DRM can't not go away in its current incarnation, there's no way people will put up with its limitations once consumption of digital media reaches critical mass (i.e. around the same percentage of people watching timeslipped content as they do realtime on the TV)... Sky+ handles it nicely but is still a closed system, but the goalposts are different for Sky. Bringing content to peoples' computers and then denying them what they expect to be able to do (i.e. copy/burn to disc and expect it to play in other machines or standalone players/sync to mobile devices, although I know that should be forthcoming) is really going to hack them off in the long run, and I can't see how any content platform would survive after the hail of complaints from consumers about 'why they can't do xyz with this downloaded content when they can just record it off the telly with their PVR or DVD recorder and stick it straight onto their computer.'
The biggest hindrance as I see it is the rights holders - they're stuck in the last decade and stubbornly refuse to accept that the times they are a-changing with regards to the consumption of broadcast content. I'm sure everybody would, in the end, be a lot happier if the BBC just arranged a slightly higher rights payment and was then allowed to distribute the content without the encumberance of time-limited DRM, allowing people to save the stuff ad infinitum and even share it with their mates, but still ensuring that the rights holders get a higher initial amount. The current rights setup is flawed and in need of a shakeup. >From a consumer standpoint, I don't think it'd harm long tail purchases - you wouldn't like it if your friend decided to save a few bob and burn you a copy of all the episodes from Two Pints onto a DVDR instead of pay a few quid and buy the pucker BBC box set. Value added is what keeps people buying the merch after it's aired on TV, you might lose a few casual buyers but the profit margins of physical content should be re-evaluated anyway because I've always thought that a lot of stuff is priced too high. It's a reason why I like sites like Play and CDWow as much as I do - they obviously don't make as much profit per unit sale but they must shift a LOT of units, so they're still making a decent profit. They sold the Bond boxset (all 20 DVDs in the metal briefcase) for £200 - a full £100 off the RRP, and I bought it from them instead of elsewhere, so I'm sure they still made a profit if all the other Bond fans bought from them instead of elsewhere. I also think that physical media which is sold at a more appealing price point will far outweigh the sale of digital versions of TV shows (like on iTunes for a few quid a pop) because again, DRM slapped all over it. I'd rather pay £3 more and have physical copy with which I can do what I like in terms of digitisation for my various devices, I think many still value the whole thing of having something in their hand with which they can ensure that they have a backup which they can make more than one copy of through their period of ownership should their PC go wrong (like mine has in the past)! All this iTMS / OD2 / WMDRM / Rhapsody online stuff is all transient to me... If the industry bought AllOfMP3's intellectual property and used the exact same platform for purchasing new music, I would probably never buy a physical copy for a long time (because if I can pay the same as I would for a CD but download the FLAC versions with which I can play on my DAP and/or make a CDR out of, why would I bother going to the shop? The industry needs to take that step forward and learn to trust its consumers, but currently everybody in the industry is seemingly afraid to stick their head above the cloud of groupthink and make that first step towards changing the way they offer their content to the consumer. I think we can all agree that if we paid almost the same as a physical copy for a bit-perfect digital copy of an album, we wouldn't want to immediately fire up our P2P client of choice and go sharing it with the world. Value added is a concept which can be readily applied to digital content, and DRM isn't a requirement to achieve this end, the industry is just declaring it to be a necessity and people are going to get bored of them saying that eventually. And so, we hope, when they're downsizing AGAIN, they might finally realise this truth... As I write this I think of the BPI AGM, which is taking place in London in July and is going to be followed by a rather expensive evening's worth of entertainment on a boat (or barge quite possibly) in the Thames where a group of MPs is going to be fed, watered and gently lobbied by the big five (or is it big three now?), most likely for a change to duration of copyright on performed works... Does the industry never learn! And then there's the industry's annual pat-on-the-back, known to the rest of us as MIDEM, don't get me started on that. :D (and they wonder why they're haemorrhaging cash year-on-year! </cynic>) Apologies to all who consider this tl;dr, stuff just kept on coming to mind as I was writing ;) > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Crossland [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 13 June 2007 02:00 > To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk > Subject: Re: [backstage] www.FreeTheBBC.info > > Hi Christopher! > > Thanks for your input :-) > > On 13/06/07, Christopher Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > DRM is a temporary thing, eventually it'll go away (like a > rash) but > > until then it's a continual sore point for both originators and > > consumers. > > I am not sure about this. I hope it will go away, but we > cannot assume that. > > While researching the origins of the term "open source", I > found the first public statement Stallman made, where he > explains a similar point of view: > > http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?mss:1155:lhmcojngfllopgjicdei > > -- > Regards, > Dave > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To > unsubscribe, please visit > http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
