Conformity damnit!
01/12/08 16:17 Filed in: They Just Don't Get It
Ok, well this is my biggest of my pet peeves. So I figured, why not start off my “They Just Don’t Get It” segment with a bang. So here goes...DRM(Digital Rights Management). Unless you have been living under a rock, you are probably already very familiar with DRM. And more than likely infuriated by it as much as I am. But I’m going to explain just why it annoys me so.
Here’s the situation. I own a Mac Pro, and a MacBook Pro. I also own an Xbox 360, PSP, and an iPod Touch. My wife has a PowerBook G4, and an iPod that can play video. So realistically, there are a couple of options in front of me in regard to purchasing audio/video. For audio, it’s really just iTunes for me. I know there are other services and websites out there available, but realistically, for a couple with two iPods, iTunes is the best bet. For video, I can download movies via the Xbox live video service. As well as iTunes. iTunes has a better selection however, and is cheaper. So again, it would seem that would be my best bet.
The problem is this. Anything I buy in iTunes(with the exception of non-DRM’d music)will not play on my Xbox 360. It’s just so frustrating. I can understand the online video rental market’s crippling DRM. It would be difficult to keep track of the rental periods if the video could be moved around easily and played on a multitude of devices. But what about the movies that you buy? You know, the ones you pay almost as much for as you would for a DVD? The ones that once you buy them, you’re only ever able to watch on an apple computer, or ipod that you own?
The DRM that apple implements on the audio side is easily circumventable. But I honestly don’t even bother getting rid of it. I only ever listen to my music via iPod, computer, or over the network using AirTunes. All of which are apple products, so they all work work fine. Also, the iPod has such a stranglehold on the personal media market that most people never even notice DRM being much of a problem. In fact you can mostly attribute the success of online music sales to the success of the iPod. Since the iPod is so popular, online music retailers have had a standard to work towards. If you want to have you music sell online, it better play on the iPod, or you’re pretty much screwed.
Video isn’t so cut and dry. Personal video playback isn’t a big deal honestly. Most people don’t watch videos on their iPods. And in terms of home entertainment, there’s just so much selection to choose from. Apple of course makes the AppleTV. Sony has the PS3. And Microsoft has the Xbox 360. I’ve owned this 360 since launch, and it’s served me well. I have setup a mediaserver running twonkyvision that I serve non-drm’d video/audio on. And I’ll say that the 360 does a great job at playing streaming media. Xvid, h.264, wmv, divx. Those are pretty much the big 4. And they all stream great. But the same can be said for the PS3, and most other home media “extenders”. And there lies the problem. There’s just so much choice out there for home entertainment devices that there’s no conformity. There’s nothing for online media retailers to aim for.
To make matter worse, each online video retailer seems to have backed their own media device. And each of them is firmly entrenched, trying to be the iPod of the home entertainment market. And that means that none of them wants to give the others an upper hand in this stalemate. None of them wants to make their content available to be played across the their other platforms, and they certainly don’t want you buying a movie from somewhere else to play on your media box. And that is why they just don’t get it.
The only people they end up hurting is themselves. When consumers are confronted with either buying a video that might not play on a future media box, or downloading an illegal copy of the video THAT WILL PLAY ON ALMOST EVERYTHING. What do you think consumers will decide? DRM is meant to curb piracy right? Video piracy is not being slowed down at all. Just go to a popular torrent site, and look at the amount of seeders and leachers downloading all the top movies and TV shows. Downloading videos illegally is so streamlined nowadays that it can be easier to do than legally purchasing your videos. And in a lot of cases, videos are available at launch, or even before. You name the Movie/TV show, and it’s available readily.
The thing is, downloading music illegally is just as easy as well. And yet, people flock to purchase music online. They don’t do this because it’s easier, or because the consumer isn’t aware of how easy it is to illegally download music. It’s because people want to purchase music. They purchase music because they want to support the artist. They purchase music because they want to support the industry. They purchase music because they don’t actually like to download it illegally.
There will always be the people that do prefer to download music illegally. You can’t get rid of them. I think that the lesson learned from the music industry/napster fiasco, is that the only way you’ll truly beat the illegal downloaders, is to provide the same product at equal or higher quality, at a good price, and easy to download and use on their personal entertainment devices. Online video retailers have done 3 out of those 4 things remarkably. However, they’re still lagging on the fourth one. The one where it’s easy to watch the video on your home entertainment device. And until they knock off that fourth one, they’ll lose.
Now before people ask me why I don’t just go out and buy an AppleTV. Well...they’re expensive. And I am not going to shell out oodles of dollars in order to get a media playback device when I already have one in the Xbox 360. It just doesn’t make any sense to do so.
