Do I have to protect my content with DRM ? (The DRM equation)

[kalpik]

So, you are the producer/publisher of a content. You want to make money of it. As much money as possible. You are wondering if you must use DRM or not.
First question

It might be obvious but, at first, ask yourself : "Why do I want to use DRM on my content ?". To fight piracy or illegal copies ? Bad answer ! Your goal is NOT to fight piracy ! Your goal is to earn money. Lot of money. If you could make more money with the help of piracy, would you still fight it ? Of course not. So keep in my mind that you want to use DRM to make more money of your content. Nothing else.

But piracy will make me loose money...

Now, rename "piracy" by "a free network that promote my content everywhere in the world". It's not anymore that evident that piracy will make you loose money. Simply replacing one word by a synonym can give you a brand new vision. Would you fight against "a free network that promote my content everywhere in the world" ? So, here we cannot reply surely. Let's focus on "making money", not on piracy or anything else.
The DRM equation

Now, the question is and only is "Will I earn more money with DRM or not ?".

There is a simple answer call the DRM equations :

DRM profit = Wins - Devel - Unit - Court - Boycott - Hardware - Support - Refund

With the following terms :

DRM profit : the difference between the money you will make with DRM and the money you will make without. Might be negative.
Wins : The exact number of people who tried to illegally obtain your content but could not due to DRM and that finally bought the original, legal version.
Devel : The full development cost of your unbreakable DRM solution, including years of salary for engineers, specialists, ...
Unit : Due to the DRM, the unit cost of fabrication of one of your product is slightly more. Multiply this accordingly with your whole production.
Court : The total cost of all your trials that try to forbid this 12 years old child to publish his crack of your DRM on the Internet. You might include here all the legal stuffs related to the fact that your DRM method was patented by someone else before you.
Boycott : Include here all the sells that were never done because a tiny group of people boycott content with DRM. You can include here the bad press linked to DRM.
Hardware : Include here all the negotiation to have hardware manufacturer support your DRM format.
Support : The whole support cost of the DRM. You will have indeed plenty of clients that will call because "your product is not working on their device". You have to carefully explain the whole thing to them and to double the number of your hotliners.
Refund : All the products you have to refund because it was not working as expected due to DRM. People don't understand basic principles like "to read my content, you have to use only my hardware and my software". So, if they buy your content without having your hardware/software, you will have to refund them.


That's the theory. Now, the practical part implies that you have to compute every term. To help you a bit, you might want to now that the experimentation shows that Wins is null or negligible.

In the best cases, Wins might be almost equal to Boycott.

So, now you can easily compute how much money you will earn with DRM. Simply do the math and make your choice accordingly.


Source.

 

[gauravakaasid]

good post kalpik, but what are your views on this? i personally think drm shud be scrapped.

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

good post kalpik, but what are your views on this? i personally think drm shud be scrapped.

same here , everyone wants that here , n nowasays sony has started makin Audio Cd's also non-rippable(though it can done after some effort)

 

[praka123]

Fellow Digitian's wake up!

*www.defectivebydesign.org/faq

"You'll know when you get the bill."
Software patents would give large corporations a strategic advantage over small and medium-sized ones, and a potentially destructive weapon against open source. Those effects are explained in greater detail on other pages of this website. Less competition in the marketplace results in higher prices, which is why you would literally "get the bill" for software patents by having to pay more for software as well as for products that contain software, such as mobile telephones. Of course, that sentence was also meant figuratively, in the sense that there are various other negative effects of software patents that all of us would experience. "When someone breaks into your computer, reads your E-mails, and steals the password of your bank account."
On this page you can read more about the implications of software patents to security. Researchers of the Technical University at Berlin found out that software patents promote the development and mass distribution of insecure software.
"When your computer crashes every day."
The stability of software is adversely affected by software patents due to the same reasons for which software patents result in insecure software.
"When spam doesn't stop."
There are already various patents on anti-spam techniques. On this page you can read about how large corporations try to establish industry standards related to which they own patents. There is no assurance that open-source software will ever be allowed to implement any of those patented ideas. Since open-source software powers large parts of the Internet, patents are a potential hinderance to the wide adoption of certain anti-spam techniques.
"When prices go up and companies shut down."
The implications to software prices were explained further above. The risk of companies shutting down is due to the fact that a few large corporations will drive smaller competitors out of the market with the help of the patent system. The reasons for that are explained on other pages of this website, such as this one.

"When people lose their jobs."
That is an inevitable consequence if small and medium-sized enterprises are weakened or, in some cases, even driven out of business.
This was just a quick explanation of the reasoning behind some of the statements on the front page of this website. Please take your time to read the more detailed and more specific explanations that this website offers on other pages. It's important to know what software patents would mean to Europe.

*www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/explain.html
What's wrong with Microsoft Windows Vista?


Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system is a giant step backward for your freedoms.
Usually, new software enables you to do more with your computer. Vista, though, is designed to restrict what you can do.
Vista enforces new forms of “Digital Rights Management (DRM)”. DRM is more accurately called Digital Restrictions Management, because it is a technology that Big Media and computer companies try to impose on us all, in order to have control over how our computers are used.
Technology security expert Bruce Schneier explains it most concisely:

Windows Vista includes an array of “features” that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry—And you don't get to refuse them.
​

DRM gives power to Microsoft and Big Media.

