Berlind on Getting Ripped off By DRM

David Berlind:

Secondary in my mind (not by much) to the DRM goal vector is the technology vector. This is where Hollywood’s need to protect its turf has turned into a gift from heaven for the technology companies that incessantly seek out market control points through the use of proprietary technologies. To you, proprietary generally means one of two things. Lack of compatibility or increased cost to get compatibility. Today, the different DRM technology makers are in a race to drive as much DRMed content (DRMed with their different DRM technologies that is) into market as possible. By doing so, they are securing the future of their playback technologies because you’ll always need them to access your content. In this context (driving DRMed content to market), Microsoft is the tortoise and Apple is the hare