The Perils of DRM — When Content Providers Die 275
An anonymous reader writes "If you purchase music or movies online, what happens if the vendor goes out of business? Will you have trouble accessing your content? The question came up recently after HDGiants — provider of high-quality audio and video downloads — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A consumer says his content became locked inside his PC. Walmart customers suffered a similar fate last year when the retailer shut down its DRM servers (a decision they reversed after many complaints). And if Vudu dies? Your content may be locked in a proprietary box forever. Time to start buying discs again?"
This is one of the most important drawbacks of DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
AFAIK no company that was not bankrupt got away with just cshutting down the servers. The options for viable companies seem to be
1. Refound all purchases (and have a net loss)
2. Remove the DRM (may be difficult/impossible, as content owners have to agree)
3. Keep the servers running (and have continuous cost for that)
It seems some companies have already realized that DRM is a losing game even for them, because of the additional cost and because it is a business they cannot simply back out of.
Now on a bankrupcy, it becomes interesting. In the EU, it may actually be legal to hack the DRM then. But basically I think your stuff is lost. If this happens a few times, customers will catch on. Many already have. In the end, DRM will die for good when this problem has become common knowledge.
Unlock content (Score:3, Interesting)
There should be some legislation that either forces companies to unlock your DRM'd content or give you back the money.
Walmart was not going out of business so both options were open to them. A company filing for Chapter 11 should just unlock content, that is swap the DRM'd files with unprotected ones. Labels/majors will probably say that unlocking content breaks the agreement in place with the distributor but the law should protect customers in the first place.
Never buy DRM'd content until some legislation like that is in effect: chances are that you survive most of the companies in this business and/or the DRM technologies they use.
Things you buy don't last forever (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How many times have you bought the same cd? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've lost my entire music collection due to theft twice, and my entire movie collection once. My current philosophy runs something along the lines of rip, compress (or not), put it on more than one HDD, take the originals, put them in a safe, put the safe in a bunker surrounded by monsters friendly only to you.
Legally repair the Digital Restrictions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This is one of the most important drawbacks of (Score:3, Interesting)
The companies should be required (by law) to keep their servers running indefinitely.
That is after all the product they sell, if I buy a movie I expect it to play 20years later. Can't work the business model, don't do it.
Re:On the other hand... (Score:3, Interesting)
Six months? May be it's just me but that is a lot of interest in an album. I mostly loose interest in the middle of a title song.
I am not a hoarder though. ATM, my music "library" has 13 artists for a grand total of 7 GB (half of it is King Crimson). After discovering torrents I quickly got out of the habit of saving stuff. My music is not backed up and will probably get trashed during the next HD upgrade. I find it kind of liberating, actually, to rebuild my collection every now and then by picking a few old favorites and some random stuff to check out for the first time.
Re:How many times have you bought the same cd? (Score:2, Interesting)
With a bit of practice, you can hear the score in your head. It takes a lot of practice, as it's about as hard as improvising a piano reduction of an orchestral work on first read.
I used to take orchestral scores with me to read on the train and found it a pleasant way to pass the time.
its not just about vendor going 'away' (Score:5, Interesting)
its also about your motherboard going away.
think 'tivo'.
twice I've had a tivo die on me. and twice, you are not legally allowed to get your (possibly unseen, definitely paid for!) movies seen or copied over.
when my final tivo died, I gave some thought to fixing it and trying to hack the drives. I also thought about continuing my directv sub but thought about NOT wanting to repeat this all over again, so I cancelled my pay tv sub. I no longer have a sat tv feed (or cable) anymore.
DRM is bad and when it works, its somewhat acceptable; but when it stops working, you're screwed.
lesson learned. no more proprietary tivo boxes for me. not anymore.
no more pay tv? so be it. I can live without out!
Re:Unlock content (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree. As consumer protection, anyone selling DRM-encumbered content should have to put the means to crack that DRM into some kind of escrow which becomes publicly available on the event that they can no longer provide support for that DRM to their customers.
Anyone failing to abide by these terms should not be allowed to use the word "buy" in their storefront or marketing. If you don't get to keep it, you aren't "buying" it. It's false advertising.
I know someone here will take an even more hard-line attitude and say DRM itself should be illegal, which is fine. I'm not going to argue with you.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This is one of the most important drawbacks of (Score:3, Interesting)
This should get interesting when the bank auditors start to catch on to this. If judges force the continued operation of the servers in BK events to protect consumers maybe companies selling DRM'ed content will be unable to get loans!
This is the case today. Now there are a number of players whose interest it serves to keep things this way which is why it does not change but the lack of private loans available to federal contractors is a know issue. In a BK satisfaction of contracts with the federal government are senior to all debt contracts. That is to say the contract must be satisfied from the available funds if thats even possible before the most senior bond holder can get in line. Since federal contracts usually stipulate the money is returned plus penalties if the product or service is not delivered lenders usually have a problem with companies that work with the federal government.
Every wonder why government contractors are usually only big firms? This is a major reason, its only those firms that know they don't use and won't need private equity financing in the future. They either have cash operation or can raise the capital on the bond market. Hint for you bond investors, if you play in junk bonds companies that have federal contracts and are rated junk are probably junkier than ones that don't in terms of your odds of walking away with nothing at all.
