DRM Ignorance is Expensive

[nWaHmAeT1]

My second reaction to your earlier ‘Freedom Zero’ post was along the lines that you allude to here. Isn’t the most important issue here what I’m allowed (or able) to do with my content? I care less about the hardware lock-in, since all hardware will eventually need replacement.

I use Linux at home, and realised that one of the more important reasons I use Linux is that I can do pretty much what I want with the content* I have, thus leading me to my second reaction.

Note that I have no urge to freely distribute others’ content, but I do believe that if I purchase an album (for example), regardless of the medium I purchase it on, I should be able to rip, mix, burn, backup and view as I choose, for my personal use. I also believe that I should only have to purchase content once.

• True, it means that I don’t have access to all the content out there, but that kinda reinforces my point here, I think.

[Mephane]

DRM is the very reason I strictly stick to buying music physically, i.e. ordering the CD at amazon. I then use iTunes to load it on my computer and play it from there, which is way more conveniently than switching CDs or burning customized playlists on CD-Rs. And for that part, iTunes is perfect for me. It synchronizes may collection and playlist with my iPod without any hassle of DRM whatsoever. Put in the CD, select “convert to mp3” from the context menu, wait a few minutes for the ripping, and all done. And it is totally legal, as it is just a private backup for myself.

And that is why iTunes is so sweet. Not because you can download DRM-crippled music on the internet. But because you have the CHOICE whether to go with DRM or buy the CD without. And that’s what matters: your personal choice. As long as that is respected, Users will accept the system. But if you are forced to stupid things lime double-purchasing the same content for yourself, users will get pissed for a good reason.

The problem is not DRM in itself. It is those companies that totally force it upon you without leaving you the choice. And that’s why iTunes is so great, because you have the choice.

[David_Sokol]

It’s keyed to the harddrive. I’ve had to replace my 360 twice (yes, twice) due to the red ring of death problem; the downloaded content I have (like, probably over $400 worth of Arcade games such) will work as long as my account is on that harddrive. For instance, if I pop out my harddrive and put it into another 360, it will still function as if it was my own personal 360; the DRM doesn’t change on the 360’s serial number.

When you send your console off to Microsoft to be repaired, they are very explicit that you not return your harddrive. Two warnings over the phone and a third in the box you get to send it back.

That being said, the XBox Live account recovery model sucks. After a year of gaming, it takes about 15-20 minutes for myself or any of my friends to recover our profiles. Since we’re all pretty anti-hardware, we end up just playing on Guest accounts whenever we’re not at home. So much for the unified experience.

[codinghorror]

Why didn’t you purchase a PS3 then?

Horrible software library, mediocre online support. But I agree the built in WiFi is definitely a nice plus, and it seems Sony is (quite shockingly) more lenient with DRM:

a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/20/ps3-drm-downloads-support-five-systems/"http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/20/ps3-drm-downloads-support-five-systems//a

Downloaded content can be shared among up to five different PS3s, whereas the Microsoft only allows you to share content on exactly one (1) Xbox 360.

[Linus]

This is quite the opposite of the Jeff that I’m used to. I come to this site in order to get the usual “hey, this process/gadget/whatever is cumbersome and expensive and just plain stupid, so why do we have to live with it, why do we keep doing it, and this is how you change it”-speech. But not this time.

I don’t think people will ever settle for these solutions. Buying content twice, or having to reactivating it by phone or internet even if you own a seemingly working copy of it, well that’s just cumbersome and expensive and just plain stupid. So why do we have to live with it, why do we keep doing it? Now tell me Jeff, how do we change it? You have had sound and decent answers before. Why not this time around?

[Steve]

Another problem with DRM is that the XBox 360 is region-coded for games. (Or at least it’s up to the game publisher)

I am dying to play RockBand but it is not released in Asia yet and even if I went to the trouble of buying it in the USA and shipping it over it wouldn’t work (Some poor people have done this already). It is listed in Wikipedia as TBA 2008, but nowhere can I find any idea of a release date and there are rumours that it will never be released here.

