Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!]

walt
2003-04-27T20:22:43Z

Larry McVoy wrote:

> ...If you want to win, you win by being a creator, not a copier...

DisneyCorp was a prime mover behind the DMCA (or so I'm told), so
let's take them as an example. They have been a copier of artistic
material for decades -- one of the biggest ever. They 'improve' the
material they copy and then make a fortune by clever marketing and
by charging whatever the market will bear -- a market historically
controlled by the producer of the product because there was, until
very recently, no aftermarket. You had to buy from the producer
because you couldn't buy the product from anyone else -- until now.

My point is that the mind-boggling wealth produced from mass-marketed
entertainment products has been generated by strict control of the
means of distribution -- printing press, airwaves, film, records,
tape, CD's, and now, finally, the internet.

Oops. Well, they don't control that last one, come to think of it.
And that is the big problem for monopolists like Disney -- they
can't control the supply of their product and thus they can't
control the price either.

The artificial scarcity of their product is over at last, due
entirely to advances in technology. The question for society to
answer is whether this is an evil fact or a good fact. I think
most people think it good, not evil, and therefore the technology
will not be going away anytime soon.

The media producers, therefore, are going to lose this battle to
prop up the price of their product to artificially high levels.
They have the money to buy legislation only because they have had
strict control of the means of distribution of their own product
which has made them artificially wealthy. This is now changing
and they had better adapt or they will perish.