RE: Campfire DRM

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Comment by tubejay on September 21, 2008 at 10:58pm

itunes actually contains drm, and os/x may actually contain some platform that supports drm, but "drm" in actual computer design, os design, and hardware that is only compatible with specific hardware, these are three distinct issues that lead to similar criticism. to oversimplify but still distinguish the three:

drm regarding media (including spore, itunes, and the windows install cd) are technologies (including software) added to a project to place the "obstacle" you mentioned. drm in this context is normally software based and may include hardware.

drm on a new operating system (say, xp) provides features or a platform that supports the tech previously mentioned. when an entire os is integrated with drm-like functionality, towards control of the full system, this is "trusted computing" and may often involve software, hardware and firmware working together to control your files and system. it's very ugly. vista aims for this.

the last thing is easy to distinguish from drm by nature: proprietary hardware design. often-closed-spec hardware that is not designed to be swapped out with other components, which apple is famous for, but was typical of computer design before ibm/intel made the platform for the at/isa/i286 technologies available to the industry. i wouldn't call closed specs "drm." where drm is like adding a wall, or border checkpoint to an intersection, proprietary design is like never building the road. with media, it's all 1's and 0's, what closes media is quite different than what does-not-open hardware.

even though proprietary hardware is different, (i wouldn't always demonize it, i don't prefer it, but it can- debateably- at least benefit the consumer at times) the experience can be similar to drm too, and i'm really glad it was mentioned.