The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations (2013)

Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by shmerl on Thursday May 15, 2014 @05:28PM (#7752357)

Who said they are total loss because of piracy and not because of mass market junk produced? Even big labels funded music can be a loss if it's bad. Good music is sold normally.

> Accessing various types of IP content is not a human right.

DRM interferes with various legal usage of content (fair use), especially because of anti circumvention provisions which are derivatives of DRM (like DMCA 1201). Plus DRM is always a violation of privacy and security. You need to analyze it deeper, beyond PR labels put on it by the DRM proponents.

There is no acceptable reason for DRM proponents to institute a police state approach to "protect their IP".

> I find the arguments that somehow DRM is detrimental to the production and distribution of high quality content to be obtuse.

I fully agree with that. High quality products can be and are produced and sold successfully without any DRM. And on the contrary, DRM always degrades the quality of any product because it cripples its usability.

> I am familiar with: software for audio production. Many of the best creators of such software have moved to a very annoying and powerful form of DRM: the use of a physical dongle. Most of them say that without this, they could not be in business, as the pirating of such software is rampant. The DRM doesn't stop it, it merely throws enough roadblocks in the to get a significant percentage of users to pay who otherwise wouldn't.

The pirating of such software is rampant despite any DRM they put in it (as you said yourself it doesn't stop it, and once DRM is broken - that's it, piracy ensues). So they can stop wasting their time and resources on putting that DRM there, and instead of crippling the product for paying customers reallocate efforts to making their product more attractive for them.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by b1daly on Thursday May 15, 2014 @11:19PM (#7753548)

The most popular dongle used for audio software is called iLok and it creates a terrible user experience. The developers know this, but say that without it they can't survive. The software is still cracked, but there are problems using cracked software beyond the ethics. So they get enough licenses to keep going ( the best that is). There are other systems of DRM in use, but I don't know of any audio software vendors that don't use some form if DRM. These are small companies usually, so there is nothing stopping them from doing away with DRM. Attempts have been made, but have not worked.

I'm simply discussing this because I know the market, but it's a clear case of developers using DRM to minimize piracy, not to control the distribution channel.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by shmerl on Thursday May 15, 2014 @11:47PM (#7753633)

You said that cracked software has additional problems. I guess they were lucky there, because in many other cases pirated versions provide the same software as the original just without the DRM nonsense.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by pizzeys on Friday May 16, 2014 @03:02AM (#7754114)

I'm not sure I can think of a single iLok protected plugin that I haven't been able to pirate successfully.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by res0nat0r on Thursday May 15, 2014 @07:36PM (#7752933)

> reallocate efforts to making their product more attractive for them.

The product is attractive to them already, they are illegally downloading it for use already. By making it more attractive do you mean lower their price to compete with piracy? Hard to stay in business when you compete with illegal free copies of your software.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by shmerl on Thursday May 15, 2014 @07:38PM (#7752940)

Removing DRM makes the product easier to use. Freed resources can go to anything else there is to improve. Nothing is ever perfect.

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Re:The purpose of DRM is not to prevent copyright violations... by the_af on Thursday May 15, 2014 @06:56PM (#7752748)

Agreed, especially the last part. What was it, 3DStudio that used dongles back in the day? Or some other similar software... I wouldn't know because all I saw in my country were uncrippled pirated copies without the dongle. Why they insisted on the dongles is beyond me. (Well, actually TFA answers this)

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