DRM and the PRO-IP Act - Limited time opportunity?

[Leo Mauler]

I was catching up on XKCD cartoons, and found this little gem relating back to the DRM discussion.

http://xkcd.com/488/

The point: if your only online choices for getting a particular song are (a) pirate download of non-DRMed MP3, or (b) buying a DRMed music file, you might as well pirate download the file, because eventually you will become a criminal anyway when "things change" and your DRM music becomes impossible to open...unless you break the law (DMCA 1201) by breaking the DRM.  Either way you're a criminal, and with the pirate download you will always be able to easily use the music file in any way you choose.

The music industry will fight tooth and nail to keep illegal any way of removing the DRM from a DRMed music file.  If a method ever becomes legal then someone has a precedent for making legal backdoors into future versions of DRM.  It is thus extremely unlikely that any law will ever be passed allowing consumers unfettered access to their DRMed music files, even if "things change."

People who don't like losing money on DRM music shouldn't buy DRM music, they should demand non-DRM music.  The DMCA is a one-way trust issue: companies can be trusted (Sony rootkit springs to mind), consumers cannot be trusted.  That kind of contract shouldn't be allowed in the first place.

The author of XKCD would like to point out that Amazon.com's online MP3 store sells non-DRMed MP3 files, so strictly speaking you probably do have a choice other than the instant-criminal pirate download or the delayed-criminal DRM option.

--- On Sun, 9/28/08, Sean Crago <cragos at gmail.com> wrote:

> If Yahoo, MSN, WalMart, et al are going to pull the 
> plug on their DRM servers right before the passage 
> of the (still far from perfect) PRO-IP act, why not 
> use the opportunity to get ammendments passed that
> allow consumers to bypass the DRM? If it's getting 
> railroaded through anyway, let's turn it to good: 
> The DMCA trust should go both ways, if it's to
> be retained at all: Consumers shouldn't get their 
> shit turned off if they respect the DMCA's provision 
> preventing them from unlocking their files.
> 
> http://mrzaius.com/blog/?p=108