On 21/01/2011 01:31 PM, scott wrote:

>> No. I mean that it only takes one single person to work out how to
>> defeat DRM (which will happen with probability 1), and your system is
>> broken. You no longer have control over what people do with your data.
>
> But the DRM is not useless in that situation, as not everyone knows how
> to find illegal copies.

And not everybody knows how to turn on a DVD player either.

The question is whether "enough" people know how to find this stuff, or 
are willing to use it rather than pay.

>> (More to the point, with current DRM systems, it's actually *easier* to
>> use the cracked content than the genuine article. Incentive to pay,
>> much?)
>
> A good example is the adverts before a film on a DVD that you are forced
> to watch. A cracked copy will usually cut out the adverts, and some
> people would say it is doing no harm by doing that themselves for their
> own personal use. But, the fact that the adverts cannot be skipped is
> actually creating income for the publisher, without them they'd need to
> charge more for the DVD in the first place.

I've yet to see a DVD where you can't skip the adverts. Usually you 
cannot skip the studio logo, and you can't skip the "piracy is illegal" 
warning, but you can skip everything else.

It's a bit like the old argument over TV adverts. Some people skip 'em, 
but many TV channels couldn't exist without those adverts.

>> Emphasis "yet"...
>
> I don't see the channels used for pirate content becoming any more
> mainstream, you still need to be "in the know" to find where to get such
> stuff, and there's always the risk you'll get caught and sent a fine
> and/or blocked by your ISP. And the more popular such places become, the
> more likely they are to get shut down.

Think of a film. Any film. Now search YouTube and see how many 
full-length copies of it you can find in 0.2 seconds.

> As of today DRM is apparently the best solution.

That would explain why all the big music sites are how shouting and 
cheering that they offer DRM-free downloads.

Oh, wait...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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