I’ve started writing a column for the Guardian’s MediaGuardian, the British website for media professionals, critiquing DRM and explaining “copy-friendly” business models. My first column is up today, explaining the way that DRM is like the Soviet Union’s Lysenkoism, a form of ideologically correct junk science.
The companies that sell this stuff are, at best, bunkum peddlers and, at worst, out and out fraudsters. Their wares simply can’t work – not without changing the laws of physics, maths and information science.
DRMs are often designed by ambitious, well-funded consortia, with top-notch engineers from every corner of the industry. They spend millions. They take years. They are defeated in days, for pennies, by hobbyists. It’s inevitable, because every time you give someone a locked item, you have to give them the key to unlock it too.