Mark Lanctot;200580 Wrote: > 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.
I agree with your position. The fish stinks from the head. DRM are only a way to force downstream market segmentation of goods, which by their very economic nature (their infinite reproducibility) encourage the very opposite. There are a number of interesting articles that have appeared on www.theregister.co.uk - go there and do a search insitu of DRM. as an appetizer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03/peter_jenner/page4.html Cheers to all, I hope we can continue this discussion, it is truly interesting. Giacomo -- gbruzzo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gbruzzo's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3633 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34928 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
