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Comment by DarkmSparks | Hacker News Reader

Personally I'm actually of the opinion that people should just forget about working around DRM preventing legal access to content and just forget about DRM encumbered content altogether. Having work arounds adds value to otherwise worthless file formats. Dont support it, dont recommend it. dont even talk about it other than to say "meh, DRM'd you couldnt pay me enough to use it".

Quite an extreme stance I know, but then Ive never had a problem getting enough drm free content to fill my boots to the end of time.

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It's a lot of content though. Basically every movie/TV show these days is DRM encumbered either in the streaming app, cable box, the download file or on the disc. Besides some indie stuff the only non-DRM video content I can think of is OTA TV which for me is a whopping 3 channels of not great stuff. Even movie theaters are technically DRM encumbered these days.

You remind me of a relative I've lost nearly all connection with because he now has a hard line stance on DRM. We used to watch movies and enjoy talking about them, but he wont watch anything that requires streaming. And worse, we used to enjoy playing the same video games and talking about them, but he wont use Steam, and he wont purchase video game consoles anymore.

I share his concerns, but when I weight my choices, I sometimes choose the DRM'ed content. The DRM may make my purchase a "rental", but it's often still an experience I choose to have, despite the cons. I have walked away from my fair share of DRM'ed content on principle, but I don't have such a hard-line stance.

Tell him to up his game and use torrents already. It might not help for games (I think Steam has done a pretty effective job of pulling people into its gravity). But it would certainly fix the divide over movies.

Unless of course he's using it as a way of avoiding getting sucked into too much entertainment in general. But there is such a thing as moderation.

Does he also avoid the DRM on DVD/Bluray?

At least with games there's a lot you could play together on GOG, most movies never get an official DRM-free release.

Generally I find that recommending individual, uncoordinated action as a solution to a system issue to be generally unsuccessful. Something like this either needs a coordinated response like a boycott, or a political solution.

Yes and users aren't going to boycott so it goes back to one of the main reasons we have a government, to battle ludicrous policies that an old government passed.

It depends on the metric for success: if the metric for success is that it ends the practice you oppose, then yes clearly individual, uncoordinated action won't do that. if the metric for success is that it extricates you from having to compromise on your principles, then it's quite easy to achieve success.

e.g. Although I'd be happy for <evil firm X> to go bankrupt or desist from making the world a better place, I'd also be plenty happy knowing I'm not giving them money to make the world a better place.

What really sucks is that there are authors whos work I want to support but who have chosen (or more likely their publisher has chosen) to us a DRMd format.

I find that frustrating but a lot of that has to do with the contract that the author signed to be able to write the book in the first place.

I wish I could just skip all DRM free content but that is not the world I find myself in.

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