Many DRM schemes use encrypted media which requires purpose built hardware to hear or see the content. This appears to ensure that only licensed users (those with the hardware) can access the content. It additionally tries to protect a secret decryption key from the users of the system.
While this in principle can work, it is extremely difficult to build the hardware to protect the secret key against a sufficiently determined adversary. Many such systems have failed in the field, and in fact, it is thought that none have yet survived several years of deployment. Once the secret key is known, building a version of the hardware that performs no checks is often relatively straightforward.
In addition user verification provisions are frequently subject to attack."
The main problem with DRM is exactly these types of issues: punishing the legitimate customers in the hopes of stopping the people that aren’t going to pay for your content anyway. It really shouldn’t be that hard for them to fix the issues when you get a replacement system, as they should be able to update the hardware ID in their database when they send the new system out to you.
As for using the same content on two systems, obviously you’re SOL as long as you continue to support DRM that requires you to be online to utilize the content you purchased. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re talking about music, movies, TV shows, or video games. The problems (and many of the solutions) have been the same for decades, and only seem to come to light for the majority when those devoted to the field have gone through 50 iterations of irate rants and hassles, or have gotten accustomed to open content.
I still buy CDs and rip my music rather than downloading music because I don’t trust DRM schemes (and feel the quality of most downloaded music is pathetic). As much as possible I avoid software with keys because I have a number of purchased applications and games that I can’t find keys for (thankfully many print them on the disc or the manual or back of the case; don’t even get me started on the weird stuff it takes to get games to work from the 80s and early 90s). The idea of hooking up a movie server in my living room and ripping all of the DVDs in my house (especially my daughter’s Disney movies, many of which can’t be purchased new legally right now), is in a legal black hole right now due to the power of the entertainment lobbies in Congress to extend copyrights and get new laws passed preventing decryption of the content on a disc I bought.
Microsoft has a lot of money sunk into DRM, and they still can’t get it to the point that many legitimate users are inconvenienced. Between the XBox and XBox 360, the Zune, WMP, and their investment in HD-DVD, they’ve got a lot of reasons to try to get it right, but very little actual penalty for getting it wrong, because so many people have just accepted it and payed out more money after getting robbed by the system.
I hate to be the one to tell you but if you just would’ve phoned Microsoft they give you keycodes to re-download the content. You didn’t need to buy it again.
I think the iPhone and Xbox 360 are such compelling consumer products that it’s actually a reasonable tradeoff to live with their DRM lock-in limitations.
…
I’m sorry, but I simply can’t say no to the pure joy that is Rock Band. Where are the free open source alternatives? (that don’t take a week to set up and configure)
If you value expedience and gimme-now over your freedom, you can’t very well expect your freedom to remain.
DRM is only as inevitable as the willingness to accept it. You’ve shown us where you stand on that, thanks.
A little off-topic, but I still can’t accept that Xbox 360 doesn’t have Wifi. ALL major consoles launched in the past few years have it: DS, PSP, Wii, PS3.
Cost is definately not an issue, or else DS, PSP and Wii wouldn’t have it.
It’s almost hilarious seeing my friend having a 10 meter cable running through his house all the way from his console to his wireless(!) router.
It’s not unavoidable until they start using it to protect oxygen and food. I haven’t purchased a non-used CD in years. (Which makes me a dirty pirate in the eyes of the RIAA, I’m sure.)
If they charged something closer to true cost of distribution, then it might be worth it to license a copy for at home and a copy for at work, but having to pay another $140 for something you already purchased is not acceptable.
The other issue is that most people budget $x for downloadable content. So doubling the price of everything doesn’t translate into double the sales – it just means they sell half as many items. They’re alienating customers one-by-one but they’re not even significantly increasing their short-term profits in the bargain. The music industry (which I’m sure is more responsible for the price of Rock Band songs than Microsoft is) needs to read the story of how to catch a monkey.
Call me old-fashioned, but given the amount of money spent on the hardware, the software and the premium content and the time invested in learning how to play the songs on the harder levels, wouldn’t buying and learning a real live guitar be a better option?..
But Brian, you’re forgetting that this is the generation that thinks if they if they’ve either 1)talked about something 2)seen it in a movie/TV show or 3)did it in a video game that they’ve ACTUALLY done it. The most duped generation in history.
Even though the Xbox 360 is quite restrictive I’m still tempted to choose it over Ps3 now that my Ps2 isn’t functioning because at the momemt it has more “fun for buck” than the Ps3.But the Idea of downloaded content not being transferable gives me the chills.
You’re using the wrong verb. With DRM, you don’t buy music; you lease music. It’s a lease that allows you to play the music only as allowed by the vendor.
DRM is one of the most ill-thought-out and badly realised knee-jerk reactions ever conceived in the software world. I find it incredible that you’re passively defending it like this.
People naturally tend to compare the DRM model to things like CDs, but I think it’s much worse than that. Imagine if food had some sort of DRM. Ingredient A refuses to be used in a recipe with ingredient B because it’s made by a different company. You cannot cook a meal for your spouse because they haven’t paid for it. If something goes past its sell-by date, it self-destructs, regardless of its actual level of toxicity.
You don’t store something you’ve bought in your fridge in time, so it self-destructs. You can’t just have a slice of cheese, you have to have the whole thing in one sitting. You can only take the bottle of milk out of a fridge a certain number of times. You cannot drink the milk at your friend’s house. You can only drink the milk out of authorised containers. Some unidentified issue has occured whilst you were trying to eat your sandwich, and you must now spend half an hour with some clueless tech support person trying to resolve it. There was an intermittent power failure and the contents of your kitchen self-destructed. The food supplier is aware of the problem and will hopefully have the issue resolved within 6 months.
Ok. That is extreme. But only because we wouldn’t stand for it. The problem is, when it comes to media, there is absolutely no reason why we should stand for it. We’ve just grown soft. The irony of all of this is that the type of person who wouldn’t stand for this sort of thing is also the type of person who wouldn’t buy it in the first place, and so the rest of us just quietly accept it. Well we shouldn’t. And the silent protest of the boycott doesn’t work either.
I love reading this blog, but really you should have the attitude you’ve had in other topics- that everything is fixable, and that sticking with something that sort of works as a stop-gap is not a solution.
What about steam? I believe with the recent efforts from Valve (http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/) steam will pick up and it is not as restrictive as XBox seems to be.
To paraphrase: at least the rapist uses lube, and is gentle?
You disgust me.
Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!
Best blog comment I’ve read in a long time.
Agreed, and right on the money. The act of accepting DRM systems (especially the heinously broken ones) is giving up a small but very important freedom, and it becomes a very slippery slope to the next violation. DRM is http://defectivebydesign.org/ , and I struggle to find empathy for the masses who lap up crippled technology. Granted, the disinformation and hype that goes into covering up this scam is so overwhelming that it’s not surprising that people get caught out. If you can stomach the idea (and it’s hard with the reduction of choice that it entails), avoid anything produced by Microsoft and Sony for starters, and support vendors of open technology.
I only ask this of people because it affects everyone else in turn.
I can’t believe you’d say this!!! The #1 reason why companies like Microsoft and Apple are able to implement tyrannical DRM like this is because of consumer apathy. However, you can’t blame the average consumer for not being up-to-date on the tech industry’s latest underhanded moneymaking schemes. But an A-list tech blogger like you?!!! I can’t believe you’d just accept such a situation and pay $140 for all those songs again!! Each time you just give in, Microsoft and Apple will abuse your apathy to restrict usage even more, until consumers have absolutely no freedom. You should be very ashamed of yourself for promoting apathy in regards to DRM.