Is DRM Dead ?

Is the announcement today by EMI and Apple the nail in the coffin of DRM?

Even Bill Gates suggested music buyers were better off buying CDs and ripping them.

DRM is a red rag to a bull; as soon as anything is encrypted a huge number of very able individuals around the world will take on the challenge of cracking it . Just because they can.

But, wait a minute, there's nothing new here.

You could happily move content from medium to medium before the advent of the internet and it wasn't exactly difficult using a hifi stack to do that. OK, the scale now is much greater, but rights owners are going to have to learn to live in a world where content is virally distributed instead of being wholesaled and retailed.

One answer might be the more-than-likely move towards always available, always on streamed content. Physical files aren't transferred - they're available by subscription.

But, hey, you can always port sniff your PC or stick the video camera on your mobile phone in front of the screen and click the 'record' button.

Comments

The VP said…
No other media industry cares about DRM - you can watch the Premiership on Sky, record it with a £50 DVD writer and sell them at a market. No other part of media cares about copyright quite like new media. Why?