DRM limitations (merged with "why DRM sucks")

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Things do seem to be calming down about DriveThru and the DRM feature, which is good,

Monte announced a choice in his products; you can now buy his products in PDF or DRM format. Being able to get uncrippled products again doused the anger.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Monte announced a choice in his products; you can now buy his products in PDF or DRM format. Being able to get uncrippled products again doused the anger.

And that's funny. Only because Monte/Malhavoc made the change, the "rage" more or less stopped.

Seems like most people were only concerned about DRMed Malhavoc PDFs. Or because Monte is seen as the grandmaster of RPG ePublishing.

However, ancient or not, stupid or not, DRM is part of the ongoing struggle for big(ger) business to adapt to online sales. Not an easy process for anyone at first instance. DRM may die a slow and agonising death but I personally think that something resembling it will continue to reappear, since it is such an obvious solution (whether or not it is a viable genuine solution at present).

Of course it will stay, and that's the sad part. Copy-protection and similar measures never is in the best interest of the customer (and the positive effect they have on sales is arguable), as it will always cause more hassle (computer games that take forever to start because of your old CD drive, audio-CDs that won't play on your computer, DVDs and the regional code, etc.).

The only way to stop these trends is at the beginning. Once it's established there's hardly a way to get rid of them.

The customers will get used to the DRM, because some day it'll be the "natural thing" for PDFs. But IMHO that's not a good thing.

 

[Cergorach]

The only way to stop these trends is at the beginning. Once it's established there's hardly a way to get rid of them.

The customers will get used to the DRM, because some day it'll be the "natural thing" for PDFs. But IMHO that's not a good thing.

*shrugs*
These things are like the flu, annoying, but a reality of the world we life in. Remember the whole hassle about DVD copy protection from a couple of years ago? Now i need tools to do what i want with my legally bought DVD, but it's only annoying, takes a bit of your time finding the right tools for the job, but otherwise no problem. Same goes for the annoying copy protection on standard pdfs, it was annoying at first, but now it's also just a couple of pushes of a button and the problem is resolved. The same will happen to Adobe DRM...

The advantage is that now there are companies that are actually entering the pdf market because they think their material is properly protected. When it's finally broken, they'll already have a rather large pdf pressence and pulling out of the market at that point would be PR suicide.

It's annoying for the non technical person, but so are a lot of other things, just part of life and keeps us geeks in high demand ;-)

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

And that's funny. Only because Monte/Malhavoc made the change, the "rage" more or less stopped.

Seems like most people were only concerned about DRMed Malhavoc PDFs. Or because Monte is seen as the grandmaster of RPG ePublishing.

From my PoV there was a lot of misinformation going around. As a result, I only latched on to facts that were proven.

We know for a fact that Monte went with DTRPG and we know he opened the system up again. I do not know of any other publishers, other than Necromancer Games, who have switched exclusively to DRM. In the case of Necromancer Games, apparently they never offered PDFs before.

I say apparently, however, because I could be totally wrong on this one.

I'm not sure at all about the other companies.

Of course it will stay, and that's the sad part. Copy-protection and similar measures never is in the best interest of the customer (and the positive effect they have on sales is arguable), as it will always cause more hassle (computer games that take forever to start because of your old CD drive, audio-CDs that won't play on your computer, DVDs and the regional code, etc.).

The only way to stop these trends is at the beginning. Once it's established there's hardly a way to get rid of them.

The customers will get used to the DRM, because some day it'll be the "natural thing" for PDFs. But IMHO that's not a good thing.

It really depends on how restrictive it is. However, the more secure a system, the more restrictive. I think DRM swung the pendulum too far in the other direction.