Fixing DRM... by killing it

The software technology used to restrict the use of video, audio, and e-Book content is called DRM, which stands for "Digital Rights Management". The basic rationale for DRM is to give the publisher or distributor better control of the content.

For example, when you purchase a song from the iTunes store, it comes wrapped in an electronic envelope ostensibly designed to protect the intellectual property from misuse (like *ahem* copying the song). And, for a time, when Sony CDs were played on a PC, they installed a malevolent root-kit that could damage your computer (the public relations blowback was painful -- yet highly entertaining -- to watch).

The motivating factor for DRM has nothing to do with improving the customer experience. Instead, it has to do with treating the customer like a would-be criminal; thereby chaining the content to a particular machine or device. Increasingly sophisticated consumers, of course, want to use the content on a wide range of devices. And a subset of technically savvy consumers simply remove any DRM altogether.

Bill Thompson writes of these flawed schemes:

The music, movie and publishing industries do not deserve to survive if their only way to remain viable is to undermine copyright law and replace it with restrictive contracts backed by harsh penalties for breaking the inevitably flawed DRM they wrap around their products. Others will take their place, and I cannot see that this is a bad thing.

Indeed™.

BBC: How to right the copyright wrongs