Tell it.
by T. Colin Dodd
Copy killers | Technology | Guardian Unlimited - Cory Doctorow
Every media business has, by now, entertained a sales call from a digital rights management company - purveyors of copy protection tools that supposedly stop people from copying your works and sharing them with the world.
Not one of them has ever stopped the widespread, unauthorised copying of media. Not one of them ever will. The companies that sell this stuff are, at best, bunkum peddlers and, at worst, out and out fraudsters. Their wares simply can’t work - not without changing the laws of physics, maths and information science.
DRMs are often designed by ambitious, well-funded consortia, with top-notch engineers from every corner of the industry. They spend millions. They take years. They are defeated in days, for pennies, by hobbyists. It’s inevitable, because every time you give someone a locked item, you have to give them the key to unlock it too.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:56 am
DRMs are often designed by ambitious, well-funded consortia, with top-notch engineers from every corner of the industry. They spend millions. They take years. They are defeated in days, for pennies, by hobbyists.
…fortuned!