Comment DRM is not evil, it's just dumb (Score 2, Interesting) 356
I'm not familiar with DPP, but I do work in the music industry and have a few thoughts on the subject.
While this may not be the most receptive forum for this perspective, I thought it was worth responding to a few points. One is that the music industry is filled with suits who have their head in the sand while "the world has moved on" away from DRM. The reality however is that average consumers (but perhaps not the typical slashdotter) are shackled with all sorts of DRM everyday whether it's movies, videogames, software or even eBooks. However, any mention of DRM for audio products seems to be a lightening rod of criticism (and perhaps with good reason). I'm not making any assertions as to whether it's right or wrong (at least not yet), but I wanted to make the point that DRM is alive and well in the world around us.
My next comment is that I believe that people deserve to get compensated for their work. If you can't come around on that point, then there's not much else I can say to convince you of anything. You see, I believe that the idea that people should get compensated for their work is concept that average person would agree with. I believe that DRM has, up to this point, been a very poor execution of that concept.
I believe that users should be able to make backups of products that they have purchased. As a corollary to that, I believe that it should be simple to restore their backups when needed. I believe that people should be able to play their music on whatever device they own wherever they happen to be. I believe that people should not lose the music that they paid for (along with the money that they spent) if the retailer that they bought it from happens to go out of business at some distant (or not so distant) time in the future. I don't believe that honest customers should be penalized with restrictions while pirates get the same quality of product with no restrictions. I believe that paying customers shouldn't be treated like criminals. I believe that paying customers should be rewarded for their loyalty to the artist.
These are the things that DRM should have enabled and these are the reasons that DRM has failed us all.
You see, I don't believe that DRM was the antithesis of these ideals. I think that the deployments of DRM were poorly designed and executed. I don't know a thing about DPP, but I know that there is a lot of deserved distrust against DRM and that it will take a massive effort to overcome that hurdle.
While this may not be the most receptive forum for this perspective, I thought it was worth responding to a few points. One is that the music industry is filled with suits who have their head in the sand while "the world has moved on" away from DRM. The reality however is that average consumers (but perhaps not the typical slashdotter) are shackled with all sorts of DRM everyday whether it's movies, videogames, software or even eBooks. However, any mention of DRM for audio products seems to be a lightening rod of criticism (and perhaps with good reason). I'm not making any assertions as to whether it's right or wrong (at least not yet), but I wanted to make the point that DRM is alive and well in the world around us.
My next comment is that I believe that people deserve to get compensated for their work. If you can't come around on that point, then there's not much else I can say to convince you of anything. You see, I believe that the idea that people should get compensated for their work is concept that average person would agree with. I believe that DRM has, up to this point, been a very poor execution of that concept.
I believe that users should be able to make backups of products that they have purchased. As a corollary to that, I believe that it should be simple to restore their backups when needed. I believe that people should be able to play their music on whatever device they own wherever they happen to be. I believe that people should not lose the music that they paid for (along with the money that they spent) if the retailer that they bought it from happens to go out of business at some distant (or not so distant) time in the future. I don't believe that honest customers should be penalized with restrictions while pirates get the same quality of product with no restrictions. I believe that paying customers shouldn't be treated like criminals. I believe that paying customers should be rewarded for their loyalty to the artist.
These are the things that DRM should have enabled and these are the reasons that DRM has failed us all.
You see, I don't believe that DRM was the antithesis of these ideals. I think that the deployments of DRM were poorly designed and executed. I don't know a thing about DPP, but I know that there is a lot of deserved distrust against DRM and that it will take a massive effort to overcome that hurdle.
