Music, Video and other digital content providers are all busy running like lemmings after each new DRM technology hoping to find the holy grail. The technology which will allow them to dicatate the use of their products according to their desires. Its a pipe dream right up there with finding Atlantis if you ask me. Why is that? Simple. You have to be able to use the product. IE you have to be able to read, watch, listen to the content. As such this means that everything the user needs is on their machine. If the file is encrypted the key is on the machine etc... Even if you keep the seperated say by relying on a net connection, sooner or later the two pieces of information (ie the data and key) are all going to be in the hands of the users. This means that the code can be cracked. The power of computers is that only one person has to crack it in order for everyone else to benifit from it. THe other power of computers is automating the process of cracking any encryption/protection method devised. It is an unbeatable combo.
Thus DRM is insanity. The thing that really kills me is that Computers should be lowering the entry cost for access to data. Right now the drive is to maintain the cost and restriction to the information in order to maintain profits. We create the massive infrastructure of interconnected machines capable of allmost instantaneously replicating and accessing massive amounts of data and then hamstring it with access limitations.
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