What’s the value of a bit? It seems that going after folks who have traded songs or movies online is a huge expenditure of effort and money. Is DRM-protected content the way to go? If you don’t agree, propose another method for the distribution of digital multimedia so that content creators can still be compensated.
I think that DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the way to go because it is basically controlling the access and limiting the technologies and devices. There are many companies that use DRM but it is a topic and issue that continues to stir up controversy. I do agree however that it is a good way to go despite the problems that it has encountered with limiting and sometimes preventing access of digital content. The more I thought about it the more I realized how big of a problem it is to try and control the rights of digital devices or content that is being distributed. It seems to me that there have always been ways around it. Too many individuals or copyrighted companies (creators) have lost money to the ways around DRM. I believe that most of the time the creators are not compensated as much as they should be and no matter what method is taken, there have always been ways around it. I didn’t know much about it until after reading this chapter and it was interesting to me how everyone knows the risk’s and what can happen if you are caught illegally downloading music but still continue to do it anyways. It also made me think of my own music on my iPod, I do not download any music on my computer; I only upload songs and play list from different friends. I have however failed to ask where they have been getting their music from and now curious as to see the answer to that.
One consideration in the price we pay is distribution costs.
ReplyDeleteWith everything digitized, the cost to distribute music (and to some degree, the need for marketing) is so low that artists can almost publish themselves. I'd much rather my money went to the artist, than the 3-5% they get now via a label.