Tuesday, June 20, 2006

From now on....... your can never go faster than 70mph

I've been following with great interest the DRM debate. If you don't know what I'm talking about - and very few average consumers do, go to Defective by Design. I can imagine that it can be difficult to explain to the layperson what the big deal is with DRM. I think I may have come up with a good analogy.

In most jurisdictions in North America, it's against the law to drive faster than 110km/h (70mph in the US). Imagine if you will that carmakers then logically imposed a limit on how fast cars could be driven. How would the public react if all vehicles (save for emergency vehicles), from now on, could not be driven faster than the speed limit? Well, this is precisely what the entertainment industry is forcing hardware manufacturers to do with every piece of hardware that can be used to play music, movies, etc.

4 comments:

Karl Plesz said...

Well - so much for my analogy being simple. I can't see most people agreeing with being unable to go beyond the speed limit in their vehicles. For one thing, it would make passing extremely dangerous.

Karl Plesz said...

Your two-dimensional thinking is your flaw monsieur. I was referring to the danger of passing someone on a 2-lane road, you'd never get to go fast enough to pass someone in time to beat oncoming traffic.

Besides, car chase scenes in movies would be really boring.

: D

Anonymous said...

Maxflex said,
DRM are bad because When I buy let say a music CD, I don't want to be force to listen to it on a piece of hardware that the maker of the DRM as decided that I should have, and only on that. Would you buy a car let say a GM one, if you were told that you could only use gas, say from Shell who charge 5 cent more than CO-OP for example, I think not.
DRM are bad because you are at the mercy and every whim of that DRM maker. Please people, don't let them lock you up, value yours and my FREEDOM to CHOOSE.

Karl Plesz said...

Go easy on him Jon. English isn't his first language........... Besides, I know the guy. Hey d00d!