The death of DRM? Hardly.
This week, Apple announced that their iTunes stores was going DRM-free for everything but audiobooks and video. A few years ago, I had dinner w/a developer from a very large software company who agreed that the DRM war is an arms race and that the software companies were willing to keep up the never-ending battle. As a matter of fact, until recently, most heavy encryption was covered under munitions law that treated software under the same import/export rules as guns or explosives.
Remember back in July when Defective By Design, a campaign from the Free Software Foundation, booked 10 minute slots at the Genius Bar to stymie Apple? They started off by saying, “I’m from the DRM elimination crew at DefectiveByDesign.org – I’d like to ask you a few questions about the defects Apple has designed into the iPhone 3G.” While they may not have had an immediate effect, there is no doubt that FSF helped make an impression on public consciousness.
The Creative Commons has also done quite a bit for creating an alternative to the old school approach to media distribution. Moreover, in the future, I imagine custodial companies like Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) actually having to promote to keep Elvis relevant in the coming future (i.e. not preventing Elvis’ image and likeness from being unlicensed but instead, encouraging Elvis mash-ups and remixes). After all, who needs a dead has-been when you can get a really good live, web-ified Elvis impersonator like Francisco Dao?
DRM is likely to continue to control highly anticipated (read: heavily invested) media. That means if it is really cool, blockbuster and mainstream, it’ll be locked up w/DRM. Is this more good news for the goth chick @ the mall who has eclectic tastes anyway? We’ll wait and see, so don’t go full emo just yet.
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