most folks think of DRM as something that applies to DVDs or the music they buy from iTunes but that’s just one small way corporations and governments use DRM to levy control. where it really gets fucked-up is when you realize how much DRM has infiltrated and impacts your daily life.
the day against DRM
today is the Day Against DRM, or Digital Rights (Restrictions) Management. DRM is a means to control technology and how it’s accessed, to inhibit use of the content not desired or intended by the content provider.
the reason DRM exists is to allow the seller to control the product, and how we use the product, even after we have paid for it.
your money, your ownership… or is it?
i designed and built this here widget and i’ll happily take your money and even let you take it home. but i’ll be damned if it ever truly belongs to you.
while DRM has been around for years the public has mostly written it off as “copyright protection”. however, Amazon has recently made it very apparent to folks how deep DRM tendrils extend into your life.
Amazon has a cool digital book reader called Kindle that, previously unbeknownst to Kindle owners, is heavily fortified with DRM. see, Amazon thought George Orwell’s book 1984 was in the public domain and sold it as a Kindle book. oopsie, the book wasn’t in the public domain so Amazon utilized their DRM to go onto the Kindles of everyone who’d “purchased” the book and summarily remove it.
nobody had realized Amazon retained that amount of control over the products (both the Kindle unit and the Kindle book) that people had “purchased” from them.
clearly, it’s not a purchase. people expect that when they buy something, they now own it. DRM undermines that fundamental belief because it keeps the product or content solely under the control of the seller.
it’s control over your dollars
DRM helps us preserve our way of life. we decide how people use our products and it preserves that decision… and it preserves our fat-assed bottom line.
Apple is recognized as one of the most egregious purveyors of DRM, especially with their iTunes, iPhone and their infamous app store.
want the app from Nobel Prize winning cartoonist Mark Fiore? tough shit. Apple didn’t like it so they banned it from the app store. Apple doesn’t want his material on their phone… even though it’s your phone because you bought it, right? think again.
use Verizon? they’re no better. Verizon disables native features (GPS, bluetooth, custom ringtones, etc) of the phones they sell…. in order to sell the features/services back to you. tell me that’s not dodgey shit.
since when did we decide my best interest?
we know better than you. and with DRM we can better control your experience with our product.
don’t you just love it when someone else decides what’s best for you?
that’s claim of Apple, Amazon, Verizon and others as to their stringent controls and if you buy into that schtick then you’re probably still using AOL as your internet service provider.
squarely under their thumb
what’s important to realize here is that by allowing companies to retain control over the products and content you’ve purchased, by you not being able to use these products in your lifestyle as you see fit…
these companies are effectively controlling you by eliminating any other options. without options – freedom of choice – you’re railroaded in the direction of their choosing.
not to mention the constraints DRM puts on the creative evolution of the products. technology and it’s uses will only go so far as the company can see, never mind your ability to see a different or better way of using the technology.
the simple fact you’ve read this article proves you love technology and the freedom it can provide. therefore it’s time to demand freedom on your terms… because “freedom” on somebody elses terms isn’t freedom. fuck DRM.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Mark,
I too hate DRM but I don’t agree with the views about Apple. If you look at the history of the iTunes store, one could draw a conclusion that they actually crushed DRM. Their model provided an alternative revenue stream for the music industry in the face of declining sales worldwide. Once that took hold, they negotiated out the DRM component away from the music industry.
One could argue that Apple wrested control on behalf of consumers everywhere. Video is undergoing a similar battle. And interestingly enough, print will probably take the longest.
right, they have made some (all?) items available DRM free. was this Apple’s strategy from the get-go? hardly. they didn’t sit in their boardroom and say “we’ll help producers distribute the shit out of their content and one day we’ll be able to force them to get rid of that icky DRM stuff we so staunchly oppose.” it really was pressure form consumers that pushed the issue. but, i do appreciate Apple listening… shame they haven’t applied the lesson to their other channels.
I think it’s naive to believe Apple didn’t think a few moves ahead on DRM. The music industry wasn’t going to jump right into a DRM-free model without a platform to replace it. Apple had to build it first. At a minimum, the iTunes store deserves credit as a catalyst for moving an archaic broken music industry forward.
Here’s my question, how closed is the Apple platform? If I want an application on my phone, I can get it on there. I’ve yet to see any application (outside of tethering apps) that served any great utility that didn’t make it into the App Store. There are a handful of notable declines, all of which are available for consumers in the Cydia store (jailbreak).
I think Apple is an easy target because of their reputation for meticulous control over hardware and software. But if you query folks that use Apple products, I’d bet many don’t feel inhibited by DRM. Quite the contrary, there is a cornucopia of amazing third party apps that enable easy manipulation of content, more so than I ever found on competitor OS’s.
did Apple consider the DRM issue when planning iTunes?oh, most definitely. did they make an altruistic decision to use iTunes to rid the world of DRM? no way. consider the purpose of iTunes was to help sell more iPods (when you sell hardware, give the software away for free).
now, i think Apple makes some pretty sexy cool machines. you and i have previously discussed reasons why they’re so cool. but the fact that you have to jailbreak one in order to use it in a perfectly normal way is, well, not cool.
and yeah, that does set them up as an easy target and it seems to be a position that, for the time being, they’re happy with.
once they switch their stance you’ll find me in an Apple store considering my options.
“…these companies are effectively controlling you by eliminating any other options. without options – freedom of choice – you’re railroaded in the direction of their choosing.”
We ALWAYS have a choice. For instance, I don’t use Kindle, iWhatever, or Verizon for these very reasons. If folks like you keep getting the word out (thanks, btw) these companies will begin to see sales decline, and they’ll make the necessary changes or be out of business.
Companies do business to make a profit. That doesn’t make them evil. One thing is certain, however: we do vote with our money, and they always listen, eventually.
i hear what you’re saying about “choice” and i thought about that as i wrote the above. i agree, we totally have the ability to say yay or nay. the reason i wrote it was that many folks have no clue as to these practices… these companies don’t make it public that this is how they do business. so, in that case, folks simply didn’t realize there was a choice to make which is sort of the same thing as not having a choice. that’s why i did what i could to promote Day against DRM to make my small corner of the world more aware.
and thanks for the great comment
Steve Jobs on DRM >>
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/