The Problem With DRM - It Is Just Named Wrong!

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/hbos_exec_dont_.html">http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/hbos_exec_dont_.html</a><br /><br /><i>"People don't like DRM, perhaps that's just because it's such a smelly word. HBO's chief technology officer Bob Zitter thinks so, he wants to ditch the term DRM in favor of "DCE," or, "Digital Consumer Enablement." Speaking at the National Cable &amp; Telecommunications Association show in Las Vegas, HBO's top techie said the new term would better describe all the peachy ways that copyright holders and providers could dictate how consumers access content: "Digital Consumer Enablement, would more accurately describe technology that allows consumers "to use content in ways they haven't before," such as enjoying TV shows and movies on portable video players like iPods. "I don't want to use the term DRM any longer," said Zitter, who added that content-protection technology could enable various new applications for cable operators."</i><br /><br />There are just so many things wrong with that statement I don't know where to even begin. :roll:

[frankenbike]

He must have just read Orwell's 1984 for the first time.

[hamishmacdonald]

Enablement. That's not even a word, let's start there.

"Let's not call it an iceberg. Let's call it a Low Centigrade Hydro-Floatament. And tell the band to play faster -- FASTER!"

"Uh, Captain, I really think it's time for us to--"

"Faster, damn you!"

[Paragon]

"Let's not call it an iceberg. Let's call it a Low Centigrade Hydro-Floatament. And tell the band to play faster -- FASTER!"

"Uh, Captain, I really think it's time for us to--"

"Faster, damn you!"

Too bad this idiot wasn't on the Titanic.

I have a hard time figuring out of people like this guy are stupid or arrogant. Is he so stupid that he believes that HBO customers lack the intelligence to see the problem with statements like that, or is he so arrogant that he thinks he can get away it?

I see an iceberg in this man's future. ;)

[bnycastro]

what a silly statement.

[Sven Johannsen]

That's not that much different than all the "features" Windows has had over the years. To take extreme license with Shakespeare, A fart, by any other name, would still smell.

[Darren Behan]

If it looks like dog crap, smells like dog crap and tastes like dog crap (don't ask me how I know that) calling it 'beach sand' won't make me any more likely to want to step in it barefooted...

db

[quetopaq]

With the risk of being considered arrrogant too, I don't believe the media industry gets it. Quite to the contrary, I think the media industry is arrogant (and thinks consumers are stupid!) if they believe they can sell us the same crap that was "Digital Rights Management" as "Digital Consumer Enablement" now and get us to buy it.

Here is the simple reason why I completely stopped buying mp3's online: For about the same price, I can buy a CD, and play it on every CD player in my home and car (and rip it, to copy onto my own Pocket PC and listen to it) AND have a backup. Try that with music purchased online ...

I applaud steps like the one recently announced by EMI, to distribute music DRM-free through the iTunes store.

DRM or whatever creative names it is being called in the future by the industry is a cul de sac, and helps piracy rather than to prevent it. Instead of buying DRM free content, people go the piracy route in order to enable themselves to actually listen to music on the devise they want.

I realize my comments focused on music, but I believe they are in similar ways applicable to other media.

[k1darkknight]

If it looks like a lawyer, acts like a lawyer, but sounds like a politician...it's probably a politician.


Or an RIAA/MPAA spokesperson.


Or all of the above.