FTC Takes on DRM, Kinda

Doth my eyes and ears deceive me? The FTC is taking on DRM, and they seem to actually be siding with the general public and not the music/movie/video game studios.



For years we have been struggling with Digital Rights Management (DRM) in one form or another, perhaps starting with CDs and DVDs, moving into music and in the current foreground video games. Believe it or not you deal with DRM on a regular basis and don't even notice it.

Yesterday the FTC held a conference at the University of Washington Law School to discuss the ongoing debate to DRM or to not to DRM. Now, naturally the FTC can't really "take sides", but the conference was opened by Deputy Director Mary Engle with words of warning to the studio big wigs (that's you Sony) that they need to be more forthcoming in their DRM practices.

She said, "...sellers who use DRM technology to enforce the terms of bargains with consumers need to be particularly careful to disclose in advance."

Yeah, that means just because it's in the very fine print of the user agreements it doesn't count as "disclosure." Whoo! Point for the fair use peeps.

The need for these kinds of discussions is well overdue. Currently, this is most apparent in the music world; last year we saw Wal-Mart and Yahoo! gave up on law abiding downloaders by shutting down their DRM servers because there weren't enough people using the service. To be fair Wal-Mart re-launched its music store months later, sans DRM.

Although the conference was a step in the right direction for those that disagree with the use of DRM, in any digital media, don't expect the studios and manufactures to go down without a fight. There are plenty of people, mostly of the corporate persuasion, that are still fighting with the archaic notion that DRM is worth something.

Fritz Attaway, executive VP at the MPAA was quoted saying, "Without DRM technology, how could we provide consumers with choices?"

Please excuse me as my blood boils.

Fortunately, the DRM conference took place at a university in a Town Hall type forum, so there were plenty of college age students and Law professors in the room to keep the executives and CEOs on their toes.

Of course there was no consensus and formal decisions have yet to be made regarding DRM and its place in personal media but it is a start. Please, tell me it's a start.

Hey, maybe if you're lucky soon you'll be able to legally put your movies on your iPod. Wouldn't that be something?

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