AfterDawn: News

UK Government backs DRM

The British Government has refused to ban the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software included on music, movie and software downloads. A call to ban these digital restriction enforcements was rejected by the government after 1,400 consumers signed an e-petition. The petition was posted on a government website setup to let anybody start a petition on an issue important to them.

It called for the ban of DRM use because it "locks users into using a particular service", and makes it impossible for users to exercise their freedom to choose between competing products. It had acknowledged the costs involved in producing digital content and distributing it, but said it should be done in a way where the buyer had control over what they could do with their media.



Neil Holmes, a member of the Defective By Design anti-DRM group, started the petition. In response to the petition, the Government stated it has no plans to ban the use of DRM and that companies should "be able to continue to protect their content in this way." However, the response did say that care has to be taken to ensure that DRM does not damage the needs and rights of consumers.

Source:
BBC News

Written by: James Delahunty @ 21 Feb 2007 16:04

• Previous article

• Wii tops U.S. console sales in January

• Next article

• Online retailers drop Xbox 360 Core unit price

• 10 comments

• ZippyDSM

  and the world sighs,DRM is unneeded.

  22.2.2007 02:03 #1

• hughjars

  There are none so blind etc etc.
  
  Sadly they're all still listening to the siren songs of those businesses who'd sell them systems for a bl**dy fortune when not one of them has proved capable of remaining uncracked or unavoided.
  
  ......and every time they go for more complexity and more layers it simply adds to the problems of what will someimes not work or will causes problems.
  
  It's a modern 'snake oil' and at some point folks have to start waking up.
  
  The really funny thing is people are now refusing to buy the products with this cr@p in it......so it's the DRM itself that is responsible for losing sales.
  
  Very funny.

  22.2.2007 03:33 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by hughjars:There are none so blind etc etc.
  
  Sadly they're all still listening to the siren songs of those businesses who'd sell them systems for a bl**dy fortune when not one of them has proved capable of remaining uncracked or unavoided.
  
  ......and every time they go for more complexity and more layers it simply adds to the problems of what will someimes not work or will causes problems.
  
  It's a modern 'snake oil' and at some point folks have to start waking up.
  
  The really funny thing is people are now refusing to buy the products with this cr@p in it......so it's the DRM itself that is responsible for losing sales.
  
  Very funny.
  its funny the media enforcers are stagnating sales and raking in money from the industry no wonder there are "losses"

  22.2.2007 04:04 #3

• hughjars

  What's amazing to me tho zippy is what a load of cr@p all these tales of 'losses' really are.
  They may have lower sales but the major parts of the 'music industry' has never been so profitable......just like their (supposedly similarly 'suffering') movie counterparts.
  
  Yet another bunch of lying liars lying to us.
  
  We need our law(s) to work in relevant ways for the people, not this insanity of blindly supporting the biggest and already richest businesses to attack and ruin 'regular' people for basically doing nothing of any real consequence.

  22.2.2007 05:30 #4

• georgeluv

  wow i thaught america was the only country that ignored the will of its people in favor of huge international media conglomorates

  22.2.2007 05:33 #5

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by hughjars:What's amazing to me tho zippy is what a load of cr@p all these tales of 'losses' really are.
  They may have lower sales but the major parts of the 'music industry' has never been so profitable......just like their (supposedly similarly 'suffering') movie counterparts.
  
  Yet another bunch of lying liars lying to us.
  
  We need our law(s) to work in relevant ways for the people, not this insanity of blindly supporting the biggest and already richest businesses to attack and ruin 'regular' people for basically doing nothing of any real consequence.I see it as this they are wasting millions if not billoins profits into cracked in a day copy protection and then call that loss due to copying....they have it all arse backwards.

  22.2.2007 05:41 #6

• borhan9

  DRM is not needed. Maybe we need a world wide petition.

  22.2.2007 08:29 #7

• Tashammer

  ah me, the squelching sound as Britain keeps its head firmly up the US' arse.

  22.2.2007 18:21 #8

• Rikoshay

  Anti-DRM FTW.
  
  All this DRM mishap is gonna be great from my term paper for English 101 :D

  22.2.2007 18:28 #9

• CTerrian

  If a movie or song is good, I'll buy it. If I like one or two songs on a CD, I'll get the songs I like another way. I rarely buy a whole CD for a song that I like. If I want just one song, I normally get it through friends or relatives.
  This DMR is not the way to go in my opinion.
  The bottom line is if they produce quality entertainment, they will see huge profits, and not have to waste money on DMR. They have to realize, as a users, if we can see or hear it, we can capture it. But, they continue to spend on DMR, and pass the savings on to us. Not very smart.

  23.2.2007 04:37 #10