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HD DVD cracks and the impotency of DRM

I do like a bit of a spectacle, and as things go on the internet - this was a bit of a spectacle.

The simple fact is that DRM does not work. People are sick to death of media companies requiring they re-buy media, or upgrade equipment for no good reason. We want to use our media how and when we want, not at the discretion of some company. Trying to get the legal guys on it showed how utterly useless this tactic is in the age of the Internet. The cracked decode key is now much more prolific than it was before. People have had enough, and the consensus is spreading. As it was put (rather nicely) by someone reporting on the key fiasco “We want out media free (as in speech), but if you wont supply it like that then we will take it for free (as in beer)”.

I wonder when the film industry will be ready to hear that message and do something about it, rather than pretend it can blithely carry on being over-controlling morons under the assumption that attitude can make them more money than supplying a product people actually want.

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  1. Matt Wilcox posted 2hrs, 44min, 46sec after the entry and said:

    Hehee! I just found the video that was made in an effort to distribute the code 'legally'. It's a song written around the code itself, and stars the ever-lovelly Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv

    http://media.podshow.com/media/365/episodes/59453/geekbrief-59453-05-03-2007.mp4

  2. Matt Wilcox posted 2hrs, 45min, 56sec after the entry and said:

    And here's the New York Times coverage of the whole Digg shenanigans:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/technology/03code.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

  3. Matt Wilcox posted 2 days, 9hrs, 20mins after the entry and said:

    And a follow-up story:

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070504-aacs-la-internet-revolt-be-damned-this-fight-is-not-over.html

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