Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Doctorow on Digital Rights Management

Boing Boing: Cory responds to Wired Editor on DRM

Cory (boing boing) Doctorow rants against Wired's sell out on DRM.

On the one hand, I think Doctorow is a bit extreme. I like my iPod, but I don't buy DRM protected music. I buy CDs, which I legally "rip" onto my iPod for my use. The AAC file format is MP4, and is not fundamentally DRM protected.

Anyway, Wired can't "sell out"; it never had any non-mercenary principles to begin with.

On the other hand, if there's anything that might get me streaming BitTorrent files, it's the intent of Microsoft and Hollywood to embed DRM deep into the fabric of everything we own -- from music to batteries (yes, hardware too). I'd probably still pay for the DRM version (why steal when you can afford not to?), but I'd use the DRM-free pirate version.

Hollywood/Microsoft/Palladium's version of DRM will build the Pirate Legions like nothing else.

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