In response to Scott:
The only people that would be foiled by these types of copy protection (and, really, all types of digital protection) are those that are technically naive enough to not investigate work-arounds. This speech transcript (http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt) made an interesting suggestion. If someone wants to copy video or audio, and they are foiled by copy protection, what do they do? They either (1) give up and live with it, or (2) find out if there's a way around it. The more frequently they encounter blockage due to protection, the more they lean toward (2). As DRM becomes more pervasive, there is a greater chance of a casual acquaintance telling them about a work-around. If someone isn't able to legitimately copy their own music for their own use, and they discover a way to bypass the protection to allow this, what's stopping them from going that one step further into the grey area of illegal downloads? It is likely that more DRM will actually lead to MORE piracy, not the reverse. The speech makes the point more clearly. :)
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In response to Scott:
The only people that would be foiled by these types of copy protection (and, really, all types of digital protection) are those that are technically naive enough to not investigate work-arounds. This speech transcript (http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt) made an interesting suggestion. If someone wants to copy video or audio, and they are foiled by copy protection, what do they do? They either (1) give up and live with it, or (2) find out if there's a way around it. The more frequently they encounter blockage due to protection, the more they lean toward (2). As DRM becomes more pervasive, there is a greater chance of a casual acquaintance telling them about a work-around. If someone isn't able to legitimately copy their own music for their own use, and they discover a way to bypass the protection to allow this, what's stopping them from going that one step further into the grey area of illegal downloads? It is likely that more DRM will actually lead to MORE piracy, not the reverse. The speech makes the point more clearly. :)