DRMs Are Forever - Not!

[admin]

You expect to pay over the odds. You expect to deal with the annoying DRM restrictions. So you would expect, at the very least, that your DRM infected files would at least work? Well, your expectations are wrong, according to Steven Metalitz, a lawyer that represents the MPAA and RIAA.

This is what he had to say:

We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards. No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity, and there is no reason that any particular mode of distributing copyrighted works should be required to do so.

In other words, you have to put up with our ridiculous DRM, but don't expect the right to use your purchased content in the future.

You get the right with physical media such as CDs and DVDs (assuming you've got the hardware in working condition). And with non-DRM'd digital content, an MP3 you made in 2001 will still work in 2051, as it's unlikely MP3 support will ever be fully deprecated as long as the net still exists and some MP3 files are still floating around on it. But don't expect that with DRM'd files, because content owners can at any time turn off authentication servers or stop licensing the software needed to play DRM'd files, and it will be time to buy all of your music or movie collection again. And again. And again ... it will be like a money printing machine, as long as people are willing to put up with DRM.

More:

http://www.prefixmag.com/news/drm-content-can-be-taken-away-at-any-time-says-ind/31334/

[drfsupercenter]

And we humans can't be expected to abide by the rules

I'm fine using DRM removal tools to make my stuff truly unprotected. If they're gonna violate my rights, I'll violate theirs.

[Zmidponk]

We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards.

Well, you're technically right, as even books eventually degrade, so let's hold you to the standard of books. If properly stored and kept in decent condition, you could still read books for several hundred years. So, applying the same standards, assuming there's no physical defect with the disc it's on, and we're running it on hardware of the current time, we can expect any DRM protected program to work perfectly well until, say, the year 2500 or so, yes?

[drfsupercenter]

Nope.

With music, at least, as soon as the store goes out of business you're screwed.
I had quite a bit of legal WMA downloads from Wal-Mart, and they switched over to mp3, screwing over all the older customers. Good thing I decrypted them all by then...

[PurpleDemon]

Good thing I decrypted them all by then...

Same here with Sony Connect. They had OMA files that only played in their player.

Like you I had them burned to CD before they closed up shop.

I can just imagine if I didn't I would be screwed.