DRM-Free Music Spells Trouble

I could not DISAGREE more with this.

DRM is a form of control AFTER the sell. What other products to producers still control AFTER they sell it to you? Does FORD limit where I can drive my car? No! Then why should a movie studio limit which laptop or PMP I watch a movie on (after I paid for it). DRM is an artificial control placed on digital media and I'm happy to see it go.

This doesn't spell trouble, it spells flexibility. But it does it spells the end of high profits from selling low cost copies of music and movies. Ford would love to spend millions designing a new car, but mass produce copies of the car for $500 while selling them for 20 thousand dollars each. The days of selling a CD or DVD for over $20 when it only costs 50 cents to make are over. Movies were invented when the only way to make money from them was from the box office, now they make more money on DVD sales. But have the prices at the box office gone down any? I dont' think they will go out of business if the insanely high DVD profit goes away.

The idea that it is OK to make 4000% profit on selling a plastic disk is dead. Movies will have to make their money in the movie theater, singers and performers will have to make their money at the concert hall. They will still make some profit off of DVD and CD sells (or whatever medium replaces them including downloads) but the cost of these will be much closer to the actual cost to make the discs than it is now. And this is a GOOD THING, not trouble.

DRM-Free Music Spells Trouble: Digitization - Columns by PC Magazine

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/4663/drm-free_music_spells [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The RIAA speaks--and it gets worse

All I can say to the RIAA, is that it is better to remain silent and have the world think you a fool.... than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!!

The RIAA speaks--and it gets worse | The Digital Home - Don Reisinger's take on the tech closest to home - CNET Blogs [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DVD Ripping Faces Another Test

Argh... why is Hollywood so bent on protecting an encryption scheme that has been cracked already. The cats out of the bag already people!! If you don't support legal means of putting movies on a jukebox or computer, people will just use other means.

Changing the CCA license will

- do NOTHING to stop piracy.
- put an innovative company out of business.
- give the people that pay for DVD's less choices.
- prove that Hollywood believes there is (or should be) no such thing as "fair use"


It's ridiculous


- DVD Ripping Faces Another Test - News and Analysis by PC Magazine [This Post Continues after the jump...]

$3 DVDs in China

Paramount and Warner Bros. market $3 DVDs in China:

Well, all I can say is THANK YOU pirates. This proves that piracy is a GOOD thing for us customers.
DVD's are too expensive, why do they cost $15-$20 here in the US if $3 still makes a profit? It's pure profiteering by the movie studios an makes there ridiculous claims of loosing "millions of dollars" to pirate all the more silly.

Now if they would just wise up and lower US prices too!! [This Post Continues after the jump...]

MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed

When will people learn.

If you buy something with DRM, you're not really "buying "it no matter what the price, or official "terms".
You are essentially "renting" it and they can "evict" you at any time, for any reason.

Slashdot | MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed

also at ..Baseball's DRM change strikes

Last year, the US Copyright Office considered—and then rejected—an exception to the DMCA that would give consumers in this sort of predicament some recourse. Under the proposed exception, those stuck with busted DRM schemes would have had the right to bypass the DRM. As it stands instead, paying customers are at the whims of content providers and whatever DRM clearinghouse they happen to be using at the time. It's no wonder so many sports fan turn to BitTorrent for game footage.

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P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

Michael Geist - Gov't Commissioned Study Finds P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

If you real about the case the RIAA won recently (RIAA Wins Key Victory) , you'll see that the person they sued for offering 20 songs online, also bought a lot of CDs.

This really is a case of the RIAA suing it's BEST customers.... when will they learn? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Hollywood writers near strike

Hollywood writers near strike over royalties on new technology | CNET News.com

I'm sorry, but just why do these writers think they should get paid continuously for work done once? I mean do the designers at Ford get paid for every car sold? Do most people get paid repeatedly for work they do once? I sure don't.

The whole "royalty" concept is going to hurt us if we don't control it. I don't see why there "artists" think they are different from the rest of us workers. Why should their "x days of labor" drive repeated income while my day's labor earns just a day's salary. I guess it's good work if you can get it, but it's ridiculous.

But in a way I don't blame them, movies and TV shows are way over priced and the money really should go to the "talent" and not to executives at media companies. But that's a different issue. The price all trickles down to us consumers.

Luckily things are changing -- because there are other ways to distribute TV shows now and the "networks" and "media" companies are becoming less and less important.

But it still sounds greedy to me. They want to be paid over and over for writing a funny joke once, where as I get paid once of anything I write at work. Doesn't seem fair to me...

More after the Jump....


Updated 11/3
I've been thinking about this more and more. Running a camera certainly takes talent and skill, and some might even call it an art. But I wonder if the camera operators get a cut of every DVD they sold? I doubt it.

Again I ask, WHY are the writers different?

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DRM vs. Hackers: Time to Surrender?

DRM vs. Hackers: Time to Surrender?

Let's hope DRM goes quickly.... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach

Michael Geist - DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach:

"Bruce Lehman, the architect of the DMCA said: 'our Clinton administration policies didn't work out very well' and 'our attempts at copyright control have not been successful' ..... While he says that teens have lost respect for copyright, he lays much of the blame at the feet of the recording industry for their failure to adapt to the online marketplace in the mid-1990s."

When something doesn't work, it's time to move on... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

NFL fumbles DMCA takedown battle and violated the DMCA in the prossess

You can't make stuff like this up... it incredible the rights copyright holds CLAIM to have.

NFL fumbles DMCA takedown battle, could face sanctions

Essentially, the NFL is now in violation of the same law that it is using to try to protect its own content. And, instead of following the proper procedures outlined in the DMCA, the NFL appears to be choosing to beat her over the head with takedown requests.

After receiving her counter-notification claiming fair use, sending another takedown notice over the same content is considered a knowing misrepresentation that the clip is infringing, according to DMCA section 512(f)(1). Under the DMCA, the NFL would be liable for all legal fees incurred by the alleged infringer, along with damages.

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