you will no longer be able to "purchase" anything from them. Two months from now, anything that was "purchased" from them will cease to exist. If you spent hundreds of pounds in their store then, well, that's bad luck for you.
This is what DRM* does. It makes you dependent on a central authority when you want access to things you paid for. It means that if a company goes out of business, or just plain gets bored of running a service, you lose access to everything you bought from it.
It can happen at any size. When Google decided that YouTube was more successful than their own video site, they shut down Google Video. And then had to be pushed into refunding people for videos they could no longer play. When Microsoft shut down MSN Music any music that had been bought from them ceased to play. The company suggested that people burn their music to CD and re-rip it to work around their own handcuffs.
If you're walking into a situation with your eyes open, then go for it. I pay money to Spotify on a monthly basis because I view it the same way I view cable TV - I'm paying for access, I'm not purchasing something. But if you want to keep something long term, and have it work the way you want it to**, then don't buy it unless it's DRM free.
*Digital Rights Management. Encrypting the data so that it can't be copied around, and can only be viewed/played through something which is authorised to do so.
**For instance if you decide that you'd like to switch away from a Kindle to a different book reader then, well, good luck, unless you're happy to find some software to strip the DRM off for you.
This is what DRM* does. It makes you dependent on a central authority when you want access to things you paid for. It means that if a company goes out of business, or just plain gets bored of running a service, you lose access to everything you bought from it.
It can happen at any size. When Google decided that YouTube was more successful than their own video site, they shut down Google Video. And then had to be pushed into refunding people for videos they could no longer play. When Microsoft shut down MSN Music any music that had been bought from them ceased to play. The company suggested that people burn their music to CD and re-rip it to work around their own handcuffs.
If you're walking into a situation with your eyes open, then go for it. I pay money to Spotify on a monthly basis because I view it the same way I view cable TV - I'm paying for access, I'm not purchasing something. But if you want to keep something long term, and have it work the way you want it to**, then don't buy it unless it's DRM free.
*Digital Rights Management. Encrypting the data so that it can't be copied around, and can only be viewed/played through something which is authorised to do so.
**For instance if you decide that you'd like to switch away from a Kindle to a different book reader then, well, good luck, unless you're happy to find some software to strip the DRM off for you.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-15 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-15 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-16 04:00 pm (UTC)I'm generally pretty damned reticent to pay money for files that *aren't* DRM-locked either.
I'll read e-books, but what I have mostly has come gratis from Gutenberg Project.
I'll probably the last person on the planet to buy a CD, vinyl LP* and paper book but dammit, they'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands...
(*yes, you can make digital files from these with the right software & hardware - a bit time-consuming but if you like vinyl, there's no reason to buy the same music twice in different formats if you just want something on your mp3 player. But I'm a geek, so YMMV)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-16 06:43 pm (UTC)I have no objections to paper books - I still have a bunch, but I'm probably going to reduce that down to just the ones that are special - illustrated hardbacks, and other things that are cool artefacts, or not just "a bunch of text".
I think that various formats are going to be with us for a while. I suspect that vinyl will outlast the CD, because vinyl has properties that set it apart, while a CD is basically a bunch of digital files on a plastic disc.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-16 07:16 pm (UTC)I don't mind supporting artists & writers I like, I just prefer something I can pick up and handle, and I can read off a paper page a lot longer without eyestrain than from a screen, even the low-glare variety.
Plus I forget to back up files and then loose stuff when a hard drive fails, so digital-ONLY is really just not good for me...