The One With Aldacron

In my most recent post on piracy, I talked about some of the reasons people pirate and, as an example of the draconian measures corporations implement in response, talked about Vista’s DRM features as related in a document by Peter Gutmann. In Gutmann’s opinion, Vista is suicide for Microsoft. I didn’t quite see it that way. This quote is the gist of what I was on about:

Microsoft has focused primarily on Vista’s security features in their
marketing efforts, but very little has been advertised about the
Digital Rights Management features of the OS. Many are are agreeing
with Gutmann that this is a suicide move by Microsoft, but I fear that
it is a clear signal of things to come.

It seems, however, that Gutmann was pretty close to the mark. If not suicide, it certainly appears to be damaging. Maybe it’s not a sign of things to come, but instead a lesson for supporters of DRM. Check out a few opening paragraphs from this AAx editorial:

Upgrading to Windows Vista has been banned by the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT), the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), technology
giant Texas Instruments and other corporations and government agencies
(V1, V10, V11).
These organizations are evaluating their options, but overseas it’s turning
into a stampede to get out of Microsoft software (V15).

School districts in the U.S. are starting to move entirely to Linux
rather suffer the cost of upgrading Windows. Examples are the Windsor Unified
School District in Northern California and the Bexley, Ohio high school
district. Schools making this move have been surprised how easy it is and
how much money is saved. (V6, V8)

Leading computer maker HP is reporting “massive deals for Linux desktops”
with corporate clients (V4). Runner-up computer maker
and long time faithful Microsoft ally Dell has been overwhelmed by demand
and has started developing Linux desktop preloads for their notebook
and desktop computers (V9).

Even that great bastion of the status quo, the Wall Street Journal, has
published an article under the title Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops
(Business Technology, 13 Mar 2007).

Small business and consumer demand for computers with Windows XP is
very high, but Microsoft has moved swiftly to make sure they can’t get it.
No sane person wants Vista, so Microsoft is making sure they have no
choice.

The whole article brings up some great points. Mircrosoft really missed the boat on this. Many of the problems people have with Vista stem from its built-in anti-piracy features, of which DRM is a big one. The message Microsoft is sending is pretty clear: we don’t trust our customers.

Of course, Mircrosoft isn’t alone in the group punishment camp. The RIAA also has adopted a policy of punishing the many for the actions of the moronic few. Their insistence on forcing digital audio dealers to distribute DRM-enabled files has long been a major issue to consumers, but the dealers are starting to speak out as well. Steve Jobs published an article on the issue last month in response to criticism of Apple’s handling of DRM. Of course, it’s the music industry where he squarely, and rightly, lays the blame. If Apple wants to sell music online, they have to do it on the music industry’s terms. Jobs thinks the industry should rethink their strategy:

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by
online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely
DRM-free  and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The
music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and
show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming
majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD
players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music
DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small
percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to
be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to
create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of
participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were
removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies
willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only
be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Now, online music store Musicload, operated by Deutsche Telekom out of Germany, is criticizing DRM. They say that 75% of their customer service problems are related to DRM:

Musicload said in a letter distributed last week that customers are
having consistent problems with DRM, so much so that 3 out of 4
customer service calls are ultimately the result of the frustrations
that come with DRM. In a business where the major music labels expect
to be paid well for their source material, the costs of supporting DRM
are borne entirely by the music retailers. If the labels’ love affair
with DRM is hurting the companies trying to make a go at selling music
online, something is horribly wrong.

According to Musicload, DRM “makes the use of music quite difficult and
hinders the development of a mass-market for legal downloads.” The lack
of interoperability is unfair to customers and prevents true
competition between music services, in other words.

By no means am I a believer that piracy is morally acceptable. Nor do I believe that anyone is entitled to obtain commercial digital content for free. The creators of the content have the right to profit from their creation just as much as the manufacturers of an automobile or of a computer. The creator has the right to decide if their creation will be free or commercial. Consumers have the right to choose to buy commercial content or not buy it — they do not have the right to obtain it freely until the terms of copyright, where applicable, no longer apply (of course, the current state of copyright law is another matter). But Microsoft, the RIAA and other such corporations have taken the fight against piracy in the wrong direction.

The draconian steps these corporations have taken have, rather than preventing piracy, very likely led to an increase in piracy. When you make it difficult for legitimate customers to use the product they legally purchased, you are sending the message that they can’t be trusted. Meanwhile, pirates continue to circumvent the anti-piracy measures these companies cook up. I mean, the pirates are batting 1.000 against the corporations’ dismal record of .000. Meanwhile, legitimate consumers are getting painfully beaned in the head by foul balls. If any of the people who come up with these half-baked anti-piracy schemes think that people are actually putting up with them, they’re dumber than they seem.

The RIAA was recently voted the Worst Company in America, most likely for all of their silly lawsuits against college students and teenagers. Greedy moves like hiking internet radio royalties certainly don’t help their image. Ostensibly, the RIAA is trying to recover losses from the falling CD sales they claim. Again, they are going about it the wrong way.

I’ve chosen to boycott Vista. I’ll continue to use XP until Microsoft makes it impossible for me to do so, but in the meantime I am also using Linux for a lot of tasks these days. So once XP is no longer usable I’ll be happy with Linux. I don’t buy music from digital download stores that sell DRM product, I only buy CDs or DRM-free music. Morally, I just can’t turn to piracy. But many people don’t have any problem doing so when it is so difficult to use what they obtain legally and ultimately become pirates out of frustration. As long as companies continue to consider all of their consumers as potential pirates, they are going to lose more of them (some of them to piracy).

If you want to help in the fight to save internet radio from the greedy paws of the RIAA, visit Radio Paradise to learn how. I encourage you to send a message to the corporate backers of DRM that you aren’t going to let them dictate to you how you may and may not use the product you legally purchase. Boycott Windows Vista (Ubuntu Linux is an excellent alternative). Learn who the members of the RIAA are and boycott their music. Buy music that is DRM-free. Buy music produced by independent labels and artists. Eventually, DRM dragons will either get the message or fade away.

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