DRM should mimic its analog counterpart
How would you feel if you buy a book (of the real physical kind, not an e-book) and it says on the shrinkwrap of the book that the minute you open the shrinkwrap you are agreeing to the following terms of use,
You are the only one authorized to read this book. Loaning, selling, or giving this book away is in violation of this agreement and punishable by law.
We reserve the right to at any time confiscate this book if we feel you have violated this agreement.
Absurd ! Ofcourse. But not so in the digital world !
I’ve got copies of e-books I’ve purchased from ebooks.com that is authorized only to be read by computers that I have authorized, and it is limited to 5 computers. I am not allowed to print, annotate, copy, or do anything with it. I can’t give it away either when I’m done with it, unless you want to sacrifice an authorization token. Worst of all I can’t move it and read it on a different device running a different software.
Is it really my e-book ?
I’ve got music that I download through iTunes that only works on authorized computers. I can’t loan it to anybody, I can’t give it away. I can’t listen on different devices.
Is it really my music ?
I know it is easier said than done, but I think they should get these DRMs to behave as they do in the analog world:
They should come up with a worldwide standard of DRM (like I said, easier said than done). Within this standard, people will be allowed to do pretty much the same things as they can do in the analog world, i.e. read anywhere, make copies for their own use, print, annotate, etc. The same limitations as the analog world will apply as well, such as
- You will be able to read/listen to your stuff anywhere, but it can only be used in one place at a time. All other instances will be disabled.
- You will be able to loan it to others, but your copy of it will be disabled until the loanee gives the stuff back to you.
- You will be able to give it away, thus disabling your copy and you can choose to delete it.
(It will be neat if there is the capability of carrying annotations around in the digital copies, such that people can share annotations. add links and other informations, etc.)
What do you think ?
Inspired by my own frustration with DRM, Scoble’s blog, and from an episode of TWIT (This Week In Tech with Leo Laporte) (I forgot which episode, though)
