Blang!

It seems the lessons of the past are not so easily learned. Time and time again DRM encumbered content has tried and failed to catch on with consumers. Yet, the megalomaniacs in the entertainment industry just can’t get their head around the concept that people would rather own the things they pay for.

So, according to this story on the BBC, once again they have formed a consortium to develop, yes you guessed it, yet another DRM scheme.

Here is my “bold” prediction; while they waste time arguing about how to deliver content online, the entire Internet will “solve” that problem for them in much the same way Napster “solved” online music delivery.

Can you believe it’s 2010 and the entertainment industry is just now starting to talk about how to deliver content online? Seriously?!? Where have these people been for the last 10 years?

I thought the music industry was a bunch of arrogant ignoramuses but at least in 1998 the music execs could make the excuse “hey, we’re baby boomers! We know nothing about this interweb thingy.”

No excuse for that now.

A recent episode of the CBC radio program “Ideas” (which is often excellent) has an interesting examination of copyright titled “Who Owns Ideas?” I strongly recommend you give it a listen even if you think you don’t care about copyright. You may be surprised at what the government has in store.

In a recent MacLean’s magazine opinion piece, Andrew Potter advocated that the only way to save music was to tax Internet providers. I’d like to link you to the article but the MacLean’s web site is among the worst on the net and apparently does not contain any actual content. (Update: I finally found the article online (thanks Google) here)

Anyhow, here is my reply to this kind of backward thinking… Read more »