Low Tech Overview What is DRM ??
Think of it this way, what if you bought a book, read it once. Then you pick it up to check a passage or to read again and the pages are wiped clean. This could be because you're wearing new glasses to look at it or you have a new lamp or you're reading it in another room, it doesn't conform to the initial situation so you are expected to buy it again. Does this seem fair or right to you or to the author? What if when that book is put on your shelves it checks the other books & determines that you didn't buy those from it's store so they too must be wiped. After that it sets up a list of everything that you have in your house and sends it to the store. The unspoken goal of most DRM is you don't own what you have bought...
Excellent illustration of the effect of DRM from xkcd.org
Protest with your money, do not buy DRM enabled products.
High(er) Tech Overview What is DRM ??
What is DRM? DRM is an acronym for Digital Rights Management which is a misnomer as it really restricts the rights of the person who bought the product. It is software that is added to products such as movies on DVD and bluray, eBooks, computers, games and other software to restrict access.
While DRM may be a minor inconvenience now and the products are pretty cool, not too expensive and fun to play with... In the future it may cause you to completely loose access to a product that you've purchased, un-install or disable software or media products and allow 3rd parties to have access to information on your computer. The fact that it has the potential to become a true monster with time is much more worrisome.
For example Amazon has a movie service that when you agree to the user agreement you allow the DRM software to monitor your hard drive....
This monitoring software apart from impacting your overall performance sends Amazon information about the software you have installed, the music & videos you have and information about your computer's interaction with other devices. If you remove the software your movies are removed with it. Microsoft Windows Media Player has a similar set of terms.... What next?
Apple is selling us DRM in some very nice packages, at least a lot of people are buying the iPhone & iPads. They have installed their own very restrictive DRM to protect eBook content. This is contrary to their stand on DRM with itunes, they took it off there after some protests. On top of that you can only buy software for the i-hardware from Apple, you can't move books or music to other devices you own and Apple can remotely disable apps, music or videos you have on your device. Is that ok with you?
Sounds like virus, black hat hacker, trojan activity doesn't it ??? But we allow it when we agree. Do you really trust Amazon, Microsoft or anyone for that matter with the contents of your disk drive? Protest with your money, do not buy DRM enabled products.
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