DRM truly does make pirates out of us all
Found on Ars Technica on Thursday, 28 May 2009
DRM is so rage-inducing, even to ordinary, legal users of content, that it can even drive the blind to download illegal electronic Bibles.
The study confirms what anyone who has ever wanted to rip a DVD to their computer or iPod could have told you: DRM, coupled with anticircumvention laws, makes pirates of us all.
Of course, as Bright points out, the massive lobbying, legislative, legal, and technical effort that underlies all these DRM regimes does so little to stop piracy that we'd be tempted to laugh at the folly of it all if we weren't already weeping.
Not really a surprise at all, but it can't be pointed out enough times. DRM is by design a failure and makes any product less valueable; often even worthless. Users running into problems will look online for solutions; and there they discover that what they just bought and can't use is available for free and unrestricted. It's easy to guess where they start looking next time first. Nobody goes to a dealer that offers a broken product without any help twice.