Comments on: A day in a DRM-free world http://www.ryanblock.com/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/ Editor and technology critic in the midst of founding a new content startup. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:19:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Antoine http://www.ryanblock.com/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/comment-page-1/#comment-12475 Antoine Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:26:45 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/archive/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/#comment-12475 Hello, I totally share your view on DRM : I think it's even as counterproductive for the media industry as for the hardware industry. the first step towards a better user experience could be the licensing of all DRM-families by their owner: I heard for example (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8677/53/) that Apple COULD be licensing their dear FairPlay ... I don't know if the news's believable at all though ... It could be pretty expensive for manufacturer to include all DRM support but (the DRM support could be sold separately, why not?) at least the high end hardware would provide a far better user xp. Second I don't know if there are such stores in the US, but in France, a major media distributor, if not the biggest (the "FNAC" > who said FLAC? ahah ... pathetic geek joke) decided to start, alongside with a classic DRMed store, a DRM-free store (http://www.fnacmusic.com/). So did Virgin on its online store. The prices are decent (the same as iTunes), the quality far better (MP3 ; 256Kbit/s) ... hope it will work! because if such models don't, you can be sure it will the end of the DRM-free world hope ... at least in France :) Hello,

I totally share your view on DRM : I think it’s even as counterproductive for the media industry as for the hardware industry.

the first step towards a better user experience could be the licensing of all DRM-families by their owner: I heard for example (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8677/53/) that Apple COULD be licensing their dear FairPlay … I don’t know if the news’s believable at all though …
It could be pretty expensive for manufacturer to include all DRM support but (the DRM support could be sold separately, why not?) at least the high end hardware would provide a far better user xp.

Second I don’t know if there are such stores in the US, but in France, a major media distributor, if not the biggest (the “FNAC” > who said FLAC? ahah … pathetic geek joke)
decided to start, alongside with a classic DRMed store, a DRM-free store (http://www.fnacmusic.com/). So did Virgin on its online store.

The prices are decent (the same as iTunes), the quality far better (MP3 ; 256Kbit/s) … hope it will work! because if such models don’t, you can be sure it will the end of the DRM-free world hope … at least in France :)

]]> By: Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » You know how I know the RIAA doesn’t care about consumers? http://www.ryanblock.com/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/comment-page-1/#comment-12464 Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » You know how I know the RIAA doesn’t care about consumers? Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:24:25 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/archive/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/#comment-12464 [...] which they are trying to pass the buck - and while you are reading on the topic, go check out Ryan’s DRM-free day), but at CES 2007 I got first-hand knowledge of how they feel about consumers.  I dropped by their [...] [...] which they are trying to pass the buck - and while you are reading on the topic, go check out Ryan’s DRM-free day), but at CES 2007 I got first-hand knowledge of how they feel about consumers.  I dropped by their [...]

]]> By: Shawn http://www.ryanblock.com/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/comment-page-1/#comment-12412 Shawn Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:57:17 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/archive/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/#comment-12412 You old dreamer, you. Seriously though, I can't tell you how exciting the prospect of this kind of things is. Trouble about it though, as stated earlier, is that until someone comes up with this type of solution, people will keep buying what's already on the market, so there's no motivation for companies to take the plunge. You old dreamer, you. Seriously though, I can’t tell you how exciting the prospect of this kind of things is.

Trouble about it though, as stated earlier, is that until someone comes up with this type of solution, people will keep buying what’s already on the market, so there’s no motivation for companies to take the plunge.

]]> By: Surferbill http://www.ryanblock.com/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/comment-page-1/#comment-12396 Surferbill Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:05:59 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/archive/2007/01/a-day-in-a-drm-free-world/#comment-12396 We, the consumers, are too damn lazy and/or too damn stupid to make this happen. Apathy rules in these 'instant-gratification-or-bust!' times. It doesn't help that the technology companies who could make this a reality have no financial incentive to implement it either. Why make products that are compatible with those of your competitors if you still believe your customer base only uses your products (or you want to lock them in to only using your products)? We need a hardware equivalent of the open source community to create these devices (I only have a splashproof radio in the shower, not a waterproof streaming audio/video player built into the wall) and the necessary standards for everything to communicate seamlessly. Good post Ryan, thank you. We, the consumers, are too damn lazy and/or too damn stupid to make this happen. Apathy rules in these ‘instant-gratification-or-bust!’ times.

It doesn’t help that the technology companies who could make this a reality have no financial incentive to implement it either. Why make products that are compatible with those of your competitors if you still believe your customer base only uses your products (or you want to lock them in to only using your products)?

We need a hardware equivalent of the open source community to create these devices (I only have a splashproof radio in the shower, not a waterproof streaming audio/video player built into the wall) and the necessary standards for everything to communicate seamlessly.

Good post Ryan, thank you.

]]>