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449 points bertman | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.719s | source
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alufers ◴[] No.29703989[source]
Can we just stop the shitshow with DRM? I have NEVER encountered a TV show/movie that I could't rip using a torrent either on public p2p sites or a private tracker.

But I have seen a lot of my non-technical friends and family having a degraded experience, who pay for their streaming services every month. It was either because they were using a browser or device which was deemed unworthy of full quality streaming by the mighty DRM authors. And now the poor users of the TB-X505X will also have a degraded experience.

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marcodiego ◴[] No.29704881[source]
You're mixing up things. DRM goal is not to prevent copies, its goal is to give media producers control over the distributors.
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CorrectHorseBat ◴[] No.29705042[source]
Care to elaborate? What are they gaining from that?
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marcodiego ◴[] No.29705093[source]
Giant media conglomerate says to Big distributor:

  - Hi distributor! Do you want to distribute our content? You just have to make sure players will have this list of anti-features.
Big distributor says to manufacturer:

  - Hi manufacturer! Do you want to play the content we distrubute? You just have to make sure your TV's will have this list of anti-features.

And here we are.
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CorrectHorseBat ◴[] No.29705563[source]
But what are they gaining from that?
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marcodiego ◴[] No.29705743[source]
Among other things, they remove competition.
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CorrectHorseBat ◴[] No.29708721[source]
Where and how? Removing competition among distributors? media producers? manufacturers?

The only place where I could see it reduce competition is manufacturers sure, but why would media producers want to reduce competition there?

I think it's media producers refusing to accept they can't stop pirating and manufacturers making use of that to sell them stuff. In the end it's only the manufacturers who make money from DRM.

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1. marcodiego ◴[] No.29709819[source]
Remove competition among manufacturers because nobody can legally build and sell a compatible player without the key's owner permission.

Remove competition among distributors because media producers can refuse giving permission to distribute their media without agreeing to whatever terms they impose.

Remove competition among media distributors by creating silos of content where you can't find one or another title. Today, if you want to have reasonable access to media, you'll have to sign more than one stream service; compare this to how you could go to a rental store 15 years ago and choose media from many different producers.

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2. CorrectHorseBat ◴[] No.29712312[source]
>Remove competition among manufacturers because nobody can legally build and sell a compatible player without the key's owner permission.

And what are media producers gaining from less competition among manufacturers?

>Remove competition among distributors because media producers can refuse giving permission to distribute their media without agreeing to whatever terms they impose.

They don't need DRM for that, copyright is enough. Those who want to distribute legally do follow the terms with or without DRM. Those who don't do distribute illegally with or without DRM.

>Remove competition among media distributors by creating silos of content where you can't find one or another title. Today, if you want to have reasonable access to media, you'll have to sign more than one stream service; compare this to how you could go to a rental store 15 years ago and choose media from many different producers.

15 years ago DRM was already a thing (albeit badly implemented) and it's really not DRM that killed rental stores. The internet did. Exclusive contracts is what's killing competition among media distributors.

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3. marcodiego ◴[] No.29713292[source]
>>Remove competition among manufacturers because nobody can legally build and sell a compatible player without the key's owner permission.

>And what are media producers gaining from less competition among manufacturers?

It becomes much easier to impose restriction on costumers. These restrictions end up forcing the costumer to pay more or more than once for content.

>>Remove competition among distributors because media producers can refuse giving permission to distribute their media without agreeing to whatever terms they impose.

>They don't need DRM for that, copyright is enough.

Right, but copyright law doesn't prevents me from owning backup copies of content I bought, copyright law doesn't force me to pay periodically to have the right to listen to something, copyright law doesn't force me to watch a content using certified devices only, copyright law doesn't prevent me from legally creating and selling a player for a content... DRM does.

>>Remove competition among media distributors by creating silos of content where you can't find one or another title. Today, if you want to have reasonable access to media, you'll have to sign more than one stream service; compare this to how you could go to a rental store 15 years ago and choose media from many different producers.

>15 years ago DRM was already a thing (albeit badly implemented) and it's really not DRM that killed rental stores. The internet did. Exclusive contracts is what's killing competition among media distributors.

DRM makes it much easier for silos to thrive. For example, I can not re-sell, I can not rent, I can not watch on a non-certified device, I can not use it on a device which has all required anti-features to be allowed to play an specific content.