You'll be a criminal. Unless ...

by Volker Weber

steal_this_comic

Repeat after me: DRM is bad for the customer.

[Thanks Ingo and Amy]

Comments

Haha, I thought that would hit your page :)

Frank Quednau, 2008-10-13

Cognitive dissonance, vowe-style:

"DRM is bad for the customer."

"Apple products are great."

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-13

Haven´t seen anything as indiscriminate as "Apple products are great" on this site. All product reviews are done in a critical, and openly biased (by personal opinion) style. Otherwise, I´d be bored to death.

Armin Roth, 2008-10-14

Is the ghost of Mark Pilgrim stalking chez Wiseman?

Sorry, but how does Apple inextricably lead to DRM? Sure, DRM exists in the Apple world (and for that matter, many others)—it’s openly touted if you buy into iTunes of course—but you don’t have to.

Ben Poole, 2008-10-14

@ Ben

Apple iTunes Store == DRM.

Apple .by far. is the biggest DRM provider in the world, just simply by virtue of iTunes.

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

Ah, this explains where you are wrong. I don't own a single DRM-crippled track from the iTunes store. No cognitive dissonance here. Actually I don't even have a store ID.

Volker Weber, 2008-10-14

Craig, yep. Hence my comment. So I still don’t get how vowe’s liking for many Apple products equates to “cognitive dissonance”.

Ben Poole, 2008-10-14

@Ben/Volker

Ok, that explains that.

SO... how did you activate your iPhone, if you have no store ID?

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

...and doesn't the app store use the same DRM?

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

Craig, I don't know. When you attempt to create a store ID and then don't give a credit card, you cannot establish the ID and your iPhone gets activated anyway.

Even if I had a store ID, I would still not buy any DRM-crippled track. And you don't have to. Ever heard of iTunes Plus? Or Amazon MP3 store?

And will you finally acknowledge that there is no cognitive dissonance?

Volker Weber, 2008-10-14

>> And will you finally acknowledge that
>> there is no cognitive dissonance?

I'll acknowledge that there's less cognitive dissonance, but it's hard to grok how to love the iPhone/iPod when it's so tied to buying into a DRM-enabled model.

If you look broadly, the iPhone/iPod are the poster children for successful DRM.

Yes, you can jig it and avoid the DRM personally, but the products as used by the vast vast majority of end users have forced single-company-controlled DRM (the worst possbile DRM) into mainstream popular usage. And the App store is just another step in that direction.

You've kept yourself personally untainted, but by virtue of your promotion of the iPhone/iPod, you're helping push DRM.

IMHO. YMMV.

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

Craig, can I possibly be more vocal about avoiding DRM? If, how?

Volker Weber, 2008-10-14

Sigh.

Ben Poole, 2008-10-14

@Ben
That's why I don't read blogs after 9PM.
8-)

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

@Mr. Weber -

The iPod/iPhone are supremely nicely done devices, no disagreement there.

The net effect on 97%+ of people who use iPods/iPhones is that they end up using iTunes & Apples DRM model.

It seems to me that you can say "don't use DRM" all you want, but if you recommend products that for the hugely vast number of users cause them to use DRM, it's not worth squat.

So my answer to your question:
"can I possibly be more vocal about avoiding DRM?"
is don't recommend products that push DRM in the vast majority of situations.


And I think we're gonna disagree on that.
and that's ok.

Craig Wiseman, 2008-10-14

Craig, you will have to stand in line with all the other people trying to tell me what to write on my site.

Volker Weber, 2008-10-14

I am wondering, late, but maybe someone knows...

Wasn't there a way to activate an AppleStore US account / ID, without a credit card - and buy gift certs on ebay? Or, for that matter, would those US credit cards you can buy in stores (without address etc) work for the Apple Store?

They check the address you put in has to match the credit card, and I have headaches after headaches as I have a Citibank US bank account and Mastercard (debit), but my address is in Germany. I cannot get them to put any US address on file without living there, so no itunes US account.
Any clues? The occasional episode is sometimes much easier to get this way and in the right format compared to torrents or usenet.

Alexander Koch, 2008-10-18

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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