The Future of DRM: Who's in Control

Filed in archive Commentary , DRM on March 16, 2007

A DRM developer wrote to me concerned about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' anti-DRM support, and the role and future of DRM. My response has been broken into a few digestible parts of the next few days.
> Part 1 - Where It Fits
> Part 2 - Who's in Control
> Part 3 - The Future of DRM

PART 2 - WHO'S IN CONTROL

Yes, it's about control. But it's NOT the content holders who are in control. It's the consumers.

When media was in short supply, the major labels and studios could and did fully control it. But digital technology and the Internet have brought an era of media abundance. It's straight capitalism. If the media companies do not provide product that customers value today (as opposed to what worked 20 years ago), customers will turn to other media like videogames and the Internet, and they will pirate the content. That is what has happened and will continue to happen until the content holders adapt.

If Jobs' anti-DRM bid gives DRM providers a chill, they've been in denial of what's been happening for several years. DRM providers are in a precarious position at the end of the ecology chain, feeding off content companies that are not doing well and are in a declining industry.