Digital Wrongs Management

For myself, I don't buy new CDs, nor do I buy new DVDs.

I only buy used discs, so that none of my money winds up in any XXIA members pockets.

And when I get the discs home, I rip the CDs to iTunes and the DVDs get up close and personal with MacTheRipper and Toast Titanium.

There will always be someone who will crack DRM, and then either make the crack available or make the cracked media available.

Providers will keep DRM until something "better" comes along. Among the possible alternatives:
a) Better customers, who want to pay more for songs.
b) Better DRM, which actually works and cannot be worked around.
c) Better songs, which actually make them the same amount of money without DRM

I think all these are about a likely as unicorn tears (or anti-gravity paint, since some folks didn't understand UT).

d) Better laws, that actually enforce fair-use.
e) Better providers, who adapt their business model to the digital era.

Looks like we're going to have to wait for the last two. Still, it looks like it will be a while.

The correct answer is for the forseeable future. The people running these companies are all morons.

I'm sorry for this question. It isn't techno at all.

What are unicorn tears and why are they relevant? I googled it, but couldn't find anything other than warm fuzzy stuff.

Peace

How do you have an entire post on the state of DRM, and only obliquely mention the ITMS? The quality of the music is a joke, and whatever people's personal experiences, the fact remains that the official policy is no redownloading of lost music.
Oh, and while the Zune can't compete with the Touch or iPhone, it runs rings around the Classic - and that's pretty good for 2nd generation product. Plus, since both parties have retracted the "content scanning" story, why continue to push it?
I like this site, and I love Apple products, but why not grow a pair and actually criticize them when they deserve it, especially considering they're the market leader in the exact practices the post is about?!

Content producers will start to realize that DRM doesn't work when they realize that the people PAYING for their content are not trying to steal it at the same time. Offer better quality and other reasons for people to buy rather than steal the same content, and you'll make the money. Honestly, if individuals can put HD-quality DRM-free content on Torrent sites, I think the content producers can do it it too. Deterring people from buying content by offering lower quality and higher restrictions will never sell that content.

The Zune filtering could work like this:

Microsoft creates a public private keypair for each content producer, the public keys get shipped with and updated on the zune periodically, the private keys stay with the content owners. They sign each legitimate piece of media, DRM'd or not, and the Zune checks that signature on playback. If it doesn't match or has no sig, it won't play.

This obviously means nothing outside of Big Content will play unless MS gives users their own private key or allows them to load their own stuff, but at that point they can load pirated stuff too.....

The alternative is to do a whitelist/blacklist, maintain watermarks of specific media, and refuse to play them. This of course is cat and mouse and would end up being a huge list.

Some of the content providers are married to DRM. The relationship lasts until death doth part them.

Aaaaahaahahahahahaha

"both Zune users"
"My money's on unicorn tears"

seriously made my morning man :)

I still buy CDs. They're lossless, DRM-free, cheaper than digital downloads, and they even come with their own backup copy!