[mdlug-discuss] "Why DRM won't ever work"

[allen]

Robert Adkins wrote:
> <http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6189011.html?tag=nl.e550>
>
> It's an interesting commentary that touches very briefly on something we 
> have discussed here recently.
>
> -Rob
>   
I just wish the entire issue would reach its crashing crescendo so we 
could move on.

It's not like this is a new issue. For everyone of an age there's Bill 
Gate's weepy complaint about all the mean pirates who wouldn't let a 
poor but honest lad from Seattle earn tupence.

He survived and without a reliable means of preventing copying. He just 
had to accept what he couldn't change and make the best of it. On the 
evidence of his eleven figure net worth I'd say he found a way to make 
the best of it.

Of course the stakes are a bit higher now then they were back then, the 
microcomputer software business when Bill made his plea was penny-ante 
stuff compared to the intellectual property industry of today so the IP 
holders have access to options big Bill didn't.

But the basics haven't changed.

Copying bits is as easy - easier - now and the only way to try to 
prevent people from copying those bits is to make it artificially more 
difficult. The IP holders have had some success in enlisting the power 
of government to require adding technology to make copying artificially 
difficult but sooner or later they'll start to get push-back from the 
folks that are needed to give DRM a breath of a chance: the hardware 
manufacturers.

I'm sure TI or Intel would be happy to add DRM features to their 
hardware if they had some reason to think it would make their hardware 
more valuable but it doesn't. DRM modifications make the hardware more 
valuable to IP holders only. To the hardware makers it's just a cost and 
they won't add it until it generates a profit or until they're forced.

DRM'll never generate a profit for hardware makers and since the IP 
holders don't have enough money to buy off the hardware makers they have 
to try to force them to comply via law passed at the behest of the IP 
holders. Of course, the IP holders aren't the only folks who can hire 
lobbyists and once the law passed to suit the IP holders starts to 
pinch, the hardware makers will start complaining and spreading around 
lobbying funds. That ought to bring further legislative remedies to a 
halt and the IP holders will have to make due with the law they've 
gotten passed so far.

That'll cost the IP holders money, as the suits the RIAA has brought 
show but won't add a nickel to their bottom line. Sooner or later the 
adults will intervene and the boards of directors will want to know when 
all the funds going out to buy lobbyists and bad publicity will start to 
turn a profit. Since the answer is "never", they'll pull the plug and, 
taking a page from the Gates play book, will figure out how to earn an 
honest buck without having the luxury of owning the printing presses, 
record presses and film labs.

I just wish they'd get started.

Allen