DRM: chicken or egg?
February 26, 2007

Slashdot points out an essay by a Baen Universe editor that argues DRM causes piracy rather than stops it. The essay points to three reasons for this - hard to find products, high-priced products and "the legal products come with so many added-on nuisances that the illegal version is better to begin with. Those are the three conditions that will create widespread electronic copyright infringement, especially in combination. Why? Because they're the same three general conditions that create all large-scale smuggling enterprises. And... Guess what? It's precisely those three conditions that DRM creates in the first place. So far from being an impediment to so-called 'online piracy,' it's DRM itself that keeps fueling it and driving it forward."
Maybe the first and third condition are true for movie downloads, but high prices? It seems like nobody has figured out the pricing model yet or will until downloads are easy enough for consumers to watch on multiple devices and their TV set.

Posted by Jennifer Netherby on February 26, 2007 | Comments (0)