Blogging Ottinger (tim)Analog Hole
Gotta close that in order to save civilization from the evil forces of people watching stuff they paid for in ways and places that the industry didn’t predict (and doesn’t control). Evil ipod and iriver and sony mp3 player owners. Cruel and insidious fiends who watch DVDs on their laptop computers, and the worst offenders of all — free software users. Indeed, this whole trend toward convenient and portable media has got to be crushed before the people get a taste of insidious, creeping freedom which threatens to our sacred old-fashioned business models. Why, this could be the end of the world as we know it!
Good riddance to the world as we know it, and welcome to the emerging world.
Did I mention that there is no market for media that I can’t fit into my lifestyle? If I can’t carry it in my pocket, watch/listen on my (Linux) PC, haul it around on a USB-capable device (or USB flash drive) and watch it on my neighbor’s computer or media PC, write my own decoder for free, and adapt it to whatever media player I happen to buy next year, then I don’t want it or need it.
Don’t close the analog hole. Open the digital deathgrip. I’m not talking about piracy, I’m talking about people watching and listening to content that they acquired legally. That’s not wrong, and it’s not piracy. I think that PC conversion from analog to digital (and back again) should be encouraged.
If the DRM sellers are really and truly losing market share, I bet I can tell them why. Oh, wait, I don’t have to!!! It looks like someone else figured it out already. But I can tell them that their DRM-enriched (DRM-polluted) stuff is less desirable and less useful than non-DRM-polluted content.