So because of their stupid DRM they are missing out on the whole Asian market. Insane!

I bought the Xbox just to play Guitar Hero and Rockband. I guess I’ll have to renew my boycott of EA games again and stick to the uncoded PC in future.

[codinghorror]

It’s keyed to the harddrive.

David, Xbox Live downloaded content is not keyed to the harddrive. It’s keyed to the Xbox Live account and the 360 hardware signature (eg, the CPU, network card, etcetera).

Your content appears to still work because you’re obviously logging in to the Xbox Live account the content was purchased under. Try accessing that same content from another different Xbox Live account, or a local (offline) account-- you won’t be able to, because your hardware signature has changed.

This of course is not your fault, it’s Microsoft’s fault for the forced hardware replacement (and their highly restrictive “only allow sharing on the original Xbox 360 hardware” policy).

[codinghorror]

Now tell me Jeff, how do we change it? You have had sound and decent answers before. Why not this time around?

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.

As Frans pointed out, I could boycott the Xbox 360 and go PS3, but that’s trading one set of problems for another. I am mightily impressed that Sony allows you to copy downloaded content to five different PS3s, though.

Similarly, I could boycott the iPhone (or hack/unlock it, which I do not believe is a sustainible medium or long term solution)-- but honestly, no other smartphone comes close to the iPhone in terms of features and internet browsing experience. It’s only the lack of 3G and 1st gen nature of the hardware keeping me from buying one, as I described here:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000896.html

[David_Sokol]

And right as I start to go on a rant about how it’s keyed to the harddrive, I go and try it out again. Yep, it’s keyed to the 360’s CPU and whatever else.

More proof that it’s confusing and suck. The easy way around this is to just have the main content holder auto-sign in on the xbox (which validates all of their purchased items), but this is a cheap hack. Whenever my roommates want to play a game I bought, they have to sign me in first, otherwise the DRM doesn’t validate the purchase.

Way to suck Microsoft.

[ErikB]

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.

Yes, he did. MS will not issue codes to re-download it if the original console still works.

MS will perform a “license transfer” for people whose machines are sent to Microsoft for repair, but some people have waited three months (even six months) for this to happen. There’s 140+ pages of discussion about this here: http://forums.xbox.com/143/17044887/ShowPost.aspx .

I discovered this problem after, unfortunately, spending money to get some MS Points (including some gift points from someone). I still have 5300 points remaining.

MS already has my money, but I’m loathe to actually buy anything should the console break and I get screwed as thousands of others have and as discussed in the thread I linked to already. But MS already has my money - I’m just effectively withholding it from content producers at this point. So I’m not sure what to do.

I don’t understand the DRM/iPhone complaints. What DRM? The lack of an open API (that’s going to be, hopefully, resolved soon)? That’s not DRM.

P.S. Gamertag is erikjb - I sent you a friend request.

[Dave]

I’m confused. If you’re playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band at home and work, one of these two must be true:

1. You are schlepping guitars, drum set, mic, cables, game discs, etc. back and forth, in which case schlepping a little memory card shouldn’t be a big deal. I’m guessing that the XBox developers expected users to typically buy one copy of a game and carry that around to different systems so also carrying around a memory card wouldn’t be a problem.

2. You purchased a second set of guitars, drum set, mic, cables, game discs, etc., in which case having to purchase a second set of downloadable content shouldn’t seem too out of line.

In either case, it doesn’t seem like Microsoft’s downloadable content policy is too unusual or unreasonable.

Two things I don’t like about the policy:

1. The issue with losing access to content if you change hardware. It’s a pretty common scenario for a family to share an XBox with profiles for each family member. It’s ridiculous that replacing faulty hardware or upgrading the hard drive invalidates sharing of downloads.

