The March 17 “Click” cable program from BBC World featured DRM, mostly on how it applies to the music and downloadable DVD industry, but certainly very relevant to e-books. The arguments for and against are very similar, also the problems caused by locking consumers into proprietary formats. See BBC World’s website for video of the show.
If music and video distributors ever (or if ever!) decide on a universal protection system it will no doubt be used on e-books as well, so it’s a subject we should all follow.
Generally the people at Click! are utterly clueless. A quote that highlights this: “There are two flavors of DRM.” Hah!
Anyway, this particular episode was surprisingly good, maybe since there were a lot of speaking by guests, and even most of the Click! crew speaking was done by that Spencer guy who is the least ignorant guy there.
The only pro-DRM argument I heard was that DRM is needed for some specific business models. This argument was told many times, in slightly different wordings.
My reply to it would be: Tough luck, choose different business models then! Don’t lobby for governments to support shoving those business models down consumers’ throats!
I can also create a business model that’s pro-me and against everybody else; I want all shoe-users to pay me one cent for each mile they walk. Let’s make laws requiring all shoes to have built-in counters and self-destruct “features” and whatnot, so that I can get more money, just because I don’t want to let go of this insane business model.
The anti-DRM arguments were not that many either, but they were important. The frontmost was that people don’t want to be locked to one provider or device.
My comment: Even if DRM was open and fully interoperable it could still cause a lot of problems. E.g., if you lose your key or forget your password suddenly your whole collection, which cost you thousands and thousands, is completely unusable.
I think to get a job on most tv programs it helps to sound like an idiot! It is interesting, however, that even BBC World has now noticed that DRM is causing some serious consumer backlash. I have been on the other end of the problem – having had copyright songwriting used illegally, but that was a music company, not the consumers! What could I do about it ? Not much without an expensive legal battle. And DRM would not have helped.
Your last paragraph about “losing” collections is very valid. I have been transferring old vinyl favourites to CD’s, still have CD’s from 20 years ago. Apart from having to update the storage media every 15-20 years they will still give me a lot of pleasure for many years. Of course some of my books are now 180 years old and still readable. I won’t use ITunes for music as I can’t guarantee this type of “ownership”.
Carol Jurd