Jesper's recent frustration with a bug in the DRM support on his Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) system demonstrates a couple of basic truths in system reliability: Complexity negatively impacts reliability. DRM contributes to complexity. Clearly, this means that DRM makes systems less reliable...
I've read a lot in the press about how " Apple's Jobs calls on music industry to drop DRM ": "Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major record companies to start selling songs online without copy protection software to thwart piracy known as digital rights management (DRM)." Okay, so for a man whose...
In December 4's edition of eWeek, Jim Rapoza writes a piece titled " Mine! All mine! ", in which he decries the inclusion of Rights Management Services (RMS) in Windows Vista, comparing it to the rather unsuccessful launch of Circuit City's DivX DVD player (not to be confused with the subsequent codec...
The BBC has an article about the cracking of Microsoft's DRM protections for Windows Media format files. As I've mentioned before , "DRM works in exactly one scenario: when the owner of the rights also controls the behaviour of those subject to DRM". Because the music producers have no effective recourse...
Okay, so it's really a device for allowing blind people to read signs, menus, receipts, etc, without having to drag the print to a scanner. But consider that this will effectively scan and read any print that is visible anywhere, and you realise that this device is a handy little DRM beater. Mind...
Here's a theme you'll have heard from me a dozen times if you've been following my Usenet traffic: “When I buy software, or music, or videos, I want to buy the content, not just the plastic it comes on.” What do I mean by this? Simply that I don't want to find myself restricted as to what I can do with...