DRM Must Die

When Vista first came out, the copy protection on the system was lauded as the most advanced seen in the industry. Soon after, the copy protection was broken and it became possible to illegally run Vista on your machine. So the cumbersome verification system used by Microsoft does nothing to stop pirates and continues to annoy consumers. Such is the burden of DRM. The systems put in place to stop piracy only frustrate those consumers who want to legitimately use their content, and do little to stop those who wish to illegally distribute that same content. We see the same issues with the iTunes store and the new Blu-Ray format. Because consumers have now been burned by content that becomes unusable when you switch providers, consumers will hesitate from adopting new formats that employ DRM, which will hinder new markets such as the eReader market. Ultimately, businesses will realize the damage they are doing to their markets, but it will be a painful process.