Re: Netflix HTML5 player in IE 11 on Windows 8.1

David Singer [2013-07-06T23:25]:
> Should the web be restricted to media that is unprotected, or not?  That's a debatable point, for sure.  I think that is a poor choice, in that it relegates the web to only referencing what the owners feel is 'low value' content.


There is a notion of balance of control inside social infrastructures.

* The control the user has on the consumption of a thing.
* The control the user has on the memory of a thing.
* The control the owner has on the consumption of a thing.
* The control the owner has on the distribution of a thing.

These are really different things, but intertwined.
In the online DRM case, we remove a lot of the control the users had. For example, we can buy a DVD. This DVD might be protected in multiple ways (zone, DRM, etc.) These controls have been made to add a layer of control on the distribution (not questioning here if these are necessary or not), but once the DVD is bought, there is a certain notion of control such as

1. the user can play it multiple times
2. the user can play in different circumstances (alone or with family)
3. the user can make a copy (in some countries) even if protected for backup for example.
4. the user might RIP a copy to associate with different subtitles in his/her own language.

(These are part of the reasons why a person might buy a DVD even if the person has seen the movie in a cinema.)

The same things are happening with books. On the other hand, we already have records of stories gone wrong. The most telling example is 1984 by George Orwell removed from the reader of people. [1], or again the case of a customer not using the right term of Amazon shop and getting her access to Amazon being cancelled and loosing then all her library.

[1]: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289983-56.html


-- 
Karl Dubost
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/

Received on Monday, 8 July 2013 20:10:09 UTC