[lug] DRM different direction

[dio2002 at indra.com]

Should i even waste my time with this? ;-)

Here's the issue with DRM.  Three sides of the same coin.  Each extremely
hypocritical.

1) Consumer.  Barks about free.  While good intentioned especially when
applied to INFORMATIONAL CONTENT, truth be told is they / we / meaning i /
everybody can confess to have downloaded and consumed some form of PAID
media withOUT PAYING for it some time in the last couple of years.  Some
of us a lot more than others.  Depending on how much you do this and how
much we all collectively do this is what determines how good and bad this
concept of Free versus DRM is on the whole.

Would you let some stranger come in to your driveway and drive away with
your car to use it whenever they wanted?  For free?  How about come in and
use your kitchen to cook their dinner?  Borrow a pair of pants?

That's how some artists feel these days.  Creative content isn't being
compensated for.  And somehow, one way or another, people out there think
they're entitled to all of this for FREE. They've GOTTEN SO USED TO THE
IDEA OF FREE MUSIC (AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE), THAT THEY TURN A
BLIND EYE TO THE FACT THAT THEY'RE ACTUALLY STEALING!

Yup that's right.  YOU'RE STEALING!  You'll find 100 ways to justify or
rationalize because your the thief.  Now if you were ever on the flip side
of that equation, as described above where someone takes the shirt off
your back, you'd be pissed.  That doesn't happen because there's a DRM on
your house door called the law which says others can't come in and consume
your property.

You can extrapolate that to sw if you like. Create sw.  Hell create a
website and have some monkey outright steal it and call it their own.

Basic fact is we're all NOT paying for CONTENT that we probably should be.
 If it's to sample something with the intent to eventually purchase so be
it.   That would be reasonable.  But my intuition is that's not what
happens and we've all grown to accept stealing and theft as long as we're
not the victim.

For all the DRM haters, some ARTISTS just want to get paid like you get
paid when you go to work and do whatever it is you do.

2) LABELS / MEDIA CORPS

Let's face it.  They're in DRM for the profits.  They're in it for the
CONTROL.  CONTROL THE CHANNEL, you monopolize the delivery stream.

If any of these guys actually CARED about the CONTENT they produced, it
would help me feel sorry for them.  But they've consistently controlled
the channels for years and done absolutely nothing with it.  Junk movies,
junk music.  And while I'm at it, junk news / reporting (which is now
lumped in as entertainment).

Not only that.  They've consistently screwed artists as long as the
entertainment industry has existed.  So while they PRETEND THEIR LOOKING
OUT FOR ARTITSTs with DRM, these are just a bunch of fat cats that
consistently promote and produce bad art.  AND THEY GIVE THE ARTIST AN
EXTREMELY MINOR CUT.

FWIW, Apple's intent for DRM was to line up all the major labels behind
them so that their device[s] would be[come] 'the' premier HW DEVICE from
which to play all media.  These labels / media companies all have
tremendous catalogs of music / movies that Apple knew would help people
jump on board and buy their silly products.  The media companies wanted to
be be guaranteed that IF THEY WERE GOING TO LET THEIR **CRAP*** (and I do
mean poopee cah cah ;-)) BE DOWNLOADED they were going to at least receive
a dime for it.

After all, they resisted the digital revolution for years thinking it was
a phase and would die out.  When it didn't die out and they were so far
behind the technology, Apple offered them a way into the game RELATIVELY
SAFELY while STILL GUARANTEEING CONTROL OF THE CHANNEL.

To sum.  These guys don't care about art and they don't care about freedom
of information.  They care about making money.  And that traditionally is
all about control.  Sure you'll have a choice BUT IT's DICTATED BY US THE
CONTENT PROVIDERS AND WHAT WE CHARGE FOR IT.

They're liars.  Every single one of em.

3) Musicians / Artists

Love hate.  If even 10% of these folks that jokingly call themselves
artists actually created something worth paying for, I'd feel more
inclined to feel sorry for them.

This is mostly due to the latest flavor of the month attitude PROMOTED by
the CONTENT PROVIDERS described in part 2.  They've filtered the channels
and brought us crap for years.  It's easier to make remakes than take a
chance and try to do something interesting and novel.  They've brought us
FORMULA.  It's in your news, your magazines, your music and every aspect
of your media life.  It's junk.  It's what you learn to believe and come
to know as the norm.  These media corps have determined the barometer of
what's acceptable and dare I say good and believe me they're not rushing
to raise that bar any time soon.

Kids and adults don't know any better any more.  They get what they're fed
and what they're fed is based on what they just got fed two weeks a go. 
It's vicious cycle.  It's precise.  It's targeted.  It's quick.  It's here
today gone tommorrow (has no lasting value whatsoever).

American Idol ain't what I call paying the dues or honing or learning your
craft.  There's something to be said for bands that actually love getting
out and touring and building a base the old-fashioned way.  It speaks to
the heart and the experience.

Artists are also lazy too.  As much as they complain about their situation
(them evil we victimized) they have plenty of technology available to them
so that they can cut out the majors and be independents.  Unfortunately,
they're not willing to do the work.  Or the ones that take on the work,
eventually see dollar signs or pretend they want to help artists when they
really want to fill their own pocketbooks.  They eventually become that
which they originally vilified.

PERSONAL SOLUTION:

I believe in both DRM and freedom.  But only DRM for independents if
that's even possible.  In the hands of majors, whether you're a content
provider or a device mfg that delivers the content to the end consumer,
you've got serious control issues going on.  Both those parties are
usually sleeping together and the end result is going to be suboptimal.

The problem is pandora's box has been opened.  Free stuff is here to stay.
 We think stealing is ok now whether we want to admit it or not. 
Sometimes for the better and also for the worse.

I personally don't own an ipod or an iphone or most of what I think are
superfluous gadgets that are hailed in the name of technology.  It's all
hype and relatively meaningless in the bigger scheme of things.  We got a
long without them for millenium and whether or not I can see the dark
knight or hear the latest brittany on my iphone or ipod ain't gonna make
the world a better place.  bet on that.

Hail to a standard telephones, killing mtv, shift back to independent and
live art :-)