SysOpt.com - System Optimization and PC PerformanceSystem Optimization and PC Performance
  Earthweb
SysOpt Registered Users: 5685 | Online: 112
Events Premium Services Media Kit Network Map E-mail Offers Whitepapers Vendor Showcases
 subjects:
EarthWeb Hardware
subjects:

Search EarthWeb Network

internet.commerce
Partners & Affiliates














Tutorials and Tools
FREE TECH Newsletters

SysOpt > Features > Storage & Audio > Goodbye 2006, Hello Digital Rights Management

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 

Goodbye 2006, Hello Digital Rights Management- Page 5/5
January 3, 2007
By Christopher Saunders



1984, All Over Again
 

For consumers, the truth of all this is obscured behind some friendly-sounding doublespeak.15 I hate to pick on Microsoft again (believe it or not) but here's some of its reasons (circa Windows Media 10) why consumers should actually benefit from DRM:

"Digital distribution offers consumers a convenient way to access their favorite content at any time, and with content protected with Windows Media DRM 10 they'll have even greater flexibility and choice. Today consumers can choose from a variety of content service providers, a multitude of devices, and a variety of 'purchase and download' payment options and subscription models. Windows Media DRM 10 ensures that consumers will be able to enjoy even greater flexibility and choice by allowing them to acquire and/or transfer their subscription content to the devices of their choosing."

This flexibility and choice, of course, means you've got the ability to be flexible and choose... which device or software you listen to your content through... as long as the content industry approves. If your software, hardware, OS, drivers, players, etc. don't meet the specs, you can forget about being able to use that content.


Summing Up
 

At what stage will higher costs come back to sting the PC, consumer electronics, and media industries? It's anyone's guess. Perhaps never -- which begs the question, how will the successes enjoyed by the media industry in 2007 embolden it to push for even greater controls?

With an ostensibly more progressive legislative agenda now in vogue here in the U.S.,16 there's some momentum afoot to defang portions of the DMCA, to continue to oppose HD broadcast flags and similar technologies. How this all plays out, however, remains anyone's guess. But with so much already invested in content-controlling software and hardware product development, it will doubtless be some time before the pendulum swings back to a market that prioritizes consumer rights and Fair Use.

The trend toward the DRMization17 is already on pace to cause real, and measurable, impact to the PC ecosystem, and especially its users and system builders. The marriage of PC and DRM is detrimental to the public good, devalues a worthwhile product, distracts from the goal of real innovation, and (at its worst) defrauds a public that believes paying for the latest and greatest products will deliver a better experience.


15Yes, I know Orwell didn't coin this term.
16Think this nightmare vision of the state of things to come is limited to the U.S.? You're dreaming. Even if your country doesn't have a variation of the DMCA in place, a complex web of international treaties, diplomatic pressure, and market forces will do wonders to impose these new DRM requirements globally.
17I didn't coin this term, although I wish I had, and I don't know who did. I also like the word "DRMitization," which is unfortunately meaningless.



Table of Contents
•  Introduction
•  HD-DVD and Blu-Ray: The First Wave
•  V for Vendor Victimization
•  Following the Money
•  1984, All Over Again
Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 

Tools:
Add www.sysopt.com to your favorites
Add www.sysopt.com to your browser search box
IE 7 | Firefox 2.0 | Firefox 1.5.x
Receive news via our XML/RSS feed

Forum Discussions
Hot Threads
TOPIC BY REPLIES UPDATED
VISTA stop 7e in Safe Mode gwlogue 27 11-6-2009 05:54 PM
Vista Service Pack 2 Kev Sharratt 27 10-30-2009 10:44 PM
PC randomly shuts down mlc 21 11-7-2009 02:44 PM
Blue Screen Errors kurrlyGirl 18 11-6-2009 11:27 AM
error message NTLDR is missing STP72 15 10-28-2009 10:48 PM
Latest Posts
TOPIC BY REPLIES UPDATED
PC randomly shuts down mlc 21 11-7-2009 02:44 PM
Windows Explorer properties... TweakerXP 1 11-7-2009 11:57 AM
Microsoft updates?? knydegger 6 11-7-2009 10:44 AM
Laptop Graphics Problem Sickboy 8 11-7-2009 10:27 AM
web browser size wardD 6 11-6-2009 09:27 PM



internet.commediabistro.comJusttechjobs.comGraphics.com

Search:

WebMediaBrands Corporate Info

Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | Newsletters | Shopping | E-mail Offers | Freelance Jobs