DRM

Cory's DRM Rant

Cory Doctorow has posted his "DRM doesn't work" speech to M$ Research. In it he argues that:

1. That DRM systems don't work
2. That DRM systems are bad for society
3. That DRM systems are bad for business
4. That DRM systems are bad for artists
5. That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT

His talk breaks down the fundamental problems with DRM into bite-sized chunks that even the most basic engineers can understand:

But there's the rub. Alice wants Bob to buy Pirates of the Caribbean from her. Bob will only buy Pirates of the Caribbean if he can descramble the CSS-encrypted VOB -- video object -- on his DVD player. Otherwise, the disc is only useful to Bob as a drinks-coaster. So Alice has to provide Bob -- the attacker -- with the key, the cipher and the ciphertext.

In the usual Doctorow manner he does this in short and concise steps. If you have any belief that DRM might actually work, please read his rant! Also check out the wiki that is dedicated to annotating Cory's rant.

And proof positive that DRM doesn't work, the Beastie Boy's latest release installs some sneaky DRM code without the users permission. The end result is that the fans are pissed off, venting their anger on the Beastie Boys website, which prompty pulled the thread about the DRM. DRM causes waves of bad publicity -- need any more proof?

Posted by Mayhem at June 22, 2004 11:36 AM