DRM is an aberration in the free market economy system. The only reason it hasn't been completely abandoned yet is that it doesn't inconvenience the -majority- of the consumers the -majority- of the time. Everyone here knows better and is rightfully against such draconian measures, but the unfortunate fact is, if you were to ask the average person on the street if they were concerned about DRM, 80% wouldn't even know what it is. The technology goes above their head. Their iTunes "CD quality" tracks play in their iPod, what's the problem?
The public hasn't really seen the face of DRM yet due to their embrace of the Apple juggernaut. Want to play iTunes music in your car? Plug your iPod into your car dock. Want to play iTunes music on your computer? Fire up iTunes itself. On your stereo? Get one of the 100 000 stereo docks available for it. They haven't truly experienced what a lot of us face: lock out of playback methods we want to use to play music we (thought) we obtained legally. If any of these companies ever slip up and Joe Six-Pack can't play a certain song on his iPod because of DRM...watch out! The record companies are weathering the storm now, but in the end, the consumer always wins. It just takes time. The record companies are using their vast resources to maintain their archaic business models and practices artificially longer than the market will tolerate it. It's coming. The end is nigh. Consumer frustration is growing and one day even the mighty big 4 will either conform or die. Now, we do have to do something to ensure artists get paid. Unfortunately people do take any advantage they can - give them an inch and they'll take a mile. But encoding information in a digital medium brings new problems, as it's so easy to make a perfect copy it's hopeless to try to prevent it. Putting technological restrictions in place just challenges people to break it and with free sharing of information, makes it easy for others to break it as well. I don't propose solutions, but in the end the free market economy will win out. If we value music and musicians, we will gladly pay a fair price for music on offer. If the music is crap, it legitimately deserves to die. If, as opaquepiece suggests, the free market economy values music at $0, then other things will happen - the mass-market crap that takes millions to produce and promote will die off and live music that people will pay to attend will prosper. I would hope there is some middle ground, kind of a survival of the fittest thing, where bands that strike a chord with audiences could make a decent living, and those that really break new ground and revolutionize the scene make a killing. Those that aren't good enough or whose time hasn't come, well, unfortunately, they'll fail. This "survival of the fittest" has been perverted by record companies, who look at a packageable product like Britney Spears and the demographics - "ooh, she'll appeal to tweens and teens, plus wannabe bad grrls and horny 17-year old boys" and foist it upon the world, accompanied by the false success that millions of marketing dollars will buy. It's as fake as anything about her, and it does seem that people are slowly realizing that. It won't last. The free market economy will not let you do this forever. -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34928 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
