4 ms·

It's no surprise that music leads the way, video (and especially live video) next, and software after that - they are ordered here by complexity. However, the

by jMyles 11y ago

It's no surprise that music leads the way, video (and especially live video) next, and software after that - they are ordered here by complexity. However, the anti-censorship instinct of the internet will eventually drive all of these forms media to an open distribution model.

icebraining 11y ago
Ebooks are still DRM'd in the major distribution networks, so I'm not sure the complexity model explains everything.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- jMyles 11y ago
  Hmmm, good point. Perhaps it's a partial explainer, and other factors like inertia, popularity, reach, etc. need to be factored.
- cwyers 11y ago
  In an echo of what derekp7 said above about the music industry turning to no-DRM as a way around Apple's restrictions on the iPhone, there are publishers who are turning to DRM-free sales of books directly to consumers to bypass Amazon's control of the Kindle ecosystem. O'Reilly and Packt come to mind immediately, but I'm not sure if it's a function of their audience or I just know of them because I'm in their audience. EDIT: Which, to the larger point -- DRM is two things, a content play and a platform play. Standardizing DRM is one way to limit the power of platform holders over content providers. Eliminating DRM is another. Deciding whether standardizing DRM is a lesser evil than leaving DRM up to platform holders is a question of who do you fear more, the content owners or the platform owners.
  - gsnedders 11y ago
    > Standardizing DRM is one way to limit the power of platform holders over content providers. Half the problem is EME doesn't even attempt to standardise DRM in any real way: it just provides a JS API to deal with DRM'd content, decrypted by some "module" which interfaces with the browser in an undefined way (and in every case except Firefox, does so by bundled with no possibility of any other modules being installed).
  - tjl 11y ago
    Tor has gone DRM-free for their e-books as well and Baen has been DRM-free from the start.

by jMyles 11y ago

icebraining 11y ago

Ebooks are still DRM'd in the major distribution networks, so I'm not sure the complexity model explains everything.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
jMyles 11y ago
Hmmm, good point. Perhaps it's a partial explainer, and other factors like inertia, popularity, reach, etc. need to be factored.
cwyers 11y ago
In an echo of what derekp7 said above about the music industry turning to no-DRM as a way around Apple's restrictions on the iPhone, there are publishers who are turning to DRM-free sales of books directly to consumers to bypass Amazon's control of the Kindle ecosystem. O'Reilly and Packt come to mind immediately, but I'm not sure if it's a function of their audience or I just know of them because I'm in their audience. EDIT: Which, to the larger point -- DRM is two things, a content play and a platform play. Standardizing DRM is one way to limit the power of platform holders over content providers. Eliminating DRM is another. Deciding whether standardizing DRM is a lesser evil than leaving DRM up to platform holders is a question of who do you fear more, the content owners or the platform owners.
- gsnedders 11y ago
  > Standardizing DRM is one way to limit the power of platform holders over content providers. Half the problem is EME doesn't even attempt to standardise DRM in any real way: it just provides a JS API to deal with DRM'd content, decrypted by some "module" which interfaces with the browser in an undefined way (and in every case except Firefox, does so by bundled with no possibility of any other modules being installed).
- tjl 11y ago
  Tor has gone DRM-free for their e-books as well and Baen has been DRM-free from the start.