DRM and the Death of a Culture
~ by Simon Phipps
I had the privilege of delivering a keynote at the Open Source Meets Business conference in N�rnberg, Germany this week (delegates will find my slides online as a PDF). I travelled there from an engagement in Paris, and took the Metro/U-bahn1 in both places. There was a very visible difference between the two experiences.
In Paris, I bought my Metro ticket and then used it in an automated barrier to reach the platform. I noticed lowlife furtively scanning the station and then vaulting the barriers, and I saw armed police at the station to catch the thieves doing this (they didn't catch any that I saw, and there were several at each station).
By contrast, the U-Bahn in N�rnberg has no barriers. I bought my ticket, boarded the train without fuss, there was no risk of being shot by a policeman targeting a barrier-vaulting cheat, and the system was still clean, efficient and well-used.
This all sprang to mind when a conversation about DRM followed the GPLv3 item up over on Stephen's blog. A comment writer (Christopher Baus) said of DRM:
I might be the only technologist on the other side of the DRM fence. To me it is like checking my lift ticket when I get on the ski lift. I might find that a bit annoying, but if ensures the resort can stay in business from collecting ticket money, then that is a net good thing for me. If the ski resort goes out of business I can't go skiing, and I would resent those who got on the lift w/out paying.
I think there are quite a few people around who have Christopher's view, which is unfortunately rather simplistic. DRM - the imposition of restrictions on usage of content by technical means - is far more than that. It's like checking the lift ticket, yes, but also the guy checks you are only wearing gear hired from the resort shop, skis with you down the slope and trips you if you try any manoeuvers that weren't taught to you by the resort ski instructor; then as you go down the slope he pushes you away from the moguls because those are a premium feature and finally you get to run the gauntlet of armed security guards at the bottom of the slope checking for people who haven't paid.
The rest of this cogent view can be found here.
~ by Simon Phipps
I had the privilege of delivering a keynote at the Open Source Meets Business conference in N�rnberg, Germany this week (delegates will find my slides online as a PDF). I travelled there from an engagement in Paris, and took the Metro/U-bahn1 in both places. There was a very visible difference between the two experiences.
In Paris, I bought my Metro ticket and then used it in an automated barrier to reach the platform. I noticed lowlife furtively scanning the station and then vaulting the barriers, and I saw armed police at the station to catch the thieves doing this (they didn't catch any that I saw, and there were several at each station).
By contrast, the U-Bahn in N�rnberg has no barriers. I bought my ticket, boarded the train without fuss, there was no risk of being shot by a policeman targeting a barrier-vaulting cheat, and the system was still clean, efficient and well-used.
This all sprang to mind when a conversation about DRM followed the GPLv3 item up over on Stephen's blog. A comment writer (Christopher Baus) said of DRM:
I might be the only technologist on the other side of the DRM fence. To me it is like checking my lift ticket when I get on the ski lift. I might find that a bit annoying, but if ensures the resort can stay in business from collecting ticket money, then that is a net good thing for me. If the ski resort goes out of business I can't go skiing, and I would resent those who got on the lift w/out paying.
I think there are quite a few people around who have Christopher's view, which is unfortunately rather simplistic. DRM - the imposition of restrictions on usage of content by technical means - is far more than that. It's like checking the lift ticket, yes, but also the guy checks you are only wearing gear hired from the resort shop, skis with you down the slope and trips you if you try any manoeuvers that weren't taught to you by the resort ski instructor; then as you go down the slope he pushes you away from the moguls because those are a premium feature and finally you get to run the gauntlet of armed security guards at the bottom of the slope checking for people who haven't paid.
The rest of this cogent view can be found here.