[Sigia-l] On DRM

[Laurie Gray]

Olly, I agree with you that this entire 'renting a digital video"
concept makes me a bit uncomfortable. However, it also strikes me that
the recording and motion picture industries are dragging their feet on
coming into the clearing as well - they continue, in large part, to
view their works much in the whole "atomic" notion that Stewart so
aptly named, instead of thinking creatively on how to handle this new
way of operating in the bit-based domain.

You are right. When a movie is contained on a physical delivery
system, only one instance of that movie can be played at a time. When
we uncouple the content from the delivery system, the 1:1 instance to
play time relationship becomes meaningless.

I think that maybe some lessons can come from the software industry in
this regard. They've always been bit-based and strike me as being a
bit ahead of the others in the media pack in relation to DRM. Adobe,
for example, limits the number of instances that one "license worth"
of software can be installed and verified. Having gone through a job
change and subsequent computer purchase, I found myself needing to
remove one machine from my list of "approved machines" running my
software and transfer it to my new one. Sure I had to jump through
hoops, but I didn't mind, and actually thought it sort of cool.

With software, we've been checking out files for years. This speaks to
the 1-instance-to-one play expectation of the real world. If I were to
make a "rented" (e.g. "checked out") video read only, I might be able
to approximate the experience of an atom-based experience. For
purchase of video or audio, perhaps the software licensing - and
limited installation tracking - paradigm might apply better.

Laurie

On 12/3/06, Olly Wright <olly.wright at mediacatalyst.com> wrote:
>
> On SundayDec 3, at 2:44 PM, Laurie Gray wrote:
>
> Yes I think this is at the centre of the point I was raising. The
> intuition has changed somewhere. In the past we associated in the
> content with the physical form that held it, and applied physical
> laws to it. Now we see the content as a computer file, and apply the
> same intuitions to it that we do to our other digital files: such as
> simple and fast copying, duplication at no cost.
>
> I find the whole rental of web-delivered digital movies situation
> very interesting in this regard also.
>
> The idea of 'rental' of a digital movie makes no sense. Just none
> whatsoever. If taken out of the historical context of old physical
> media.