Living the Hollywood DR(ea)M
Much has been written about Steve Jobs’ recent proposal to remove digital rights management (DRM) from electronic music. But now Hollywood is weighing in on DRM concerns for movies. Currently unlike music CDs, most DVDs already contain safeguards that prohibit most users to pirate a given movie, so utilizing DRM for electronic movies seems to be in line with their existing preventative measures.
However, users treat movies differently than music: some people want to own copies of movies, while others may merely want to see a given movie once. This difference in user behavior may translate differently concerning DRM than for music listeners. By utilizing different types of DRM, studios may be able to offer a different business model: one-time play movies, or weekly rentals, each priced accordingly, for example.
And, although most consumers would state their opposition to DRM, by utilizing some type of DRM, Hollywood could potentially offer more flexibility and choice—not less—to users than if all copyright protection was removed. The issue may be less about piracy and more about individual usage rights for different pricing structures.
Sources:
Mcbride, Sarah. (2007, February 16). Hollywood weighs copyright protections. The Wall Street Journal, p. B3.
Fisher, Ken. (2007, January 15). Privately, Hollywood admits drm isn’t about piracy. ArsTechnica. Retrieved February 18, 2007, from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8616.html