On the DRM in Things

With the influx of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on all kinds of software, now is as good a time as any to talk about DRM and its effects on piracy. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and is the system of passwords and programs that prevent unauthorized use of many kinds of software. DRM was the reason you used to not be able listen to the music you purchased from iTunes on any old mp3 player, its the reason you have to mess with system files to use the newest version of photoshop, and its the reason that you can't play the illegal copy of your favorite video game online with your friends.

DRM was instituted by many media companies when they realized that people were obtaining their products through illegal means, and, god forbid, not paying them. From the perspective of the bean counters at the top it makes sense. Every person who obtains the product illegally is a lost sale, lost revenue, lost money. They ignore the fact that many who illegally obtain their product would never buy the product. Instead, they demand that a system be put in place that prevents these illegal accesses. A way to manage who can and cannot access their software.

I'm not saying DRM is bad. I get where it comes from. I get that companies want people to pay for their products. I have a problem when the DRM system these companies put in place get in the way. When the system makes it harder for people who actually buy their products to use them. Take Apple's first system for buying music. You could put the songs on as many Apple devices as you wanted and could listen to them on iTunes. But if you wanted to use a different device or put them on a cd you began to run into problems. Apple got away with it because they were the only one in the market. As time went on new services offering music without DRM began to appear on the market. Soon after, Apple started to sell their music without DRM. 

There are many other examples throughout the media industry. The only other industry that I feel that not choosing DRM is a common and acceptable course of action is in the game industry. This does not mean the big AAA titles, as those have some of the worst DRM implementations of them all. I am talking about the indie game scene where developers choose to release their games without DRM, giving people the choice on whether to download a copy of the internet or pay and download a copy off the internet. Surprisingly this model works. Even though there is no DRM people still buy the software. Experts attribute this to the ease of the purchasing process. With no codes, keys, or accounts to link to the game its easy to download and get playing.

I recently read an interesting study where researchers showed that in many cases removing DRM lead to not only an increase in illegal downloads but an increase in sales. Of course, the managers at the top don't see the increase in sales. only the increase in loss caused by pirating. I can only hope they change their minds.