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In 50 years the whole society will have realised the stupidity of DRMs in the early days of the Internet. What we "need" to show how bad DRM are is the bankrup

by erelde 10y ago

In 50 years the whole society will have realised the stupidity of DRMs in the early days of the Internet. What we "need" to show how bad DRM are is the bankruptcy of something like Amazon or even Google, and look at the impact that will make if all of those servers were wiped.

BostonEnginerd 10y ago
This has already sort of happened. We just have short memories. 1) Microsoft kills MSN Music in 2008, removing access from users who purchased albums. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-su... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure 2) Amazon removes access to purchased Disney streaming videos for Christmas season: https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-pulls-access-to-purchased-christmas-videos-during-christmas-131216/ https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-pulls-access-to-purchased-ch... https://boingboing.net/2013/12/15/amazon-takes-away-access-to-pu.html https://boingboing.net/2013/12/15/amazon-takes-away-access-t... The industry has moved to more of a subscription model which helps soften the blow when something disappears.
- erelde 10y ago
  Yes, but I meant something like a real disaster like if Google stopped working, at all, all wiped, search algorithms, indexes, APIs, libraries, YouTube (what a sh*tshow that one would be, very large, very front facing). All because we allowed something this big to own so much of our life and still be private, hidden. Suddenly Europe doesn't have a web search engine (it was 90% of europeans who use Google, isn't it?). Suddenly websites all over the world stop working because they used some CDN. I was too young when people really talked and dreamt about everyone owning his own server, hostname. But I do believe in self-reliance, and DRMs are one of the blocks on the road to that goal. People shouldn't have to rely on Amazon's existence to be able to read the copy of Dickens they bought from Amazon. Because in 50 years, I'll still be alive, but there's a high chance Amazon won't, because most companies don't last 70 years. And as all things eventually end, we have to know and anticipate that fact. DRMs think about the very short term, while we should already be thinking about the long term.
muddi900 10y ago
In 50 years the idea of ownership by individuals will be dead. Trans-genic organism have IP protects, tractors too. The whole of Agricultural production will pretty much become a licensing business. The same will happen to large-scale mass manufacturing plants, small scale manufacturing, Automotive, logistics and communication. If this was, say, Cambodia, they would have been crushed under the weight of competing markets, but we have international trade agreements, essentially allowing certain American laws to apply internationally and the clout to enforce them.
MereInterest 10y ago
We already have this, just from (effectively) infinite copyright. DRM is just going to make it worse. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-hole-in-our-collective-memory-how-copyright-made-mid-century-books-vanish/278209/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-ho...

by erelde 10y ago

BostonEnginerd 10y ago

This has already sort of happened. We just have short memories. 1) Microsoft kills MSN Music in 2008, removing access from users who purchased albums. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-su... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure 2) Amazon removes access to purchased Disney streaming videos for Christmas season: https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-pulls-access-to-purchased-christmas-videos-during-christmas-131216/ https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-pulls-access-to-purchased-ch... https://boingboing.net/2013/12/15/amazon-takes-away-access-to-pu.html https://boingboing.net/2013/12/15/amazon-takes-away-access-t... The industry has moved to more of a subscription model which helps soften the blow when something disappears.

erelde 10y ago
Yes, but I meant something like a real disaster like if Google stopped working, at all, all wiped, search algorithms, indexes, APIs, libraries, YouTube (what a sh*tshow that one would be, very large, very front facing). All because we allowed something this big to own so much of our life and still be private, hidden. Suddenly Europe doesn't have a web search engine (it was 90% of europeans who use Google, isn't it?). Suddenly websites all over the world stop working because they used some CDN. I was too young when people really talked and dreamt about everyone owning his own server, hostname. But I do believe in self-reliance, and DRMs are one of the blocks on the road to that goal. People shouldn't have to rely on Amazon's existence to be able to read the copy of Dickens they bought from Amazon. Because in 50 years, I'll still be alive, but there's a high chance Amazon won't, because most companies don't last 70 years. And as all things eventually end, we have to know and anticipate that fact. DRMs think about the very short term, while we should already be thinking about the long term.

muddi900 10y ago

In 50 years the idea of ownership by individuals will be dead. Trans-genic organism have IP protects, tractors too. The whole of Agricultural production will pretty much become a licensing business. The same will happen to large-scale mass manufacturing plants, small scale manufacturing, Automotive, logistics and communication. If this was, say, Cambodia, they would have been crushed under the weight of competing markets, but we have international trade agreements, essentially allowing certain American laws to apply internationally and the clout to enforce them.

MereInterest 10y ago

We already have this, just from (effectively) infinite copyright. DRM is just going to make it worse. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-hole-in-our-collective-memory-how-copyright-made-mid-century-books-vanish/278209/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-ho...