[p2p-research] iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/3/10, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2/3/10, Tomas Rawlings <tom at fluffylogic.net> wrote:

> > The iPod began with DRM - I'd suspect pushed by the major labels before
> they'd agree then as the users began to get annoyed with it, there was a
> > slow unwinding of the DRM.

> > - again I suspect that the companies who they were dealing with demanded
> some kind of DRM before they got involved - which I except to see erode away
> over time.  Thus far with the net what happens in music has then tended to
> > follow into other areas of media - film, games etc.

> This is almost exactly the point I was making (or trying to make).  Normal
> social processes erode DRM.  It isn't something worth fighting.  If it leads
> to innovation, it is a good thing, because evolutionary forces will
> undoubtedly erode it over a relatively brief period.

I agree, in the sense that these "normal social processes" and
"evolutionary forces" include technological changes that erode the
ability to enforce copyright law.  The proliferation of encryption and
darknets, the hacking of DRM, and the distribution of "pirated"
DRM-free copies, are all part of this overall process by which DRM
becomes untenable.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
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Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
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