Digital rights management (DRM) has attempted to limit buyers from sharing copyrighted material. It has prevented format conversion of music and DVDs but it has proved easy to defeat and sometimes causes problems for ordinary consumers. Recently, Amazon and Apple have created ways to sell DRM-free songs. While piracy is still an issue here, experts believe that the easy and cheap access to high-quality music will shrink the piracy market.
While DRM is playing a less important role in the music industry, it’s becoming increasingly used in others. A movie bought on iTunes or a DVD purchased from the store has restrictions on making copies. The DRM is also preventing unapproved technologies from coming out to prevent copyright infringement. In publishing, the Authors Guild recently made a settlement with Google in which the authors of books on Google would be compensated for Internet user’s use of their work. The settlement is not yet finalized but it’s causing some controversy as to whether it’s a missed opportunity for a high level of fairness in the digital age and whether is will cause a monopoly problem.
Do you think that DRM has prevented you from pirating? Are you still able to get free downloads of music, books and movies relatively easy?
I do not pirate music, books, or movies only because I do not want to get caught and have to pay heafty fines. I think that if I want something that bad, I can save up the money and buy it. If I want a song, I will cough up the 99cents to buy it from iTunes.
ReplyDeleteI honestly have never pirated anything and wouldn't even know how to go about doing it. I know that it is still occurring and happening, unfortunately the people who worked hard to make the music or movies are the ones being cheated out of the work that they have done that should receive compensation.
ReplyDeleteI think that DRM has definitely made me think twice about pirating, since there are now such strict restrictions. To tell you the truth, I use limewire and would much rather get my music for free than pay a dollar a song. Books and movies are things that I think is fine to spend your money on, and think it isn't very smart to even attempt to pirate these types of materials.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the DRM has prevented people from pirating. I have actually seen people sell pirated movies at flea markets. I also know that if you go to other countries they have tons of pirated movies. I don't think that the DRM limited the amount of pirating going on.
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ReplyDeleteI think that the DRM has not prevented people from pirating. I myself know many people who watch movies online for free, and download free music. Far as I know they do this with great ease, and have not had any run in's with the law.
ReplyDeleteI usually buy the hard copy CD's, and do not own an MP3 player, so I do not know about how to steal music. All I know is that there is a huge fine involved. People are still stealing music, so I do not think the DRM is doing a lot right now.
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The DRM has not prevented me personally from attaining copies of music, movies or any other media.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not actively go to sites and downloads, I swap music with people as well as movies. So while I do not actively try and attain free things from people, if they wish to give me copies of things, I don't deny it either. Also on that note, I don't know if it is easy to attain free music from sites such as napster, etc since I do not go to those sites to see.
It still is quite easy to see and hear music, TV, and movies for free on the internet; therefore DRM has not prevented this problem. One of the major problems I see with the music industry and receiving music at a relatively fair price is that the average song is about $1. If I had actually paid for everything song on my iPod I would have spent over $3,000 on music alone. To go along with that, song writers, artists, producers, and other music industry people need to be recognized for their work and need to get paid for it as well.
ReplyDeleteThreats and fines have probably scared some people away from downloading free media. But there are still ways for people to do so. Current technology allows us to easily make and distribute copies, so it will be hard to stop that from happening.
ReplyDeleteI used to pirate music and movies but have since stopped. I wouldnt say it was because of anything related to this article though. I just found that my computer ran a lot slower when i was d.l media. Not sure why or if it was just in my head but for some reason viruses scared me.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel that DRM has inhibited my access to free music at all. I just happened to stop using such methods because it is unfair and the penalty is to steep. I also feel as a future educator I should try and do things the legal way.
ReplyDeleteI have never downloaded music or books. But it would probably be easy to get ahold of them because I know people who would be happy to help me acquire such things if I so desired. But I am really not interested in ripping anyone off. When it comes to movies, I have no time to watch them generally. I think that all of the ones I've seen were purchased legally. I did download some portions of a movie from youtube once but the quality was bad. It really wasn't worth it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that DRM has cause me any problems thus far. I have never had trouble getting free music.
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