Media companies are scared. And rightfully so. In a world of evolving technology, countries with differing laws, and anonymity on the net, pirates can quickly and accurately duplicate any bit of media in a matter of hours. Case in point, the new Harry Potter book. Within a day, pirates had scanned the book, converted it to text with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), proof-read it for accuracy, and posted it to the net. They did this as a collaborative effort via online conferences rooms called IRC. Some of them don’t even know each other. Couple this with an apparently “beautifully read” version of the new book having been made available online and you begin to understand that there is potentially 7 billion people willing to circumnavigate any copy protection available. And they are able to do it faster each day. It’s like trying to hold back the ocean with a cup. Eventually the media companies may need to give up on DRM as too expensive for too little return.
While I agree with the potential abandonment of DRN, I fear the future of media. Already, kids can download just about any song available for free. This sense of “freedom” can bestow a sense of entitlement. What used to be a belief that “I’m only one person downloading a song; I not hurting anyone” becomes a belief that “I should be able to get songs for free”. It’s a spoiled kid syndrome, with kids becoming adults who want something for nothing (not a bad concept in and of itself, just not very sustainable. Look at the .com era). If that happens, what will happen to the media companies? More importantly, what will become of the quality media they (sometimes) can produce?
Of course, maybe this is capitalism at it’s best. Maybe the recent spat of bad media (movie redux; carbon-copy music) needs to be forced out by free media. Maybe it will teach the Media Companies that just because you produce a work doesn’t entitle you to sell a million overpriced copies because you prey on the kids through bright lights and marketing pitches. Perhaps this desire to get something for nothing will turn into a desire for low-quality for nothing, high-quality for a fair price.
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