p2pnet - rss feed: BitTorrent embraces BS
2pnet.net News:- BitTorrent booster Ashwin Navin believes bullshit will ultimately beat DRM.
Or put another way, “advertising-supported content will win out over digital rights [read restrictions] management (DRM) in the long run for movie and TV show downloads”.
In a Q&A with the IDG News Service, Navin makes it crystal clear where BT’s new loyalties lie.
BitTorrent achieved fame because of its creator, Bram Cohen, and because millions of people used BT to let their fingers do their talking, keying in the message to the corporate content providers that they were no longer willing to be ripped off.
How did Cohen and Navin end up as virtual partners? “We had a friend in common, and met in 2004,” Cohen told p2pnet in another Q&A.
Meanwhile, with the implicit message Work with Us or Die in the shadows, almost a year ago the Big Six movies studios used their MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) to bring BitTorrent to the Dark Side and these days, although the protocol survives and prospers in its original, non-corporate form, the shiny, new version is all Hollywood.
In fact, BT, “is embracing DRM as it opens a new movie download Web site that will compete with the Unbox store launched by Amazon.com and Apple Computer’s iTunes Store,” says the Q&A. in which Navin presents BitTorrent’s views on DRM and its online movie store plan.
Below are a couple of clips.
IDGNS: What’s your view on DRM and how it will impact the movie download business?
Navin: The bottom line is that DRM is bad for the content provider and it’s bad for the consumer, and the reason it’s being used today is because we’re in the very early stages of a new product cycle for the entertainment industry and they want to walk before they run.
I think the future will not be marked by digital rights management. It will be marked by advertising-supported content that’s clear of DRM, because the content publisher wants it to be as widely distributed as possible and consumed over as many platforms as possible. And we hope to be part of that evolution, and to drive that evolution wherever we can.
IDGNS: How is DRM bad for content providers?
Navin: The reason it’s bad for content providers is because typically a DRM ties a user to one hardware platform, so if I buy my all my music on iTunes, I can’t take that content to another hardware environment or another operating platform. There are a certain number of consumers who will be turned off by that, especially people who fear that they may invest in a lot of purchases on one platform today and be frustrated later when they try to switch to another platform, and be turned off with the whole experience. Or some users might not invest in any new content today because they’re not sure if they want to have an iPod for the rest of their life.
Also See:
IDG News Service - Three Minutes: BitTorrent Founder Navin Talks DRM, September 22, 2006
another Q&A - p2pnet talks to Bram Cohen, April 28, 2006
Work with Us or Die - BitTorrent, Hollywood team up, November 22, 2005
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September 23rd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
As a technical person, I would like someone to explain the “magic” involved in a “DRM” system that doesn’t involve a tie between content and devices which treat the owners as an attacker of what they own. I don’t think the term “typically” applies here, as when a technical measure is used in some other way it is not appropriate to still call it DRM.
http://www.flora.ca/documents/digital-ownership.html
September 23rd, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Is public view of BitTorrent interest and trust going west?
September 24th, 2006 at 12:31 am
The world is full of advertising. On TV, before movies, all over the internet. It doesn’t stop me doing what I want ’cause I can ignore it.
DRM DOES stop me doing what I want so I CAN’T ignore it.
September 24th, 2006 at 1:34 am
this seems like a very sensible message to hollywood… why the hate p2pnet?
September 24th, 2006 at 1:37 am
hey gachnar =)
September 24th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Agreed. I think this is definitely the way forward.
September 24th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Turning the internet into a tv-like situation where you can’t watch anything without some advertisement popping up every minute or two is the way forward? Definitely not agreed.