Imagine bringing home a music CD from Best Buy and discovering that it will only play on some of your stereo equipment. Moreover, you’re limited in the number of times you can switch the CD from one stereo to another.
That is the kind of restriction and hassle that e-book enthusiasts face today, according to critics, because of the widespread use — misuse, they would argue — of digital rights management (DRM) technology.
Actually, it’s much worse
Imagine you bought a DVD from Circuit City, but the DVD has to phone home every time you play it. And then Circuit City disappears.
Oh, wait: That already happened, with DivX–although, back then, it was only the DivX servers that disappeared, as a prelude to CC’s demise.
The “R” in DRM almost always really stands for “Restrictions,” not “Rights”–but some DRM is dramatically worse than others. Any “phone home” provision (e.g., iTunes until recently, most other non-MP3 music download services) is particularly egregious.
Oops, sorry
“Anonymous” in the comment above is me. Didn’t realize I wasn’t logged in, since it’s usually automatic.
The slight difference is
The slight difference is that you know when you buy DRM’d music or film it has that restriction. So although a fair close comparison it’s not a totally fair one.