iPad DRM Thoughts
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Dylan feels that the iPad is a step back in content consumption, due to the fact that there is DRM all over it. We’ve tried so hard to move away from the DRM environment. He points out that the Marvel Comic Book app takes away the fun of trading comic books with your friends as an example.
At first I thought he had been reading Cory Doctorow, but it turns out that he didn’t even know who he was. I’m definitely not a fan of DRM. The argument could be made that the iPad is a step back in content consumption as far as DRM goes. However, I sat in my bed the other night with my iPad and caught up on my favorite television shows. I have no want or need to store those elsewhere. If there was DRM keeping me from doing things with them, I wasn’t aware of it.
As far as limitations as to what you can do with the content you’re watching on the iPad, I don’t think most of the world cares or will notice. I don’t like DRM, but I don’t see it as a huge issue with the iPad.
I digest content in an ad-hoc on-demand capacity. I subscribe to Rhapsody. Rhapsody has DRM, but why does that matter to me? I pull up the app and play the music that I want to hear. This is the same thing when you buy a CD. You own the physical disc, and the right to listen to it. You DON’T own the right to the music itself, and don’t have the rights to copy it to other places and people.
DRM is a tricky thing, to be sure. There are a lot of people on both sides of the line. However, with the iPad I don’t see it as being a huge issue.
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