• They decide which programs you can and can't use on your computer
• They decide which features of your computer or software you can use at any given moment
• They force you to install new programs even when you don't want to (and, of course, pay for the privilege)
• They restrict your access to certain programs and even to your own data files

DRM is enforced by technological barriers. You try to do something, and your computer tells you that you can't. To make this effective, your computer has to be constantly monitoring what you are doing. This constant monitoring uses computing power and memory, and is a large part of the reason why Microsoft is telling you that you have to buy new and more powerful hardware in order to run Vista. They want you to buy new hardware not because you need it, but because your computer needs it in order to be more effective at restricting what you do.
Microsoft and other computer companies sometimes refer to these restrictions as “Trusted Computing.” Given that they are designed to make it so that your computer stops trusting you and starts trusting Microsoft, these restrictions are more appropriately called “Treacherous Computing”.
Even when you legally buy Vista, you don't own it.

Windows Vista, like previous versions of Windows, is proprietary software: leased to you under a license that severely restricts how you can use it, and without source code, so nobody but Microsoft can change it or even verify what it really does.
Microsoft says it best:

The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you may use the software only as expressly permitted in this agreement. In doing so, you must comply with any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways.
​

To make it even more confusing, different versions of Vista have different licensing restrictions. You can read all of the licenses at *www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx.
It's painful to read the licenses, and this is often why people don't object to them. But if we don't start objecting, we will lose valuable freedoms. Here are some of the ridiculous restrictions you will find in your reading:

• If your copy of Vista came with the purchase of a new computer, that copy of Vista may only be legally used on that machine, forever.
• If you bought Vista in a retail store and installed it on a machine you already owned, you have to completely delete it on that machine before you can install it on another machine.
• You give Microsoft the right, through programs like Windows Defender, to delete programs from your system that it decides are spyware.
• You consent to being spied upon by Microsoft, through the “Windows Genuine Advantage” system. This system tries to identify instances of copying that Microsoft thinks are illegitimate. Unfortunately, a recent study indicated that this system has already screwed up in over 500,000 cases.

Free software like GNU/Linux does not require you to consent to these absurd licensing terms. It is called free software because you are free to make as many copies as you want, and to share it with as many friends as you want. Nobody will be monitoring your actions or falsely calling you a thief.
What you can do to help protect your freedom

There is a battle underway between those who value freedom, and corporations such as Microsoft who wish to profit by taking that freedom away. DRM and absurd licenses are at the heart of that battle. Please join us on the side of freedom by saying NO not just to Windows Vista and other DRM-enabled products, but to proprietary software in general. Instead, use non-DRM, “free” software such as the GNU/Linux operating system. You can get your work done while ensuring that your rights and freedoms will not be restricted now and into the future.
As more and more of our lives become digital, it is vital that we protect our digital freedoms just like we have always worked to protect our freedom of expression in print and speech.
-------------
*badvista.fsf.org/what-s-wrong-with-microsoft-windows-vista

 

[mehulved]

I have only seen one idiot so far voting in favour of DRM(not on digit). Who doesn't hate DRM. DRM has to go and should go. Best way to fight it, make people aware.

 

[azaad_shri75]

apple has dropped drm...........

 

[abhi.eternal]

nowasays sony has started makin Audio Cd's also non-rippable(though it can done after some effort)

When there is a will, there is a way

 

[Sykora]

I have only seen one idiot so far voting in favour of DRM(not on digit).

Amen to that.

One thing I've noticed is that most people identify Windows Vista with its frills, and not much more. And these effects are readily duplicated in open source alternatives. For the majority of computer users, the reason they use Vista is not really worth it.

 

[~Phenom~]

great post kalpik . DRM should be abolished.

 

[thunderbird.117]

DRM is nothing but painful tablet.

Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory has Starforce. Installed it my computer. After finishing installing it asking me to insert a the dvd. This is original copy. After repeated tries did not work and i gave it to stores. Got the refund waited for few months got company of heroes. Company of Heroes has no sort of CP just a CD-Key and iam happy with it.

DRM is harmful for legal customers.

 

[kalpik]

DRM is useless.. Just unnecessary headache for all..

 

[praka123]

DRM?How can an elected Gov(US) support such things as DRM which will take the user's privilages rather supporting devil's like sony,Toshiba and microsoft.US Government sux.First they support monopoly(M$).allows virtual software patents!what next they are?India GOV is better in this matter.
BIggest Problem is our geeks(Windows) and normal users alike dont revolt or protest against DRM!they dont mind DRM eating their ears sitting on their laps.

While the shenanigans at Digg were fascinating to watch as they unfolded, in the grand scheme of DRM it serves mostly as a reminder that the Internet holds no secrets. Like it or not for the AACS LA, DVD Forum (which backs HD DVD), and the Blu-ray Disc Association, Pandora's Box is opened wide. Not only is the key out in the open, but perhaps more damagingly to the HD lobby, public awareness of DRM and its cracks has been raised.
How will HD DVD, Blu-ray, and AACS LA respond? We don't know, and chances are that they don't either. Last night and this morning, Ars contacted all of them, along with the MPAA, to ask that very question. We haven't had a single phone call or e-mail returned from any of them.
We're nearing the point of ready availability of tools like DeCSS for HD DVD and Blu-ray, but Blu-ray has a couple of extra layers of protection (ROM Mark and BD+) that have yet to be deployed. Also, both HD formats have an antipiracy weapon in their arsenal that DVD lacks: the ability to revoke device keys, which has already happened to Corel's WinDVD. Unfortunately for both HD DVD and Blu-ray, that looks like it's going to be as effective as a suit of chain mail against a bazooka shell; Doom9 forum member arnezami claims that the hack at the center of the latest maelstrom is irrevocable. Even if arnezami is wrong in his evaluation, the AACS LA's vigilance in trying to keep the existence of HD DVD cracks out of the pubic eye has backfired in a truly spectacular manner.

*arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070502-hd-dvd-cracks-theres-no-going-back.html