The even darker side of DRM

Having been an also-ran since it’s inception, Google Video has finally given up its aspirations to provide for-sale and for-rent video to the masses. Whilst this in itself is news, its the flipside of this which is most interesting - as soon as the shop finally closes its doors, those who have previously purchased videos from the service will no longer be able to view them.

This of course is the greatest argument of all against DRM. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, no-one and nothing lasts forever. Apple and its products are very much in vogue, but during the the lifetime of the average consumer, who knows? The hip 20-something kid who has just bought his first iPhone is highly unlikely to still be using iTunes in another 60 years time as he seeks to recapture his youth. It’s only through open formats and conversion tools that we can manage the transition from one generation of technology to the next. I’m a firm advocate of digital formats, but still prefer to buy music on CDs because I know that sometime in the future I may need to re-convert to another format, with higher quality. Throw DRM into the mix and you screw it all up. The DMCA seeks to prevent users from circumventing protection methods, but if they do nothing then they end up losing all the media that they have legally purchased - with each passing wave of technical innovation you have to leave the past behind and buy all over again. Good for the media companies, but not so good for you.

So, be warned - if you purchase media that uses DRM there’s a high likelihood that at some point in the future you may find the rug pulled from underneath you. My advice would be to either purchase music that’s DRM-free (now that major companies are finally offering this), or go with physical formats and convert it yourself. The extra money you spend now might save you a lot in the future.

[via Engadget, the BBC and Others]