What really gets people going is that measures masquerade as anti-piracy requirements that are really methods of extending producers control over media, introducing anti-competitive elements like planned obsolescence into products. Many of the newest and most fashionable media, e.g. iPhone apps, exhibit rigid producer control. Some products have auto-update features that may limit functionality at any time chosen by the producer.
Not so long ago, purchasers of an ebook edition of 1984 discovered it had disappeared from their machines without their consent. Even ignoring the massive irony, the very idea that you can buy something only for the seller to unilaterally rescind the sale without notice is appalling.
DRM schemes requiring occasional net connection are annoying but bearable -- so long as consumers can be reassured they're not being muscled into a place where they're at the mercy of the content producer.
The music industry complains loudest about piracy, but is piracy really their problem or is it that they haven't had anything novel to bring to the market in more than a decade? No new Elvis, no new Beatles etc. New forms of music have reverted to their condition prior to the 1950s -- niche products of little interest to the mass market.
dduff442
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05-03-2010, 10:06 PM
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