So what is the solution? Well I think it would have to come from the movie/tv studios. They would have to band together to tell the online video retailers that they all have to be able to get together and figure out a DRM standard that will work for all major media boxes. But I personally don’t know when we might see that happen sadly.
Here’s the situation. I own a Mac Pro, and a MacBook Pro. I also own an Xbox 360, PSP, and an iPod Touch. My wife has a PowerBook G4, and an iPod that can play video. So realistically, there are a couple of options in front of me in regard to purchasing audio/video. For audio, it’s really just iTunes for me. I know there are other services and websites out there available, but realistically, for a couple with two iPods, iTunes is the best bet. For video, I can download movies via the Xbox live video service. As well as iTunes. iTunes has a better selection however, and is cheaper. So again, it would seem that would be my best bet.
The problem is this. Anything I buy in iTunes(with the exception of non-DRM’d music)will not play on my Xbox 360. It’s just so frustrating. I can understand the online video rental market’s crippling DRM. It would be difficult to keep track of the rental periods if the video could be moved around easily and played on a multitude of devices. But what about the movies that you buy? You know, the ones you pay almost as much for as you would for a DVD? The ones that once you buy them, you’re only ever able to watch on an apple computer, or ipod that you own?
The DRM that apple implements on the audio side is easily circumventable. But I honestly don’t even bother getting rid of it. I only ever listen to my music via iPod, computer, or over the network using AirTunes. All of which are apple products, so they all work work fine. Also, the iPod has such a stranglehold on the personal media market that most people never even notice DRM being much of a problem. In fact you can mostly attribute the success of online music sales to the success of the iPod. Since the iPod is so popular, online music retailers have had a standard to work towards. If you want to have you music sell online, it better play on the iPod, or you’re pretty much screwed.
Video isn’t so cut and dry. Personal video playback isn’t a big deal honestly. Most people don’t watch videos on their iPods. And in terms of home entertainment, there’s just so much selection to choose from. Apple of course makes the AppleTV. Sony has the PS3. And Microsoft has the Xbox 360. I’ve owned this 360 since launch, and it’s served me well. I have setup a mediaserver running twonkyvision that I serve non-drm’d video/audio on. And I’ll say that the 360 does a great job at playing streaming media. Xvid, h.264, wmv, divx. Those are pretty much the big 4. And they all stream great. But the same can be said for the PS3, and most other home media “extenders”. And there lies the problem. There’s just so much choice out there for home entertainment devices that there’s no conformity. There’s nothing for online media retailers to aim for.
To make matter worse, each online video retailer seems to have backed their own media device. And each of them is firmly entrenched, trying to be the iPod of the home entertainment market. And that means that none of them wants to give the others an upper hand in this stalemate. None of them wants to make their content available to be played across the their other platforms, and they certainly don’t want you buying a movie from somewhere else to play on your media box. And that is why they just don’t get it.
The only people they end up hurting is themselves. When consumers are confronted with either buying a video that might not play on a future media box, or downloading an illegal copy of the video THAT WILL PLAY ON ALMOST EVERYTHING. What do you think consumers will decide? DRM is meant to curb piracy right? Video piracy is not being slowed down at all. Just go to a popular torrent site, and look at the amount of seeders and leachers downloading all the top movies and TV shows. Downloading videos illegally is so streamlined nowadays that it can be easier to do than legally purchasing your videos. And in a lot of cases, videos are available at launch, or even before. You name the Movie/TV show, and it’s available readily.
The thing is, downloading music illegally is just as easy as well. And yet, people flock to purchase music online. They don’t do this because it’s easier, or because the consumer isn’t aware of how easy it is to illegally download music. It’s because people want to purchase music. They purchase music because they want to support the artist. They purchase music because they want to support the industry. They purchase music because they don’t actually like to download it illegally.
There will always be the people that do prefer to download music illegally. You can’t get rid of them. I think that the lesson learned from the music industry/napster fiasco, is that the only way you’ll truly beat the illegal downloaders, is to provide the same product at equal or higher quality, at a good price, and easy to download and use on their personal entertainment devices. Online video retailers have done 3 out of those 4 things remarkably. However, they’re still lagging on the fourth one. The one where it’s easy to watch the video on your home entertainment device. And until they knock off that fourth one, they’ll lose.
Now before people ask me why I don’t just go out and buy an AppleTV. Well...they’re expensive. And I am not going to shell out oodles of dollars in order to get a media playback device when I already have one in the Xbox 360. It just doesn’t make any sense to do so.
So what is the solution? Well I think it would have to come from the movie/tv studios. They would have to band together to tell the online video retailers that they all have to be able to get together and figure out a DRM standard that will work for all major media boxes. But I personally don’t know when we might see that happen sadly.