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Comment by sev | Hacker News Reader

DRM can't work in theory, but it is working in practice.

If someone writes a piece of software that allows downloading of DRM-ed content (without losing quality, and playable anytime) from the big names (Netflix, Amazon, etc), then this battle would be won.

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That piece of software already exists, and no it doesn't win any battles. It's not public of course, for the hole would be patched. There's nothing new about this cat and mouse game. It is becoming increasingly difficult though due to increasing involvement of hardware companies. Breaking processor based schemes is a lot harder if not impossible.

Not by a long shot. Where would you put this solution once you found it? Github? Npm? Of course corporations will sue these organizations out of existence for hosting a DRM work around, so they won't be able to host it. So at the end unless you can find some cool Russian hosting (a la sci-hub) you are straight out of luck.

The real problem is not creating a solution, but finding somewhere to put it that people can actually get to.

In practice, you'd have techies with the bit between their teeth passing magnet links around, and media companies playing whack-a-mole with anyone who hosts it too visibly. Meanwhile, anyone who makes a modest effort can get a DRM-free pirated copy without trouble, and the 95% of people who don't bother will continue paying for their Netflix subscription.

Although many don't use it (yet, still, and maybe never will), the "place to put it" problem is already solved, isn't it? Worst case, put it in a "dark" corner of the web :)

> Where would you put this solution once you found it? Github? Npm?

BitTorrent?

Host it on the blockchain :)

Aaaand now billions of dollars are DMCA'd out of existence ;)

What are you talking about? Every popular TV show or movie is hosted on a free platform (free meaning both no cost and allowing freedom). How is that "working in practice"?

We are taking about DRM here. How do you know they are being stolen by breaking DRM? Maybe they copy DVD's or screeners or hacking a content provider. Not necessarily bypassing DRM. Some that do that I've seen are very low quality, hence my statement about lossless.

Either way, DRM isn't "working in practice" if all the information it purports to protect is publicly available.

DVD's have (broken) DRM, so ripping a DVD counts as breaking DRM. Screeners are also a work around for DRM. Hacking a content provider wouldn't provide the constant stream of content that is available from various separate companies.

I think that denying that DRM is broken requires some pretty serious ignorance of the reality of the situation.

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