If it wasn’t for Apple, I probably would be ripping friend’s CD’s to play music… wait, I probably wouldn’t even be listening to as much music as I listen to now. I think it was either MacRumors or AppleInsider where I read this, but on average, every iTunes user only has approximately 8 purchased songs… Compared to that, I have over 400, and that grows every month… but I think it’d grow faster if there weren’t DRM.
Why?
Because right now most of my music is registered to a .Mac account, and if I cancel that account then I can’t authorize or reauthorize my computers. It is my music, and I’d be more at ease if something like that didn’t control my music library. So, without the DRM to bother me, I’d definitely be buying a lot more (even if it was +$.29 to get DRM free).
How does this all tie in with DRM for HD DVD’s and BlueRay? I love watching movies, but I like to watch them on my computer. I like to have them easily accessible any time I want to watch them. What’s the best way to do that? It’s to keep a copy (for personal use) on one of your own hard drives. My HDTV is connected to a seperate computer that I run as a media server, then I have my laptop, and another laptop, and another server, and well, you get my point. Lots of computers. The 5 computer limit (if they adopt Apple’s same DRM restrictions that is), wouldn’t be enough, and the DRM would make it impossible in the first place to make a personal use copy on my hard drive.
I’ve seen the quality of the new HD discs (both BlueRay and HD DVD), and they look amazing. Even though the DVD’s are double the price of normal DVD’s. I’ve also seen the quality of the movie downloads on iTunes, and truthfully, I don’t think it’s worth the $9.99 they charge. I think Apple should offer movies in at least 720p, and for an extra cost, provide it without DRM restrictions (just like music). So, $15~$17 for 720p video without DRM? Hell yes I’ll buy it. Have it released 1 week before DVD’s, I’d buy it before I rent it!
With storage so cheap today, why do we need new DVD’s? Why not just purchase and download, it’s much more convenient right? There’s one issue that comes up for me. When you go over to a friends house, and want to watch a movie you own, you bring your DVD and watch in on their player. That’s not illegal, but, in another example; you go over to a friends house, purchased the movie on iTunes, how would you play it at your friends house without copying it? There’s definitely some gray area here.
Got a little side tracked, but my point is, if the MPAA/RIAA wants us to stay legal, then provide good legal alternatives. Don’t fill things up with DRM just because you don’t want it to get copied. On the contrary, if you put DRM on the content, people will find a way to circumvent it and distribute it another way, without paying for it. Also, when things get out of hand, don’t try and cover it up. With last week’s Digg example, the information would spread faster (this is where my child analogy comes in 
).
May 8th, 2007 at 3:54 AM
The private sector seems to be moving forward with the idea of DRM-Free music offered legally — at least for music.
Grooveshark.com and We7.com are a couple of them. One is peer to peer (Grooveshark) and the other is advertising based. I am sure there must be a few others out there, but it looks like the industry is moving forward.