Re:Finally an original thinker (Score:5, Interesting)
The first thing - this is one of the reasons why DRM-protected media is doing bad in online sales.
People are aware of the limitations and problems.
And this is yet another reason why getting the media in formats that are secured for long-time use. Even DVD:s are better for the consumer since they don't depend on the availability of a server somewhere on the net, and can be used standalone. But the thing that really sucks with DVD:s are the copyright notice that you are forced to watch, which means that some people rips the DVD:s to get rid of that crap.
If the media industry had caught on the track earlier and offered music at a reasonable price without any crippling DRM they would have been better off in sales. There are people willing to pay for it, if they can get it. Going torrent works for some, but some of us wants a reliable and legal source for our media.
Re:Start buying disk again? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Maybe... (Score:4, Interesting)
I always thought just saying "your business model sucks" was kind of a cop out. Look if their business model makes them enough money to stay afloat more power to them. If it doesn't and they die, that's just tough luck. You can't blame the business model on everything.
Re:my Edison wax reels don't play (Score:5, Interesting)
'Back when Edison was offering music on wax cylinders you could buy, I avoided going with George Westinghouse scheme to stream music. I wanted to own it! but now I can't find a player for them.'
Should have gone with Victor Talking Machine media - you can still find drives for those. The EULA is a bit restrictive, though:
http://www.natch.net/stuff/78_license/ [natch.net]
At least there should be a law to protect buyers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Best option: gog.com (Score:3, Interesting)
I do agree with you 100%
My problem with DVDs (official ones) is region coding, Macrovision (not all have them) and the stupid menus and FBI warnings you can't bypass.
Cable Internet (Score:3, Interesting)
no more pay tv? so be it. I can live without out!
But how easily can you live without high-speed Internet access if the only provider of home high-speed Internet access ties its high-speed Internet access service to a pay TV service?
Re:Finally an original thinker (Score:2, Interesting)
I've never actually bought any digital content. However I have received it for "free" on some DVD's. One is from about 5 years ago. Tried the content.
DRM servers are gone.
As for the anti-piracy crap on DVD's... What amazes me is even up here in Canada... WE GET THE FBI WARNING! (And Canada has it's own DVD's in most cases due to the bi-lingual crap, and they're publisher by other companies. Usually Alliance Atlantis. So many wonderful DVD covers ruined by having the title in both English and French on the front. Aesthetically horrible.)
Yes, we're receiving law enforcement warnings on our DVD's from a group who has NO jurisdiction up here whatsoever.
An RCMP one would be so much cooler. "But down that DVD burner, eh!"
This could be fixed by legislation. (Score:4, Interesting)
A lien is one legal answer that I can think of. The lien would need to attach at the time of the software purchase. It couldn't attach when the company goes insolvent, because those kinds of laws are invalidated by the Bankruptcy Code. It couldn't attach when the service shuts down, because the service would probably shut down while the provider was in bankruptcy and the automatic stay would keep the lien from attaching while the bankruptcy is going on. A lien is super good. It gives every creditor the best seat at the bankruptcy table.
The lien I'm thinking of would be a first priority lien in all the software and documentation used to administer the DRM system. Every customer would get the right to foreclose on this lien when the DRM unlock service is dropped by the provider.
This kind of thing would resonate with the legislature because it would REALLY resonate with the general public. This is a problem EVERYBODY can understand. Legislators have kids with IPODS too!
Another option would be a statutorily-mandated escrow system that puts the DRM in trust.
Presentation of these kinds of ideas would get the ball rolling. Maybe a better idea would be found, or a worse one. Anything is better than the current system.
This is a battle big media cannot fight, because they can't be seen to be claiming the right to fuck you out of your expensively-purchased media libraries so they can resell the same stuff to you later.
This is the kind of problem that gets fixed in a republic like ours. If you care, you should go for it.
Re:On the other hand... (Score:2, Interesting)
Smaller artists need every penny, no doubt. Larger artists may not NEED every penny but if it is something that you use and derive enjoyment from you should not figure that since the artist is large enough you can just take their stuff for free. Even if the artist him/her/them/whatever self is a complete and utter jerk bathing in money that is not a valid reason for feeling justified by reaping the benefits of their work for nothing.
Mind you, I'm not even going to pretend I never downloaded music I didn't pay for. I'm just saying that fair should be fair for BOTH starving artists and those living in ivory towers.
Of course, having to pay artists for the music isn't really what we are debating...it's paying the studios/distributors for the pleasure of DRM laden content. To be fair there are a ton of people involved in the music industry that make the creation of albums possible. While your idea of torrenting and sending money directly to the artists it does not pay the salaries of the guys that helped make the album happen.
Re:DiVx brought this up years ago. (Score:2, Interesting)
The difference between this and with Circuit City's Divx fiasco is physical media. Those people who were sucked in by CC's idiocy at least have the hardware that can be hacked or made to work in some way. If I can recall correctly, your player was able to play normal DVD as well as gold and platinum Divx discs.
With digital media and DRM you have to rely on finding a software solution. But there is no physical media.
Re:Best option: gog.com (Score:3, Interesting)
There are DVD players such as this one [oppodigital.com] that allow you to bypass it. It's odd that it doesn't have that in its features list. You can even make it region-free quite easily.