RE: [dvd-discuss] Digital Rights Management Gedanken Experiments

[Reevan McKay <Reevan(at)blender.nl>]

> Any other ideas for mischievious and devious DRM schems?

Here in the Netherlands there was a short-lived experiment in Analogue
Rights Management:  VHS tapes of Hollywood movies that could be played
twice.  Upon the second viewing the tape would erase itself.  The cost of
one of these suicidal tapes was about half what one would pay for a
non-boobietrapped tape.  The touted benefits were similar to the DivX
propaganda ("Never forget to return a rental again!  Plus, after two
viewings you get a blank tape to do with as you please!")

Fortunately, this never caught on.  I suspect most consumers only accept the
"licence to view" involved with all recorded media because they don't know
that's the actual transaction when they buy a DVD or CD - people tend to
assume they're "buying" the movie to do with as they please.  The more the
"license" aspect is emphasized by the copyright holders, the more people
will be turned off - ESPECIALLY if there is a physical medium involved.
Consumers still associate value with hardware: "I bought this DVD disk, so
now it is mine."  I predict there will never be widespread consumer
acceptance of any DRM scheme that in effect destroys the physical medium it
is recorded on.  How people will react to self-expiring downloadable
software & multimedia remains to be seen.  If consumers do not perceive that
they are getting value for money, they will stay away, and no
anti-copy/region-lock/time-limited technology scheme in the world can stop
that.