News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

September 23, 2006

rivals

Talking out of both sides of your mouth

Posted Sep. 23, ’06, 5:33 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » Rivals

Ashwin Navin BitTorrent is preparing to offer a movie service that will deliver downloads using their protocol. They’ll be offering DRM protected files. Co-founder Ashwin Navin says:

The bottom line is that DRM is bad for the content provider and it’s bad for the consumer, and the reason it’s being used today is because we’re in the very early stages of a new product cycle for the entertainment industry and they want to walk before they run.

I think the future will not be marked by digital rights management. It will be marked by advertising-supported content that’s clear of DRM, because the content publisher wants it to be as widely distributed as possible and consumed over as many platforms as possible. And we hope to be part of that evolution, and to drive that evolution wherever we can.

Wait. DRM is bad for everyone, so the natural conclusion is to offer media that uses it? Why doesn’t he come out and say what we’re all rightly thinking? “We’re willing to compromise our beliefs to make a buck.”

As for advertising supported media, unless it’s coming through a web page, how do you make sure viewers watch those ads? Won’t they just fast forward through it? More likely they will wait for someone to go through the file and edit out all traces of advertising, at which point we are back where we started.

What I want to know is how complying with DRM encourages the progression to the advertiser supported model.


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