Re: Cory Doctorow: W3C green-lights adding DRM to the Web's standards, says it's OK for your browser to say "I can't let you do that, Dave" [via Restricted Media Community Group]

On Oct 8, 2013, at 13:38 , Alastair Campbell <alastc@gmail.com> wrote:

> Mhyst wrote:
> As for me, I'd prefer to deny the existence of digital copies of what content owners want to "protect". I don't give up freedom just for convenience.
> 
> Personally I agree with you and don't buy DRMed content [1], but if most people agreed with you and refused to buy DRMed content this would be a very different discussion.

There was a significant period in which the content owners did not embrace electronic distribution, effectively telling people "if you want an electronic copy, your only choice is a pirated one".  They realized that this was not the best message.

If you can take a principled stand and resist both piracy and DRM, I applaud you; but for many people, the inconveniences of DRM are outweighed by far by the conveniences.  Personally, when rent or buy a movie to watch once, I don't really care if it's locked to the account (which may be closed) the distributor (who may go out of business) or a device I choose (which I may not have at some time in the future).  It was a short-term question anyway.

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Tuesday, 8 October 2013 21:57:35 UTC