Now, to be fair, Steve himself doesn't think TV shows and movies need to be DRM-free, but on the whole, Glickman's plan to solve DRM's problems with more DRM isn't exactly our favorite idea ever.
ENGADGET: MPAA says it's committed to fair use, interoperability, and, uh, DRM
Here's something that opponents of restrictive DRM implementations aren't going to be too happy with: ZDNet is reporting that new copy-protection software for DVD publishers from a company called ProtectDisc not only makes it difficult to rip movies that you've purchased -- no surprise there -- but actually prevents discs from playing in a Windows PC at all.
ENGADGET: Protect DVD-Video prevents discs from playing on your PC
Until Apple feels a competitive threat, it won't license its DRM, says Gartner analyst Allen Weiner.
Granted, Google didn't seem to have many options: Apple, by far the dominant player in online digital-media sales, doesn't currently license its Fairplay DRM, and Microsoft is one of Google's biggest competitors.
As previously mentioned, although AAC is the default format used by iTunes, these players won't be able to play any DRM-protected iTunes downloads.
While we haven't seen any references to the DRM scheme actually causing any crashes, it does seem like a pretty underhanded way to enforce copy protection.
There's all kinds of corporate-lawyer idiocy at play here: MobileRead was just linking out to another site hosting the script, which can't actually be used to break Kindle DRM, and the only people using it are the people who want to buy more books -- not exactly the sort of customers you'd want to piss off.
ENGADGET: Amazon using DMCA to restrict Kindle content sources
The reality is that Sony and Microsoft aren't the ones who would benefit most from DRM or used-game restrictions.
For Mac users, Microsoft is also developing a substitute for the Zune client that won't enable Zune store purchases but will allow sideloading of non-DRM content, including a direct hook into iTunes.
And iPod users aren't off the hook either: when playing tracks protected by Apple's FairPlay DRM, CNET found that iPod battery life declined by 8%.
We've gotta give Microsoft props forwarding on to a competitor like that (or, at least props for following the terms of a 2005 legal settlement), and in its defense, the URGE store Microsoft started with MTV is still going strong, but with Real slowly moving over to their own DRM, FairUse4WM alive and kicking, and now the MSN Music shut-down, things aren't looking great for PlaysForSure.
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