Discuss mailing list

[Peter Green <peter AT greenpete.free>]

> "If they want to try DRM that's fine by me.  If they get burnt trying,
> well that's sad, but I certainly am not in favour of passing a law that
> says "you can't try new things because I know they won't work".  If you
> are right and it really wasn't in their best interest I am sure they
> will figure that out for themselves.
> 
> You apparently believe DRM is bad.  I presume you think that's because
> it will lead to less available content?  So you want it banned.
> Meanwhile, the people who make the content evidently think it will lead
> to more content because distributing it is what they get paid for.  So
> they want it enforced.
> 
> Who is right?  I'm buggered if I know.  I do know that you finding
> pirated content is easier to get to doesn't chime with the experience
> most non-technical people have.  I also know that if we set the rules up
> well, so an open market allows both DRM'ed and non DRM'ed content to
> flow freely people will vote with their dollars.  Whatever system gets
> the most dollars flowing to the content producers, (ie the artists),
> will obviously be the one that ends up producing the most content.  In
> other words it dominate and it will do that in exactly the way we want -
> by making the most content available for the price.
> 
> Our job is to come up with a system that lets that game play out fairly,
> so that the market can do it's job and optimise the result.  The market
> we have now consists of a few large companies doing fragmented DRM in
> walled gardens.  That not in anyone's best interests.  I can't see how
> making DRM freely available to all comers will do anything but improve
> the situation."

I think that is a fairly simplistic approach that relies on, as your
friends says "lets that game play out fairly". I don't think the people
behind DRM will ever play fairly!

Peter