2. That you have to physically carry around the memory card with the profile. I’m a member of the Rhapsody music service. If I log on to Rhapsody from one computer, then log on from a different computer, the first computer is automatically logged off and can no longer stream music. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that XBox Live could have a similar approach where you could associate the same profile with multiple XBoxes and it simply logs you off if you try to use it on more than one at the same time.

[brian39]

“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.”

Jeff, i disagree that the tradeoffs are reasonable.

Part of the appeal I have for console games over computer games is the game is actually on a physical disk and, in the past, doesn’t require any installation on the machine. While this seems limiting to require a physical item, it is important to realize the consequences of it.

With a physical disk you can loan it to a friend, resell it, or trade it. You can even take it back it it’s crap. Over the years gaming I’ve bought lots of over hyped lame games.

The reason you cant take back computer games is once they are installed, you have the bits, no going back.

While I 3 my hacked iPhone. It’s a great gadget. The Apple DRM is too limiting and I refuse to buy music from Apple because of it. If the only mp3s you could put on the phone were Apple purchased only, i wouldn’t have one.

An other appeal many iPhone owners have is the ability to use existing songs as ringtones. Which Apple goes back and forth with

Ringtones are a pet peave to many owners though. I know I’m not paying for a song a second time to use it as a ring tone, it gives free word of mouth exposure of the music. I feel that is payment enough. Other phones are more restricting though, both in music and ringtones.

The limitations of DRM are just too much for me to be interested in digital media.

“Point: If we all gave copies of media to our friends, the entire media would stop making things. They wouldn’t be able to afford it anymore.”

I mostly disagree and think the only people that should be punished are mass distributors.

1. Artists get paid 1$ if that per album. They make there money on shows and merchandising. The money in the industry is all in the distribution and the artist sees very little of this. The record labels are the ones that make the big bucks here.

2. Record labels falsely believe they lose money when a person listens to freely downloaded music. Many just simply would not have purchased the album and thus not ever listened to it. Those that download music participate in the perpetuation of the music’s meme. They talk about the band and songs, they like this, don’t like that. All contributing to word of mouth exposure.

[Kristof2]

Hopefully most people will finally begin to understand what we from the Free Software Foundation have been saying for quite a while now.

http://defectivebydesign.org/

[Larry_Bank]

I think some people are being a bit harsh on Jeff. We all wrestle with this issue when we make purchasing decisions. He’s hardly a hypocrite for buying and enjoying DRM’d products and then not appreciating how they restrict his use. All of us watch DVD movies and they come with unpleasant DRM which we try to overlook. Music CD’s would be DRM’d to death if it weren’t for the nagging problem of backwards compatibility with the millions of existing music players. Each new generation of media will be worse and worse until we decide to change the way we work with creative content (e.g. our copyright laws). I think Gilberto Gil’s ideas make a lot of sense:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/17562/

He also proposed a cultural tax which would allow all citizens to access any media (CD/DVD/Books,etc) that they want and the artist would be compensated when someone accessed their work.

[ErikB]

You’d rather spend $140, AGAIN, than spend one week
(if that, come on, it’s not that bad) setting up an alternative
and make a point against DRM in the process?

What alternative? Last I checked there wasn’t one. Two Xboxes require two copies of the content, unless he wants to port his profile back and forth AND sign online from home. Which, really, isn’t that bad. The wireless adapter and the memory unit would cost less than the $140 you re-spent, and that’s if you don’t just wire it in and save the $99.

But something tells me that’s not the “alternative” you were suggesting. What is your alternative?

With regards to music, I’ve recently discovered a great
way of getting all the DRM free music you want at
virtually no cost… my public library!

So if you keep the music beyond the return date (in any form), you’ve become a thief. Congrats.

As for Bob’s “fail open” and “they wouldn’t pay anyway” stance, I agree. It’s the stance we took in developing our software. Easy to use registration codes but no effort spent maintaining blacklists or anything else. If someone wanted to pirate our software, they likely weren’t a customer anyway. We focused on making our software easy to buy.

