Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Feb 2009 21:23 UTC
Windows Windows Vista has never exactly been a favourite subject among company IT people. Migrating from Windows XP to Windows Vista isn't exactly a worry-free process, and machines that run Windows XP comfortably may have trouble powering Windows vista. As such, adoption of Vista has been slow. Two years after Vista's release, the OS is still struggling in the enterprise sector, according to a Forrester report.
Permalink for comment 346846
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[4]: Hmm
by lemur2 on Tue 3rd Feb 2009 09:14 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Hmm"
lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

It seems that for DRM there's an everlasting supply of morons who aren't smart enough to do any research or form their own opinion, who just believe the crud that some other moron said.

Let me make it simple...


Too simple. Let's take apart your over-simplification ...

If your hardware and software supports DRM, and if you pay for some DRM content, then you can play the DRM content.


Some DRM content. The particular type that matches your crippled hardware/software. Not all DRM content.

Think "Plays for sure" ... Suuuuuure it does.

If your hardware or software doesn't support DRM, or if you don't pay for DRM content, then you can't play the DRM content.


True enough as far as it goes ... but as I said that is only a way oversimplified part of the story.

The observation that you miss is this ... every piece of equipment out there can play content that has no DRM. That is a massive market.

Only Vista machines can play content that has Vista DRM applied. That is as yet a comparatively tiny market.

As long as Vista remains poorly adopted, a content provider would be insane to offer his content only in the form which has Vista DRM applied. He can sell that only to people who are running Vista. That cuts out the vast majority of the potential market.

Right now, it is far better for a content provider to offer non-DRM content to the wider market, even in the face of piracy, rather than offer it to the very restricted market comprising only people who want to play content only on their Vista machine and nowhere else.

Hence, avoiding Vista helps to keep the Vista-DRM-enabled-equipment target audience small and unattractive to content providers, and hence impedes the onset of universal DRM.

DRM has nothing to do with "non-DRM" media, and if you've got a pirated copy of anything that works without DRM then DRM won't do anything.


Debatable. Very debatable. Using Vista, try to rip a track from a CD you have legally purchased to .mp3 (without any DRM) and send it to your friend who does not run Vista (say runs a Mac or Linux box). See if you can do it so that your friend can hear the result.

If you switch to an OS that doesn't support DRM, then the only difference it makes is that you won't be able to play DRM content that you've paid for.


... and you will not expand the set of machines that are Vista-DRM-capable, and hence help to keep the market for Vista-DRM-content unattractively small.

If you don't like DRM, then don't buy DRM content. If you don't like Microsoft then there's plenty of valid reasons you could use without using misinformed FUD.

-Brendan


Brendan, if you are going to fling accusations of "FUD" at others, make absolutely sure you have told the whole story yourself ... because otherwise you are very likely to get "MS apologist and lapdog" accusations thrown right back at you.

Edited 2009-02-03 09:25 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2