Submitted by “In this article, the authors investigate the impact of DRM restrictions on the demand for music downloads. [A new model] estimates the impact of DRM on consumers’ willingness to pay for songs (both favorites and nonfavorites) and on the producer revenues and profits. Based on two studies of more 2000 college students, the results suggest that despite the potential advantages offered by some DRM restrictions, on balance the elimination of DRM has a net positive impact on producer revenue, profit, and consumer welfare.”
” Based on two studies of more 2000 college students, the results suggest that despite the potential advantages offered by some DRM restrictions, on balance the elimination of DRM has a net positive impact on producer revenue, profit, and consumer welfare.”
I can see this going like this:
Survey person: “do you think DRM is bad”
Average college student: “What’s DRM?”
Survey person: “let me ask this a different way; do you think putting a restriction on something you purchased is bad?”
Average college student: “Of course it’s bad! …What’s DRM?”
Me thinks the title is a bit wrong. :p
I had to read that at least five times, and read the article before I finally realized that it’s supposed to be piracy…
I was totally confused. I thought this was some sort of RIAA campaign or something like that
It’s actually fixed now.
Yeah. The article title originally said “Privacy”. I use an RSS reader, and that’s what it says. They apparently realized that later and fixed it, but didn’t bump the timestamp on the RSS entry.
It’s truly a mystery that that the industry continues to put it’s faith in DRM measures, despite all experience to the contrary. DRM has no affect whatsoever on what the study terms “hardcore pirates”, since they have the smarts to bypass the protection. It only inconveniences the actual paying customers, who end up turning to piracy to avoid the inconvenience. In short, DRM is a contributor to piracy, not a deterrent…
I know enough to get around DRM, and used to just download to avoid the hassle of having to deal with it upon re-install, or to not have access to hordes of music under linux, but now with itunes gone drm free, and amazon, etc I purchase 100% of my music, I just want say on where I can use it, if I buy a different mp3 player I dont want to fuss with it.