Kind of like how Steve Jobs positioned the iTunes Music Store against the wild and woolly world of pirating music.

Oh, and “fail open” won’t work on a repaired Xbox, of course. Such users shouldn’t have to unplug their network cable every time they want to play their content, and it would preclude them from playing other people over the Internet by definition (unless they’re the original purchasing Gamertag, of course).

[OliverJ]

The DRM system isn’t the only thing that is broken about the 360 Live. You also can’t change the country on your Live billing details. The credit card you use also has to have the same address.

So if you immigrate to a different country (like I did), when your Live subscription runs out you’re boned. And if you want to buy points you have to buy the cards in retail stores which are usually more expensive than using a credit card with the integrated Marketplace store.

It is all just super fecking dumb.

[Joe_Beam]

come on Jeff…when Microsoft was creating their DRM for XBOX they never in a million years expected one person would use TWO XBOXes. You really are msoft’s wet dream!

[OliverJ]

I’d love to be able to use the Amazon DRM-free store. However it only seems to be available to US residents. I only buy the EMI iTunes Plus content from Apple. And I certainly wont be renting any movies off them if they ever bring that service to Australia.

Also, I replaced my 360 via a 3rd party warranty (suckers) after the DVD drive failed and I’ve been able to use my downloaded content pretty seamlessly because I’m always logged into Live.

Obviously if I can’t do that (because they have some stupid outage again or something) or if I ever had more than one Gamer profile on the System it could pose more of a problem.

Not to mention the fact that when the next XBOX (the 720?) is released none of the content will be able to be transfered to the new device. And eventually the Live old service will be retired essentially ending your ability to play your old games on your old console.

On the whole, its just a bit shit.

[CKoz]

I see a lot of people who are bashing iTunes for their DRM. I haven’t checked myself, but I was under the impression that iTunes finally ‘got it’ and now provides DRM free music? (started as 25 cents more, but I heard its the same price now)

I have no issue with protecting content from being distributed, but I wish they could figure out a DRM that works like my CD’s did. If I buy something, I should own it. I should be able to put it on all my computers, and any future computers I buy. I am sick of the ‘you are allowed to use it’ model that current DRM offers.

[Suroot]

So I think the biggest thing here is that no one realizes that we’ve done this to ourselves (Not necessarily us directly, but us as a computer using whole). There are 2 parts to the issue

1. If you don’t like DRM; go buy the CD. No one is stopping/forcing you to do either.
2. If we hadn’t had so many people that tried to pass music as being free; we wouldn’t have the media industry trying to combat it.

This is much like Communism; it works, but only in theory! Selling a song on iTunes without any DRM would be nice (although I really could care less either way) but many people would buy the song then give it to all their friends. All of a sudden you have 100 people that own the song and the people who made the music only got paid for one person buying it. My point is that yes, someone out there is controlling something you own; isn’t that how Microsoft has been for years though?

The media industry rolled without any type of DRM for years, but once people found ways to redistribute music/games/etc… online for free; that kinda put a dent in their plan. We can’t all blame the media industry; and I’m tired of hearing stories of “My buddy got caught by the RIAA with like 100k in songs. Now he’s gotta get a lawyer and blah blah blah” Well he was breaking the law… I see no problem punishing that person since that person is the one responsible for my favorite artists not getting paid and not making more albums because they can’t afford to be artists anymore.

Let me conclude by saying that yes DRM is a pain in the butt. No one will argue with that; if your box crashes etc… you can’t use the things you bought because your box isn’t the same. But still, one could make the argument that if you download the content then move to another machine and download it again. That original box STILL would have a copy on the harddrive and would be able to be ripped (since the drive is SATA). And doing this would mean, that the person owning the machine that ripped the content would be able to pass it on to others? It seems to me that Microsoft has thought of this problem already (whether by choice I don’t know), and have decided to keep the game businesses in business.

Point: If we all gave copies of media to our friends, the entire media would stop making things. They wouldn’t be able to afford it anymore.