Comment on DRM by Bill Thompson of the BBC

January 10, 2004

Earlier this week the musicians, Dr Dre, The Edge, Sheryl Crow and Alicia Keys came on the same stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas along with Carly Fiorina; the chief executive of HP (Hewlett-Packard). Fiorina started off her conference with how HP is trying to revolutionise home entertainment and replace analogue equipment such as VCR's, TV's, 35mm cameras, etc. with digital versions and all about media creation, sharing and management.

Then she spoiled it all by explaining how HP is committed to putting DRM software in all HP consumer devices to encrypt and prevent the sharing of recorded content as well as the prevention of recording from broadcast sources such as TV and Video. Bill commented on how DRM restricts consumer's freedom with their purchased content as well as forces them to pay more for their content.

DRM not only aims to prevent sharing, but effectively kills off creativity which is what consumers can do with their content. With DRM control, it means consumers can no longer 'mix' up their own tracks/beats from existing tracks or make or add to their home made videos using video clips or sound samples even if it is totally for personal private home use. DRM is only there to maximise revenue within the entertainment industry and has a totally negative effect on creativity and enjoyment. Not only that, but the EUCD legislation in Europe and the DMCA legislation in the US make it illegal to circumvent any protection measures even for personal use.

Bill then went on comment how DRM services such as Apple are doing really well despite online music stores being unprofitable by themselves and how even HP will be starting up its own DRM content service. If the industry cannot sort out this DRM mess, then it is time for the consumers to act. Consumer boycotts along with government action will be required to balance between the consumers and the copyright holders. I.e. Real freedom comes from the consumers and not what the marketing department of a large corporation thinks it should be. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news from the BBC via our news submit :

Music-lovers will lose out because of computer manufacturers' new commitment to digital rights management says Bill Thompson.

Normally it would take a political appeal, or a tribute to some old time rock and roll legend, to get Dr Dre, The Edge, Sheryl Crow and Alicia Keys onto the same stage.

But when they all showed up at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week it was entirely for their own benefit.

They were there as stooges to Carly Fiorina, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, as she made her conference keynote address and spoke movingly of how her company is going to 'democratize technology and empower digital revolutionaries everywhere.'

In an impassioned address, punctuated with a video of the future of home entertainment and a short performance by the talented Ms Keys, Fiorina tried to position HP at the centre of what she claims is a revolution in the way that technology is being used in daily life.

She talked about the ways that photography has changed from a chemical and physical process to one that is, as she put it 'digital, mobile and virtual'.

She waxed lyrical about the joy of hearing a song in Starbucks and downloading it wirelessly 'for a buck'.

Choice and control

And she claimed that the way entertainment is 'created, distributed, managed and consumed' is changing forever, in ways that highlight 'the power of democracy', and are about 'giving power the people.'

Real freedom comes from below, not from the marketing department of a large corporation.

Then she went and spoiled it all by committing HP to putting digital rights management software in every one of its consumer devices, encrypting any recorded content stored on HP systems so that it can't be transferred to other computers or players, stopping people copying their old videos to DVD, and even making sure that HP home computers can't record broadcast television programmes.

This revolution is clearly not about people taking control, as Fiorina claimed - it is about the entertainment cartel exerting even more control over what we, the people, can do with its expensive and often over-rated products.

It's about restricting our freedom to use digital content in ways that fit with our lifestyles and choices. And it is about forcing us to pay more, and repeatedly, for stuff that we want to watch or listen to.

It is also, crucially, about limiting our freedom to play with the stuff we've bought.

Read the rest of the story here.

If HP and anyone else is really serious about pushing DRM controls upon consumers in all their equipment, it could strike disaster for them. HP may advertise 'Invent', but it may be a totally different story if the consumer finds out they cannot do what they purchased their product for. Some Electronic manufactures probably do not realise after all this time that they make their profit from selling products to the end customers and listening to the entertainment industry is not profitable!

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Source: BBC News