Re: Hi-def's DRM: Dead with Rigor MortisGood Morning Silicon Valley

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Peter Wayner <pcw () flyzone com>
Date: February 13, 2007 5:44:03 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Hi-def's DRM: Dead with Rigor MortisGood Morning  
Silicon Valley


This isn't true at all. Apple's DRM comes with a huge hole that lets  
you burn your protected music onto a CD and then reimport it. The  
loss in quality is minimal and probably not even detectable by most.  
Yet Apple has sold more than a billion songs and paid plenty of  
royalties.

While it's an interesting academic exercise to break DRM systems, the  
practical effects depend upon whether people adopt the techniques.  
Will there be easy-to-use tools? Will people enjoy getting things for  
free or will they feel any guilt for the theft? All of these enter  
into the equation and the percentages of these social changes will  
have a huge effect on the content industry.


On Feb 13, 2007, at 4:54 PM, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> As Cory Doctorow notes at BoingBoing, this is a copy-protection  
> scheme that took years to develop and it was broken wide open in  
> weeks. "For DRM to work, it has to be airtight. There can't be a  
> single mistake. It's like a balloon that pops with the first prick.  
> That means that every single product from every single vendor has  
> to perfectly hide their keys, perfectly implement their code,"  
> Doctorow writes. "There is no future in which bits will get harder  
> to copy. Instead of spending billions on technologies that attack  
> paying customers, the studios should be confronting that reality  
> and figuring out how to make a living in a world where copying will  
> get easier and easier. They're like blacksmiths meeting to figure  
> out how to protect the horseshoe racket by sabotaging railroads."



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